Transatlantic Odyssey on the Allure: TravelBlog - Week 3

Week 3, Nov. 8 – 11, 2010

TravelBlog: Day 15 (Mon.)

Killer day. Up at 3:30am for a 4:00am shoot of the Royal Promenade, the center and largest of the 5 (or is it 6?) “avenues” in this floating city. Breakfast, then we dash to shoot Rita’s Cantina and Pinnacle Lounge. Lots of prep … we encounter Thomas’s last gasp – nausea-inducing, rolling swells and rainy, gloomy skies – as we pass through the Bermuda Triangle. This should clear by tomorrow morning, leaving 2 days of sunny sailing before we arriving in FLL … Tried to nap after this morning’s exhausting shoots, but yet another safety drill kept me up. “Bravo, bravo, bravo” (code for fire) and instructions blaring over the PA for nearly two hours. (FYI, “alpha, alpha, alpha” = serious injury; “oscar, oscar, oscar” = man overboard!)

Another dirty little secret: Some crew members never get to come above Deck 3; they are never permitted to step foot in passenger areas. Mole people - what a life.

Michel’s original cooties have died and are beginning to scab. However, the eggs they laid last week are still erupting in new lesions, so it appears to be spreading. Hopefully, though, this is not some new breakout from some new exposure from some new source. Doc says the shampoo will kill any and all of the beasties, old or new –

TravelBlog Day 16 (Tues.)

Stressful morning. Michel took it upon himself to organize the Aquatheater shoot, thinking one phone call would do the trick. It didn’t. So we were scrambling for lights and effects minutes before sunrise … as per usual, whenever there’s a glitch, they all look at me as if I was the moron who fucked up. Which is only true about 10% of the time –

We all took a moment to marvel at the exquisite Bahamian sunrise. An every day miracle in the making right before our eyes … Had a nice break mid-afternoon: got to try the ZipLine and work out like a Marine. Wine with a truncated dinner helped take the edge off the sunset shoot, where we shot 3 bars simultaneously, dealing with a lack of power at one and winds nearly blowing the equipment overboard at another. Speaking of electrical problems, just heard some comforting news: there was a fire on a Carnival Cruise ship which knocked out the entire electrical system, leaving nearly 5,000 people adrift without power, refrigeration, a/c, etc., off the coast of Mexico. Aid from various sources, even the military, rushed in. Our response time and efforts should be so swift for real emergencies –

Last party night, but I’m too tired do stay out …

Looks like my future husband isn’t on board after all.

TravelBlog: Day 17 (Wed.)

Land, ho! Another gorgeous sunrise with the Bahamas visible in the distance as we shoot the Boardwalk, our final major on-board location … Ahead of schedule as a result of racing in front of several storm system, we’re now leisurely cruising towards FLL, stopping to pick up some officials for some inspection … Another stressful shoot this time on the Boardwalk, racing the sun (which rises very quickly in the part of the world) setting up chairs, swabbing the deck, and trying to start the Carousel, which we couldn’t: we couldn’t find the right key, and the wrong key got stuck in the lock trying. Had to call the locksmith.

TravelBlog: Day 18 (Thurs.)

Final morning on board. A dazzling sunrise. Despite, or maybe because of, the time changes, I’m feeling just as exhausted as ever. Woke at 3 new time; got up to send e-mails at 4; got out of bed at 5 and managed a killer interval cardio workout, which nearly did kill me –

Arrival into Port Everglades, Ft. Lauderdale. Michel up in one of the helicopters shooting aerials ... Allure dwarfed every other ship in the vicinity. Much less fanfare than for the Oasis, but still kind of exciting. GMA covering the event, though I suspect that news of the crippled Carnival cruise ship drifting without power or electricity off the coast of Mexico may have eclipsed our story -

Time to disembark, just when I finally mastered the layout of the 17-deck ship, just when my French is coming back …

Good-byes and thank-yous to everyone as we waited until after 11am to desembark. This is the last of the enormous ships, nothing but refurbs and perhaps another smaller ship on the horizon, so I don’t know when Team Verdure will work together again. After a few lumps and bumps along the way, I believe we delivered much more than expected in terms of quantity and quality. We did some beautiful work despite the sometimes stressful circumstances.

Very interesting to see how each of us has changed during the hiatuses between projects. Julien had another son. Guillaume got married. Michel has a new serious girlfriend. A little older, a little larger (some of us), a little more worn … wonder how I look in their eyes. Do they think I’ve had a “coup de vieux”? You become very aware of age when in a closed environment where the great majority of people is half your age -

I’ve had a headache all morning. Mal de terre after so many days at sea. Maybe a little sad. Going back to nothing in NYC. No partner, no great gig. Didn’t meet my future husband on the ship. Or on the flight from Miami. Or on the M60 from the airport …

Maybe it’s time to move. Time for a big change. What’s here for me, really? Just this gorgeous November day.

The earth under my feet appears to be rocking ... Looking forward to a real cup of coffee. Looking forward to sleeping past 6am. Looking forward to continuing to eat well. Looking forward to the holidays, to giving thanks, to giving (and receiving) gifts in every sense. Looking forward to seeing what’s next. Tabula rasa; begin again.