Istanbul - A simple night out for a change...

For the first time myself, Iain, Cristhian, and some others went out just to have a calm dinner in Istanbul close to the port. Nothing very exciting, except I spent some quality time with Paul and he's a really nice guy. Excellent in fact at his job. It was just nice to go out and not feel pressured to do sight seeing, or work, or anything. Just to be calm.
I ordered water with dinner (part of my biggest loser regiment). I got this... which I thought was awesome. It's like a plastic pouch of water sealed like a pudding cup. I took pictures because it was neato burrito!

I am 23 pounds down with Biggest Loser, by the way :)

A long long day...

I allowed myself some drinks last night because the guest entertainer asked if we could hang out. It was nice - we had some wine and watched the theme night "Dancing with the Stripes" - our cheesy version of dancing with the stars involving our officers dancing with guests. It's always good for a laugh. I always feel a bit bad for the guest entertainers since they are onboard for about 10 days at a time... not really long enough to get to know anyone. And they are not allowed in crew areas, so it's not like I can invite them to come to the crew bar for a - much cheaper - drink.

I clearly had a few too many because when my alarm clock went off at 9:30am I was not feeling it. The crew talent show was at 10:30am, followed by the crew farewell, followed by Star Chefs - our cooking competition based on Iron Chefs. After that was a backstage tour. Then Israeli immigration. In 20 minutes I start technical rehearsals for tonight's variety show. It's just a long day no matter how you cut it.

Tomorrow, Mike, the AV Manager, is leaving. His replacement isn't coming for 7 days, so I have to do both of our jobs for the next week. I am NOT looking forward to it. That and I just don't know all of the aspects of his job, nor do I have enough technical knowledge to be able to do everything he does.

I got a comment today about looking skinnier!

*sigh*

Crete is not all it was cracked up to be...

Perhaps we just really went to the wrong places, but I have to be completely honest about how completely underwhelmed I was by Crete. Poor Olgicza had been waiting her entire contract to go here, and she got confined with GI the one day we all went out... and it was the last time we docked in Crete.


Me pretending to pose with Algie for a picture.
The gang who went out. Valeria (the girl between Iain and Igor) actually signed off 2 days after we went out in Crete for medical reasons. I found out 2 days ago that she has been diagnosed with kidney cancer that has matasticized into her left lung and some lymph nodes. The prognosis is not good for her, and unfortunately it's been very difficult for all of my friends from the gift shops and myself. But particularly hard on Igor who has been in love with her for a long time.

Mykonos at last!

Finally, the last time the CS was going to dock in Mykonos this season I got off and visited the port. I'm glad I did it is very unique and beautiful there.




The city is known for it's giant windmills on the hills. I snapped this picture of one, but did not manage to walk to it before needed to return to the ship.










Famous church in Mykonos.











The city is made of these narrow allies between white buildings with blue accents. It's beautiful. But also a bit nerve wracking because it's just a giant maze. After you lose sight of the coast it is impossible to find it again without asking for directions. You just wander around saying, "water? water?" and shop keepers point in a direction while chuckling. They must do that all day long.



Algie was feeling sick so our visit was cut a bit short. I'm still glad I went out though!

Celebrity's Biggest Loser

First, you should check out the updated Athens post here (http://ridingone.blogspot.com/2011/10/today-was-day.html) because I just added pictures at the bottom. I also put a back-dated post up today from an evening in Istanbul (http://ridingone.blogspot.com/2011/10/night-on-town-in-istanbul.html). Enjoy!

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So a lot of you have asked what the heck is going on with Celebrity’s Biggest Loser. Well, this week is Starring Crew Week – so there are a lot of exciting new events happening that are all designed to boost crew moral and show corporate appreciation for everyone onboard. Altogether a very nice gesture.

The one major activity in which I have chosen to partake is the weight loss competition, Celebrity’s Biggest Loser. Very much a mini version of the TV show.

So here’s what’s been going down. On the 16th we had our introductory meeting. October 17th was weigh-ins. I wasn’t as mortified as I usually am by my weight since everything is in kilograms, however, upon doing the conversion later I was a bit disappointed in myself. I weighed in at 133kg (you can do the math if you want). Later that day we had to go to the spa and meet up with the trainers to get our BCA tests done. I still don’t entirely know what that means – nor have I gotten to see my results – they go over that tomorrow in our group meeting.

Every voyage there are 3 workout sessions. Right now, since we are in OPP outbreak, all of the workouts must take place at 6am. Very unfortunate for those, like me, who work until 1am on a regular basis. But that’s just what I have to do.

Our first workout was in Marmaris on the 19th. It involved jogging for longer than most were able. I managed to finish the distance without walking. Very proud. And then some extreme circuit training. I was pretty sure my heart was going to explode by the end of the session. But I was so energized afterward it took me 2 hours to get back to sleep.

Today was our second training session. It involved more jogging, and lots of sprints and other exercises on the sports deck. Squats are killing me – I feel like I have no hamstrings in my entire body. Unfortunate.

I have been exercising outside of the trainings, too. In Santorini I hiked back up the mountain and down again. And yesterday Iain and I went on an hour long power walk through Piraeus, Greece. I have also stopped using elevators altogether – I think I average about 60 flights of stairs per day on the ship. My calves and quads might be inflating that number due to exhaustion. I also do backstage workouts with one of our technicians during our slower shows.

I’ve also stopped drinking anything but water – or soda water if I am feeling frisky. I only eat vegetables, rice cakes (like Quaker at home), fruit and occasionally sushi. I did cheat and have some chocolate last night. But a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do.

So far I am down 4 kilos. Very impressive. Someone said that they already notice my upper arms shrinking. I’m flattered.

Anyway, the competition ends on December 17th – a good day for me since I should be seeing my Mommy and my BriBri on that day. Nothing like a reunion and looking FINE!

Did I mention that the winner gets an iPad2? Another motivator.

OPP Red Code Level 2: OUTBREAK!

Well, I have officially reached my first OPP Outbreak. Over 2% of our guests and about 1% of our crew is ill at the moment. That's in the neighborhood of 50 people in an confined space with highly contagious GI... no fun.

What does this mean?

Sanitize. Sanitize. Sanitize. We wipe down every frequently touched surface every 30 minutes on the entire ship. You cannot enter the ship, a dining area, the gift shops, the theater, or the movie lounge without compulsory hand sanitizing. No crew can dine in any guest area - not the free buffet, the $5 Bistro, or either of the specialty restaurants.

But what's the real drag?

The messes.

No one is allowed to serve themselves any more. This greatly slows down the rate that they are able to accommodate people in any given mess, so all three messes have a line wrapping halfway down the crew corridor. Officers take rotation at the hand washing station inside the door verifying that everyone who enters washes their hands for 20 seconds. You walk up to the buffet line where an aggravated mess attendant is holding a plate and glaring at you while you tell them, scoop by scoop what you want on your plate. You really don't end up getting the right quantity of anything, and they don't even put salad stuff on top of one another, it's just a mess. And then they hand you your plate and you feel so bad for them that you just say thank you even though you are a vegetarian who some how ended up with beef steak and meatballs on top of their spinach salad.

I mean - it's the same in the guest buffet - they have to get everything served to them. But the guests aren't exactly in a rush to get to their next shift, you know. If it takes them an hour and a half to get through their 4,000 calorie meal, who cares except our ratings.

There is rumor that one of the ice machines onboard tested positive for something (either Ecoli or something else that they tested for). So after that gets deep cleaned and we reach turnaround day on the 25th and get all of the guests the hell of the ship, maybe we'll have a clean onboard bill of health again.

Fingers crossed.


ON THE PLUS SIDE. I weighed myself for the first time since "Celebrity's Biggest Loser" started on the 17th. I am down 4 kilos (8.8 lbs). Very fast weight loss, leads me to believe that most of it is due to eating less and healthier. But in any case, I'll take what I can get.

I finally got to off in Rhodes!!!

First - please visit the backdated Kusadasi post (http://ridingone.blogspot.com/2011/09/kusadasi-turkey.html), because the waterpark pictures are finally up!!! Including, but not limited to, small fish eating the dead skin off of my body :) And I promise more back-dated posts are to come!

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It took me 3 chances, but I finally got my rear and gear to get the hell of the ship in Rhodes, Greece. And let me just tell you I am so glad I did. It is possibly the most beautiful city I have been to so far. Not just in Rhodes, but all over this part of the world, everything is miraculously blue - the sky, the water, lots of the pottery and clothing, too! :)

The view from the port (above).

The view from where we entered the fort (above).

Above: Some ruins. Below: awesome alleyway full of stone arches.

Below is a view of the fort's center town square area. Very quaint.

I really like this picture of the people sitting on the steps watching the daily hustle and bustle in the square.

A view from the square up the shopping corridor.

Too cool... The fort is HUGE and encompasses what used to be the entire city. There is a more modern area outside of it now, but everything is MASSIVE.

There was a street artist doing pastel portraits and had drawn an eye on this tree. Had it not been for my thumb I would have really liked this picture.

The sequence below is titled "Big People, Little Door."

We walked through a garden outside of the fort. I thought it was adorable that there was communal dog food/water and bird bath stations :)

I feel like the above picture should be a painting.

Iain and Christhian.

Walking back to the ship from outside of the fort.
Below is a shop that is literally on a boat. VERY COOL.

Above is what used to be the main gated/guarded entrance to the fort. Good scale reference with the people in the entryway.

Home away from home :)

It was just too cool....


I had actually had a real shit of a morning. This week is called "Starring Crew Week" and Celebrity does a bunch of nice things for the onboard crew to keep up morale. The night before, they shut down the night club to guests and had a big crew party with free beer, soda and champagne. My whole cast got smashed...

...Flash to the next morning...

I get woken up at 9am by my vocal captain giving me a panicked phone call, screaming that they didn't know that Broadway Nights was scheduled for tonight. (Broadway Nights is the showtune cabaret we do in the night club once a voyage, and for some of the singers is a very difficult show.) I informed her that she had suggested the scheduling previously to the cruise director (although I had disagreed with it from the beginning) and had distributed the final schedule to the dance captain at 2pm the previous afternoon, so they should have all received the information via voicemail yesterday.

I got off the phone with her, only to immediately receive a phone call from the cruise director saying that 3 other singers had tried to get ahold of me during my aforementioned 40minute phone call. I reminded the cruise director that he had scheduled the event for that night, and that I had done my job distributing their schedule over 28 hours in advance.

When I got done with that 30 minute phonecall, I had a singer call me while I was in the shower. I did not answer. When I got out of the shower I had a singer call me while I was brushing my teeth. I picked up and said I would call her back. When I got off of that phone call another singer called me and I refused to pickup the phone.

After I was dressed and leaving my cabin, I called the singer who I had said would call me back. She continued to chew my ear off about the entire situation for another 30 minutes. After that phonecall I called one of the other singers back who started having a go at me. At this point I was ready to slap someone, so I screamed at him and he yelled back and hung up.

I left the ship immediately with Christhian and Iain. I was sooooo done.

From outside the ship, while still in mobile range, I called the cruise director to tell him I was leaving and that I needed a walk. He said that the singer who I had just screamed at was sitting in his office bitching about the entire situation and for how I had spoken with him. I informed my boss that I would speak with him upon my return to the ship.

The two hours in Rhodes were much needed to clear my head. I bumped into the Dance Captain while I was out and yelled at her for not doing her job because, as it turned out, she had never sent out the message with the next day's schedule - the whole debacle was caused by her laziness.

But after 2 hours of strolling through beautiful Rhodes I really settled. When I got back to the ship I called the singer with whom I had been screaming and he popped into my office where we reached a mutual apology. The day went on from there.

Thank you, Rhodes, you are the best therapist a poor production manager can afford.