Off to see the Wizard – Brisbane, Australia – [11/22/2017]

Posted on November 22, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

You’re out of the woods
You’re out of the dark
You’re out of the night
Step into the sun step into the light
Keep straight ahead for the most glorious place
On the face of the earth or the sky

 

You never know what this job is going to bring on the days we are able to go into port. Sometimes it’s planned (our trips to the various theme parks this contract were planned for example), and sometimes it’s not (exploring the night market in Cairns was not planned, brilliant, but unplanned); and then there are the days that are not only unplanned but that are so …perfect…that you couldn’t actually have had them work out better if you had planned them. Today? Was one of those days.

For ages I have been saying I need to take Amras to a real show, because theatre is such a huge part of my life and such a huge part of me, that not sharing it with someone close to me is something I cannot even comprehend. But this was something that I was thinking was going to be a long time in the future because even in our lines of work, there are some things you just never think you’re going to have time for.

This morning we decided to take the local ferry into Brisbane City Center instead of taking the free shuttle. Mostly because we felt like going on adventure and because we were rather tired of sitting on a bus with a whole bunch of other people. The ferry was lovely and refreshing as it zipped along the river, whipping our hair into our faces and blessing us with fresh cool air for what felt like the first time in a week (the ship’s AC has been on the fritz and this is a very warm area of the world). It took about an hour to get into the city, and the ferry dropped us off at South Bank, which was the opposite side of the river from where the shuttle would have dropped us but exactly where we had planned for as we had a vague idea of riding the Wheel of Brisbane that was basically next door to the stop. Deciding to at least explore a bit first we started wandering around the base of the wheel and found ourselves ambling past the Performing Arts Center, which – like most theatres around the world – boasted huge posters of everything that was coming to play in the new season. Those posters always wrench my heart a bit because they always seem to be starting the day after we’re in port, or they’re only running in the evenings, so we only glanced at the dates. Instead we went looking for lunch…which was when Amras pointed to the banner sign above the entrance to the theatre restaurant

Wizard of Oz? Wait…Andrew Lloyd Webber’s *new* production of Wizard of Oz? Oh my…

And that was all we really thought of it, a thing that sounded cool, and might be worth looking up later, but that’s about it…we went into lunch…and saw the signs noting “high tea on select matinees” ..and that the tea shop with those signs was open, which meant…

This is a theatre café right?

Yeah, definitely

So, what if they’re all here to see a show…that means there’s a show running..

The sign did say Wizard of Oz started Nov 4th…

Well wouldn’t that be awesome if we could catch it?

I blinked at him. I honestly wasn’t sure I had just heard what he said right, but he wasn’t joking! So we all but ran to the ticket office and – not holding our breath – asked if there were tickets for today’s performance. Keep in mind this was just about an hour before curtain.

And there were!! And they were actually good seats! Way up in the upper balcony, but close enough to the front that they were unobstructed and had a perfectly clear view of the stage – if a slightly distant one.

So instead of shopping, or exploring, or even going to the zoo, we went off to see the wizard!

And I heard real proper show music for the first time in at least a year. A full overture, finally. I think I would have paid full ticket price just for that overture. Overtures have an energy to them, they have brought me tears of joy since I was a child, and maybe that’s why they always will.

The show was brilliant, close enough to the original that you felt connected to it, while having enough that was fresh and new to keep you completely wrapped up in it. We laughed, we cried, and yes, a great many of us sang along (don’t worry, quietly). There were new songs added, but even though they were clearly a little more on the modern side, they fit well and worked with the characters who sang them. The leads that were playing Glinda and the Wicked Witch had both played those same parts in the Australian production of Wicked and you could tell, the woman playing the Witch had a powerhouse voice that could really only be an “Elphaba”. As for Dorothy herself, let’s say this: there were times – given the distance we were from the stage – that I had to remind myself that was in fact not watching Judy. Not because of her voice, her voice was very much her own, but because of the way she carried herself, her motions her character, somehow you could tell that this was a girl who was very much aware of the iconic status of the character she was portraying. And that is always always a good thing. Material that is so close to so many people is not easy to handle, and she did it masterfully.

With one song in particular of course, I can only imagine how much of a challenge stepping up to sing it must have been, Somewhere Over the Rainbow isn’t just a song, it’s a feeling, and it’s woven into entertainment history, even though it so nearly ended up on the cutting room floor. The little girl in me held her breath as Dorothy stepped up to the dirty farm-yard fence, in her cover-alls and pig-tails, and launched into the seldom sung verse. That song…that song means so much to so many…and it was wonderful to hear it done right. Really right.

The costumes were stunning, and included – as always – a few costume changes that I still can’t quite figure out (and in truth, don’t want to) and the use of projections for things like the twister and pieces of the flying monkeys were absolutely seamless.

They kept large pieces of the original choreography, including – much to my immense glee – the original dance for “we’re off to see the wizard” because after all, some things are so iconic that not including them would have seemed …wrong.

There were two dogs listed in the program as playing Toto. I’m not sure if that means that two dogs played that part each show or if they alternated, but whatever the case, the animals were beautifully trained and absolutely adorable. Since the audience was full of kids, the dog(s) also got almost more applause than Dorothy and the Witches.

I will never not need this. This will never ever not be a part of me. Amras mentioned later that I clapped extra hard for Dorothy…I didn’t realize I had done that. But he followed up that comment with something else

Of course you did…because you want to be her

And that is absolutely 100% true. On many levels. And I think it will always be true. And maybe I can’t go into that too much because I would start crying, but they would be good tears, so that’s okay too.

After we finished our journey to Oz, and I had purchased my ruby slippers t-shirt for my collection of show t-shirts (“shoes to die for”…as if I’m going to resist that, sadly the soundtrack album is only on amazon so it will have to wait until I am home to do on online order), we emerged from the theatre and went in search of food, a search which took us meandering through the rest of the city until we finally ended up back on the promande we had started from under the foot of the Wheel of Brisbane.

Let’s just see how much it is..

I said, thinking we had pretty much finished adventuring for the day

Okay.

And the next thing I know Amras is at the ticket window buying us two tickets. So we not only got to soar over Oz, but over Brisbane as well.

And at the very very end of the day, we found ourselves at a chocolate shop sharing one of the best ice cream sundaes I’ve ever had..

Yeah…I get paid to do this…

My life? My life is…currently leaving me speechless.

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To the Land Down Under – Darwin, Australia – [11/15/2017]

Posted on November 15, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

So long Asia…g’day Australia.

Ever since I read Bill Bryson’s In A Sunburnt Country, I’ve formed a funny opinion about Australia. With the world’s deadliest snakes, jellyfish, sharks, riptides and spiders – it seems to be the only country on earth where the land itself is actively trying to kill you from the moment you set foot here!

That said, the people more than make up for it.

I am just as happy to leave Asia behind us, although I still deeply miss Japan (ah ,so many peaceful memories!), and I will always love Hong Kong (three cheers for Hong Kong Disney!) there is something about Asia that I find…a little bit stressful. Not sure exactly why that is, perhaps I am a little to prone to let my distaste for mainland china influence my overall opinion – hopefully I will get over that as time continues to go on.

But I am looking forward to our stay in Australia. I do love it here, even when I only get to see parts of it from the ship’s promenade deck (all hail IPM). And soon enough we will be in New Zealand and that is always worth waiting for…I still think that if I could live anywhere in the world that wasn’t Canada, New Zealand would come very close to topping the list.

What’s hard to believe is that I’m almost certain we’re now past the half-way mark, we now have less time left on this particular adventure than we have already passed.

I often wish it wasn’t the hard contracts that move at a slog and the great ones that move like a roller-coaster…washing the time away on the wake behind us.

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Affairs of Dragons – Komodo Island, Indonesia – [11/13/2017]

Posted on November 13, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

A dragon, a dragon, I finally saw a dragon

For the last several seasons timing has not been on my side when we called at Komodo Island, so until now I’ve never seen the resident reptiles. For once though, circumstance worked in my favour today.

No one is allowed on the island without a resident guide and at least one park ranger, which means that no one is allowed ashore without having booked a shore excursion. There’s no way anyone goes wondering on that island alone. Ever. It’s a safety thing, not a profit one – the last thing anyone wants is for someone to get hurt. And out in this heat, it’s not just the dragons that are dangerous, I was far more worried about heat stroke than I truly was about the dragons.

Tendering over to the island felt like travelling to King Kong’s island, or back in time to the dinosaurs. It looked, like something not quite of this world…

Which is also a good way to describe the dragons themselves.

Thankfully it was the heat of the day so they were all sleeping. We were allowed to take pictures of them, or even with them, but only under the watchful eye of the guides and wranglers who told us exactly how to walk, where to step, where to stand and essentially when to breathe. The picture I have that looks as though I was practically standing on the beast’s tail, was actually taken when I was standing a good 5 meters or more behind it, safely out of harm’s way; and I had walked very carefully and very slowly behind and out of its line of vision.

They’re still horrid beasts, but oddly beautiful in their own strange way. They move like geckos, if a gecko was the size of a small pony; and they smell with their tongues. At some point I almost did expect them to start breathing fire. They can run extremely fast and bite extremely hard, and if they do bite you, well…let’s just say it’s not good. And what was protecting us from them? Two park ranger wranglers with long poles…

Yup, one of the deadliest reptiles in the world, and we’re being protected by someone with a stick…

Yipes!

As we made our way through the sweltering brush (which reminded me a lot of the old park behind my house, if that park had been what felt like about 100 degrees hotter in the shade than normal) – we spotted the occasional bird, at least one nest of wild hornets (thankfully very far up in a tree) and a few deer…but mostly we saw dragons.

Six dragons in total, which apparently is unusual, as they are not normally out in much numbers at the peak of the day. The guest tours that went out before us only saw two…but the island presented us with six. Three near the beginning and three lounging and lumbering around a small muddy watering hole. One of which showed an intense curiosity in a hanging backpack one of the guides must have left by a tree. That’s a good thing, it meant that it was showing no interest at all in us.

I find it hard to wrap my head around the knowledge that there are people that live on this island; with these creatures – day in and day out, all year. I can only think that they must have developed some kind of balance with the beasts…otherwise, well, do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

The island itself is an eerie kind of place. It’s too still. While there is a great deal of wildlife there, it seems that it is all silence except for the occasional bird. The air is humid and thick, and within only a few moments of leaving the tender your clothes are sticking to you and you can feel the perspiration sliding off your neck. And yet despite the heat, the ground is hard-parched and thirsty, as though none of the choking moisture from the air ever manages to reach it.

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Larks & Poppies – At Sea – [11/11/2017]

Posted on November 11, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

The air of suspicion, the voice of betrayal, the steel of oppression the blood that is shed. The smell of the gun smoke, the shock of the bomb blast, the cry of the wounded, the smell of the dead. And here we are gathered the only survivors, and we are rewarded with tatters and stains, we search through the rubble for faces of loved ones, for anything living but nothing remains… And who are the lucky? The ones who survived? Or the ones who are no more? And who are the winners, and who are the losers? And what was it all for? ~ Spirit of A Nation

As the years keep going on in their stately march, I find myself getting angrier, or perhaps I’m still just confused. I don’t understand, I don’t know why we don’t get it…and why every time we come close, every time someone throws down their arms and says “no more” someone comes along and forces them to do it anyway…

And so it is that I end up standing in dress uniform in the showroom once more, weeping for those whose names I do not know, with a grief I do not understand and never have since I was a child. Feeling more like the lark in John McClain’s poem than anything else – trying to bring some light to a world that seems so determined to fill itself with darkness.

It’s difficult to find another way to say it, I say the same thing every year, and every year it makes no difference. Or at least it seems to make none.

But today, standing there in my dress uniform, I found myself thinking more than ever of my Gran. Every season people stand up in front of the stage and name people they are standing for, every year I think that I should get up there and say something for Gran – who served, in her own way, in both wars and lived through so much more than that. I wish I could find the courage to stand up there and name her, and say how much I wished that I had listened to her more.

I do not understand. I do not understand any of it. It was my Gran that took me to my first cenotaph, who taught me what to feel, what to say, long before I ever really knew what it was about. I stood there in my shiney slick party shoes, cold and miserable, not having any idea really what I was standing there for. But we went, none the less, and now I go every year, for her really. For my Gran. And for all the other people like her, who remember what this is really supposed to be about.

It is neither sweet nor honorable to die for one’s country, it is not honorable to be sent to sacrifice yourself to the profit of another. That’s all war has been about, ever, it’s not about bravery, or justice,e or honor, it’s about profit. It’s about one institution throwing lives away to prove that they are better than another institution. And we shall never end war by pretending that it’s about anything else…

Until we figure that out, people like me, I suppose, just get to stand there being impotently furious at the whole institution, and being painfully confused, because deep down we are still a child standing in the mud…and no one can explain to us why…

“Look at them, they ARE us…”

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Breathless – Semarang, Indonesia – [11/10/2017]

Posted on November 10, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

They say that life is measured not by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away.

I have been very lucky to have a lot of those moments in my life, some would argue that I’ve had more than most.

The temple of Borobudur in Indonesia is one of those moments.

It’s almost impossible to describe this place. It is well over a thousand years old, and has stood there patiently through the centuries watching as people come and go, it’s many faces never saying anything but seeing everything. And yet somehow, despite it’s soaring stupas and many faced buddhas the structure is not overwhelming. Perhaps the only intimidating thing about it is the slightly disrespectful crowds who shove there way around the main level at the top (which is actually supposed to be circled in silence for meditation, at least that’s what I remember reading). But the structure itself is…peaceful. It feels as if it wants to help you somehow.

The last time I went to Borobudur I was not nearly as experienced with travel as I am now, it was my first time in Indonesia and I had no idea what to expect. At that time I was knocked sideways by the intense Indonesian heat, I remember barely being able to make it to the top. This time I came prepared with a large bottle of water and a proper hat, and was able to climb to the top stupa with – comparative – ease. The view from the top is breathtaking; you feel as if you have stepped into the pages of the past, or the pages of national geographic, looking out over the Indonesian jungle. In some directions there isn’t even a sign of civilization to be seen for what looks like miles.

That said, I found the lower levels more relaxing as there were fewer people traversing them. I could absorb the energy of the place there, I could feel more of what it was trying to give me.

Some places on earth have a pull, Petra is the only other one that I’ve felt like this, a sense that if you just stayed until everyone else had gone, the place would have something to whisper to you, would have something to say.

But this wasn’t the day for me to find out what that was apparently, because crew tours are – like all the other tours – on a tight schedule (um, more on how that worked out in a minute). We made our slow and respectful way back down the temple stairs to ground level and through the shaded pathway back to the bus. Trying unsuccessfully to dodge the hawkers that seemed determined to sell us everything from backpacks to miniature buddhas. We did walk away with one small stupa replica each, for our respective shrines/collections, but at least I managed to doge the backpacks.

Regretfully leaving the temple behind us we loaded back into the bus to head to lunch. I did remember the restaurant, a lovely open air place far away from where any of the other groups ended up (the guests ate at the restaurant on site, we…didn’t). We had the place almost to ourselves and even though it was open air, we relished the small break from the intense heat. But we didn’t have to wait long for that heat to break. I wish I could say I had felt it coming, but I’ve never been one of those people who can detect changes in the weather; so when the first roll of thunder broke through the heavy sky I was caught by surprise. Then it was just a matter of waiting – until the sky opened up and wept refreshing rain that cascaded down off the edges of the roof of the restaurant and enclosed us in a curtain of water.

I wish there was a way I could better describe moments like that, I wish I could find exactly the right words, or that there was a perfect camera, to show what it’s really like to sit in the middle of something like that. What it smells like, what it feels like.

Because what they say is right…it is all about the moments that take your breath away.

 

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Universally Blessed – Singapore, Singapore – [11/07/2017]

Posted on November 8, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

I am remembering swiftly that the best thing about working long cruises is the utterly amazing days where you get to play hooky. And this was not something that happened to me a lot on my previous job, in fact, I would go so far as to say it happened never.

Until this contract, when I suddenly realized that…I have nights off. I have entire days off. I am still getting used to this rather abnormal concept, and I don’t think I’m about to forget just how lucky I am.

Weather nearly kept us away from Universal Studios today, but thankfully the skies – while threatening – held off on dumping their contents on our heads. Always appreciated. That said, the overcast sky seemed enough to keep most of the crowds away, which is always a definite bonus.

We aren’t docked at our normal terminal, so it was a ten-minute taxi ride to Sentosa Island where the park is located. I’ve never approached Sentosa from anywhere but above (we usually take the cable car over) so I had completely forgotten how big the place was. Fortunately the taxi dropped us off only steps from the park entrance (literally, it was one flight of stairs away), so we were able to get our entrance passes and our Express ride passes in near-record time.

The express ride passes were a new thing for me, they allow you to bypass the main line once on each ride in the park. Since I wasn’t going to be doing Single Rider lines this time around the passes proved to be an exceptionally good choice. Especially since the lines on some attractions can reach upwards of an hour! As it was, we were able to ride every major ride in the park at least once without having to wait more than 10 minutes at any time. I’d say that’s definitely a worthwhile investment.

The main entrance spills directly into “Hollywood” where we immediately bumped into Beetlejuice (Even without saying his name three times), before heading around the corner through “Madagascar” and into “Far Far Away” (home of Shrek) to attempt to ride the Puss in Boots coaster ride that had been under construction the last time we were both there…

You see, Amras and I have both been to Universal Singapore, but we have never been together. One fateful contract a few seasons ago we were on almost identical runs, exactly three days apart, which means that we have the pictures that somewhat look as though we went to Universal together, when in fact we were there separately. So there were things we had seen, and things we hadn’t seen, but nothing we had seen as a pair…one of those was the Puss in Boots ride…

I say we attempted to ride it because when we got to the front of the line (which was only 10 minutes ,we didn’t even bother express passing it) the attraction encountered technical difficulties and ended up having to be shut down for a few hours; leaving us to decide what to do next.

Amras has one favourite ride in the park, and since it was nearby (and indoors, which, with the skies still threatening, was definitely a good thing) off to Revenge of the Mummy we went.

Revenge of the Mummy (which we usually just call “The Mummy”) is an amazing dark coaster that pits the rider against the evils of the ancient Egyptian priest Imotep (forgive me on the spelling), in a series of drops, twists and speeds high enough that you’re pretty sure that at some point you left your stomach behind on the tracks somewhere. Plus fire-effects, and spins, and at one point the damn thing goes backwards. In short: it’s brilliant. Near the top on my list of favourite dark coasters. Like a few other rides in the park, you can’t take anything with you onto the Mummy ride, because it goes so quickly and anything that fell or got in the way would get lost in the dark; so everything is loaded into free lockers before riding. Even my hair clip, although thankfully not my glasses.

Once we survived our battle with the undead, we emerged into Carter’s Curiosities, which is by far my favourite shop in the park as it’s all Egyptian mythology motifs. I usually have to pretend I don’t have a credit card when I walk in there. By the time we actually got back outside it had started to rain, though thankfully not very hard, and not cold, so it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience, although it’s never particularly nice to get rained on while standing in line.

For me, even though the weather was starting to be ever so slightly against us, there was only one ride in the park that was a must.

Next door to “Ancient Egypt” is Sci-Fi City, Universal’s answer to Disney’s “Tomorrowland”, and the skyline of Sci-Fi City is dominated by just one thing: the twisting, interwoven tracks of Galactica. More properly known as Battlestar Galactica: Human vrs Cylon, they are the tallest coasters of their kind in the world  reaching a height of 42.5 metres, and they have been closed for ongoing maintenance and upgrades since just after 2012 when I last road them. Which means I have been to the park multiple seasons, and haven’t ridden those coasters in over 4 years. Amras had never ridden them at all as they were still closed the last time he was on a run that called in Singapore.

Which one do you want first? Cylon is a hanging coaster, Human is a seated coaster

Hanging!

So we stored our gear in the mandatory locker and ran through the rain to the express line up. The regular line up for Galactica is almost always over an hour, so this was definitely the time when the express passes came in the handiest. We also discovered just how serious they are about not letting a single loose item on the coaster. There’s a staff menu at the attraction entrance with a detector wand checking every single guest who boards: no passports, no money, no wallets, nothing. If they discover you still have something in your pocket, they will send you back to the lockers to secure it. Roller coaster risk prevention at its finest. Speaking of safety, the announcement that came before we boarded made me giggle

Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to Battlestar Galactica, please make sure all personal belongings are secured in a locker before riding and please note as it is raining outside you definitely will get wet on this ride!

We wove our way through the very detailed que (obviously designed for when the lines reach outrageous lengths so that those waiting have something to look at), and found ourselves at the loading platform, where I even had to devest myself of my glasses before riding! Once seated, we pulled down the shoulder restraints. The restraints on Galactica are not like regular coaster restraints. The reason for this (I think) is that the coaster reaches intensely high speeds not to mention pulling both inside and outside loops, that means negative G-forces, so the restraints are unusually heavy – feeling more like the lead aprons that are used to protect you from X-rays than regular restraints! Once those braces are in place you are not going anywhere, and you’re buckled in on top of it. If nothing else, I definitely felt safe during take off!

And take off we did! Galactica doesn’t launch with a standard chain lift, it rockets with a compressed air launch and it’s fast right from the beginning. Whichever coaster you are on (it’s a two part ride) you are racing against the other side, and at times appearing to nearly collide with it! I can only imagine being the person who designed all of this.

Once we had exited the Cylon side of the ride, laughing, and yes definitely damp from the rain, we zipped around the corner to board the “Human” side of the coaster which is a seated version. Don’t let the fact that it’s seated lull you into thinking it’s tame, the Human side of the coaster reaches the insane speed of 90km per hour, and the riders on the Human side end up with more G-force experiences than those on the hanging coaster! And at those speeds? Little tiny flecks of rain start to sting, as a result our ride picture from the human side is hilariously terrible because were unable to open our eyes at all because of the rain! Even though it was hardly really raining!

We actually purchased all our ride photos, because Universal now offers the same deal that the Disney parks have offered for a while: if you purchase a photo pass package you get digital copies of all the professional photos shot in the park. So any time you see a cast member with a camera you can snag a shot – doesn’t matter if it’s a character encounter (we met Marylin Monroe) or a ride photo, they all get loaded into the same card and fall under the same purchase blanket. Once you get to more than 10 photos? It works out to just a few dollars a piece. Definitely worth it for all those memories! Especially the ones that make you laugh!

We wiped the rain out of our eyes, gathered our belongings from the locker and started exploring. Along the way we grabbed food (Advertised as the best hot dogs in Hollywood, not quite sure about that but hey, at least it was food!) before making our way to Transformers 4D, for which we were lucky enough to get a seat in the front of the car (again, thank you Express Pass) for the jolting, jarring, and occasionally falling, simulation of saving the city from the Decepticons (yes spell check that is a word, clearly no one programmed you to recognize classic pop culture). Still one of my favourites.

Somewhere along the line we found our way to Lights, Camera, Action; the special effects demonstration that put us smack in the middle of a category 5 hurricane hitting New York. After which, New York, puts itself back together (“set back to 1 everyone! That’s a wrap!”). It reminded me a lot of the old tram ride in Universal LA, where the bridge reconstructs itself; one of my favorite memories.

Over the course of the rest of the day we actually did manage to ride every ride in the park except for the Merry-Go-Round (which was definitely geared towards people much smaller than us) and one ride in Jurassic Park..

Ah yes, Jurassic Park…

We did eventually do Jurassic Park, although I kept finding convenient ways to put it off (mostly consisting of “we’ll get wet on that one, so let’s leave it for now) – which were meant partially to (unsuccessfully) mask the fact that I am a terrible coward when it comes to that ride. That said, it almost ended up out of our hands whether we rode or not, because that thunder storm that had been threatening all day showed intense signs of starting, and in that kind of weather the park closes all the outdoor attractions for safety reasons. And Jurassic Park Rapids ? is definitely outside. So for a while every time we came back to the line there was no line because the ride wasn’t open. Which was fine by me as we used that time to ride the Mummy again (we have three pictures from the Mummy)…which was fine by me J

Jurassic Park opened at long last, with only about an hour or so to spare. I wish I could say why this ride terrifies me so much, but I think it has something to do with the fact that I have always kept my eyes closed. When you’re blessed with a vivid imagination, it can make it ten times worse than what’s really there! We were riding with three younger girls who I swear were jumpier than me, which is part of what helped me keep my eyes open this time.

I think it’s something to do with things jumping out at me from the dark

But it isn’t dark…

It is once we get to the hydraulics plant!

Easy, I’ve got you…you’re working yourself up for more than there is.

Once I forced myself to open my eyes in the darkness I discovered it is not…actually dark. There is much more ambient light than I thought, and the actual autoanimitronics are much…less intimidating than my mind makes them out to be.

The upshot of all this is that I actually now have a ride picture of Jurassic Park where I am looking up at the camera, and my eyes are open!!!

Because the big giant dinosaur didn’t eat me…

At long last the day was winding to a close; we picked up our photo pass data at the main shopping street in Hollywood and headed out into the gathering twilight. That said, we were not quite ready to go home. I’ve never been able to go to Sentosa at night, since in my previous position I always had to be back on the ship by – at the very latest – 8pm. I’ve never seen the place by true night, and it’s beautiful. Having wandered through the festive lights and even explored the massive candy store (where I bravely resisted a t-shirt that stated that chocolate is salad), we climbed the stairs and walked straight into the light show that was playing across the giant Sentosa Merlion. It was one of those beautifully surprising moments that just jumps on you once in a while. All these breathtaking lights and the flower-scented evening air. All you could do was just…watch…and try to catch your breath.

Sometimes that’s all you can do after a really good day: just pause, and try to catch your breath…

And let yourself be happy.

 

 

 

Posted in Fire & Ice 2017, Grand Asia/Australia 2017, Ports of Call, Theme Parks | Leave a comment

Playing my Song – Phu My, Vietnam – [11/05/2017]

Posted on November 5, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

Progress report:

Long overdue progress report I should say! I swear I have been practicing, though perhaps not as often as I would like. I keep letting things get in the way, and that’s really not good because I really want to practice.

But, I had no excuse at all today, as the port we’re in has little to offer unless you want to pay a rather large chunk of change for a two hour transfer into town and since I’m not working until much later in the afternoon…so after lunch while Amras was at rehearsal I pulled Strange out of her case, tuned her up and went back to work.

My fingers may still sting a little bit but they are definitely improving, and the song that seemed totally impossible only a few weeks ago is going swiftly from “I can stumble through it” to “Hey, I can almost strum this properly, and wait, did I just do that whole run without looking at my fretboard? I totally did just do that whole run without looking at my fretboard!”.

Amras has been starting to teach me basic strumming patterns – before this I was just moving from chord to chord without any sense of real rhythm, just concentrating on getting my fingers in the right place. For the most part I’m still just concentrating on getting my fingers in the right place, but it would be nice to be able to really play just one song when I get home – so I’m trying to learn to at least strum that one thing. It’s much harder than I had first thought, as my ears can tell what my hands want to do but it can’t quite make them do it yet.

But I can tell that I’m getting there, little bit by little bit, string by string and chord by chord, I’m getting there.

And I absolutely love it.

Posted in Below the waterline, Guitar | Leave a comment

This is Halloween – At Sea – [10/31/2017]

Posted on November 3, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

This is Halloween, everybody give a scream…

I can’t really believe that Halloween is tomorrow, although it definitely feels like it; and I don’t just mean the weather.

Tomorrow is going to be a tough schedule, the classes are standard, but the evening is a little bit crazy. I’m teaching until 5:00, then helping the kids’ club with their trick or treating at 7(ish), working greeting duty for the show at 7:30 and then attending the Halloween Monster Mash upstairs at 9:30 (that’s required, it’s the passenger party, not a crew event). In between which I have a hair appointment, and I have to change costumes twice. That last bit is really my own fault, I suppose I could stay as one the entire day, but I brought two with me, and I love them both so one is being my daytime costume (the heavier of the two, I found out the hard way that I can’t dance in the TARDIS costume, as beautiful as it is) and the other is for the party (I even went so far this year as to buy false eyelashes with pink tips. That’s going to be fun to apply as I’ve never worn them before. The cast will hopefully be helping me with that.

Its been a few years since I wore Chesh, so this year I got new purple hairspray and new stripey pink and black tights and we’ll see if I can still pull it off the way I used to. At least I remembered to bring her paws!

*****

But honestly, the day was – or rather has been as this is one of the few entries I write as I go – rather insane. From 10:30 this morning I have had something almost every hour, and some of those things take considerably longer than usual. For example, my hair appointment which last time took only 45 minutes clocked in at over an hour, which meant getting into the T.A.R.D.I.S costume was more than a bit of a rush (and I can’t find my Dr Who hairbow, this is mildly upsetting). The guests love it though, but even though it was made as light as possible it’s not a costume I can wear for long, it’s just too heavy. So whenever I can find a few minutes I hide in my room where it’s nice and cool before putting all the layers back on and heading back out.

My feet may hurt and my ribs are aching from the constricting nature of the TARDIS’ corset top half, but I still love this holiday

Even though they won’t shut up…but I’m trying to ignore that..

While the TARDIS is more elaborate looking, the truth is that Chesh takes more time and has way more pieces. To illustrate the breakdown for the two costumes is as follows:

TARDIS:

–        Waistcoat

–        Skirt

–        Corset

–        Earrings (three, including one special cuff)

–        Sonic screwdriver

–        Pocket watch (which I forgot)

CHESH:

–        Dress

–        Shrug

–        Ears

–        Legwarmers

–        Leggings

–        Striped socks (one pink and black stripes, one black with stars)

–        False eyelashes

–        Paws/gloves

–        Purple nailpolish

–        Full face make-up

–        Contact lenses

–        Purple hair spray

–        Doc martins (also pink)

–        Earrings (one black feather, one pink feather, one alice in wonderland “drink me” bottle with cuff chain)

–        Oh yeah, and the little plain white socks I have to wear under the fancy ones to make sure the doc’s fit properly

See, chesh takes WAY longer! But she looks…absolutely brilliant when she’s all put together properly.

The party went exceptionally well, longer than we anticipated but that’s always been the way. There was a small hiccup with the costume contest, which I’m ashamed to admit was my fault – nothing major, just a moment where I made a bit of a wrong call, easily dispelled thankfully but I feel badly about. But the rest of the night was full of music and dancing and some pretty amazing costumes.

But it was a long long day, and now that I have finally come back to the safety and quiet of my own room, and have washed the purple out of my hair and set aside all the various pieces of all the various characters I don for this night, I want nothing more than to simply curl up and sleep…

Good night Neverland.

Be safe…and blessed be

 

 

Posted in Below the waterline, Grand Asia/Australia 2017, Theme Events | Leave a comment

Laugh Until We Cry – Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong – [11/01/2017]

Posted on November 2, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

See it in your mind and you will find your imagination Mysteries and magic Visions fantastic

 I’m a hard sell on the idea of “the perfect day” but some days? Some days make that rating..

A perfect sun-spilled day, with not a cloud in the sky, in a park that means almost as much to me as California, on a day when the park is practically empty, with someone who absolutely gets me, and gets why that place is important, why this matters, who doesn’t laugh when I start to cry as I walk through the castle, but instead pauses, smiles, gives me that moment to catch my breath and then almost starts to cry himself… that…that is my definition of as close as you can get to the perfect day.

I’ve seen Hong Kong Disney when it’s just about to open, but it’s usually at least a little bit crowded, today? Today we walked onto Space Mountain, seriously walked, do you know how rare that is? That is practically unheard of! And here of course it’s not just “Space” mountain, it’s “Hyperspace mountain”. Combining the awesomeness that is one of the classic Tomorrowland rides with the equal awesomeness that is Star Wars. A jet speed ride through the dark battling Vader…

The sad thing is that the ride photo taken on Space Mountain was brilliant, and I bought the digital copy of it, but when I got back to the ship to download it I found that it somehow wasn’t showing up on my photopass L I have a sinking feeling that the clerk made a mistake with the purchase and that the photo is lost forever, despite having been paid for (along with two others in front of the castle) but I have gone ahead and put in a report to see if maybe they can find it, who knows perhaps it will turn up in a few days…still makes me sad though.

That said, it’s another reason to have to go back…

The park has grown since I was there last, which was about two years ago. When I was there last Tinker Bell didn’t have her own garden, she had a tiny little kiosk on the edge of fantasy land. Now, the Enchanted Gardens lay expansively along the border of the fantasyland causeway, detailing scenes from all the Disney princess movies, and Tinker Bell’s Pixie Hollow soars with giant bluebells and daffodils that make you feel proper fairy size. Unfortunately, Tink herself was off an adventure with Peter Pan, so we couldn’t get a photo with her, but we were able to take pictures ourselves and I suspect one of them is going to end up framed.

I was also a very brave girl today. The first ride I went on was the RC Racers. It’s an unassuming ride in Toy Story Land that is deceiving in it’s simplicity. It doesn’t go upside-down, it doesn’t go at particularly high speeds. It’s a U-coaster, it just goes back and forth on the same track. The thing is, it’s very very high, and it pauses at the top of the U, and you just hang there, feeling like you’re going to fall out of your seat. The last time I went on it, I was so terrified I actually screamed, and I honestly do not scream on many rides. But htat one? Screamed my lungs out. So today, I stood at the entrance and I looked up at it, knowing that Amras would absolutely not force me to go if I didn’t want to, and that I could easily just wait at the exit for him…but no, I try not to do that anymore, I’m trying really hard not to let myself be controlled by what I’m afraid of…so..

What the heck, I’m all about facing my fears…let’s go

You sure?

Yup…

Okay so I kept my eyes closed for the whole ride, or almost the whole ride…but I will admit it was a lot more fun than I remembered it being. Who knows, maybe next time I’ll actually keep my eyes open!

We wound our way through the neatly organized circle of the park until we found ourselves in Mystic Point – which doesn’t actually have a counterpart in the American parks, but which I suppose could be considered a very loose parallel to New Orlean’s Square; it houses Mystic Manor, which is the Hong Kong version of the Haunted Mansion. I remember the first time I saw the Manor I thought it was…cute. And I was perhaps a little hard on it, because this time when I went through it – perhaps knowing a bit more what to expect – it was adorable and highly entertaining. Not the same as Haunted Mansion of course, but once I got away from comparing it to the original I was able to appreciate it as itself, and it deserves it. It’s a wonderfully charming ride, which had a lot of brilliant moments I had completely forgotten about. Not to mention that the amount of detail that went into it is amazing all on its own.

Part of me would still love to be an Imagineer, just so I could have a hand in designing things like curious monkeys and magical music boxes…

Imagine being paid to come up with things like that!

We had arrived at the park later than we intended (mostly due to delays in crew shore leave being granted, not as though we could control that) so we missed the first few showings of Festival of the Lion King, but got there just in time for the 4:30. Even the theatre was not that crowded, perhaps filled only half of it’s very large capacity. I forgot a lot about the show, and sitting there watching it, I fell in love with it all over again. Laughing, crying, mostly doing both at once. I don’t know why I always cry when I’m happy, I think it’s something I’ve always done. But there are pieces of that show that bring my heart to my throat and always have, maybe it’s partially because I miss performing, maybe it’s because I’ve always been able to find magic in watching performance as much as I have in doing it, or maybe it’s the storyline, but there is something about a Disney show specifically…

With Festival of the Lion King, its always been about the swan for me. A ribbon dance who literally dances through air, and seems to vanish into it as well…the grace of that number makes my heart weep.

Darn dust, keeps getting in my eyes…

Emerging from the theatre into the swiftly gathering twilight, we continued exploring the near-empty feeling kingdom, mostly just letting our feet take us where they would. Although we did stop to eat (fuel is a necessity when one is adventuring, especially since we had taken the precaution of purchasing dinner vouchers with our admission tickets, definitely a plus)

We also walked directly onto Big Thunder (or rather Big Grizzly as it’s called here), which still stands as my favorite ever, and the version that’s in Hong Kong may actually be my favourite version ever. It’s a very smooth coaster, and when we first started I just sort of bit my tongue, no one ruined the surprise for me after all, I definitely wasn’t going to ruin it for Amras. So as we started ratcheting up the last hill all I said was,

Oh, there’s more to it than you think..

Which I managed to (accidently) time perfectly because just as I said that the track chain let go and threw us into reverse, only to slow us down again just long enough to watch a pair of hungry bears trying to reach a dangling string of fish…innocently using a blasting pump of TNT for a balance…

Hang on!

One bright, loud blast of light and dust later and we go rocketing forwards again taking corners and super high speed and screaming over hills back into the main station

So…you like?

YES!!!

Best..coaster…in the park. Ever.

The most entertaining moment on Big Thunder actually came much later, when we rode at night. There is something about the park at night that remains magical and calming, and all the rides are so beautifully lit. We zipped through the near-empty queue and bravely asked the attendant to be seated at the back of the train (yup, gluttons for punishment, that’s us), and in the car in front of us is one fellow who is obviously there with his friends (who are sitting two cars up from us) and he spends the first few minutes of the ride making comments that went something along the lines of

Aw, it’s slow! Tame! Too slow too slow!

Until we went backwards, then it changed to

Oh my god! Not slow…no wait, back to slow, eaaaaaaaaaaaaasy

Until we got to the last segment, Amras and I just sat there, laughing so hard our ribs hurt, as the train once again rocketed forward at breakneck speed and the commentary from in front of us became

Aaaaaah! Ohmygod! It’s fast! It’s too fast! Aaaaah! I think I’m going to pass out!! Aaaaaaaaah!!!!!!

It took us a solid five minutes after we got off the ride to stop laughing…I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a really long time.

The Paint the Night electrical parade was not running tonight, which made me beyond sad – considering that I missed its equivalent in Tokyo, but there was nothing to be done about, so instead we spent our evening wandering through the gathering twilight; re-riding whatever we wanted due to the short lines and picking up souvenirs (I’m still vaguely regretting not picking up the most adorable Belle figurine), before taking up viewing spots for the fireworks show. The fireworks at Hong Kong Disney have saved me countless times in the past; too much stress, too much pain, that show – this park – can always take it away. But I’ve always been alone. This time, I wasn’t alone, and there is no describing just how wonderful it felt to not be alone in that excited, enthusiastic, enthralled crowd…

I’m a hard sell on the perfect day…

But sometimes…just sometimes…they definitely do come along.

 

 

 

Posted in Fire & Ice 2017, Grand Asia/Australia 2017, Theme Events | Leave a comment

Volume…

Posted on October 28, 2017 by GypsyShaughnessy

Can you hear them? No, as usual, you can’t hear them. We can hear them. Hear them still, even out here on the other side of the world. Perhaps not as loud, perhaps not as obvious, but they are still there. Come out, come out and play, come out come out and find us…we promise, as we always promise, that no one will miss you, no one will even know you are gone.

Come to the bottom of the garden.

Come to the music.

Come to the wild.

We will look after you.

We will always look after you.

Come home. Come away. Come back to us.

Our ears feel like they have been stuck full of cotton wool and yet at the same time everything seems too loud. Things don’t make sense, life seems disjointed. All hard edges and cutting lines. And around us, the world flows on, with it’s grinning pumpkins and cute cat ears and comically jangling skeletons; how many of you may realise that that comical dance is a ghastly reinterpretation of what was once a different kind of dance on air? A jig done at the end of a rope? No, you do not see, you do not hear, you do not remember.

We envy you. Those of you who walk through the world swaddled in that type of unawareness.

You’re still looking at me like I’m crazy. I’m not crazy. I just have my eyes open, and my ears.

And I can hear them.

And perhaps this year…perhaps this year it’s time to go with them.

 

Posted in Below the waterline, Reflections | Leave a comment