First few days on board...

September 18, 2008: Sign-On Day
wToday was the big day. I finally set foot on a cruise ship for the first time in over three years (I signed off of the Carnival Conquest in New Orleans on August 21, 2008, one week before Hurricane Katrina), and what a wonderful day it is: the musical director on board actually gave my band the night off (which means I am going to take a nap and then it’s off to the crew bar to have a few beverages). I was talking to the drummer from my band and he said that since he came aboard in April, this is the third night he had been given off.
Let me start out by saying that getting from JFK to Venice was anything but easy. My initial itinerary was awesome: fly from JFK to Charles de Gaulle in Paris at 915pm on Tuesday night, and then on Wednesday, after a short two-hour layover, fly from CDG to Venice., arrive by 2-ish and go from the hotel I stayed at on the mainland onto the island and look around. Unfortunately, the air traffic controllers at Marco Polo airport didn’t think too highly of this plan and decided that some of them should go on strike. Consequently, my flight was canceled. I was initially put on a flight for Thursday that would get me into Venice around 530pm. This was not good; it would mean staying in a hotel overnight in Paris (which wouldn’t be the end of the world, except as I later discovered, they HATE Americans; for more on that, see my last posting to the blog). Upon arriving in Paris, I went straight to a few different Air France ticketing/reservations counters, when finally I arrived at one who could help. She gave me three options:
1. Wait around and see if I could get on a 4:30 flight to Venice (it was about 1030 in the morning at this point, and I definitely wasn’t the only one who needed to get there)
2. She said, and this is a direct quote: “I can get you to Milan, but it would then be your responsibility to get to Venice from there. “
3. Take a 2pm flight from Paris to Rome, and then an 815 flight from Rome to Venice.
I went with option number 3, and ended up getting to the hotel around 10-1030pm. I would like to meet the person that would take option 2 in that situation.
The hotel I stayed at was pretty cool, called Hotel Venizia, VERY old fashioned, with gold-colored trim and the like. The bathroom was weird in that there was no floor partition between the shower and the rest of the bathroom, but just a curtain. I haven’t ever seen that, not even on cruise ships.
My body seemed to adjust okay with the time-difference, as I fell asleep somewhere between 1230 and 1am. I was up at 7am, so I had enough time to go and eat before being picked up at 745 by the bus that took me to my new home: the Queen Victoria.

I probably managed to make it to my cabin at about 845, 9ish this morning, and went on a quick tour with my musical director, who is a quirky old Australian named Fred. It has taken me no time to realize his favorite expression, hands down, is “Bottom line, mate,” which is often followed by “you can’t do this,” or “you MUST do that every time ‘x’ or ‘y’ occurs”. I haven’t heard many good things about Fred; in fact, I am yet to hear a good thing about him. Thankfully, he plays in the other orchestra so I won’t have to deal with him too much [keeping fingers crossed].
At around 11, my roommate, Gary, a 40-year-old drummer (from the other orchestra as well) woke up and I finally met him. He’s quite quirky himself, and unfortunately, he is not a night owl. Should be fun. Also, he enjoys practicing his drumming by tapping on his knees with a metronome on in the background. Nonetheless, he will never be worse than the DJ I had to live with on the Carnival Destiny in 04: Terry from Tulsa, who was quite possibly the biggest redneck I’ve ever met, and a scientologist to boot. To each their own, I understand that, but come on. I guess I’ll just have to make due.
The one sad point of the day is when I reviewed my in-port-manning schedule, which shows when I have to stay on board the ship [regulations require that a certain number of crewmembers stay on]. This cruise, I believe it’s Athens and also Istanbul, which isn’t horrible since we’ll be back more than once to both these places. Sadly, Fred didn’t take into account that he also scheduled my group so we NEVER get to get off in Alexandria, Egypt, which is, as the Italians say, NON BUONO! Hopefully I will be able to find someone to switch with me as there is NO WAY I will be missing out on seeing the pyramids. We shall see though, we shall see.
Other than that, there is not too much to report. I will say that the room I am playing in, the Queen’s Room, is BEAUTIFUL, as is the entire ship. She’s practically brand new (less than a year old), and her facilities are top-notch. I got a chance to play briefly on the piano I’ll be using and I am very happy! It is a Yamaha baby grand, and it sounds perfect to me. Unfortunately, I will not be able to play in there until tomorrow night, but I’ll take the one night off I’m lucky to see for a while.
I am looking forward to going up on the crew deck this evening when we set sail at 10pm… it is the front-most open deck on the ship, and there’s even a little hot tub there. It should be beautiful at night!
That’s all for now, ciao from the Queen Victoria!
September 19, 2008
At Sea, sailing to Kusadasi, Turkey
Yesterday evening was remarkable. We set sail from the dock in Venice at about 10pm, and shortly thereafter, we were in the Grand Canal! I stopped off at the crew bar, bought myself a Corona (for $1), and went outside and got my first glimpses of the real city of Venice. Words cannot describe how beautiful a moment this was. I had been waiting my whole life to see Venice, and it was well worth the wait. We dock there again October 11-13, and I am eager to walk around the city and perhaps go for a traditional gondola ride.
So far, everything is, more or less, going well. The band I am playing in, the Queen’s Room Orchestra seems to be stacked with solid players across the board and I fear I might be the weakest link [goodbye?]. The trumpet player, Andre, even spent seven years playing for the Count Basie Orchestra (long after Basie passed away however), and I look forward to working with him this evening. The only downers at the moment: I seem to have come down with a bit of a cold, and my roommate continues to reveal his insanity to me. The guy NEVER leaves the room; he practices the drums by tapping weird syncopations and polyrhythms on his lap while counting aloud and listening to his metronome through headphones. Not fun. Unfortunately, he is here through January 10 as well, so hopefully we can find a way to make it through the next four months. It’s a shame, really.
Tonight’s schedule is actually a bit heavy: I’m playing from 5:15-6:15, 7:45-8:45, then 9:45-11:00 and 11:15-12:15. Four hours. This will all undoubtedly be followed by at least a little consumption of alcohol at the QV Crew Bar. The most I have paid for a drink thus far is $1.25 and that was for a shot of Jose Cuervo. I love that place. The only downside is that it closes at 1, but you can purchase excess beverages in advance to prepare for their early last call.
I have discovered that the Internet is both expensive and slow, so I will probably be posting every few days. As for posting photos, it is looking like that will have to wait until after I return to the states, or hopefully, until I can get online at an internet café on land.
September 20, 2008
Another Day at Sea

Yesterday evening was a great time; I finally got to do some playing, and enjoyed it immensely. The first two sets were for the captain’s party; no dancing, just easy tunes played by a quintet (trio + tenor + trumpet first set / alto saxophone second set), and after the first set, the bandleader came up to me and said, “I can’t tell you how happy I am to have you in the band,” and handed me a glass of champagne. After the captain’s party, the first formal ball on board took place, so the next two sets were for the dancers.
The band sounds real solid, and they’re a great group of guys as well. Everyone but the trombone player is American, and together we probably make up 1/3 of the Americans on board. The majority of the crew seems to hail from the Philipines, Ukraine, or England, but the ship is definitely staffed by people from everywhere. One of the things I missed about working on cruises is that you get the chance to experience living with people from other parts of the world, and additionally, you get to experience living with people that ARE NOT AMERICANS. I cannot explain the differences, but it is a welcomed change.
We dock in Kusadasi, Turkey, tomorrow, but unfortunately, I will be unable to get off because of some new-staff training and a rehearsal in the morning, and the ship sets sail at 1pm. Monday and Tuesday we will be in Istanbul, where all I have planned thus far is a trip to a local hookah bar on Monday night; then we’re off to Odessa and Yalta in the Ukraine before we hit Athens on the 27th and then Sicily before our final destination of the voyage: Rome. From the looks of things, I will be going to the Parthenon in Athens, which is one of the few things I am dying to see. From what I hear, it is covered in scaffolding (as is the rest of the Acropolis), but it will still be a great experience.
Okay that’s all for now; hopefully I’ll get another one of these out by the time I reach Athens.