As you can see, the last post was in 2010 when I finished my time on my last cruise ship contract. In the interim I have been on two national tours (tripparoundamerica.blogspot.com) and lived in a beautiful Harlem apartment in NYC. What an adventure. My first cruise contract was an experience of a lifetime and I was happy to close that chapter, but always said I would do one more round on a ship if it was the "perfect contract." This, to me, meant the pay was right, the shows were right and artistically fulfilling, and the itinerary was exciting to me. 3 years later after having not attended basically any auditions for cruise ship jobs, I submitted myself for a breakdown that seemed to be ideal.
The audition notice posted basically described me in the talents I have to offer, physical type, and even artists that were in my audition book already. It seemed to fit like a glove and after the audition, the production company agreed! I was hired by Belinda King Creative Productions, based in Northampton, UK. I will be a member of the production cast on board the Seabourn Sojourn for 3 months and the Holland America Amsterdam for 3 months. Over the 6 months I will basically be traveling to all ports that I have never been to, and performing in 5 brand new productions shows, including one show where I will be playing piano! I knew it was an exciting opportunity and ended up just not being able to pass up this chance.
This means that Tripp Around the World had to start back up! I'll be blogging about my life on the ships and my adventures traveling to 6 continents in 6 months! I'm so glad you've come along for the ride. I'll be doing my best with limited internet to tell my story and keep the blog updated regularly.
Right now I'm writing from England! The production company is based here, so we are rehearsing and creating these brand new shows during our 7 week rehearsal process. I was so excited when I realized I would be living here for almost two months. Northampton is a very easy hour train ride to London and we have been taking full advantage of that. We are rehearsing 8 hrs/day, 6 days/wk, but Sundays are our days off and we have traveled in for a couple of really fun days in London so far.
Our first day off the three of us Americans headed into the city ourselves. We were planning on getting a 10:00 train, but ended up running too late so we approached the station to watch that train pull away. Then we sat on a bench to wait for the next train, leaving 30 minutes later. With no announcement or anything...a train pulled away that had been sitting on a track behind us and we realized seconds too late that we had missed ANOTHER train. Traveling always has the most ridiculous bumps in the road, but we had a good laugh and finally made it into London a little after noon. We headed first to the British Museum, where we took in lots of historical artifacts from Britain's many successfully conquered territories. The most interesting were the Rosetta Stone and some sculptures that made up the ornate decoration of the Parthenon. It always amazes me to see and interact with objects and pieces of art that are older than Jesus. For some reason I have a hard time truly grasping and getting my mind around history and the truths of historical events. Sometimes they just seem like a lot of stories, but when I see these things up close and personal, I realize that I am so small and young and dumb.
Next we headed for a walk through the Covent Garden area of town and grabbed some quick lunch before going to Trafalgar Square. In 2008 I traveled out of the United States for the first time and it was with my friend, Laura Cochran. We backpacked Europe for 5 weeks (offexploring.blogspot.com), but started in London, and, more specifically, in Trafalgar Square. It was so much fun to take Tonyia and Dustin to this big plaza in front of the National Gallery. It's a great gathering place, buzzing with energy and we had fun looking around and climbing on the famous lion sculptures. I couldn't help but think of Laura, though, and continued to be reminded of the excitement of that first day out of the country. All those feelings of adventure and joy came rushing back.
From there we walked down Whitehall toward Parliament, all the while with beautiful Big Ben in sight. Along the way we saw the changing of some horse guard and walked past the Prime Minister's residence. Once we got down there we spent time walking up near Parliament. It is such an overwhelming force of a building. It's so imposing with its hundreds of windows just holding its ground on the bank of the Thames. After a walk around the grounds of Westminster Abbey, we decided to go for a walk through St. James Park. For some reason I decided it would be a completely normal decision to force my travel buddies to join me in speaking in a British dialect for our entire walk through the park until we reached Buckingham Palace. It was probably a half hour walk along paths and over pretty bridges, but we just cracked ourselves up the whole way with our HORRIBLE dialects. It was probably the highlight of my day. We finally reached the gates of Buckingham and called our dialect challenge a success. That evening we went to an organ and recorder concert at Westminster for free, which was interesting, but we were so exhausted it was hard to remain focused. The night ended with a walk through the SoHo district and through the West End (London's answer to NYC's Broadway theatre district). We had a great meal and it was a nice chance to really get close with a couple of the people in my cast who I will be living with, working with, and relying on for the next 7 months.
After another week of rehearsal we returned to London, this time with almost the entire cast! Our first order of business was the London Eye. All 6 of us headed to this HUGE landmark on the South Bank of the Thames and we lucked out with better weather than we could have ever imagined. There were great, clear skies for us as we boarded one of the "capsules" on the giant ferris wheel with approx. 20 other people. The views were unreal and I just got so excited and kind of overwhelmed with the experience, so I turned to the cast members and asked for a really great British song. Someone suggested the Beatles, so I tried to convince everyone to sing "Let It Be" with me. Ha ha! As our 30 minute ride was ending and we were looking at the Parliament building and Big Ben, I got them going and we sang two verses and choruses. I also tried to get our other passengers to join in. They were hesitant, but a few joined in, a few recorded on their phones, and I think most enjoyed. Have a look at the video!
Following our ride on the Eye, we walked along the South Bank, which was covered with street food, performers, bikers, and just a general great vibe. People were so excited to be able to be out and about in October.
The other main event for the day was going to afternoon tea. One of our cast members, Keri, is Scottish, but lives in London and worked at a really great restaurant called the Dean Street Townhouse. She got us a reservation and we went for a full afternoon tea. Now I have never been a huge tea drinker, but over here it's EVERYWHERE. When we would say "coffee break," they say "tea break." I can hardly find coffee, but tea is inescapable. I was informed, however, that proper afternoon tea was a whole event, and I was NOT disappointed! We arrived to a large table and looked over the menu to find our own teas, which Keri helped navigate us. We ended up each having our own teapots (Mine was filled with tea that smelled and tasted like a campfire. It was awesome.) and two 3-tiered displays of sandwiches, scones and cakes. There were smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, homemade scones with clotted cream and blackberry jam, sausage rolls, and all different kinds of brulees, cakes, sweet breads, and marzipans. We had so much fun just digging in and relishing in this tradition.
The day off ended with an evening walk through Hyde Park and Notting Hill. These are two of my favorite areas, but I'll have to go back to them in the daytime, especially to enjoy the market on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. My friends were laughing and making fun of me the whole time because I couldn't help but to sing the song from "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" in a thick Cockney accent. Ha ha! It's been a great couple of weeks. I feel like we've already made so many memories and it's just beginning. Here's to an exciting 7 months!
Love and miss you all,
Tripp
The audition notice posted basically described me in the talents I have to offer, physical type, and even artists that were in my audition book already. It seemed to fit like a glove and after the audition, the production company agreed! I was hired by Belinda King Creative Productions, based in Northampton, UK. I will be a member of the production cast on board the Seabourn Sojourn for 3 months and the Holland America Amsterdam for 3 months. Over the 6 months I will basically be traveling to all ports that I have never been to, and performing in 5 brand new productions shows, including one show where I will be playing piano! I knew it was an exciting opportunity and ended up just not being able to pass up this chance.
This means that Tripp Around the World had to start back up! I'll be blogging about my life on the ships and my adventures traveling to 6 continents in 6 months! I'm so glad you've come along for the ride. I'll be doing my best with limited internet to tell my story and keep the blog updated regularly.
Right now I'm writing from England! The production company is based here, so we are rehearsing and creating these brand new shows during our 7 week rehearsal process. I was so excited when I realized I would be living here for almost two months. Northampton is a very easy hour train ride to London and we have been taking full advantage of that. We are rehearsing 8 hrs/day, 6 days/wk, but Sundays are our days off and we have traveled in for a couple of really fun days in London so far.
Our first day off the three of us Americans headed into the city ourselves. We were planning on getting a 10:00 train, but ended up running too late so we approached the station to watch that train pull away. Then we sat on a bench to wait for the next train, leaving 30 minutes later. With no announcement or anything...a train pulled away that had been sitting on a track behind us and we realized seconds too late that we had missed ANOTHER train. Traveling always has the most ridiculous bumps in the road, but we had a good laugh and finally made it into London a little after noon. We headed first to the British Museum, where we took in lots of historical artifacts from Britain's many successfully conquered territories. The most interesting were the Rosetta Stone and some sculptures that made up the ornate decoration of the Parthenon. It always amazes me to see and interact with objects and pieces of art that are older than Jesus. For some reason I have a hard time truly grasping and getting my mind around history and the truths of historical events. Sometimes they just seem like a lot of stories, but when I see these things up close and personal, I realize that I am so small and young and dumb.
Next we headed for a walk through the Covent Garden area of town and grabbed some quick lunch before going to Trafalgar Square. In 2008 I traveled out of the United States for the first time and it was with my friend, Laura Cochran. We backpacked Europe for 5 weeks (offexploring.blogspot.com), but started in London, and, more specifically, in Trafalgar Square. It was so much fun to take Tonyia and Dustin to this big plaza in front of the National Gallery. It's a great gathering place, buzzing with energy and we had fun looking around and climbing on the famous lion sculptures. I couldn't help but think of Laura, though, and continued to be reminded of the excitement of that first day out of the country. All those feelings of adventure and joy came rushing back.
From there we walked down Whitehall toward Parliament, all the while with beautiful Big Ben in sight. Along the way we saw the changing of some horse guard and walked past the Prime Minister's residence. Once we got down there we spent time walking up near Parliament. It is such an overwhelming force of a building. It's so imposing with its hundreds of windows just holding its ground on the bank of the Thames. After a walk around the grounds of Westminster Abbey, we decided to go for a walk through St. James Park. For some reason I decided it would be a completely normal decision to force my travel buddies to join me in speaking in a British dialect for our entire walk through the park until we reached Buckingham Palace. It was probably a half hour walk along paths and over pretty bridges, but we just cracked ourselves up the whole way with our HORRIBLE dialects. It was probably the highlight of my day. We finally reached the gates of Buckingham and called our dialect challenge a success. That evening we went to an organ and recorder concert at Westminster for free, which was interesting, but we were so exhausted it was hard to remain focused. The night ended with a walk through the SoHo district and through the West End (London's answer to NYC's Broadway theatre district). We had a great meal and it was a nice chance to really get close with a couple of the people in my cast who I will be living with, working with, and relying on for the next 7 months.After another week of rehearsal we returned to London, this time with almost the entire cast! Our first order of business was the London Eye. All 6 of us headed to this HUGE landmark on the South Bank of the Thames and we lucked out with better weather than we could have ever imagined. There were great, clear skies for us as we boarded one of the "capsules" on the giant ferris wheel with approx. 20 other people. The views were unreal and I just got so excited and kind of overwhelmed with the experience, so I turned to the cast members and asked for a really great British song. Someone suggested the Beatles, so I tried to convince everyone to sing "Let It Be" with me. Ha ha! As our 30 minute ride was ending and we were looking at the Parliament building and Big Ben, I got them going and we sang two verses and choruses. I also tried to get our other passengers to join in. They were hesitant, but a few joined in, a few recorded on their phones, and I think most enjoyed. Have a look at the video!
The other main event for the day was going to afternoon tea. One of our cast members, Keri, is Scottish, but lives in London and worked at a really great restaurant called the Dean Street Townhouse. She got us a reservation and we went for a full afternoon tea. Now I have never been a huge tea drinker, but over here it's EVERYWHERE. When we would say "coffee break," they say "tea break." I can hardly find coffee, but tea is inescapable. I was informed, however, that proper afternoon tea was a whole event, and I was NOT disappointed! We arrived to a large table and looked over the menu to find our own teas, which Keri helped navigate us. We ended up each having our own teapots (Mine was filled with tea that smelled and tasted like a campfire. It was awesome.) and two 3-tiered displays of sandwiches, scones and cakes. There were smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, cucumber sandwiches, homemade scones with clotted cream and blackberry jam, sausage rolls, and all different kinds of brulees, cakes, sweet breads, and marzipans. We had so much fun just digging in and relishing in this tradition.
Love and miss you all,
Tripp
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