getting in to the swing of things

Hello All!
Well this past cruise had quite a different feel than the others so far. Now that we've got all this free time, it's a struggle to keep busy. Not that I'm "BORED" (Mom hates that word :)) but it's just hard to not become lazy. I have to remind myself that it's only been a week and a half since we got finished rehearsing, and my body might just need more time than that to catch up. We got off in Cayman a couple of days ago and walked to 7 mile beach, which was gorgeous. It's so incredible that I get to go there every week if I want to! We had lunch by the ocean and then went to a grocery store, which, because Grand Cayman is owned by the British, had all sorts of lovely foods that reminded me of Northern Ireland. I bought some digestives and ate all 10 of them in less than 2 days. Oops :)
I'm starting to realize that as much as I loved belting as much as I do in the shows, I need to think ahead and remind myself that I'm doing this for 6 months and I need to treat my voice well. My throat has been sore for 3 days now, and I started feeling cold symptoms yesterday. I'm pumping Airborne and Ricola and Throat Coat tea as much as possible. But how do you recover from a sore throat if you have to sing all the time?? Fiesta went all right last night, but it took a lot of concentration to stay on pitch and keep my voice from cracking. Oh dear.
I'm also struggling a bit with finding people that I truly have things in common with. I miss deep conversation with people I love and I wish I could talk on the phone more often and with more people. Today was rough because there were people I planned on calling that I really just can't because of my sore throat. So to those of you I told I would call, I'm sorry I wasn't able to. Pray that I'll feel well enough to chat more the next time I'm in port!
This next cruise should be fun, it's another five day, and there's a crew excursion in Cayman at Stingray City where we'll be snorkeling with sting rays for 3.5 hours- for only 20 bucks! It's worth it to be crew for the discounts :)
I also learned that I have some incredible friends coming out to cruise in October- and I can't wait!! Mama comes in less than a month with 2 friends, which should be a blast too!
I hope everyone is doing well out there- missing you so much!!

It's been a while!

Hello all!
So much has happened in the past week! We've now opened all the shows and performed them at least twice. I LOVE performing SHOUT, it's so much fun! It's a basically a bunch of different styles of music and in some sections I get to impersonations, which it kind of hilarious...me in a Tina Turner wig...yeah :)
The supervisors left on the 13th, so this past cruise was our first cruise completely on our own. We still have 2 hours of rehearsal each Sea Day (days we're not in Tampa or Cayman) but other than that I don't have any real responsibilities. This past cruise I've spent as much time as possible sleeping, and trying to gain back some energy. We were down 2 dancers for the first half of the cruise. One of them went home on Thursday for a few weeks to recover from a neck injury, so hopefully she'll be back soon! And the other hurt her back so she didn't do Intro or SHout with us but was fine last night for Fiesta. It's amazing to me how the dancers are able to learn what we call "re-blocks"- they change the spacing of people on stage so that we can perform the shows without everyone and it doesn't look like people are missing. Their memories are incredible!
I plan on spending more time in the gym this cruise- although I have to be careful for now, because on Saturday I got my first sunburn... =/ I look ridiculous because I used sunscreen but it was a spray, and even though I rubbed it in, apparently it didn't cover me well enough. I've got spots and stripes or red all over my arms and tummy. Oops! It doesn't hurt too bad, luckily. I just find it so amazing that I can manage to burn even when I THINK I'm being careful. Oy.
My voice is hanging in there, I'm learning the importance of warming up! I can go up to the theater and feel a little sore, but I'll warm up and feel like I can sing anything! Which is great, because SHOUT is really taxing on my voice. I'm impressing myself by not getting sick yet though. If anything happens, I've got enough medicine to last a loooong time.
Hope everyone is well back home, and enjoying spring! It's raining in Tampa right now..ick. I guess I can't really complain though.. :)
I miss you all!
<3

YAY!!

Hi everyone!!
SOOOO we've now opened Intro and Fiesta- and they both went splendidly!!! I'm so proud of the cast. We've been working really hard and it's paid off! Intro we just did once, on Monday night. Then we kept rehearsing and learning Shout, and cleaning up Fiesta. We had some tech runs of Fiesta Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and then we opened the show last night- two performances, at 8:45 and 10:30pm. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better first night. I know I have room to grow, and that will come with doing the show over and over again. But there were no major screw ups, I got all the lyrics and the choreography, and most importantly, I had FUN!!! And I think the audience could tell. I'm very very happy. And what's great, i that I prefer performing Shout anyway, so if I had fun LAST night, I can't imagine what Wednesday night will be like when we open that show!
I moved in to my official room today, so today kind of marks the beginning of my contract in a lot of ways. The old cast moves home today. The ship is ours! :) It's really exciting.
I'm in Tampa right now, headed to Walmart to buy more eyelashes and eye make up and hairspray and gel and lip liner...haha I didn't bring the right kind of make up for these shows! Ben Nye doesn't quite cut it :)
I miss you... <3
More soon!!

And it begins..

hey!
Tonight we're opening the Intro Show!! It's short, only about 12 minutes long, so I'm not too worried, but it DOES mean that the production shows are coming up soon too!
Things on the ship are going well...Still lots and lots of rehearsals. So we open Fiesta on Friday night, and then Shout on the 13th, and then we're in the clear! We'll have our days free to get off in ports (well, right now it's just one port..) and we can do other things too. I plan on going to the gym a LOT, learning Italian (they have Rosetta Stone for us!) and read as many books as possible.
I'll be sure to let you know how the show goes tonight!!

Sorry I didn’t write yesterday! It was a busy day, full of running errands in Tampa. There’s a cheap bus that will take you to Walmart, Target, Whole Foods, and a really nice mall, so I was able to just walk around on land and feel a little bit more like a normal person for a day ☺
We open the Intro Show in THREE DAYS. I can’t believe it! And tonight we’re watching the old cast perform Fiesta for their last time, because we open that show a week from today. It’s unbelievable, honestly. In some ways the past few weeks have gone by slowly, but in other ways they’ve really flown by. I just pray that I’ll be at performance level in time for Fiesta, all the while having to learn Shout this week as well.
It’s amazing what a year away from the stage can do to your confidence. I’ve found myself many times a day wondering why I’m here and if I’m good enough. I often forget how to really perform, as strange as that sounds, and it’s something I’ve done a million times. I’m also struggling with the amount of singing I’m doing each day (usually 4 or 5 hours of mostly belting, which is more than I’ve ever had to do on a consistent basis). Today my throat really hurt all day and I was given the afternoon off for it to recover. Once we’re done rehearsing I’ll only be singing at most 2 hours a day, with days off in between shows to recover. But right now I just feel a bit like I’m on overload.
Still continuing to learn SO MUCH, and feeling humbled and blessed to be here. Only 30 weeks to go…we can make it. <3>
PS No exciting re-route news. We're just going to Cayman- OVER AND OVER AND OVER. Bit of a bummer. =/