Blog #2: From Barcelona to Sydney and Beyond

Hi again! 

Thanks to everyone for the great feedback on my first post. Sorry, that was a lot of words!! Thanks to those who read it, or at least checked out the photos :)

I’ve successfully transported from the Celebrity Equinox to the Celebrity Solstice. It was a long trip! Here’s what’s happened for me over the last few weeks.

A Whole Buncha Flying

I left Equinox as quickly as I had arrived, and it was definitely strange to leave. I was just starting to get things figured out and the band was really fun. However, as great as their itinerary was, they were about to embark on a trans-Atlantic crossing to Florida - 7 days at sea, I believe, and onward to Caribbean itineraries. Nothing is forever on a cruise ship. And, I was excited to head to Sydney!

I made it to the airport in Barcelona and was happy to be rid of my absurdly-heavy duffel bag and trombone, and was also happy to learn they’d gate-check and I wouldn’t have to worry about until I picked it up in Sydney. 

The plan was this: wait 3 hours, fly for 2 hours to London, wait 4 hours, fly 12 hours to Singapore, wait one hour and fly 8 hours to Sydney. Fun! 

Leaving Equinox. Fare thee well! 

Hanging out at the airport in Barcelona. 

Leaving Barcelona.

 

Made it to London and had a few hours to hangout. Can you tell I’m in England?

Boarded a Boeing 777 for the 12 hour flight to Singapore. This was definitely the longest flight I had ever taken and everything went pretty smoothly. I slept for just a few hours and then had an hour in the Singapore airport before the 8-hour flight to Sydney. Both flights went pretty well and as expected - slightly uncomfortable, just a bit of sleep, lots of movies, and food that is neither great nor terrible. I thought it was a bit strange that they always served food two hours into the flight, especially with the second flight, when dinner was served at about 1am. In any case, I was very grateful to make it to Australia intact, with luggage and trombone and having cleared customs with no problems (I had to get two visas to come here). 

I found the shuttle to the hotel and while the hotel was quite nice, the combination of a convention in town and three cruise ships’ members coming and going at the hotel led to a massive room shortage and lots of chaos and frustration for crew members (many who had travelled much farther than I). Also, due to a company-wide blackout period on flights over Christmastime, instead of the average 50 crew members joining and leaving the ship, we had almost 200 people coming and going. It was a big process. I had to wait about 6 hours in the hotel lobby before I got a room, but I was lucky to only have one roommate - some rooms ended up having up to 6 people in a room! 

I had the night in Sydney to hang before boarding the ship the next day so I decided to head down and take in the sights. The very first thing I saw leaving the hotel was a high-speed car chase that was straight out of a Hollywood movie, so I was a bit worried (that was the only worrisome thing I’ve seen since). I found a local pizza place and.. well:

Nom.

I made my way downtown on the subway and had a great time checking out the Sydney Opera House and surrounding area. Little did I know our ship would be parked right in front of it the very next morning. 

I didn’t have a ton of time but I did check out the inside of the Opera House as well..

It was pretty great! The downtown area is bustling with tourists and generally everything is very clean and nice. I managed to find my way back to the hotel and, as before, got woken up late by a crew member coming from India. Amazingly, after so many hours of travel, he dropped his bags off and spent the night in another room with a bunch of friends (who had hadn’t seen in a long time) before coming back in at 6am to get his bags. I actually bump into him occasionally and we say hi. There’s a pretty neat camaraderie (yes, I had to spell check that word) that exists on the ship where you can be acquainted/buds with people who you really rarely see. At the end of the day, we’re 1,200 crew living in the same small spaces for 6 months at a time. So, you’ll be around some people all the time but not actually have the time or opportunity to get to know them. I love how (most) people can very easily drop any cultural differences and have a good chat with someone they may not have a ton in common with. I digress..

Embarking Solstice

So, I took one of the shuttle buses with the 200 other crew and met Solstice in the downtown harbour (haba). I love that they’re able to have a big cruise terminal right downtown (reminds me of Vancouver) and things seemed to run very smoothly. There were actually 5 of 7 new band members joining the ship that day and I met them on the pier as we waited to board. As always, embarking/disembarking a ship involves a lot of time and a lot of waiting around. I met the music director (the excellent Ken Ge), found my room, was shown my emergency position, etc, etc. I was happy to have done this exact procedure two weeks before on Equinox. It did take me a number of days to get acquainted to the time zone difference and simply sleeping on the ship. It’s really not like anything else. Anyway, I sleep well enough these days, thankfully :)

We left Sydney and headed to Melbourne. We played the first production show, a broadway-style show that moves quickly between numbers. The band is actually onstage for this show, setup in the set, and it’s a lot of fun. The singers and dancers are great and it’s fun to be a part of the action. Here’s a panorama from my view on the stage at rehearsal:

 

It’s pretty great :)

Melbourne, Australia

We arrived in Melbourne (Melban) and I hopped the shuttle bus downtown to check it out. Melbourne has a great history and lot of really interested arcades (covered walkways) and generally has a very laid-back feel. I read about when the first Italian espresso machine came to Melbourne sometime in the 19th century and how they just started taking coffee very seriously. And it’s true - every single coffee I’ve had here has been excellent. Even the smaller corner stores take pride in their coffee. A few sights around Melbourne: 

 

Nice urban feel.

One of the arcades.


A good place to be in December.

 

Aforementioned coffee excellence. 

I haven’t really thoroughly explored the city yet, but we have a few more visits here and I’ll make sure I make the most of it.


At Sea - crossing the Tasman (2 days)

After we left Melbourne, we crossed the Tasman Sea over to New Zealand.  Even on Equinox, I had heard that the Tasman Sea had the potential to be extremely un-fun, even for a large a ship as ours. And it wasn’t just a rumour - boarding Solstice, I heard they had just recently experienced extremely rough seas on the crossing. If it’s bad for the crew, it’s brutal for the guests. Knock on wood (touch wood), but I haven’t experienced the potential wrath of this body of water yet. I’ll never discount it as a possibility :)

A view from deck 5. I try to get out there every day and check out the ocean, because it is truly massive, and awesome. 
 

Milford, Dusky and Doubtful Sounds (New Zealand)

One of the major draws of this cruise are touring 3 sounds (fjords?) on the west coast of New Zealand. I don’t think there’s really any one photo or panorama that can appropriately describe the sounds, because you’re completely surrounded by mountains in deep channels. It’s a very immersive experience. I managed to drag myself out of bed at 8am (in my defense, shows usually end between 10pm-midnight the night before!) and check out the sounds. We visit the 3 sounds in one day, around 8am, noon and 3pm. 

 

 

Uh, it helped that the weather was perfect :) 

 
 

I also captured this shot from the back of the ship while taking photos. I didn’t really mean it to come out like an ad for Celebrity Cruises, but it sure did (note the gentleman on the left, khakis, white shirt, coffee, relaxed. Modern luxury!)

Dunedin, New Zealand

We sailed on from the sounds and docked the next day in Dunedin, New Zealand, my first foot in New Zealand. I should make note that we had been at sea for 3 days in a row, which is a long time in my opinion. Days at sea can wear you down (they’re brutal for activity and shop staff who are far busier keeping sea days activity-filled), but for me, who generally rehearses and plays at night, they can be a good time to get to the gym, get laundry done.. uh, write blogs.. they can be productive in good seas. In poor weather, it can be just be a long wait for stable ground. Touch wood. 

For me, Dunedin has just been a good place to get internet and do some necessities-shopping (Kmart is really big here). It’s still really expensive. 


The port at Dunedin (actually called Port Chalmers). 

Akaroa, New Zealand

Akaroa used to be Christchurch as the port to visit, but after the brutal earthquakes there last year, it became Akaroa. It’s tough for crew in tender ports because we don’t dock and we generally have to wait for all guests to be ferried to land before being able to get to land ourselves. If I have to wait until noon to be able to take a 20-minute tender, and I have a 4pm rehearsal, I may not be able to get off the ship that day. Anyway.. it’s all good.

 

A view from the tender. I should take a few more pictures for perspective, because I’m right above the water here in an orange tender/lifeboat, bumping around. 


I went hiking as high as I could. Sheep!! They’re everywhere. Neat.


Panorama from the top of where I hiked to. You can see Solstice far away in the left corner of the bay.


A sign from my hike. Some people have all the answers. 



I can’t imagine what it would be like to live here. Lovely, I am sure.


Oh, I found some tender boat shots!


Approaching Solstice from tender. The whole operation still amazes me. Here, just pull up and you can easily get off this small boat onto your big ship. 


Tender and lifeboat. Touch wood.

Wellington, New Zealand

Windy Wellington!! So I've heard, Wellington is windy because it juts out of the land and leaves itself unprotected from strong windy from the Antarctic. It’s unique to be standing in full summer sun and be chilled to the bone by strong cold winds. It’s more of a city to see (than landscape per se) so I haven’t taken too many photos, but it has a lovely port, museum, and brewery.

 

And coffee. There’s some pride there, yep.

Tauranga, New Zealand

Tauranga! Probably my favourite port. From walking distance from the ship, you can climb a volcano (Mount Maunganui! Everybody say that with me: “Maun-gan-ui!”), sun on a beautiful beach, get great coffee and internet (actually where I am at this very moment), or sit in mineral-salt pools.. very relaxing. 

I took my camera down to the rocks at the base of the mountain and did some long-exposure photographs, anywhere from 2 seconds to 20 seconds. I’m still getting the hang of it, but here they are - from the top of the volcano (dormant, note the awesome hang-gliders), to the base of the volcano, rocks, beach (warning: lots of pictures):

 

 

 

View from the top. Two bodies of water on both sides. Solstice looking a bit out of place :)

 

Like I said, Tauranga is wonderful.

I need to finish up here for the following reasons because, well, this is a lot of words, and I’m losing my race against both time and computer-battery. Before I go though, here’s a few more shots I like: 

 

Most of the band backstage. Really great guys. 

 

A different view from backstage. That’s my “desk”, right on the back left corner of the riser.

 
 

 

A few shots leaving New Zealand. It really is so beautiful here. 

 

Thanks for reading!! Glad you made it this far. Here’s a shot of a recent sunset off New Zealand. 

 

More soon! Take care. 

 

Jim