At Sea

Stage Manager’s Log
M.S. Prinsendam
Thursday, June 22, 2006
At Sea

Today the sea was pretty rough. I don’t mind too much, in fact the rough started last night and the rocking puts me right to sleep. I believe according to the reports from the bridge that the seas were about 7-10 feet. It was probably the roughest seas we have had all cruise. There were slightly fewer people around on deck to day, and I even noticed that they had put barf bags around the ship.

This morning we had the wild and wacky game, Sea Quest. The passengers really like it, and the cruise staff runs around like loonies, it is fun to watch. After that they announced Mr. and Mrs. Prinsendam for this cruise, followed by Peter’s debarkation talk. Since this is the final port for this cruise, the debark talk ended with the crew singing “Love in any Language” and the fun streamers from the confetti cannons.

I had a short break while they had about a half hour of Bingo. At 1200 we started rehearsal for Scott Record, tonight’s performer. Scott is a singing impersonator. He was extremely funny. He has worked with many famous comedians and performers including Rodney Dangerfield and Frank Sinatra. He is originally from Massachusetts, and now he spends the summer in Wherham. He told me that this summer is daughter is studying at the Boston Ballet in Newton so he will be around. He is a very nice person. We had a few issues in rehearsal, and we had to re-record Scott’s MD with the tracks for his show, but it all worked out in the end.

I had to repair a cable today, my adapter for playing music from my computer. I had to borrow a soldering iron from the broadcast technicians, and let me tell you, it is really hard to solder when you are moving. I got it done though, and it seems to work. I am still waiting for my own parts and tools to show up, but we make do.

After Rehearsal we had a backstage tour and talkback with the cast. I met a passenger who is a recording engineer, and he told me that he thought that my mixing was very good. That was great to hear from someone who knows something about sound. I finally managed to sneak off and grab some lunch during Dr. Mendelsohn’s last lecture. After the lecture I finally had a decent amount of time off to rest for a bit, that as nice.

After a fairly traditional blah dinner in the Lido I headed back to the lounge for a sound check with the new MD tracks. Everything worked this time, so we were in business. Instead of a gameshow tonight they had team trivia, which I don’t really have to be at, but there wasn’t really enough ime for me to do anything else. I did go pickup my passport, as you need to have it to walk around in Amsterdam, you can be fined if you don’t have government ID with you.

After the two performances, which the audiences loved, I went up to listen to Buddy play for a bit up in the Crow’s Nest. Peter was also very happy with the shows last night, and he told me that he thought I did great with it. I sat around and chatted with some people for a while, and then I went back down to my room to get ready for bed. Tomorrow is the last day of the cruise.