Day 8 – May 7, 2010 – At Sea, Scott’s farewell and bowling!

Today was a great day! We were at sea, on our trek back to Venice from Nafplion. I had more training at 9 and 10 am (drugs lecture and one about terrorism… GREAT way to start the day!) I was feeling well rested after a really wonderful night. I went out to the spa after our show with two of the cast, Heather (singer from Kansas) and Gina (dancer from the UK). As I mentioned before, the spa opens up at 11 pm for crew to use and I can’t believe I haven’t taken advantage of that before last night! There’s a HUGE hydrotherapy pool, hot stone beds, a Jacuzzi, a sauna and steamroom and this wall of windows that look out onto the night sea…. It really is something amazing to see when the moon is bright enough. We ran into several other cast mates and hung out there for a while. After that much relaxation, we were ready to hit the crew bar, lol. I got changed and met Andrew (singer from the US) for a beer. The girls showed up a little later and they introduced more people to me – two photographer boys from the UK, a nail tech from South Africa and the Childcare coordinator from Mexico. One of the most enjoyable experiences on the ship is meeting people from so many different places (there are over 60 nationalities on the ship currently!) and talking to them about their home and their lives on ships. The cast is also opening up more to me and I’m learning about all the drama, romance, and conflict that inevitably exists in every showcast. Finally…. The GOOD stuff!

Today, after the trainings, I met Scott up in the dressing room to do the wash from last night’s show. After each show, I wash one set of costumes (there are about 6 in each show). That means their costumes get a washing about once every 6 weeks. It’s a decent balance of maintaining the integrity of the garment while making sure they don’t stink on stage. Haha… so he supervised and taught while I did what needed to be done. It was actually a great time for us to bond a little and talk about our backgrounds. We even discovered a crazy connection - he used to date a very very very good friend of mine about 10 years ago! What a SMALLLLLLLL world! I’m glad I got to learn more about him and make a new connection in this side of the business to which I’m rather new.

It was time for “EARTH” video viewing with Pieter this evening, which was brilliant… I watched in awe at the incredible footage these guys were able to capture of some of the most astonishing events occurring in nature – the Salmon run in British Columbia, the Flooding of the Kalahari Desert… I highly recommend checking it out!

Scott’s farewell party was at the hibachi-style Japanese restaurant on board, Teppenyaki. The entire cast went up for dinner and drinks after at Bliss, where we finally checked out the bowling! The joke about the fact that we threw gutter balls because the ship was rocking got old quickly, but we had a BLAST!!! This surely will become a regular activity for us, I’m sure! It was fun to hang out with the cast and get to know everyone better. It turned into a pretty late night as we neared our home base of Venice and I needed to get some rest for Eric, Pieter and I’s adventure.