Week Four.

Things I don't like:
1. November is almost over. & I missed out on all my favorite fall activities because I've been sailing around the Mexican riviera. Life is hard.
2. I still do not own Taylor Swiftys new album. Tragic. But the spiral notebook I use at work has her face on the cover & makes me happy.
3. I'm on the top bunk..which I like..but the ceiling is so low that I can't sit up straight in bed. So as you can imagine, I hit my head on the ceiling every single day.

November 11. Sunday.
This Sunday was exciting! We were all so anxious to get off the ship. A group of us met up for brunch in the French quarter at a fabulous restaurant called Oceania. Then the six of us hopped in cab & headed over to the mall. Our driver kept his window down for most of the ride so he could better yell "Who Dat?!" at all the pedestrians. (I don't get it either...it's a New Orleans Saints thing. & that's a NFL team for those of you who are still confused & have never watched Keeping Up With The Kardashians.)

At the mall Rosie and I went on a hunt for fabulous glittery costumes for the Christmas show. (None of us were contracted for an official Christmas show but the Cruise Director always asks the cast to throw something together two days before & it apparently is always awful. So James & Rosie, the amazing British married couple, have been developing a Christmas show for the past few years with the hopes that NCL will buy it from them to be produced on every ship in the fleet. I've been helping them coordinate the costumes and hunt down the best deals in the French Quarter. For someone who's directionally challenged its amazing I actually know my way around there!

We booked it back to the ship and I ran immediately into a fitting with our three new male dancers that had just arrived! Then the rest of the cast preformed their mini shows Lets Get Loud, Mama Mia & Latin. I follow them around to every performance like a proud big sister...also it's my job. Then later that night Jessica & I hung out with two of our guy friends from the Second City.

November 12. Monday.
Sea Day! I had another fitting with the new boys & the cast had rehearsals all day to re-block the shows again. That night my girls performed Shout, the mod musical.

That afternoon was different because I started a new little job on board working at the live art auction. I helped register people, & handed out bid cards as they came in. Then during the live auction I stood at the front of the room with the auctioneer and write down the tracking numbers and bid prices for each piece of art that comes up. My job title is "Bubble Girl". I'm not really sure why, but I like getting paid for doing minimal labor and smiling at people!

November 13. Tuesday.
Back to my favorite port, Costa Maya! A big group of us met on the gangway at 11am and took a van to a chic hotel right on the beach called Forty Cannons. Free wifi, guacamole, & cozy chase lounges. What more do you need?

Unfortunately, I had to leave early to make it back in time for safety class....which then got canceled. Annoying. So I went to the gym & then went to work on fixing the costumes for the new boys. It got pretty disheartening having to tear out all the work I'd just done on these costumes for the previous dancers. So my fabulous friend Martina ordered a pizza to her room and I hemmed the rest of the pants in her bed. Extra pepperoni & blue velvet bell bottoms. My life is wild.

November 14. Wednesday.
Back to Belize. We all had a mandatory drug awareness class that morning. Who doesn't love racist, inaccurate, mildly inappropriate Power Point presentations at 8:45am?

Band On The Run opened that night! & I accidentally walked into a closet instead of a hallway for the second day in a row.

November 15. Thursday.
Boat drill that morning. The worst. Followed by an Entertainment Department meeting. Then I had to conduct weigh-ins for the entire cast. Awkward. Everyone hates it, for obvious reasons. But on the performers contracts its written in that they have to stay within a five pound radius of their weight from when they signed on. It's nice that there is an accountability program in place because altering everyone's costumes after too many trips to the buffet (or gym) would be terrible.

After that Jessica, Martina, & I immediately hoped off the boat and had lunch in Roatan, Honduras! When we got back on board we tanned on the top deck & then I went to work for a little bit. I spent the rest of the afternoon blogging! (To please my dear Mother) That night I watched the singers perform their beautiful Broadway Cabaret & then got drinks and talked for hours with my favorites, James & Rosie!

November 16. Friday.
Safety class that morning. I can't even explain how much it pains my soul. Then off to play in Cozumel! Jess & I had nap time when we got back. & Then we had the White Hot party. At this point I am basically a pro at The Wobble. (It's a line dance dad..)

November 17. Saturday.
Sea day! Elements rehearsal that morning & then worked at the art auction. Two elements performances that night. After the first show Rosie informed me that the jellyfish was broken. (During the water portion of the show she plays a jellyfish in the background by moving a fabric covered umbrella up and down. It actually looks pretty cool.) So I sprinted down the I-95 to my room to grab my personal umbrella & we attached the jellyfish material to it. I saved the day AND got reimbursed for my umbrella. Boom. Everyone was just so happy we survived another week & our new dancers were fabulous!!

Our humble abode

Here is a random little post about something I'm sure everyone has been extremely curious about....my room! Jessica & I live in cabin 3775 on Deck 3. When we aren't at port all the water tight doors are locked, obviously, so we can only get to our room from staircase 43 on Deck 4. The tricky part is that #43 is between staircases 41 and 40. So fun. So to get to my room first you have to go to Deck 4 & get on the I-95, which is a long hallway for crew only that stretches from one end of the ship to the other. Somedays it's like a fashion runway but other days its a death trap. On embarkation Sunday teams of Pilipino men are pushing giant carts loaded with passenger luggage up and down the hallway. It's like a terrible real life video game. & Today I found a cart of real Christmas trees on the I-95! It's the little things in life.

Anyways, Jessica has the bottom bunk & a Nemo stuffed animal & we are just perfect for each other. My family is going to laugh when they witness my tiny room for themselves, but it's actually the biggest 2 person crew cabin there is! Everyone is jealous. Seriously.

I hung up little flags I made awhile ago & we bought a purple rug. Jessica & I have been collecting magnets from all the places we've been! Our walls are metal so it's very convenient. (Side note: Jessica is a Kappa Delta, Kaleigh!!) The room is finally starting to feel homey. I've gotten used to moving around all the time and after awhile you learn to make your surroundings feel like home! I think that nesting helps your heart not to hurt as much.

Week Three.

November 5. Monday.
This was the first sea day of our Western Caribbean itinerary! The cast had rehearsals all morning & then a tech rehearsal of Band on the Run. We had two performances that night. It went well but was weird being down three dancers. The audience still loved it & had no idea this was newly created watered down version of the show.

November 6. Tuesday.
(Kaleighs birthday!!)
First stop: Costa Maya!
The cast had rehearsal to re-block Elements all day. Some of the creative team back in the states said it couldn't be done but Kim proved them wrong. I passed out cold on the floor in the theater and napped through most of it. That afternoon Martina, the only female singer who was done with rehearsal, got off the boat with me in Costa Maya. It was gorgeous & so fun! The area around the port has been recently built and has lots of cute restaurants & shops. We forgot our wallets on the ship, but of course I charmed the manager of Señor Frogs into giving us some free treats.

November 7. Wednesday.
Second stop: Belieze
The water is so shallow around Belieze that the cruise ships have to anchor away from the island and load up the passengers onto smaller tender boats to get ashore. We had safety class that morning...which is the absolute bane of my existence. It's a several week training course that still isn't over. I hate it.

Anyways, some of my friends ventured over to Belieze but I had to stay on the ship for a tech rehearsal. And sadly Kim flew home to NYC. We had two performances of Shout that night. Afterwards most of the company went out to the Beir Garden, this cool open air bar patio on the top deck. If crazy things have to keep happening on this cruise then I'm glad I get to survive it with these fantastic people!

November 8. Thursday.
Third stop: Roatan, Honduras
Every Thursday the entire crew has a mandatory boat drill. It's almost as bad as safety class. Every crew member is assigned a safety station the first day on board. When the captain sounds the general emergency alarm (every Thursday at 10am....ugh) you must report to your station and put on a super attractive life jacket. And proceed to stand there for the thirty minutes in 90% humidity while everyone gets checked in. Thankfully, two hilarious dancers, Sophie & Montana, are at my station too. We take silly pictures and people look at us funny. Fun times. Anyways, no one was feeling that well that day so we all went back to bed. Jessica & I cuddled and watched movies and didn't do anything productive. It was marvelous.

November 9. Friday.
Fourth stop: Cozumel
Safety training was actually exciting that day! Safety Simon (the ships safety officer) took us up in a lifeboat. We had to climb up a ladder to get into it and he showed us the first aid supplies kept inside. You can tell this ship is European because there is absolutely no way 115 modern day Americans would be able to fit in it. Thank you McDonalds.

After class, we bolted off the ship to go explore Cozumel! We ate at a fun Mexican restaurant, sombreros included. & then headed over to a cool hotel that's the unofficial NCL crew hang out spot. The hotel opened up right onto the beach, has a pool, & giant dock perfect for dramatically leaping off of. Some of the dancers and I swam over to Margaritaville & jumped on a giant floating water trampoline they had. Too fun and perfect. The whole thing is like a scene out of a movie.

Before heading back to the ship, Jessica and I went shopping in the Mexican equivalent of Walmart. We looked pretty ridiculous walking back down the road loaded down with bags and a giant purple rig for our cabin. (Don't worry, I'll upload pictures to Facebook soon!) Back on board, I went to the gym and worked out with my new Serbian personal trainer friend Slavey. (All the Eastern Europeans make fun of me for not being able to pronounce my last name correctly.) Then later that night the dancers preformed at the White Hot party.

November 10. Saturday
We were at sea all day cruising back up to New Orleans. & We had two elements performances that night.

Whenever we are walking around the boat passengers usually recognize the cast and compliment their performance. The best part is that they know I'm with them, but can't place my face, so they just compliment me too! & No, I never correct them unless they ask what I do. Too cute.

Not quite smooth sailing.

Just when we thought everything would finally calm down, things got a whole lot crazier. This week is hard to write about & I can't disclose all the details but here is my best shot.

Week 3. November 4. Sunday.
We finally made it to New Orleans! We all had to wake up at 6:30am to go through immigration. Miserable. After Saturday nights show, our director Kim gathered the entire company in the dressing room and announced that three of our male dancers had been fired. The reason was valid & we all had a feeling this was coming. But it was still so sad saying goodbye. This change literally affects everyone in the company & means the hard work will continue for a long time. The good news was Kim had gotten permission to stay three extra days to re-block all the shows with the cast & keep up our moral. She was supposed to leave us when we docked in NOLA.

After immigration I headed back to my beautiful passenger cabin that I'd been living in to pack my bags. So sad. I moved down to the crew cabins on deck three. On a positive note, through some begging & good luck, I got to move in with a fabulous dancer named Jessica! She is from New Jersey by way of New Mexico, looks like Princess Jasmine, & is a former NFL cheerleader for the NY Jets! I adore her. She is so much like my last college roommate Jocelyn.

Anyways, the cast went straight back into rehearsals and I made a shopping list of supplies we needed. I'd never been to New Orleans before but confidently marched off the boat, down Canal Street, and through the French Quarter running errands. It was pouring rain but I happily bounced down the streets enjoying finally having cell phone service & being back in my favorite country. I stopped by the famous Cafe Du Monde & survived the crowds of passionate Saints fans.
I made my way back to the ship & quickly dropped my bags and went straight to the tech rehearsals for our two mini-shows that evening. They preformed the Mama Mia bumper in the "welcome aboard" show & the Latin bumper at south beach night in the Spinnaker Lounge.

Between shows the director Kim & I got drinks in spinnaker while we waited for the cast to preform. It was so fun getting to talk to her one in one. She was a professional dancer for many years & is a director/choreographer now. I loved hearing her story and learning more about the industry from her. She said she was proud of my performance over the past two weeks. It's always amazing to receive praise from someone who admire. My favorite quote was when Kim said, "you're the only blonde Christian republican sorority girl I've ever met who loves theater people & wants to live in the East Village." Hilarious. She also complimented you mom & dad on raising such a cool kid!

Week Two.

Day 8. 10/28. Sunday.
It was a sea day & we slept in to celebrate surviving the first week before we jumped into the next show, Elements. This show is insane. It's a modern dance show that also features a magician and an aerialist couple. The show depicts all the different elements...earth, water, air, fire, & snow. The producer clearly thought long and hard before naming the show. Costume wise, Elements was challenging to alter because everything is either spandex or elastic netting. And since the costumes weren't maintained properly everything was falling apart. Fun stuff!! We knocked out all the fittings and got to work. That night I had a dinner meeting with our production manager, the dance captain, voice captain, & flight captain. We had sushi & talked about leadership, communication, and what craziness the rest of our contract would consist of. I love being surrounded by such interesting people.

Day 9. 10/29. Monday.
Since Carolyn, Taylor, & I were in such a good place with the Elements costumes I said we could get off the boat and do touristy things for awhile! We were in Curaçao & I'm still not sure where that is.. The city was bustling and the buildings were all painted bright colors. Very key west. At lunch I got wifi for the first time & called mama stoney! I miss my family like crazy. When we got back on board we went back to work for a little. & then I went out dancing with three of the hilarious male dancers. I'm glad I'm ridiculously confident because dancing with professional dancers is no joke.

Day 10. 10/30. Tuesday.
We worked on costumes for a few hours in the morning & then went out to explore Aruba! It was very flat. Instead of wandering around the tacky tourist area right by the port, we got on a hilarious looking open air tour bus. We saw the majority of the island in 2 hours.

Day 11. 10/31. Wednesday.
It's was a sea day & we worked late. I loved seeing the passengers decked out in their Halloween costumes headed to dinner. That night there was a party for all crew in one of the restaurants. I re-used my Statue of Liberty costume. Never gets old. I was a little sad i wasn't celebrating my second favorite holiday in Birmingham. Side note: since the majority of the crew is from Asia, I was one of the tallest in the room. Gotta love it. The highlight of the party was when the guy who was talking to me looked over my shoulder & was like, wow there's the captain. I promptly said see ya & walked up and met him! Of course I pretended I had no idea who he was. I'm so smooth. He is from Greece & has visited clearwater! But seriously, I can't thank the Tragos family enough for expanding my cultural horizons by taking me to Greek Easter. Anyways, the Captain said he'd love to give the Dvornik family a tour of the bridge when they come to visit! Boom.

Day 12. 11/1. Thursday.
How in the world is in November?! It was a sea day & we had a cue to cue tech rehearsal for Elements. Later that night was the dress rehearsal for another bumper, Mama Mia. That night at dinner I tried starting a conversation with the cutest old man, and of course he only spoke German. I quickly got Carolyn to teach me how to say "Hello" & "My name is. In German and when I went back over to the man and said the phrases his entire face lit up. It was amazing. He took my hands, smiled, and in English said "God bless you." My immediately heart melted. Those are the absolute best moments in life.

Day 13. 11/2. Friday.
We made it to Cozumel but didn't get off the boat because it was finally Elements show day! We had an early morning dress rehearsal & then immediately ran the show again. Crazy day, but everything went very well. That night we went out for a fabulous Italian dinner before going to the White Hot Party the dancers preformed at.
& I've decided that I like mountainous, or volcanically formed tropical places the best. Mexico is really flat. & I keep running into the awkward moments where I try to be charming and make a cute joke to start a conversation with a passenger or crew member and they don't speak English.

Day 14. 11/3. Saturday.
This was a very bittersweet day. It was finally opening night for Elements! But I was sad because Taylor & Carolyn would leave me the next day when we docked in New Orleans. It was super busy with a dress rehearsal that morning and two shows that night. Of course i cried during intermission outside while fixing the skirt of a Water costume a dancer had completely torn off. & After the show the cast and crew went out together that night to celebrate. These people are all so amazing & I genuinely love being their number one cheerleader every day.

Week One.

I'm currently on the front sun deck enjoying the view of the beautiful Honduras mountains. Surreal. I haven't had time to sit down & blog, but I've taken little notes about each day and deciphering them is hilarious.

Day 2. 10/22. Monday.
Early Monday morning we headed back into the dressing room & got back to the grind. I don't have a full costume shop..it's just two long dressing rooms with a connecting door. The boys (4 male dancers & 2 male singers) came in for a fitting for all their "Band On The Run" costumes. (The show is all really energetic 1970s music) They each have 6 different costumes for that show alone. Crazy town. Then the girls had a fitting. They all have at least 6 costumes each. After that I left my stitchers with all the alteration notes & headed to the tech rehearsal for "Shout" the mod musical. I ran the quick changes backstage and took any costume notes the director gave. Luckily the girls were fitted in all of those costumes before they left Florida so there wasn't anything major to fix. My stitchers were hilarious and kept me laughing even though I was exhausted. I got to stay in a passenger cabin by myself, so that was a nice treat after a hard day of work & constantly getting lost.

Day 3. 10/23. Tuesday.
Started off the morning by meeting a cute Second Officer in the elevator! & both dress rehearsals of Shout went great. Busy day & another late night working. The highlight was the spontaneous 1am dance party that happened in the dressing room when the two Australian male dancers came to visit.

Day 4. 10/24. Wednesday.
We had a morning Shout dress rehearsal. It's a really cute show staring 5 female singers. Opening night was a success! We had two performances. I love the cast. Everyone is so sweet. Two of the performers not in this show help me backstage with the quick changes. After the second show the two stitchers and I worked late into the night again.
My favorite part of ship life so far is talking to the passengers! I love it. We eat all our meals in the buffet on the top deck. Haven't gotten to explore the ship much since we've been working so hard. The ship is always moving and shaking. It's so weird! I really miss Samford & the seasons. October is my favorite month & it's strange not to be in school.

Day 5. 10/25. Thursday.
After four sea days we finally made it to St. Thomas! The water was a gorgeous blue and looked like melted Skittles. This was the craziest day so far. We had a technical rehearsal in full costume in the morning. The costumes we have on the ship are all I have to work with & two of the dresses just weren't right so we were sent on a shopping mission. The stitchers & I go off the boat for two hours and ran around trying to find the right dresses for the show. Found two great ones on sale....and neither of them ended up being used. Typical. But they are getting used in a different show so my efforts weren't in vain. That evening we had dress rehearsals for two miniature numbers also known as bumpers. A bumper is about a 7 minute set of singing & dancing. They rehearsed the Latin bumper & a bumper called "Lets Get Loud" by the pool. It's hard to believe I've been here for five days, probably because I've just been living in the theater..but what's new?!

Day 6. 10/26. Friday.
Didn't have any time to get off the boat in St. John. We had to dress rehearsals of Band On The Run. I'd worn a cute dress every day up to this point but I broke my streak and just had to wear Nike shorts and a big t-shirt. & the production manager pointed this out to the amused group during a meeting.

Day 7. 10/27. Saturday.
I think we were in Barbados. No time to get off the boat since it was opening night!! I wrote my cast individual little notes & put them at each of their dressing room seats. I'm just the cutest. We had a final dress rehearsal that morning & two shows that night. I had a mini breakdown, as a result of my exhaustion, while sewing the sleeves on a YMCA Village People t-shirt. What is my life? I had a good cry on the deck, pictured my Dad laughing at me & rallied. You just can't take yourself too seriously in this industry because its often ridiculous. After the show I went out with the cast and entire production team. Fabulous night with amazing people.

Anchors Away

Hello all my fabulous people! I am sorry I'm the worst at keeping in touch. I'm trying! & in my defense my first two weeks I worked over 90 hours each. Insanity. So then obviously this week, number three, I've been sleeping as much as possible. I really have been enjoying this new adventure. It's been a challenge & there have been moments when I wanted to jump off the side of the ship..but I'm good at what I do & and the hardest part is over!

I am going to attempt summing up the first two weeks, aka the "reposition cruise". Basically anything that could go wrong, did. And anything that could've been hard, was. But I'm Teale Dvornik and I whipped everything back into shape and all of our shows opened successfully!

Day 1. Sunday 10/21.
We got bused from the hotel to the port in NYC & proceeded to wait in line forever before they'd let us board the ship. Once on board we were ushered into one of the restaurants to turn in paperwork & take a quick safety tour with a fire marshal. We all felt like abandoned puppies and had to find our bags and rooms by ourselves. We were literally holding hands wandering around completely lost. But let's be real, I do that every day. I finally made it to the dressing rooms with the three giant suitcases of costumes from Florida & immediately started cleaning and organizing everything. Shocking. The girl who held this position before me wasn't big on organization but one of my strengths is creating order from chaos. And after surviving those two weeks I can say for a fact that tackling giant disasters is my specialty.

Soon after we left the port my cast of 14 loud personalities came in for a fitting...into costumes they'd never tried on before....for the show they would be performing in a few hours. No pressure. Luckily, two stitchers boarded the ship with me that day to help with all the sewing for the duration of the repo cruise. Carolyn is hilarious, from tampa, 50 years young and more outgoing than I am. She is my adopted cruise ship mom. & Taylor is 22, recent FSU grad, sassy in an anti-cheerleader way. We were quite the trio. So we finished the costumes in time for there short "Vacation" mini-show & got right back to work! We worked until about 2am getting everything organized, altered, and ready for the next day.

Ok, so I have to run get ready for tonight's show, but tomorrow ill tackle summarizing the rest of the repo cruise for y'all. It's still so funny to me everyday that I live and work in a ship. But I suppose the Navy is in my blood!