May 1 - THREE

April 29 –

Well… Today might be long.  Our duties are broken up into teams of 4 and 2.  My partner is Mia and we get along great!  She asked off for today and that means I also get today off.  We planned on going on a tour as an escort for destination sales (the group that sells and arranges the tours on board).  They like to have a ship representative to “audit” the tour.  Mia and I signed up for the same tour and got it.  Different buses, but no big deal.

At 11pm I received word that I had a training session the following morning, but I wanted to see Florence and Pisa, so I informed the Training and Development Manager and she said that we would reschedule the training, but to tell the assistant cruise director (ACD).  I could not find him, but left a message stating this and went on the tour!!!

The tour was to leave at 8:15am, but Mia and I were asked to greet guests as they arrived the meeting place and didn’t know where to meet the buses.  We saw people leaving and decided to go outside to see what was going on.  Mia’s bus was gone, but mine was not.  We were both sent on mine – BONUS!

It was about an hour and a half drive to Florence.  Our guide (Paul) spoke about the countryside, traditions and history.  LOTS of information about Olives, World Wars, Romans and much more.  For a portion of the ride, I needed to rehearse the last show – a 15-minute “bumper”.  It’s called the “Swing bumper”, but I would call it Big Band.  Italian countryside and music rehearsal – not bad!!!

We arrived in Florence and proceeded to see soooooo many things.  Look some of these up:

1.     Duomo

2.     Ponte Vecchio

3.     Campanile di Giotto

4.     Battistero

5.     Chiesa di Badia

6.     Fiume Arno

Enjoyed some lunch at a local restaurant and enjoyed some bruschetta and pizza.  By the way, Mia is still with me and can’t find her group.  We may have seen them, but she was in no angst to leave our group and our fantastic guide!!!  After about an hour on our own enjoying a coffee and a bit of time on the Internet, we made our way back to the group.

Now about an hour ride to Pisa.  Some more information about marble, the mountains and of course rehearsing.  Did you know that the marble used to build most of the marble structures in Las Vegas came from the mountains in Italy?  Well, now you do.  Oh, and most of Italy’s marble buildings and structures as well including “David” AND the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  The tower is about 7 stories tall (they didn’t mention if that was at the leaning position or straight up).  Quite honestly, it was not as impressive as I had hoped, but now I can say I saw it.  Still VERY cool!!!

Learned (and forgot) some more “stuff” on the way back to the ship.  It was a wonderful day and again… I’ll post pictures soon.

After I returned, I was called to the ACD’s office and was reprimanded about not being at the training session.  It is all sorted out now… 

Performed the last show I was to learn and it went wonderfully!!!  I wish we did a full-length big band show!!!

Karaoke night in the crew bar – and all the Phillipinos were they’re singing all the hits of American popular music.  What a life I am leading!  LOVE IT!!!