New ship, old friends

Hello, all!  I am on board the Sea Princess, en route to Hawaii and the South Pacific!  My trip to Australia was full of drama, starting with a 13 hour delay.  Have no fear, the airline put us up in a hotel for the night, so I slept well.  The following day, the flight was nice.  It went quickly, and I was able to catch up on some movie time.  Watched Silver Lining Playbook, or something like that, to see what all the hype was about with the Hunger Games chick winning the Academy Award.  Still trying to figure that one out.  I guess if you put the two roles side by side, there is some acting happening there.  But still...  huh?

So here I am on board.  It seems like I never left.  The ship is actually quite beautiful compared to the other two I was on, which is a nice change.  Of course, there is no consistency with the Princess rules and regulations, so it will be frustrating again to see what i can and cannot do.  Already, I have been excluded from the regular freebies like a bottle of water... no big deal, just frustrating.  I also don't have a bar account, again no big deal, just frustrating.

And then the big news... Mom and I have been planning on her coming to Hawaii to join the ship since February, and I went through major drama trying to get the paperwork in to get her on board.  I heard from someone in the main office that the paperwork was "pending" which means the paperwork was there, it just had to be approved.  Of course, now that I am on board, I asked yet again to find out the status, as Mom comes on in 11 days... and they play dumb.  They are saying they never got the paperwork.  Geez.  I have emails saying otherwise, folks.  The ol' "We are accountable." rule for Princess seems to count for everyone ELSE but the people who are actually accountable, right?

Frustrating.  So I have no idea what to tell the folks.  As far as I am concerned, Mom should still come.  They have the paperwork, and though it has not been approved yet, there is no reason why it wouldn't be.  It makes me mad.  Thanks, Ophelia.  This is your fault for not returning my calls way back in March when I still had time to do this crap.

I have words to learn.  Lots.

Costume fittings went well today.  Everything fits, more or less.  No having to let things out, thankfully.  I lost enough weight that I fit into all the costumes!  Whoo hoo!  Now to keep it off.  Should not be a problem, as the food here is way below what I expected.  Anyhow.   More later.  I have to get some sleep.  Second day of four that clocks go forward.  Yuck.

Oh, I forgot to tell you all... my grannie groupies are on board, too... Jeanne and Belinda.  They found me wandering the Horizon Court trying to find a place to sit and eat this afternoon...

Post-Mouse debrief

So, Disney was a huge success.  Had a blast.  Saw a couple of shows, and amazing fireworks display, some pretty cool butterflies, Mickey, Minnie, and Pluto... plus some pretty okay food, and spent about a hundred dollars, too.

I am going to post more about Spinky's adventures on Space Mountain, and a couple of the other roller coasters, and the disappointment he had with the new Little Mermaid ride  (He thought that Prince Eric was ugly).  More on that later.  Gotta run to the post office and get some stuff in the mail before boarding the truck and heading to the airport...

Epcot here we come!!

Presentation is over.  The shows are learned.  Well, they have been TAUGHT.  I can't honestly say that I have learned them all yet.  I still have tons of words to memorize.

More on that later.  So my latest quandary was to decide whether or not to attend the Disney Parks today.   I have a lot of laundry to do, had food to get rid of, i.e. eat, and packing yet to do.  Taking an entire day at Disney seemed like a crazy idea.  I also have yet to finish a project that I started for a friend several months ago.  She is in Tampa, so it was supposed to be done while I was here, just across the state.

Anyhow, I finally put everything in perspective, and decided to go.  It is the International Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot, and the last time I was in Epcot was when they first opened, I think in 1982 or something like that.  Who knows when I will be back, so Spinky and I are gonna go meet the mouse.

I took care of the Tampa project online and had it shipped to Lauren, I gave my extra food away to a family in the motel, and I got the letters written and envelopes addressed to the folks that needed them.  I don't fly until later in the afternoon on Friday, so I can get my check cashed before I leave, and if I get up at the butt-crack of dawn, I may even get the laundry done!

I am hoping that I can get some awesome photos taken to see if my creative eye is still attached.  I feel like since being home, I have not taken any good photos, nor have had the inspiration to do so.  Besides, Spinky deserves to see the world according to the world of cartoon characters.

Ah well.  I gotta be up early tomorrow, so I will keep this one short.

The presentation was awesome.  Not much more really to say.  I remembered the words to almost everything!  Hey Mambo is giving me issues.

Later!

Whatever happened to...?

Remember the days when going to a book sale was about the books and what they were about?  Gone.  All gone.  Those days are HISTORY.

I am in Cocoa, Florida these days rehearsing for the World Cruise 2013 on the Sea Princess.  There is a library across the street from the motel (yes, MO-tel) we are staying in.  This is the big weekend of their book sale.  Of course, being the book geek that I am (thank you, Grama Katona), I decided to become a friend of the library ($5.00) and go to the special members only preview sale the day before it opens to the general public.

What a new world I entered.  I guess this being South Florida, there are many die-hard book fans.  There was a line to get in.  Go figure!  Well, this was cool, as I waited for an hour.  I got off rehearsal early, and went to the library to get some solitude from my stress.

Apparently, people don't give a damn about books any more.  As I sat there chatting with some of the locals, they were talking about their scanners and stuff.  I told them I felt like I was an alien because I had no idea what they were talking about.  They told me that they go to book sales and garage sales and flea markets all around the southeast, and they have these scanners to see what value items have.  I thought, oh cool, okay, and that would be it.

So then the doors open to the sale.  Mass panic.  These folks didn't even bother to look at the book titles.  They were looking at the ISBN numbers to see what the book is worth for resale value.  This sucks, I thought.  I'd like to buy some books to READ, not to look at the ISBN number.  This lady was checking out the CD's and DVD's where I was, and literally, all she was doing was scanning the number and then either putting the item in her bag or replacing it.  I felt so cheated.  I was looking to maybe pick up a cheap soundtrack or cast recording to actually LISTEN to, and here she is, scanning and placing, scanning and placing.  Sheesh!!  What is the world coming to.

And then I started to think... I wonder what my collection is worth at home.  If only I had one of those scanner things.  That's when I decided to take my minimal purchases and leave.  I ended up with two DVD's and two CD's, all of which I plan to either watch or listen to at some point.

In other news... we are under tornado warnings until 8pm tonight.  It is now 6:30-ish, so not too much longer.  The weather has been funky the last couple of days.  Chilly and humid, and then warm and rainy.

Rehearsals are stressing me out, so what else is new, right?  We have been taught Stardust and Country Jam music, and the blocking for Stardust.  I didn't say LEARNED... just been taught.  I can't believe we only have five more days of rehearsal and then we are out on the ship.  I have so much work to do!  Tons of words to songs I still only know either the chorus of, or about 8 measures worth of the music.

I am cooking dinner tonight for Jenene and I... shrimp over rice, I think.  Maybe a scampi.  More later.