Give Thanks

We are currently in the period of a cruise ship rehearsal known as "install period."  Since all of these shows are produced and rehearsed on land, there is a certain amount of work to be done to make them happen on a cruise ship floating around the world.  It's a very intense time for the cast because we are not only doing our final rehearsals, which involve technical rehearsals for all the shows, dress rehearsals, having a live band and sound system, but not a ship, the cast is also spending these first couple of weeks doing all of the training to be full-fledged members of the ship's crew.

We have now performed 3 shows and are opening our 4th (of 5 total) tonight.  They have gone over very well and I'm excited to see how the last two go, since they are 2 of my favorites.  We have also now been trained to perform our safety duties, manage panicked crowds, first aid, the ship's safety procedures for fire, how watertight doors work and even some of how the lifeboats work.  It's so much information in such a short amount of time, but we are doing okay.  Because our days have been so packed, we haven't had hardly any time to get off the ship in these first couple weeks, but when we have we definitely made the most of it.

Our first real day off was in San Juan, Puerto Rico, which is a really cool Caribbean city.  Just like you may imagine, there are brightly colored buildings all over town.  People were very friendly and were selling goods all around town.  I decided to sneak away and find a local spot for lunch.  I ended up happily enjoying some sweet plantains and steak that were just what the doctor ordered.  When my castmate, Keri, joined, we decided to head to the historic fort on the island.  It was a pretty sprawling structure named after Christopher Columbus and had all kind of dungeons, underground tunnels, and lookout towers.  We had fun exploring and enjoying the awesome views, as the fortress walls dropped right into the bright blue sea.  The end of our time in San Juan culminated in us getting caught in a complete downpour, which was actually pretty hilarious.  We were just drenched.

Yesterday we had another day to explore a port as well!  We got off the ship in St. Kitt's and even our first view was impressive.  It was a beautiful island with mountains that reminded me of Jurassic Park.  We quickly saw that the small town was lacking a lot of life on a Sunday afternoon, so we bargained with one of many eager taxi drivers to head toward a beach.  As luck would have it, Veronica was the self-proclaimed best cab driver AND tour guide on the island and the 6 of us in her van were thrilled.  She took us on a scenic drive all over the island, informing us about her home's history, its indigenous plants and wildlife and the tourism industry that has just started really expanding.  We were quite amused with the wild monkeys that were all over the island and Veronica was happy to explain that people did, in fact, eat monkey meat on the island.  She said it tastes like lamb, but when I told her I wanted to go somewhere that served it she said that restaurants don't usually carry it because the monkeys can be hard to catch.  Alternatively, if you catch a monkey when they are a baby they can become domesticated and be decent pets.  Take your pick of the monkey's fate; or have your cake and eat it, too.  Scratch that… have your monkey and eat it, too.

Veronica continued driving up, up, up into the mountains and we got some pretty fantastic views (pictures to come) before heading down to a small beach called Shipwreck Bay.  There was a great little restaurant with killer fish tacos and Caribbean hot sauce and the water was crystal clear.  There are worse ways to spend a day off, people.  It was a much-needed respite from our hard rehearsal period.

One thing that was quite a treat this week was Thanksgiving dinner.  Holidays on the ship are hard because you aren't with family and you are so far from home and for me, having it be so warm during the holiday season is so strange.  For all these reasons, I was a little hesitant to even try to celebrate Thanksgiving.  Most of the crew on the ship are not American, so they don't celebrate it, and I figured it just wasn't going to be much of a day.  After putting a little word in to my boss, though, she was able to pull some strings and generously hosted a table for the 3 American cast members Thanksgiving evening in one of the ship's restaurants.  None of the 3 of us had eaten dinner in a restaurant on board, and you are normally only permitted to do so with guests, so this was all very special.  We had a great time sharing stories and comparing holiday and family traditions over turkey, pumpkin pie, and some of the best cranberry sauce I've ever had.  Good food, good wine, good conversation, all on board a gorgeous ship; thankful, indeed.

Love to you all, 

Tripp