Carnival Legend
01/17/10, 12:00 pm
Hello, and Happy New Year! Here I am, ready for round two of Carnival employment! I am on the Carnival Legend, sailing out of Tampa, Florida. The Legend will be sailing a week-long Western Caribbean itinerary, stopping at Grand Cayman Islands – Cozumel, Mexico – Roatan, Honduras – Belize. There is a lot to look forward to. Most importantly is the much more exciting itinerary, but also I will be in a 10 piece band as opposed to a 7 piece band. The 10 piece band has more horns, and is a little more like a big band, which is what I’m more used to performing in. This ship is bigger than the Paradise, and a little newer. The room I’m staying in is much nicer looking and newer looking. Also, I finally have a bottom bunk! No climbing to a top bunk! I flew into Tampa yesterday, and stayed in a very nice Sheraton hotel. I got to the ship this morning around 10 am, because I wasn’t sure what time I was actually supposed to be here. They had me put my luggage on a cart outside, and I assume they’ll be bringing it by my room later, but right now, I have no luggage. No big deal, I just wanted to get unpacked. I’m kind of hanging out right now in my room, waiting for my luggage, and waiting for my sign-on orientation meeting. I figure I’ll find out some more info there. I don’t know where anything is on this ship right now either, so I figure I’ll try to sneak around and figure out where things are.
01/17/10, 3:00 pm
So much progress in three hours! I found lunch, I found my luggage and got unpacked, and there was a very brief meeting for the new sign-ons. I got my schedule, met my musical director, and now am waiting for boat drill to start. He said it usually starts around 3:15, which is much earlier in the day than on the Paradise. There will be a meeting for the musicians afterwards, and I’ll meet the rest of the band. The schedule seems pretty good. Today, there is an hour and a half set in one of the lounges, and the infamous Carnival Welcome Aboard show… Other days include production shows, a few lounge sets, one Lido set, and a Past Guest reception. We have a full day off on Wednesday, the Cozumel day, and I’m really excited about that.
01/19/10, 12:00 pm
Here I am in the Grand Cayman Islands! It’s nice and warm here, around 80 degrees. Because I am coming back to Carnival from a vacation, I had to retake some orientation seminars on safety and other such ship-board matters. We finished earlier than scheduled, so that gave me time to get off the ship and mosey around Grand Cayman. More pictures of the ship to come. I knew this ship was bigger than the Paradise, but geez, this is a BIG ship! I feel like I keep walking and walking, and I never actually hit the front or the back of the ship. I have found several of the lounges, including the huge lounge that we play the production shows in – it’s called Follies. It has an orchestra pit that is power operated and rises up into the hall. I also found the gym, and it’s much bigger than the Paradise. Most importantly, my head doesn’t hit the ceiling when I’m on the elliptical! More pictures to come! I had my first try at the production show called “Jazz Hot.” It’s a very cool show, and the music is great. It wasn’t pretty sight reading it last night, though. I know it’ll get better – it already did for the second show last night. That’s all for now – time to head back to the ship.
