Stockholm, Sweden

I didn't have much down time today to wander Stockholm. I in fact, did not even have enough time to walk downtown (approximately 45min walk from the port). But I did manage an hour of exploration up to a lovely overlook. I can't wait until I get better at my job so everything goes faster so I can actually do REAL stuff.


To help me keep track of where what set of pictures are from I am now trying to snap a shot of something with the locations name on it. Hence... the crate.


To eliminate the language barrier, and likely so that port security stops getting pestered by tourists, the port literally has a sign off the gangway that states "Yellow downtown, Blue overlook, Red boat excursions." Sure enough, painted right on the ground are lines you may follow every step of the way until you reach your final destination. First-it's genious. Second-it's impressive since some of these lines are several miles long (as per the line that spans the whole 45 minute walk to downtown).


This just made me laugh.


Another awesome staircase. Why do all of our fire escapes have to be so ugly, yet they make it an architectural feature in Sweden?


View from the overlook off to the left.


View from the overlook off to the right.


Me doing one of those awesome self-executed tacky shots in front of the overlook.


I zoomed all the way in to get this picture because I wanted you to be able to see the Swedish flag flying from this building. Perhaps if you click on the picture to see the full-sized image you can?


REALLY awesome building.


This was right outside of the port security. I just thought it was so cool. Because of the direction it was facing I didn't even notice it until I was on my way back from my walk. Just something different.


* * *

Tonight I ate dinner in the Seaside Cafe, the buffet on Deck 10. I like to eat up there because the variety of foods is better than in the messes, and you actually get a view while you dine. The pictures below are the views that passed by my window as we sailed out of Stockholm. Times like these I feel REALLY lucky to be where I am.





I'm not sure if you can tell or not, but there is actually a wedding reception going on in the picture. I just thought that was an incredibly stunning setting for one's nuptials.





Yeah. I'm lucky.

Warnemude, Germany

My first... sort of... day off.

Well, it was a day off in the sense that there were no shows being produced in the theater today. But a lack of shows does not turn off my deck phone, cell phone, email or boss. So there you have it. A moderatly administrative day.

I managed to get off of the ship for about 4 hours in the afternoon and for another 2 hours in the evening. We were at port from 0800-2359.

When you walk off the ship, after going through a customs inspection, you immediately stumble upon a overly-touristized shop - where, on my perfectly tourist cue, I bought a postcard and paid about 3x as much for it as I would have if I had waited about an hour into my walk.

What was the coolest thing about this souvenir shop/restaurant that was surrounded by giant sand sculptures. They were absolutely fantastic and there were 5 of them (each depicted below). Oh, and you might notice that vertical pictures are now oriented correctly. I finally figured out how to turn on my brain and realized that I could modify them on my personal computer and then upload them from my office computer. Sheer genius I tell you. Sheer genious... *sigh of exasperation*











I am actually really glad I got a picture with someone standing in front of it so you can begin to grasp the scale of these rediculous sculptures.


Strange seating gondola things outside of the restaurant/souvenir shop.


So I took this picture because I wanted to share the sign advising parents to keep a hold of their children. The hidden gem, you might notice, is the Brautwurst sign. True German Brat stand. No, I didn't have one. I'm trying to get back down to my natural birth weight, thank you very much.


The little smooth gutters between the handrails and the steps allows people to easily push their bick up and down stairs. I watched someone try to do it with one side of a 4-wheeled stroller. That was an entry for FailBlog, not here.


A little river running right through town was super pretty.


An atmosphereic street shot.


I just thought this street was so lovely with the cobblestones and the trees perfectly placed.


This building had the coolest modern architecture. It was a hotel.


This was my initial viewing of the beach. A very nice and welcome change from the inside of the ship.


Awesome beach trampoline setup for kids.


I couldn't figure out what was up with the weird chairs at the restaurant/souvenir shop until I saw this. You rent them from a little stand. Very cool and movie-esque.


When you look at postcard racks in Warnemude, it becomes immediately obvious that they are known for their collection of lighthouses. So I decided to make it my day's adventure on foot to visit all three of them. And visit them I did. This one was absolutely beautiful.


A slightly closer look.


The plaque at the bottom of the lighthouse. You had to pay to go up to the top so I decided my view from the bottom was perfectly adequate. I'm saving up for a down payment and all, ya know?


This picture in particular is for Roger. I'm not even sure if he reads this or not. But it was too perfect to pass up.


The red and white lighthouse was actually inaccessible by food - though I gave it a good old fashioned college try. But I went out on the closest pier I could to snap this shot.


I could get right to the base of the green and white lighthouse. Nothing particularly special, but EVERYONE seemed to walk to it - the boarwalk leading to it was just packed. Along the pier were the dispatches for local tourist outings. On the ship we are warned to be very wary of locals offering tours by boat/bus/etc. There are certainly horror stories out there. However, you have to wonder how much of the information is factual vs. how much they are just trying to ensure that if you want to go sightseeing you book their tours so that Celebrity gets the income. Food for thought.


The view from the green and white lighthouse back to the beach.


Just thought this was cool. Being a squid lover myself.


This building was stunning. I'm a bit bummed that I didn't manage to get the tops of the Corinthian columns in the picture, but they were beautiful. I may try to retake this photo when I am back there next week.


I thought this poster was hilarious. Reminds me a lot of the Home Alone picture.

On my way back from the beach I didn't take the same route I took there because I wanted to see different things. I managed to stumble across a grocery store where I bought a much needed bar of soap - and a much less needed tin of amazing German chocolates. Yum!

I also managed to get SEVERLY lost. I ended up passing the port by about a mile and a half. and it took me forever to find my way back. After about an hour of aimless wandering on a port walk that should have been about 2 hours shorter than it was, there was the most beautiful sight:


Certain words are distinguishable in any language. Thank goodness!

I do realize that had I gotten lost at a normal port (where embarkation is usually 4pm) I would have been royally screwed. Luckily, that was not today.

OPP Level 2 (Code Red)... Uh oh...

Currently the ship is at OPP leavel 2. "What does that mean," you might ask. Well, let me tell you. Nothing good.

OPP Levels are measurement of the severity of GI (Gastro Intestinal or Norovirus) cases on board. There are percentages of crew, passengers or occurence rates that can trigger certain OPP levels. Level 2 means that the entertainment department gets to scrub the theater house, stage, staircases, backstage, dressingrooms, and technical areas with a special cleaner called Oxvir. Imagine how happy a cast is about reporting at 9am for cleaning duty after getting done with work at 1am the night before. Not. Very. Happy.

However, much better than being at the next OPP level. At which point, the house keepers and cleaners are so busy sanitizing and sterilizng, that all other departments become food servers, laundry attendants, and auxilary cleaning staff. I can't wait until I'm dawning a hair net and dishing out fried rice. Woo hoo. So anyway, the cleaning steps we are taking now are in the hope of preventing it from getting any worse. Also in our favor is that OPP Level 2 was triggered on a turnaround day, so all the sick guests got the hell out of here, and we had an empty ship for about 3 hours so all departments could sterilize their areas from top to bottom, and hopefully get the gross out. We'll see.

About the uniform... (since my mom asked...)
Everyone has a day uniform and an evening uniform. My day uniform is black cargo pants and a black polo shirt (with name tag and hair pulled back, of course). And my evening uniform is a black suit with dress shirt and an awkward kerchief thing.

... I think I should rephrase all of that by saying that's what my uniform *should* be.

However, they had absolutely no female production manager uniforms in stock. So I have illfitting black mens cargo pants and two ill fitting black mens cargo shirts (with sleves past my elbows... real classy) that I wear day & night. The uniform attendant said he could order the suit, but it would take 2 months to get here *sigh*. So I complained to Julie who managed to find someone who said they could get it here off another ship by... well... today. So I will visit the uniform department tomorrow to see if it has shown up or not. I just thank my lucky stars that I packed one pair of dress slacks and two passable nice shirts that I can wear at night. But I am pretty pissed that I was specifically told to bring practically no clothes since I would be in uniform 24/7, and alas no uniform. Ugh.

But, to lessen the blow, laundry is $1 for a wash/dry/fold dropoff/pickup service. I drop of at 10am I pick up at 5pm. Totally worth the dollar. (Not to mention that Erin left me with a laundry card that still had a dollar on it, woo hoo!)




At port in Amsterdam for turnaround day (disembarkation of voyage 315 and embarkation of voyage 316). Things to note: The really long line of people on the sidewalk are waiting to be processed for embarkation. Also, the segway store.


Another view of our Amsterdam port. Port engineering must really be quite a feat, because we are such a HUGE vessel, and to be able to anchor so close to land or structures really makes you wonder how much underwater excavation and architecture it is to make everything safe and stable (including the hull of the ship!).


You can see a bit of the downtown skyline.


Thar she blows! (Or sits, I should say, since we were at port).


Another closeup :)


You can almost tell how big she is in this picture, which actually caputres the entire ship.


Me... simply showing off my good hair day.


A picutre of my new birth from the entryway.


Showing off my AWESOME cabinets! I love them :) and sometimes it's the little things.

My First Turnaround Day

At port in Amsterdam for turnaround day (disembarkation of voyage 315 and embarkation of voyage 316).