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!

Christmas Week

Christmas Eve, Whitney and I were pretty busy. We performed our Jazz Captain’s Welcome Aboard Reception, then we sang Carols at 11:30pm and then we went directly to midnight mass in the theatre where we read 2 readings. That was actually a funny story because the Priest had fallen asleep and his alarm didn’t wake him up so he was 20 minutes late to his own service. Poor guy… he was oddly enough from the Quad Cities, which is where I’m from. So weird!

 Christmas was so fun on our ship! We had an early morning Christmas with the cast where we exchanged Secret Santa gifts and it was so fun. Only a couple of people knew who had them but the majority of them had no idea. Then we had a tech run for Now You See It, our magic show. In the afternoon we went out to a beach in Labadee, Haiti and got in the water for a few minutes because it was sooo cold!

Then our performances that night went really well. Later that night – Whitney and I had our Christmas in our cabin. It was a wonderful Christmas even though we weren’t with our familiesL

Merry Christmas!