Smash

We LOVE SMASH:

This is a new show about Broadway Musical Theatre and it’s so good!

We mainly love it so much because it reminds us what we actually are striving for in the city. It’s been 9 months since we’ve been in New York or auditioned for anything and this show gives us the excitement to go back to it. The cast is excellent, the writing is good, there is nothing really that we would complain about. It’s on NBC on Monday nights and if you are not caught up – go on the Internet and try to watch from the beginning.

Blah and Yay

Well we are soo behind – this blog was supposed to be posted 2 weeks ago but here it is now…

March 10th

Wow – a few weeks since our last blog. I think we’re such in a routine that we feel like our lives aren’t exciting enough to update you all. That, or we’re just lazy…

2 weeks ago Kevin and Marissa (Whit’s sister and bro-in-law) came on board for a week on the Eastern cruise. They got a steal of a deal. Our friends signed them on and their cruise was only $140. Not bad for a vacation. We had a fun time with them, pictures below. 

 March 10th

 This past week was a really bad week for Whit and me. We had a disagreement with Corporate. With every job – there is always some rule or policy that you don’t agree with. Well, when you eat in the formal dining room, at the end of the cruise you are supposed to tip for the whole week.  Yes, we agree with this, but our tips were stolen, and we had to pay them again. We all left our tips in the envelopes in Marissa and Kevin’s stateroom for the stateroom attendant to distribute them. Well, apparently that is a major no-no especially when leaving cash and they got stolen. We’re not talking about $20, we’re talking over $100! Whitney and I were chewed out by our boss and said that we would have to pay the dining room staff regardless. It was unfortunate.

Then, Whitney wanted to go back to blonde before we got back to New York and since her parents are coming on the Cruise for the second time next week she wanted to surprise them. So she went to the spa on our ship because some girls had gotten their highlights done and it turned out great. Well, if you don’t know Whitney’s past hair salon experiences… no    one    can    do     her    hair    properly… she always comes home mortified with how her hair looks. And I’ll be the first to admit that it’s not just her own psyche telling her, it usually is a disaster. Whitney is normally very cool about her hair – it doesn’t need to be perfect. With that said, she gives way too much grace when someone messes her hair up.

Exhibit A : Problem #1

Language Barrier

a.     Andrea, the woman who did Whitney’s hair from the spa on the ship, is from Hungary and she could speak English but it wasn’t perfected.

b.     Whitney tells every little detail on what she wants with her hair

c.      Andrea tells Whitney her hair is too red – so she is going to highlight and darken the rest…

d.     ???

e.     Whitney, confused… says she doesn’t want darker

f.      ???

g.     Whit decides to trust Hungary’s opinion

Exhibit B : Problem #2

Dark Roots

a.     Hungary starts putting the dark color in her roots and down both sides of forehead

b.     Whitney’s eyes get very big… (trust, trust, trust, don’t be a diva..)

Exhibit C : Problem #3

Hair is ruined and it’s too late

a.      Whitney’s hair is now very dark with light light highlights… she thinks she looks somewhere in her 60s

b.     Hungary says she’s proud of herself because she thinks she did a good job

c.      Whitney basically runs out of there

d.     Nathan tries to cheer her up

e.      Unsuccessful

Solution

1.      A couple days later, Friday in Cozumel Mexico, Whitney emails best friend Brittany Bagwell and explains what has happened. She ends up asking her to call a Salon near our port in Florida and beg someone to come in on Sunday since they are closed and fix her hair. 20 minutes later, Brittany emails back and says she has an appointment for 10am with the owner of the salon! What are friends for?!

Let’s hope that it can be fixed!

Now onto me and my problem. Back in November I dislocated my left shoulder when I was lifting weights in the gym. I wasn’t being stupid or lifting more than I could handle, I just have weak shoulders to begin with and when you’re in the gym constantly there’s bound to be some kind of injury. Well it was my turn. It popped right back into place but ever since then I have been having on and off pain. It got so inconsistent that I went back to Medical and demanded an MRI. In order to get an MRI – I had to get an appointment on shoreside at one of our ports. So I got scheduled in Grand Cayman. Long story short, I waited for 3 hours to be told that the doctor was busy doing clinics all morning and didn’t have time to see me. I was blown away by this. The place was a dump and I couldn’t believe that I wasted so much time to be turned away.

I went back to medical and they then scheduled me for Cozumel for the following day. I was going with my buddy Jonny from our cast because he blew out his knee so I was glad to have some company. This hospital was a lot nicer and we got to see the doctor right away. He gave me an x-ray – even though I knew I didn’t need one because I knew there was nothing wrong with the bone. After he examined the x-ray and found nothing wrong, he told me that I would have to come back in 2 weeks for a follow up and if my shoulder was still bothering me I could get the MRI then…

Haha, are you kidding me? I told him that the MRI was the only reason why I was there and that I wasn’t leaving without one. After long discussion Jonny and I both got an MRI. Finally!! Each MRI took about an hour, it was extremely uncomfortable but we were both so happy to be getting answers. We ended up being there for 4.5 hours. It’ll take another few days to get the results. So I’m hoping whatever it is, it can be fixed. The good thing about all of this is that it has cost me nothing because the ship has taken care of it. God Bless! The other flip side of this story is that the Hospital’s wi-fi Internet was flying! I was able to do SO much on my computer. It was fantastic! I was telling our cast that everyone could just go to the Hospital in Mexico and pretend they had something wrong with them just to use the Internet.

March 25^th

Results…

Whitney got her hair fixed and it looks a lot better – she will be going back in a couple of weeks to go a little blonder.

My MRI showed nothing negative about my shoulder so I don’t need any treatment. The doctor thinks the pain was more psychological than anything; there could be some truth to that because ever since my MRI I haven’t been feeling much pain… weird.

Whitney’s parents and friends, Phil and Naomi, came on board March 11^th and we all had a great time!

Whitney and I got an offer from Little Theatre on the Square to do Summer Stock Theatre this summer and we accepted.

We will be there for 10 weeks

I will be in:

Grease

Pirates of Penzance

7 Brides for 7 Brothers

Music Man

Whitney will be in :

Pirates of Penzance

7 Brides for 7 Brothers

Music Man

9 to 5

It will be so much fun and we get 10 Equity points  - HOORAY!

Valentine's

 We had such a great Valentine's Day. We were so blessed to get a balcony Guest bedroom for 2 nights. The guest services manager totally hooked us up and it was free! It's been 6 months since Whit and I have been able to sleep in the same bed so we were sooooo happy! Immediately when we got into our room - we started jumping up and down like little kids. It was amazing. Actually, there weren't many activities going on around the ship on Tuesday night for V-day but it was fine because we had so much room in our room that we enjoyed just laying around!

Hope everyone had a good day full of love:)

Please Go Faster

Whitney and I are definitely feeling that itch to get back to NYC. We still very much enjoy our contract and our friends here in the Caribbean. But we have 11 more weeks and we would not mind it in the least for it to go a little faster! After February, things should speed up some.

We are getting sick of:
sleeping in bunk beds - this is #1 for us!
not being able to communicate with family and friends whenever we want
the same food pretty much every week
not cooking

Those are just a few...

We still love:
being in the sunshine
performing
getting paid and being able to save for the first time in our lives:)
being together constantly
working out everyday in our fantastic free gym (we're reeeallly going to miss this in NY)

Getting excited for what else 2012 will bring us!
Ps. we miss you all!

Meyer Family Time

We had the pleasure of having Nathan’s parents and sister, Karen on the ship with us right after the New Year! We had the time of our lives! One of the first highlights of the trip was that one of our singers got sick, therefore I got to step into an understudy performance of (Marquee) which was the first and maybe only time that I would get to perform in this certain show…so they got to see something pretty unique!

They experienced one of the most calmest of seas as well. You couldn’t even feel that the ship was moving…what a blessing!

We enjoyed delicious food in the dining room, while watching a very special bond happen between Mark (Nathan’s dad) and our assistant waiter, Nenad.  They were like two peas in a pod. Jokes were going back and forth and the laughter was constant. They even danced together and hugged after it was all finished. Haha, amazing!

Some of my favorite parts were the excursions that we went on.  In Jamaica, we went on a catamaran cruise where we got to snorkel in clear waters where we could see beautiful reefs and fish. This was a great excursion, but what made it so memorable was the fact that our bus back to the ship was a piece of junk. We probably could have pushed the bus faster than we were going. This is a long story…really too long to type…but it was epically hilarious and something I will never forget with the Meyer family. 

In Cozumel, Mexico we went swimming with the dolphins. Well with A dolphin…his name is Chuck and he was amazing! This was sooo much fun! We got to kiss, dance, and shake hands with Chuck. And if that isn’t cool enough, we held onto his fins and laid on his belly while he swam upside down with us. Then, he pushed our feet with his nose and made us fly! It didn’t matter that the sun wasn’t out and it was raining on us…we had a blast with Chuck! The bad part was that they wouldn’t let us take a single picture, because they wanted us to pay $30 for ONE photo! I wish I had better pictures to document what great fun we had there!

One night of the cruise is a scavenger hunt game called Quest. It is so fun because the scavenger hunt takes place in this one room and the audience is split up into individual teams. Of course, KAREN WAS OUR TEAM LEADER! She was perfect and so amazing! Needless to say WE WON!!! I hadn’t screamed and jumped up and down that much in a long time. 

It is always so special when our family comes on board this ship. It really really helps break up this long contract away from everyone. We are soo grateful and thankful that our families have taken the time out of their busy schedules to spend with us. Thank you  Beth, Mark, Karen, Shirley, Fred, Claudia, and Ted, for 2 of our FAVORITE weeks on this ship! We love you all so much and look forward to making more memories with you in the future!

Enjoy the photos below from our time with the Meyer’s!

 

 

New Year's Week

New Years was a blast on the ship for 2 reasons. One: we had the whole day off, plus New Years Day off. This was a gift to us from our production manager – thank you! Second Reason: we were in a brand new port; a place we hadn’t been to yet, or will return to. We were in Nassau, Bahamas where the Atlantis Resort is. This hotel is AMAZING! It was huge and looked like paradise.

A group of about 5 of us got off the ship as early as we could and took a taxi to Atlantis where we toured around the hotel and casino. We then found out that cruise ship crew get a substantial discount on their day passes to the Aquarium that they have at the hotel. Of course we did it! The aquarium was gorgeous and had so many beautiful creatures. The Jellyfish were my favorite…they were so beautiful, and the Eels were my LEAST favorite – ew!

We then walked around the outside of the hotel next to the beach where they have their own waterpark and many places to eat. We ate at a great restaurant right at the heart of the hotel. This was such a treat!

When we got back onto the ship it was pretty late, and we got ready for the evenings festivities. The singers were asked to sing Aud Lang Syne when it turned midnight, therefore we got the best view on the ship. Everyone was on the main Royal Promenade (which was like a mini- Times Square)…we had a great view of the balloons dropping on the crowd while we stood by all the officers and captain. Right after it turned midnight there was a beautiful party on the top deck of the ship, poolside with a DJ. It looked like a movie. What a great memory.

On New Years Day we were also in another port we hadn’t been to or would return to. We were in beautiful San Juan, Puerto Rico! Love this place because we get cell phone reception J The port was beautiful. Believe it or not, it looked like a part of Europe because of the cobblestone streets and cute little markets and close stores. Of course we went to the huge mall in town and shopped for a few hours with our cast, and then had a cast dinner at a Hibachi Grill. We stuffed our faces. This was a special night because we got to spend some NIGHT TIME on land. We hadn’t seen night on land in over 4 months. We are always sailing on the ship past 6:00pm, but we didn’t have to get back onto the ship until 10:00pm this evening. It’s funny how the little things can mean so much. I hadn’t seen car lights in so long – ha! It was a great day!