EURODAM 2013

     Well, a lot has changed since my last blog update! I am currently working on Holland America Cruise Lines’ Eurodam, their largest ship in the fleet. It’s a beautiful ship and I’m much happier with the quality of shows and the company overall in comparison to Royal. I have 6 shows- Listen To The Music (the Welcome Aboard show), Dancing With The Stars (a dance competition amongst the guests which I will explain later), It Takes Two (our show without the male dancers), In Concert (I dance pointe in this one), Dreampark, and Nightlife. I like them each for different reasons. Dreampark is a lot of fun just a lot of partner work so it can be pretty tiring. Nightlife is probably my favorite because I dance a lyrical type section with the four boys. Our stage has a pit that drops down so we can enter and exit on it, as well as 4 risers, a turntable, pyro, and smoke. It’s been interesting working with so many technical elements. It adds a lot to our shows. So far, our audiences have been very happy with them, our ratings last week were higher than the cast we just replaced! Turnover was pretty tough just because it was so long and we had so much to get done. Our schedules were ridiculous. Rehearsal all day, then a few hours off to sleep then rehearsal starting again at midnight and running til 3 or 4a in the morning, then back in the theatre at 8 or 9a. I literally had to sleep every free second. We never actually slept, it was more like napping, which you all know I love but I also like to have a full night of sleep as well….lol. I know that if I do another contract it won’t be as bad since the Eurodam has the most shows. 

     It’s nice being on the bigger ship because I don’t feel the rocking as much on the normal sea days. Of course since we started with the crossing, I was taking my motion sickness pills to get thru rehearsals. But now that we are in the Med, it’s much calmer. I did throw up once, even though I took my Dramamine, but that was because they hadn’t turned the air on for our rehearsal and it was burning hot so I overheated. :/ But Casey, our Stiletto director, was very happy with my cast and we had a great turnover. He said he was returning to the studios with glowing recommendations and asked me to come back and request to work with him again. :) 

      We had some issues with one of our male dancers in rehearsal and we are actually surprised he made it to the ship with us and didn’t quit or get fired. It was frustrating to work with someone who is so lazy and disrespectful, especially since there is so much partnering in our shows. Before we left to join the ship, the entire office had a talk with him and gave him a second chance, mainly because they are so desperate for male dancers right now. Casey had extra rehearsals with him on the ship to get him caught up and he was able to fake his way thru our opening shows. At least now he is acting like he wants to be here and trying to be a part of the cast. I hope he continues to work hard and help make our shows great. 

     Since install was three weeks long, most of which was spent at sea for the crossing, we didn’t get to go out much and explore the ports. The ship even had to miss a port because of bad weather in Ponta Delgado, Portugal, making it ANOTHER sea day. I was at sea for 9 days straight, my longest yet! I kinda went crazy with cabin fever near the end lol. The first port I was able to get off and explore was Malaga, Spain. We started at the old Roman theater and walked from the fort to the castle. It was a bit of a hike but the view of the city below was wonderful. We saw the bull-fighting arena from above and walked there next. Meghan, Erin and I looked inside the arena and happened upon the policía practicing their formations in the sand. We ventured into a local grocery store for a peek at their food. They like to hang full pig legs for display and you can buy the whole thing. Gross. We then stopped for lunch and had delicious sangria. I ordered a cheese plate expecting various cheese samples and ended up with just a plate of parmesan slices lol. We made our way to another square for some cocktails and internet. We stopped at Cheers, Malaga! Holland America recently stopped serving hard liquor to crew onboard, in the hopes of reducing the number of employees they have to fire for excessive drinking. It stinks for me because I hate beer and though I like wine, I want to enjoy it with my dinner or as a nightcap. So it was nice to get a pina colada, strawberry daiquiri, and a rum and coke while having a lot of laughs with my girls. :) 

      The next day was Cartagena, Spain. Erin, Brit and I made the mistake of going off the ship at 9 in the morning, thinking we were being smart since we had to be back early for a tech rehearsal of Dreampark. I definitely forgot that we were in Spain and nothing opens til at least 10a. HAHA. We walked around and saw some ruins and Roman bathhouses. We found a small church that was really pretty, and really quiet except for my squeaky sneakers! 

      After another sea day, we stopped in Civitavecchia, Italy. A bunch of us got off and headed to the train station. We missed the first available train because we didn’t realize you have to validate your ticket at another machine after you buy it from the kiosk…..what? Eventually we made it on the train and took it into Rome. We headed into the Vatican City, which was a lot different than what I was imagining it would look like. I thought there would be all these popes running around and that it would feel more religious and serene. It was insane how many people were there, and lines like crazy to get into everything. Oddly enough, there wasn’t a lot of helpful signs or information for being such a popular tourist destination. We ended up waiting in the wrong line at one point. We finally realized we wanted to be on the other side of the city for the Sistine Chapel and headed along the outer wall to the museum. It was so beautiful inside and I got to see Michelangelo's Creation of Adam painting, which was a bucket list item for me! 

    The good news, I saw the Sistine Chapel. The bad news, I got separated from the group. I looked up at a painting, looked back to make sure I could see Brit cause I knew she was following Alan and his wife Janette. I looked back at the ceiling and a second later looked back to the same spot and the crowd closed around Brit and they were gone. I stopped at various exits to scan the crowds but I knew there was absolutely no way I would find them the moment I stepped outside and saw about a million people walking around. I knew we all made plans to meet back for the 1 o’clock train when we originally split into the groups. I only had a split second of panic when I looked at my ipod for the time. When we were making the crossing, the ship would set the clocks forward an hour every night to be at the correct time when we landed in Spain. I have to manually change the clock in my room and my ipod for when I’m off the ship. I realized that I hadn’t bothered to double check my ipod time lately so I checked its settings and saw it was set to the Canary Islands. I switched to Rome, Italy and the time went forward an hour making it 1!!!!!! Luckily, as I was retracing my steps back to the train station, I saw the local time posted and it was still noon. I’m still not sure why my ipod has the wrong time. I stopped to get my souvenir magnet and postcards and found the station relatively easy considering I’m not familiar with Italian at all. I surprised myself by how much I actually pay attention to details, even when I’m not trying. I was enjoying being with my group and following along; not concerned about where we were going or how to get back. This is the second time in my life where I was genuinely impressed with the way I handled a scary and extremely stressful situation, the other being the Valentine’s Day debacle in LA. Everyone was so relieved to find me at the train station and seemed to have a new respect that even though I’m the youngest in the cast, I can clearly handle myself responsibly. I enjoyed my day in the Vatican but I would like to return when I have more time to study all the religious symbols in the art the city has to offer. I would like to use the Da Vinci Code series as my tour guidebook :) 

     Livorno, Italy was our next port. Lizy, Erin and I took the train to Pisa for pictures with the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. As soon as we got there it began to rain sideways and literally flooded the streets. It was pretty hilarious trying to take pictures of dance poses with the rain soaking our bodies and the wind blowing our hair uncontrollably. My boots were definitely made for fashion and not to withstand weather because the water soaked thru to my socks and froze my feet. I guess it’s the perfect excuse for me to buy some nice Italian leather boots ;) We hopped on a bus and took a train to Florence or Firenze (and yes my Harry Potter nerd mind kicked in and I was telling everyone that’s the name of a centaur in the series haha). I think this is my favorite city we’ve been to yet! We wandered from the station and the alleyway opened to a square with an exquisite church. We ate lunch in the Piazza del Duomo, right across from the church. I had the BEST meal. I started with Minestrone soup, which our waiter thought was weird to ask for the soup as the first course. I then had four cheese gnocchi, AMAZING. Our waiter was so awesome and he kept bringing over his coworkers and other waiters at the neighboring restaurants and he would tell them “I want you to meet my friends”, even though he didn’t know our names hahaha. I think he was just tickled that we were American. We asked one of our new “friends” where we could get the best gelato and he gave us directions to a cute little gelateria. I had the most delicious chocolate and caramel gelato. We looked at the art being sold on the street and then took the train back to Livorno. We still had some time before we had to be back on the ship so we stopped in a couple of shops. Our timing was so impeccable that day, arriving right in time for a bus or train; and we were very happy we explored all three cities. 

       Our next port was Monte Carlo, Monaco. This city was on my bucket list after seeing it on Cars 2 when they are racing the Grand Prix. We started by exploring a castle on the other end of the port. Buddy (my dance captain) and his boyfriend Evan (another dancer in my cast), Lizzy (my company manager and fellow female dancer) and her boyfriend Pete (our drummer), Erin (one of our singers), Brit, Ann and I all went off together and had a blast taking photo shoots all over the castle. We came into the little town and walked down the alleyways. I bought one of the best chocolate éclairs I’ve ever had and pretended to reenact the spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp with Ann. I’ve been buying coffee as much as possible because it is amazing in every European port. So strong and delicious :) Then the group headed to the other side and we saw the popular casino, with lots of luxurious cars parked in front. “Lifestyles of the rich and famous” was our theme of the day. I had another remarkable experience with gelato, this time a thick, dark chocolate mousse that tasted just like icing. We walked along road for the Grand Prix and headed back to the ship. 

      I love my cast, my roommate, Rachel, is amazing, and I’m traveling again to a lot of new and exciting countries. Life is beautiful!