Hey everybody!
Amanda here. Just wanted to catuch up up on my latest happenings. I am currently aboard Cunard's ship the Queen Mary 2. I joined on the 13th of this month in Hamburg.
Life at sea is fun. Most days I perform for three or four hours in the afternoon and evening. The schedule varies from day to day. Sometimes I am in the Queen's Room for afternoon tea, often I play in the Chart Room lounge for cocktail hours and occasionally lunchtime, and a couple of days a week I play in the Britannia Dining Room for dinner seatings. About once per cruise I give a concert in the Queen's Grill Lounge.
On sea days I spend most of my free time reading, rehearsing new harp music, and doing some stretching a light ballet excercise.
I am allowed to go ashore in ports. I have the opportunity to go on some of the shore excursions for free if I volunteer to be a tour host. Basically, I have to count the passengers to make sure they all get back on the bus, write a report about the tour to give to the office, and carry around a big sign with our group number on it so that wandering guests can find our group when it's time to reassemble or if we're on a walking tour and need to stay together. (The tour host's equivalent of a shepherd's crook lol).
If I am not doing a tour, I enjoy going to the beach with some of my fellow crew members. Most of the islands have a decent beach withing ten minutes of the cruise docks and it is cheap to share a cab with several people. The other day we found the Eden Beach in Bonaire to be very relaxing and we enjoyed snorkelling for only $10 apiece right off the shore there.
One of the things I love best about being on board is getting to meet people from all over the world. I have friends from England, Holland, Japan, Turkey, South Africa, Canada, Phillipines, Ukraine, Mexico, and many other countries. I like hearing about their cultures, and sharing with them about my own.
That's all for now, but I hope to send more news soon!
-Amanda |
