First cruise is complete!!!
What a crazy first cruise this has been but before I venture onto that blog, lets start with the LONG LONG LONG days that we had of flying from San Fran to Venice.
EHHH
We had our last day of rehearsals with a entire run-through of our shows, Motown / High C's / Abba but this time for family and friends. I was lucky to have my mom and grandma come out from Ohio to California for a little vacation but also to send us on our way and to see our shows. It was great having them here for a few days as Zach, my mom, grandma and myself got to sight see around San Fran for one of the days off we had. It was awesome :-) Later that night of our last rehearsals, we had a GREAT farewell party as a cast and creative team. It was a great time that we got to have before we left for the ship. I really enjoy the creative team from Choozi, they all really care about you and care about the experience that you're about to have. What a great group of people.
Since we had a very early flight, we had decided to stay up that night and not go to bed. We had to be at the curb early in the morning and when I say early, I mean 2:30am. OMG…I have never started a travel day that early in my life. We had all of our bags in front of the hotel, all 13 of them ready to get picked up from the airport in the dead of night haha. Our first issue was getting to the airport because our van that picked us up wasn't big enough for all our bags. We had crammed ourselves into this shuttle van…luggage here, person there…thank the lord it wasn't a long trip to the airport because I can't believe we actually fit everyone and everything haha.
Once we arrived at the airport, we were dropped off at the international terminal and then we found out that our first flight was coming out of the domestic terminal. We weren't starting this travel day well…since we had to drag all 13 bags all across the airport to the complete opposite side of the terminal…not fun. We were already tired and we hadn't even checked in yet. Checking in was a little bit of an issue since a few bags were overweight and thats expected…we have packed for 8 months…HELLO!!! The lady checking us in was very nice and let a few bags go through a little over weight. She was nice to us or it was too early to deal with that crap. Hopefully it was the first option haha.
Once we arrived in the gate area, we didn't have long to wait until we got on the flight. Well, it wasn't a long time until we changed gates because the plane that was at our gate, our original plane, had some technical issues. That didn't make me feel very good but I'm thankful that they moved us before we got on the plane. They had to drag the new plane from the hanger, so it was a little delayed but I wasn't worried cause it was a new plane…no problems. Now, once we got on the next flight, we didn't take off for another hour and 30 mins than we were suppose to. The first reason was because we were on our way, taxiing from the gate and the whole electricity on the plane turned off…which was scary. I have never been on a plane that its happened to me before. It took them an hour to fix the plane, mind you we didn't get off while this happened. So instead of having a 5 hour flight to NYC, we had a 6 hour flight. It made me quite nervous the entire time being on that flight that something might go wrong with the plane, I mean wouldn't you think that way too….but Zach and Jemma were very comforting and they promised me that nothing would go wrong and they were right. I think that I was quite tired and wasn't wanting to deal with that sort of things that early…ehhh.
So we land in JFK's airport about 30 mins late…I guess we picked up some speed in the air, which is nice. Unfortunately, we had missed our second flight to Paris and in turn, would miss our flight to Venice. Luckily, our cruise travel agent had re booked our flight while we were in the air and we all had a direct flight to Venice….maybe our travel day is looking better! The only problem, I was afraid our bags wouldn't meet us in Venice. So I stood in line for 30 mins and made sure that they understood how important it was for us to have our bags show up. They assured me that the bags would be there so I was hoping they were correct.
We eventually got to our second flight. By this time, most of us were tired except Laura who had slept the whole first flight…lucky haha. The second flight was an overnight flight that everyone could sleep during…except ME, of course. I have a very hard time sleeping on planes…I wish I was better at it but I'm not. The second flight was nice, I watched a few movies and had a nice meal…much better than the last time that I had to do an international flight from my last contract. YIKES!!
Once we arrived to Venice, we all headed down to the baggage claim area where we had…NO LUGGAGE. This then began the long process of filling out the proper paperwork for 12 bags, not 13 because our Choozi bag, with all our costumes made it with us…which made us all laugh. During the time standing in line, we missed our shuttle bus pick up for the ship so we then had to make other arrangements to get on the ship. Now this all happened, you must remember, after already 24+ hours of flying and barely any sleep. Needless to say, none of us felt very good but onto the ship we went.
Once we got on the shuttle, we started to get excited that we were heading to the ship. Zach was like a little kid that was going to Disneyworld or something because he just lit up when he saw the ship. I am excited for him to have this experience and I'm even more excited to share it with him.
When we arrived on board the ship, they had been informed about our luggage issue and luckily for us, we weren't leaving until the following evening…we had a little time for our luggage to get here and eventually it all did get here…WHOOSH. We met Brittany, a past Artist on the Wind and she showed us all around the ship and was talking about the do's and don'ts of the ship. During this whole time, I didn't really pay attention because the only thing I kept thinking about was that I wanted to take a shower and a nap…haha. Of course, I couldn't have either yet because we all had to head upstairs and experience our first Muster Drill. Lord, looking back at us, we probably looked quite gross standing there without having a shower after flying so long but we couldn't do anything that and the guests already knew our entire story…guess the news traveled fast haha. I tried my best to socialize with the guests but I don't think I remember what came out of my mouth…I was that tired.
Needless to say, we had quite the flying experience from San Fran to Venice. One that I hope doesn't happen again.
Next blog will be about our wonderful first week on the Silver Wind. What a lovely staff thats aboard the ship. Been having a lovely time!!
Until Next Time,
Jason
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