It is 9:19 and the sun is still up outside, although it was a rather cloudy day in Skagway. I am in between production shows. Tonight we are performing Southern Nights. The first audience was very receptive to the show. There were even a few guests that had a little too much wine that REALLY enjoyed the show! I was so full of pizza during the show because before getting back on board the Zaandam I ate at the Red Onion. It is a famous little saloon in Skagway where they serve local brewed beers and fantastic pizza. I hung out there with some people from the shore excursion office and some locals. We ordered 2 huge pizza’s that were made with goat cheese, mozzarella tomatoes, mushrooms, and spicy sausage… they were delicious! I enjoyed my pizza with a porter stout from the Alaskan Brewery. The beer tasted like a delicious cup of dark, rich, black coffee

Before ending at the Red Onion, I had been out hiking with my friend Sterling, who works at The Klondike Gold Mine Dredge. We went out to Smuggler’s cove. It was a beautiful hike through the woods. When we arrived at the point of the cove, we sat on the rocks and looked out over the bay. I had the pleasure of seeing sea lions and eagles. It is awesome to see these creatures in their natural habitats as opposed to the zoo’s where I am from. Also in Skagway I met this girl from California, Alyssa, in the Yukon and Whitepass Coffee Shop. Leave it to me to always strike up conversations with friendly baristas. I told her I worked on the Zaandam and she got all excited because her DAM SHIP mug had just broke. I told her I would get her a new one next time I came into port, which wont be for two weeks. You would have thought I told her she won the lottery! She was so excited and that made my heart extremely happy! When I got back on board I ran to the shops to make sure they had the mugs…luckily they did! I am writing about this experience mostly to remind myself to get the mug in a couple of weeks for Alyssa. I have to purchase it in advance because the ship shop closes in port, therefore I cant wait till our next Skagway day.

(2 day break) I pick back up in Seward, AK

Skagway is really a great little town. I enjoy my visits here. There is an excellent cupcakery there as well. It is called Sugar Mama’s. I believe I have talked about it already. Sterling had brought the shore excursions team a whole box of cupcakes and they saved me a chocolate one. It was delicious…if you know anything about me it is my divine love of sweets….mostly baked goods and not candies…but I always enjoy sharing a good dessert with a friend. This reminds me of a story. My old roommate Kylene and I use to watch the movie New In Town. It was about this Southern California business executive that gets moved to Wisconsin to cut cost at a production factory. The saving grace of the movie is the Midwestern accent and some of the locals that the main character meets along the way. There are some great one-liners throughout the movie. Any ways Kylene and I use to make tapioca pudding and watch the movie because in the movie there is a lot of tapioca. Sad to say, we are not the greatest makers of tapioca…I believe it flopped more times then actually turned out. Nevertheless we always enjoyed our dessert together.

Recently I have been drinking a lot of yerbe mate (YER-BAH MAH-TAY). For those of you who do not know what it is I will fill you in. Yerbe mate is a holly tree native to the Atlantic Rainforest of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. It is brewed just like coffee and tea. Traditional yerbe mate blends boasts a rich and robust mate flavor, toasty aroma, and a balanced finish (it is like green tea but really taste so much better by itself). Some benefits to drinking mate include:

·      Stimulates focus and clarity

·      Improves physical energy

·      Traditionally used to support weight loss programs that include a balanced diet and exercise

·      Antioxidant properties higher than green tea

·      Aids in elimination

I enjoy drinking it hot but you can have it iced or even make a mate latte! There is as much caffeine in mate as a single cup of coffee except there is no crash. Mate has also been proven to reduce stress…big bonus! I think I have been drinking it so much because the coffee on board is so terrible. When I want to drink something that makes me feel cozy on the inside…like a hug on the inside…I brew my mate. I finish it off with a touch of Agave nectar…ahhh it is perfect. I am sipping on a mug of it right now.

Today in Seward I went to a really cute diner with Todd, Damian, and Ashley for breakfast. It actually reminded me of Flapjacks in Pigeon Forge. The entire restaurant was made of natural wood…kind of like a cabin feeling. I was really excited because they had Frank’s Red Hot sauce and literally I eat that $#*% on everything=) (That is their campaign slogan) My mom got me hooked a few years ago to putting in on my eggs. Now I eat it on potato chips, chicken, fish, pasta. It is such a great little condiment to kick up the dish a bit. Breakfast was fabulous. I had homemade French toast with farm fresh eggs (totally beats the eggs we eat in the Lido that come out of a HUGE carton) and some sausage. It was a homey little breakfast and the 4 of us had a good time. If you are ever in Seward look up Nellie’s… you wont be disappointed!

Well I need to get ready for boat drill! It is in about 15 minutes and then I get to perform Let Us Entertain You. I really wish the show was not as cheesy as it is, but what can you do? I need to find the silver lining in the show…it would help;) I hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all! Take care and until next time!

-bradley

Birthday Greetings!

Where we started our bike ride

The Mendenhall Glacier...this is where we finished our ride

The fabulous Ashley Bell and my birthday cake, it was buttercream with a rum layer!

The zip-lining get up!

Hey everyone! It has been almost a week and a half since my last update. Many events have taken place since then… our Red White and Blue Ball, the Canada/July4th party, Zip-lining, and my BIRTHDAY!!!! It was a busy week full of activities as always. I actually had time to get off at the ports and enjoy some of the local flair of Alaska. The weather was so beautiful this past week that I ate most of my meals outside on the aft deck of the ship. I am telling you what, there is nothing more beautiful then the Alaskan scenery. I know I have said it before, but it is truly breath-taking every where you look.

Let us start with last Monday night. We had our production show Love Broadway. It is more of like Broadway in concert because the show doesn’t take numbers from Broadway shows and reproduce them. The staging and dance styles are far from the original pieces as are the arrangements of the songs. Anyways I am not writing to tell you about the show, but rather our first rocky night at sea. The first show our ship encountered some windy seas and we began to ROCK…not just a little back and forth motion, but full on swells. If you timed it just right you could jump extremely high, kinda like the experience of jumping at the end of an elevator ride down a few stories. The second show we were a mess on stage, stumbling every which way back and forth trying to keep ourselves from falling over. It was hilarious and at times a little embarrassing.

Following the show the cast got all dolled up to make an appearance at the Red White and Blue Ball! It was thrown in honor of the 4^th of July. For awhile the bar was open and we didn’t have to buy drinks, but around 11:30 it went to cash bar. I had a glass of wine and walked about to take pictures with some folks. Before heading back down to the crew area I waltzed with our librarian Carlyn… who reminds me so much of my friend Carolyn in Rochester. The turn out for the ball was very low due to the rocking waves. I think most guests retired to their rooms because they were getting sick. By the time we all made it up to the ball most of the people there were crew officers and engineers. I really enjoyed the rocking ship. It helped me fall asleep quickly and I slept like a baby.

The next big event that I participated in was a party thrown in the crew bar. It was to celebrate Canada Day and July 4^th. Our company manager put it together. All Canadians wore red, Americans wore blue , and everyone else wore white. I didn’t end up staying very long, I was not in a party mood. So I went back to my cabin and went to bed early that night. Call me a party pooper, but I believe I was a little homesick that evening too.

On a more positive note I finally found a coffee shop that makes 8oz cappuccinos!!!! It is called Paradise Café and the owner Joan makes fresh pastries every morning! Last week I had a blueberry scone that was unbelievable and this morning I had a strawberry rhubarb scone. Now, I don’t like rhubarb usually because it is so sour, but this scone was so delicately created that I bout fell over after my first bite! Joan’s pastries are definitely addictive and I am going to have to be careful about how much I choose to partake. I am happy about this discovery thought because once a week I can have one decent cup of coffee or a correctly made cappuccino! The barista I talked to today has family in Atlanta and totally knows about my favorite coffee shop…Dancing Goats. Needless to say we had a great coffee conversation ending with my deep satisfaction of knowing that there are people out in the world that know good coffee!

My next key topic will be that of shore excursions. Crew members can sign up on board to be ship escorts for the excursions at all our different ports. This past week I signed up for zip-lining, kayaking, and an adventure hike. I really wanted to go zip-lining for my birthday and luckily I got it! The escorts are handed out on a first come first serve basis. Zip-lining was a blast! The only other people on my tour was a family of 5. The dad was a cardiologist and the mom was afraid of heights…it was quite comical. Their kids were all under 14 so they had a great time zipping through the canopy. The longest zip-line was over 600ft and I think we reached about 40mph on the ride. We went through 6 zip-lines, a suspension bridge, a tiny 40ft repel, and then down a 250ft slide. We were in Ketchikan and now I want to go again in Juneau. Today in Juneau I went on another shore excursion. It was called the Juneau Bike and Brew. We rode around the Glacier National Park and around the Mendenhall Valley for about 10 miles and then had a beer tasting at the Flight Deck. I tried 4 Alaskan beers…a white, an amber, an IPA, and a Brown Ale. All the Alaskan brewing company beers were quite delicious, however; the brown ale was my favorite.

Since I wrote last time I have become a year wiser…I am officially 26 years old. My birthday on the ship was actually amazing. My friend Ashley Bell made sure the entire experience was, as she would say, “FABULOUS”! We originally tried to book dinner at the Pinnacle but our reservations got denied due to all the guests bookings. We resorted to requesting dinner in the Rotterdam Dining Room. I had a delicious dinner that started with a Goat Cheese and Tomato Tart, French Onion Soup, wonderful Salmon in a tomato broth crusted with garlic, lime, and other herbs, and finished the entire meal with Gold Rush Baked Alaska. The classic dessert is made of a fudge brownie topped with coffee ice cream and meringue…amazing! Ashley treated me to a glass of wine as well as taking care of our tip, it was a lovely date. My actual birthday was very busy with cruise activities. We had to sing Love in Any Language at 10am, do a noon tech, cast chat with the passengers at 1, we had the afternoon off (my birthday nap) and then had 2 shows of On The Air that evening! The cast bought me a hydra lift facial from the Greenhouse Spa on board and through me a mini party in the OB with cake and candles after the show. Ashley really made the day special and I was so thankful to be surrounded by such a great group of friends on board. OF COURSE I missed all my friends and family back home. Thank you all for my facebook messages, emails, and phone messages….it truly made my day.

Tonight Ashley, Emi, and I are making up for not making it to the Pinnacle Grill last week. Our reservation is at 6! I am pumped and looking forward to a nice evening filled with fantastic food! I always feel really far away from the ship when I eat at the Pinnacle.

On a side note, today while biking I had the privilege of seeing my first Alaskan Black Bear and cub. The cub was napping up at the top of a spruce and the momma bear was keeping an eye out below. I saw her run across the road down to the stream, catch a fish, and then run off into the woods to have a little snack…thankfully it was the fish and not me=) I was videoing the entire event on my camera and at one point I was getting a little nervous and I didn’t realize I was video taping the ground and not the bear at all….hilarious. The weather as been in the high 70s the last two days. I even laid out on the sky deck yesterday to soak up a little sun. I still look like Casper the friendly ghost but hopefully I will get some color before long.

I am going to try and upload some photos I took today on my bike ride. The internet is slow at the Viking so it may be impossible but I am going to try. I am really going to try and write more often because it is a lot of work to recap such large gaps of time. Hope everyone is doing well…email me with your updates…bradscoffee@gmail.com. Love to you all. Live each day as if it were your last, life is too short to sit around!

-b

Sorry for the delay, now read away...

Well, well, well I have not been the best blogger this week. I was trying to stay out of my cabin as much as possible. I feel like mingling with the guests will get our ratings up. We received great news this week! Our cruise director, Michael, told us he would be retuning in October. This is wonderful news because Michael use to be a performer, so he takes amazing care of us as a team. It is such a small world in the entertainment industry. I saw Michael in many shows when I was growing up in Pigeon Forge and now I am working side by side with him on the Zaandam.

As far as updates go, this past week flew by because I tried to be more involved with guests. It honestly amazes me how much people complain on vacation. Granted, they have paid a lot of money to be here and expect the ship to be everything they wanted and more. I participated in the Polar Plunge in Glacier Bay. All the people participating jump into the pool right in front of the glacier. It is a tradition that occurs every time we are at the glacier. Once we plunge into the pool, which is heated, then we have to get out and take a picture in front of the glacier…this is the most uncomfortable part of the activity. All the passengers that plunge get a little certificate…I just get the peace of mind knowing that I can have fun with our guests. I was the only one from the cast that did it this time, but I am hoping to convince more to come out next time. Now the funny thing is that as I am writing this I am suffering from a cold and chest congestion. It has been going around the ship, but I think I might have had better odds if I would not have been standing outside dripping wet! My company manager Ray took a picture. I will try and post it soon!

I also decorated my room this week. It feels a little less sterile hotel cabin and more relaxing. I decided to go with browns and teal. All the furniture in my cabin is a light oak color and I believe the color palate fits well, except the carpet is royal blue with light purple specks….no way of trying to make that work=) I bought some flameless candles and a cheer curtain to hang at the foot of my bed. Then I placed some picture frames that I picked up from walmart around the room in formations. They were super cheap… 2.50 per frame. Perfect, since I will most likely be throwing them away in 8 months. The final touch were some Christmas lights that I put above my built in closets and desk. They put off a nice homey glow instead of the fluorescent lighting that makes me cringe upon seeing it. Since my cabin is rather small it is hard to get a photo that does it justice, so you all just need to come visit me at sea.

I had an entire day off in Ketchican this past week. Ashley and I searched the town in order to find free internet. We had no such luck and ended up buying entrees at Annabell’s so we could use their internet. The downside is that the internet kept cutting out…needless to say I didn’t get to skype very long with my mom. Ashley and I did stumble upon the most amazing smoked Salmon shop though…it is called the Salmon Market and you can visit them at www.salmonmarket.com. There customer service is amazing and they ship all over the country. It is a family owned business so check it out. Nick was so kind, he let Ashley have some salmon and said she could pay him next time we were in port. (In case some of you don’t know we only get paid once a month through Holland America.) Ashley and I thought the salmon was a perfect snack and it all tasted amazing. After sampling several kinds we ended up getting the King Salmon, Garlic Pepper, Teriyaki, and Pink Salmon! So don’t delay and go buy some amazing smoked salmon to support this Alaskan family!

In Juneau I had IPM. This is where a 1/3 of the crew is required to stay on board in case of an emergency. It is on a rotating schedule but on long port days, such as Juneau 8am-10pm, it can feel like lockdown! I was eating dinner and I remember thinking that I felt like the boy in the plastic bubble who couldn’t get to the outside world…a bit dramatic I know! I filled my time by sitting in the sauna, working out, eating, reading in the library and napping. I was also a little productive and caught up on some e-mails.

In Skagway I got up really early and headed out to find a coffee shop. I ended up choosing Glacier Smoothies and Espresso. It was a cute little shop and the coffee was decent, although they still offered a large cappuccino which is a big NO NO in coffee world! A true cappuccino can only come in one size… 8oz, everything else is not a cappuccino but rather a foamy latte. I also visited a bakery called Sugar Mama’s. It is known for their exquisite cupcakes! The red velvet is their top seller, but I was feeling a little adventures so I chose the Lemon cake with buttercream frosting topped with toasted coconut….YUMMY! It was a perfect cupcake. I don’t know if you have seen Cupcake Wars on I believe the Food Network, but it was totally up to par!

While in Skagway I got to meet a new friend named Sterling. He had become friends with one of our Shore Excursion managers and she really wanted him to meet some people his age on the ship. He was totally cool and has a really similar background as me. We had a long conversation about missions work and theology. It did my heart well to have a deep conversation with someone who had a faith background. I was craving it after all the superficial conversations that the crew have on board. Rashida, the Shore Ex. Manager, Tyler(one of our tour directors), Sterling, and myself all ate dinner at the Pinnacle Grill. It is our yuppy restaurant on board the Zaandam. The service was excellent, 5 stars, and my meal was incredibly prepared. I enjoyed crab cakes, a baby arugala salad with hot bacon dressing, surf and turf with a side of creamed spinach and whipped rosemary potatoes, and finished the entire experience with Grand Mariner Molten Chocolate Cake! If you weren’t hungry before, you may be now=) It was truly a perfect evening with friends….and then I did a show!!!! Hahaha! I didnt think I was going to fit in my costumes! Luckily I don’t do much dancing on stage and surprisingly the shows went really well performing on a full stomach!

I think that pretty much covers the highlights of my week. I hope everyone enjoys the 4^th of July! No fireworks for me this year. We are at sea all day long. I did enjoy a nice little festival yesterday in Seward. The parade was today, but they still had a mini street fair. Liz, Ashley, and I got to see the Ariel Angels perform! They kind of do a Cirque de Solei act over the open pavement. It was visually stunning and since they were risking their lives with not mats under them it made for a heart pounding experience! There is a Red White and Blue ball on board tonight to celebrate the holiday and an afternoon cookout on the Lido deck. We are performing Love Broadway tonight too! I really hope my congestion clears up so I can produce the sound I get paid to produce;) I will try and update in the middle of this cruise so my post is not so long! If you made it this far in the blog then I applaud your ability to stick with me through my rambling! Happy Independence Day!!!!!!!

-b