Day 48: The Acropolis!

Athens, Greece, a set on Flickr.

Daily Life Aboard the Solstice

Well its been a long time since I've posted so here's some of whats been going on lately...

I have visited a number of amazing places and taken tons of photos, so you can expect a big Flickr update soon. There will be pics from the Acropolis in Athens, the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey, the islands of Santorini & Mykonos in Greece, Monaco, and several other places.

I also wanted to post about the general day-to-day life aboard the Solstice...so here goes:

There are 2 main types of days, port days and sea days. On port days I try to get up as early as possible to have as much time in the port as I can. It usually ends up being around 9 or 10, followed by a quick breakfast up at the Oceanview Cafe on deck 14. Oceanview is the guest buffet cafeteria and has tons of food available all day. As entertainment staff, we're allowed to eat there pretty much whenever it isn't busy. Then I leave the ship and go explore. Crew has to return to the ship around half and hour before the guests and I usually get back on the ship around 5. In certain ports, like Villefranche and Kotor, where I am right now, we are "tendering", which means that we sit in the harbor and take shuttle boats to the pier. It takes much longer to get in to the port because we have to wait for the guests to go in. After getting back to the ship I'll take a nap and/or shower to get ready for the evening.

On sea days (fairly self-explanatory) we spend the entire day traveling on the open sea. We have more limited hours of when we can go to Oceanview so we usually eat down at the crew mess. It was alright for a couple of weeks but after that, I got totally sick of eating there. Now, I'll just hold out for Oceanview whenever possible. Starting around 3:30 in the afternoon, Oceanview has an hors d'oeuvres buffet line with some amazing combinations of ingredients in small sandwiches and its a pretty good bet that you'll find Tim and I up there on sea days. A couple of my favorites are:

- tomato, mozzarella, and pesto on focaccia bread
- turkey, lettuce, butter, and melon on mini-croissant or small bun
- brie, lettuce, and grape on a slice of french bread

Tim and I have both decided that Cantaloupe or melon (as its known in Europe) makes the most amazing addition to any sandwich. I am definitely going to add that to everything when I get back to the states.

The jazz quartet's schedule is dependent on a number of things in the entertainment department, but our usual schedule is an early set, starting at 7:45 or 8 and going until 8:45 or 9, and a late set from 9:45 or 10 until Midnight. We mainly play in the grand foyer and the ensemble lounge, but we prefer the lounge. Its a much more chill and mellow place to hang out and listen to music. Low ceilings, low lights, and an intimate atmosphere are much more conducive for jazz than large open spaces and tons of people. In the foyer, we setup in between the two sets of glass elevators and the sound reflects directly back at us, meaning that its a really loud place to play. About a month ago I began wearing earplugs when playing in the foyer and its helped a great deal.

Sea days don't really affect our night-time routine at all, save for that "formal night" usually occurs. Formal night is an opportunity for the crew and guests to all dress up in tuxes and nice formalwear and take fancy pictures. The photography staff is great and they setup lots of spots where guests can have their pictures taken. One of those spots requires a remote flash to be setup behind where our quartet sets up. This flash has given Stu and I a lot of problems as its unbelievably bright and goes off several times a minute. We have recently started strategically placing music stands in our lines of sight to avoid massive migraines and possible (and eventual) epileptic seizures.

The biggest compromise that I've faced so far is choosing between practicing and going into port. Practicing on the ship is difficult. There aren't any dedicated practice spaces so if I want to practice it has to be in the Ensemble Lounge in off hours, which tend to be 12-1PM and 2-5PM. Theres usually a bunch of crew members milling about, cleaning or preparing for the night's festivities and out of consideration for them, I can't play very loud. Thus, practice sessions are usually somewhat frustrating. I've only practiced full-out once since I joined the ship; that is, once in 64 days. I'm getting better at practicing quietly though, which is something I've never had to do. Its is a skill that will probably serve me well when I start living in a city, so I'm trying to stay positive. Sometimes my quartet rehearses in the afternoon too, like if a passenger requests a tune we don't know or if we just want to add something new to the rep.

Daily life on the ship is easily contained to sleeping, eating, vacation, eating more, playing music, hanging out, and repeating.

I often spend time up at the hot glass show... more pictures and a blog post about that coming soon...

The Ensemble Lounge:


Here's the Foyer:


And here's some pics of my room:

Day 37: Murano & Venice, Italy

Its been awhile since the last time I wrote. I've been meaning to add a couple of different posts...one about the glassblowers on the ship, one about daily life as a musician, and a couple about some of the places I've visited recently. I also have tons of photos to upload, but the ship internet hasn't been working very often. I just upgraded to the Flickr Pro account so I can pretty much upload as many photos as I want. I'll just highlight some stuff quick and perhaps get back to it later with some longer posts.

Four days days ago, whilst we were in Venice, Tim and I tagged along with Tom and Ryan, two glassblowers, and Tom's family, on a trip to the wonderful island of Murano, Italy. It was an amazing day and I took tons of photos (477 to be precise). After the sail-in, where the ship glides through the middle of Venice (providing the most amazing views of everything), we left the ship and found our way to the direct to Murano waterbus. As we were arriving, Tom filled us in on some of the different glassblowers who live and work on the island, as well as some of the history of glassblowing. Once on the island, we went to the gate of Pino Signoretto's glass workshop, one of the best glassmakers on Murano. Tom and Ryan were giddy with excitement- Ryan was literally climbing the front gate (which was decorated with old glassblowing tools) and one of Pino's apprentices happened to walk between buildings. Tom gestured her over to the gate and after realizing that they knew some of the same people, she invited us inside and gave us a tour of the main glassmaking workshop. Pino was on vacation so we didn't get to meet him, but the tour WAS AMAZING! I hardly know anything about glassblowing and I loved it...I can't imagine the excitement that Tom and Ryan were feeling. It would probably be like if (and when) I go to a cymbal factory in Istanbul.

After leaving Pino's workshop, we walked to a famous toolmakers' shop and Tom and Ryan bought some new tools. The toolmaker was actually there so we got to meet him, but he only spoke Italian, which made things tough. Tom got a little face mold and Ryan got a large set of jacks (imagine huge tweezers, but check out the photos). We got a tour through the back of the toolmakers workshop as well. After that we just walked around and looked through many, many glass shops in Murano and received wonderful commentary on how everything was made. Whenever I look at artisan stuff like blown glass, I always wonder how stuff was made, and it was amazing to be able to ask right then and there. Rossana e Rossana is Tom's favorite goblet shop and for good reason. We checked out pretty much everything in that shop and Tom and Ryan pointed out little things that I never would have seen. After most of the shops closed we grabbed some pizza at a spot in Murano. I ordered a prosciutto pizza, which was amazing.

We left Murano and grabbed a waterbus to St. Marks square, but we had to go the long way around Venice, because the direct line had stopped running for the day. This turned out to be a blessing as we witnessed an incredible sunset over Venice and St. Marks as the waterbus moved around the east of Venice. We met up with some friends from the ship and hung out a bit more, then Tim and I went back to the ship. Anytime we have an overnight in Venice, the ship has a "Wine & Cheese" night on the helipad on Deck 6 forward. Needless to say, Bordeaux & brie were the perfect end to the day.

Written on days 39 and 41 from Kotor, Montenegro and Civitavecchia, Italy.

Day 37: Murano & Venice, Italy

Murano & Venice, Italy, a set on Flickr.