Third Cruise

This third cruise I'm on now is apparently the best one for the entertainment staff. First, we have a night off, which is the only one we get every two weeks. Also, the stops in Key West and Cozumel are supposed to be the best. In Cozumel, where we go tomorrow, we don't have to be back to the ship until 9pm. In other stops, we have to be back to the ship much earlier, which can be restricting.

After this cruise, our route will repeat again and all the stops will start to become familiar. Our itinerary repeats every two weeks, and almost all our shows repeat every cruise. If I counted correctly, I will have 25 total cruises with this ship, so hopefully I'll get to each port about 7 more times.

This gig is very good for a developing musician. The music is fairly challenging, and we get many opportunities to perform. We also have a lot of down time to practice. As far as working on your craft and musicianship, this is a good place. Artistically and creatively, the stages here are limiting. Our shows are very cute and fun, and don't challenge people at all. We are playing for middle-America on vacation. Nobody comes to our shows to think or discover any great meaning in our art. This job is not a good one for an artist with something to say. But it's a very good to place for someone to develop their music independently and hone their technical skills on stage.

I'm starting to feel much more settled into the routine of ship life. I'm getting more familiar with the lifestyle and people here. All in all, things are good so far. I'm going to buy a digital camera and figure out how to post pictures some time soon. Hopefully I'll have some more good stories to tell soon as well. Until then...