Cruise thoughts

Day 1
Fortunately it seems that Marcus has no influence over what goes on during the cruise. Boss Adele seems pretty nice (really good singer too) and also hosts the entertainment every night. Also an awesome ‘mess’ room with unlimited free food.  Cabin also has a mini fridge - Score!

Negatives:
Need power adaptor, don’t have one, gonna have a rough sleep tonight…
We went on with no rehearsals, doing songs I’ve never done before, having to improvise…
Not having enough songs to fill out a set list…
Bed is very small and room is a bit of a mess, need to make it before I can sleep…
REALLY sea sick.
Almost wifi whatsoever so can’t contact the people I care about
Set lists are way too long
Clothes are WAY too tight

As of day 1, I really don’t wanna be on this boat. Will see what amsterdam is like in the morning though..

Day 2

It’s 4am as I write this one. Really miss home, but fortunately getting used to the boat a little more. Sets are still boring, and people start playing the songs before I even know what the track is, but it doesn’t seem like anyone seems to care (audience or the rest of the band) which is good.
Unfortunately didn’t get to go outside and look around amsterdam since we were ‘rehearsing’ all morning (trying and failing to get Keshav a working bass amp, then playing crazy in love twice) but tomorrow I’m gonna go back into newcastle and try to find a power adaptor so I can finally charge my phone and call Alison+my parents.

Sea sickness has just about gone, just feeling a little light headed when the boat tilts and we’re on stage. It’s a little sad but I’m still counting down the days till I get off this early..

Oh, in love with the mess room though. My boat life schedule mainly involves sleeping for 16 hours, and eating as much as I can while I’m awake. I’m gonna be so fat when I get off this boat…

Day 3

EXHAUSTED. Was running on about 4 hours sleep and our last set must have lasted about 90 minutes… we keep running out of songs thanks to the lack of organisation, and I’m getting really pissed with everyone starting the songs without telling me what they are… That and I swear I’m getting glares from the lead singer whenever I’m doing BVs.

Went into Newcastle today. Was meant to go with the band but ended up getting ditched and went there alone… Oh my god it felt amazing to have wifi. Starbucks will probably figure out eventually but until they do I’m gonna hijack it every 2 days. Also bought an adaptor and some cookies! UNHEALTHY FOOD I MISS IT SO MUCH

It’s occurring to me that going a day without napping is surprisingly difficult though..

Day 4

Today went pretty quickly fortunately. The rehearsal was still bullshit (we went over don’t stop believing twice, that’s it for 3 hours) because Keshav was massively late again, but me and Iain  played a few games vs each other on my DSs throughout the day so that was fun.
DESSERT EXISTED. Chocolate mousse cake. I had three of them, they were delicious, I miss junk food but with no way of burning it off I’m getting seriously bloated.

Also sat with my boss for a while and watched game of thrones - That was pretty fun, might have to watch more of that when I get home!
Our set was dull as hell, no-one was dancing and we didn’t play anything particularly amazing. Last night was waaay better, we had loads of teenagers (maybe from a school trip?) that loved a bit of ‘Wake me up’ or whatever. :P
NEWCASTLE TOMORROW LET’S GET SOME WIFI

Day 5

I think today has been my longest day so far… woke up to a phone call at 8am by my boss asking me to find out if someone else on the ship had left or not… and as a result almost missed the bus to newcastle. Turns out you can take it for free but I’ve had to pay for it 3 times in a row now…

Otherwise I’m getting used to my little routine now. Going to the city centre just to get wifi, making best buds with the homeless guy (his name is Eddie) then making respective phone calls to whoever I can.
Lots of steak today at the mess so that’s only looking better, passing the time playing the drummer at Super Mario… unfortunately the gig was still shit. Venue must have been at 25% capacity at peak and not a single person got up to dance. It’s such a demotivating way to gig, already seriously sick of function stuff on keys now..
Also got a fire drill + safety tour on Wednesday which is a MASSIVE bummer and stops me going into newcastle that day… Guess I’m just relying on good ol’ phone signal till the final couple of days.
Halfway there. 5 gigs down, 5 gigs left to go..

Day 6

This’ll probably end up being my shortest entry since I woke up at 4pm… so already lost most of the day anyways. Mess was interesting, got to know Chris (new troubadour) and dinner today was ‘panama rabbit’ which seems to translate to ‘obscenely large rabbit wellington wrapped in bacon’ but was actually pretty nice! Tasted like beef mince.

Gig was PAINFULLY slow. We had an audience of 6 people - Sacha made uptown funk hilarious by trying to persuade people to dance with Keshav as he walked off stage into the crowd but no-one budged.
Game of Thrones again tonight, but I’m not a fan of how Adele goes into the room and expects everyone else to be silent as soon as she goes into a communal room. That and she unplugged the vending machine because ‘the light was distracting’…

Day 7

Today was the first day I couldn’t get into Newcastle - Instead, I had to do a fire drill at 10am (which consisted of standing outside on the deck, slowly being joined by the rest of the crew and then waiting 45 minutes) and then a safety tour of the ship, followed by an incredibly dull, 3 page quiz. All in all, 3 hours of my life I’ll never get back and also a complete and utter waste of time considering I’m only on the boat for 3 more days.

Chris was pretty intent on going ashore today though so I got to know him even better through that. He’s done a lot of ships before and hates this one (big shock, haha) but in my opinion he complains about stuff that really isn’t that bad - (e.g the ship being too complicated, his cabin being too far away from the deck he wants to be on, and takes too long to sign on the ship)
But ignoring that he’s a nice guy! Also a bit of a gym buff - not bulky or muscular at all but seems a little obsessed with protein, as he spent over an hour buying it today while I sat in Port Tyne desperately clawing for a chance at wifi.
…Failed alas.

The gig was dull as hell today as well. I’m kind of looking forward to Friday actually, just on the assumption that maybe our audience will be a bit more interactive.. We really pushed today to get everyone up and dancing and singing and whatever and maybe 2 people budged?

MARCUS IS SUCH A CUNT. Above what I’ve already dealt from him we’re now not getting our payment on time, or the amount we expected... This is a line that can’t be crossed and everyone in the band is jumping on the band wagon to kick his ass. I am glad. I want to be paid and go home.. Although I’m slowly getting more accustomed to ship life.

Day 8

Soooo we didn’t end up going into Amsterdam today - I woke up at 3:30pm as per usual and just lay in bed for 2 hours after that. The band are addicted to playing on my DSs, so I have a feeling the train back (Sacha and Iain have got the same train as me) is going to be a looong super Mario marathon… Kind of looking forward to it to be honest. :P

Gig was hilarious. This drunk couple went up to us mid song and stuck ‘you’re a star!’ stickers on each band member, and during half of the last set we all ran off stage and started dancing while playing… I swapped to playing drums mid song, Keshav’s strap fell off so he couldn’t play bass for half the song and there was only one person on stage during any of Seven Nation Army (no keys were played that sad day) and it was great. Wish we had a bigger crowd + more audience participation (saturday maybe?) but we made do with what we have.
Really miss Alison. Will try to skype her tomorrow IF I can wake up in time for newcastle… I believe!

Day 9

Today was definitely the day that made the whole cruise thing worthwhile. Day didn’t start off great, went into Newcastle with barely any wifi there whatever to make it worthwhile, then got hassled by an aggressive stag do trying to get onto the bus (just wanted the free journey that I was meant to get ages ago!) for that saves me £4 that frankly I should get refunded for..

But in saying that the gig was amazing. The dance floor started filling up by the 3rd song in, and got absolutely overwhelmingly packed by the end. Everyone dancing and singing along, we managed to get the crowd to split in half and have a chanting competition!
…I also sang lead on two songs, which was hilarious. I wasn’t nervous because I knew everyone was too drunk to care and they were singing along themselves… Mr Brightside and Uptown Funk - ohhh yes.
5 hours of playing, 4 sets, absolute exhaustion. But to have that many people support what you’re doing kinda makes up for it… I’m really glad we got a gig like that before we finished.
I doubt anyone else will agree but I’ve found a little bit of family in these guys now this is all done. Will be great to get home finally though. One more gig! Planning to wake up at 5pm or something obscene… stay posted.