And the worst part of this job is.... - May 6, 2006

Well, another week has passed on the Rhapsody of the Seas.... Let's tune in and see what's been going on this week!

I've been spending lots of time with my newly formed "Post It Club." (Ahhh, high school all over again...) It is comprised of Anglea (Art Auctioneer from South Africa) and Ryan (Bridge Cadet from Newfoundland.) We leave post-it notes on each other's doors whenever we want to see one another, which I pretty much every day.

We went to the beach again in Cozumel and saw two more stingrays and a brittle star. (Oh, our friend Xavier (Musician, El Paso, Tx.) came too, but he's not in the post it club... yet...) Whenever I go snorkling now people follow me about, waiting for me to stick my hand under yet another rock and reveal yet another little animal for them. (I should start charging...) It's like Selena's Snorkling Tours, LLD. (Whatever that means) I've gotten a few more people addicted to snorking too. (Ahhh, my plan for world domination beginning with snorkling fans has begun!!!!!!) *ahem* nevermind.

We laid out for a while too, and Ryan and Xavier were joking around about the 'worst' parts about this job, such as the fact that we were getting paid to lay around on a beach and drink margaritas, snorkel and see stingrays, and check the dancer (that's me) to make sure she doesn't have tan lines. (It's in my contract- NO TANLINES. An impossibility for me, but my friends watch my back -literally!- for me anyway.) Yeah, it's a rough life, right? haha.

Oh, and the Rhapsody started to go to Jamaica for the first time this week. (We go every other week now, alternating with Key West. It was, well.... Jamaica. Not as pretty and nice as other places, but it has it's moments. We taught Franchesco (Dancer, Rome, Italy) how to play blackjack and roulette at Treasure Island, a casino near the port, and he won $30! *beginners luck...*

Not much else is going on. I guess we'll proceed to Monday of our tour of what ship life is like. (When we last left off on our tour, it was Sunday night and we had just finished our Welcome Aboard show. (See "Week One: Done" for the complete entry about our Sundays)

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Well, now that we're alternating between Jamaica and Key West, it's a little different, but I'll do a Key West week, for an example.

Well, Monday, around noon, I usually have flying rehearsal with Dee and Miles. (Our dance captain and vocal captain) I get to fly around in my halo harness for 30-45 minutes and it's so so so so SO fun.

After that, I grab a quick bite and then sometimes have to go to teach Swing class to the guests. I taught a class for the first time today and it was SO fun! The guests come in a really good mood, ready to learn, and we teach them really basic stuff that they can usually pick up. (Although some don't... and get into little tiffs with each other. It's kinda cute.)

After class, we have a few hours off until tech run for Piano Man. A tech run is like a dress rehearsal for the technical crew. (Sound, lighting, sets, etc.) We dancers don't have to wear our costumes unless it's our first time in the piece (so this week I had to wear all my costumes to rehearse my quick changes) and we dont' dance 'full out' (which means we don't do all the moves with the energy we would that night. It's called 'marking' it.)

Then we go eat dinner, and sometimes have to do Captain's Cocktail. (Which hopefully we won't have to do for much longer....) It's just when we get dressed up in formal-wear and welcome people to a cocktail party where the Captain comes down and greets the guests. (Read: boooring. Although last week we thought of a hilarous game where the four of us stand on either side of the door, two by two, and then say "Hi!" in a circle as fast as we can when guests come in. It confuses the guests a little, and it's funny to us. Once we each said one word in the sentence "Hi" "How" "Are" "You?" It was like surround sound. Haha!)

Then, we have "call" at 8 pm for the 9 pm show. ('Call' is when we have to get to the theater to warm up. We have to be in make up and wig caps already, so we can stretch and warm up our bodies for a full hour) Then, we dance our little hearts out for about an hour, take a 40 minute break, then do the show all over again.

But that's not all. No, our night isn't complete until we go to the Viking Crown Disco (the top deck of the ship) and perform Abba. This performance is what we call a 'theme night.' It's a 70's disco party for the guests that we have to get started by performing a cheezy Abba medley.

Then, and ONLY then, can we peel off our fake eyelashes and go to bed.

*whew*

And that's our Mondays, generally. Definatly our busiest day of the week...