Rio de Janeiro

So we spent the last two days docked in Rio de Janeiro. Yesterday I wasn't able to go ashore because of this huge show that came on board. Fafa Nebelem or Debelem. I think that was her name... anyways... She's famous here in Brazil and she came on board for a special performance that drove us all insane. She's a total diva so the requests that she had were outrageous at times.

We had to partition the connex area of the ship that guests are used to crossing thru because she was afraid she would have fans bugging her a lot. So the passengers were getting upset at us because they couldn't go where they normally did, they'd have to find alternate routes and it was making them lose their way. I've learned the best way to not get lost on this ship is to always have a favorite route to where you're going, I'm guessing the guests do the same.

Plus, memorizing where certain art pieces helps to guide me. There are modern art collages in the connex area so I always know I'm between the theater and the planetarium when I enter the connex rooms.

So after hours of load in, which was all a pain because these people speak portugese and not spanish making it harder to understand them, Fafa shows up a couple hours late for her own personal sound check. The lighting guy wrote all over the light board in sharpie, and the sound guy did his own EQ of the room so both of our lighting and sound guys were frustrated.

Then we had to fix up connex rooms 4 and 5 for Fafa and the band, in that order. Room 3 was converted into the MC's own personal room. Then Fafa's entourage started asking for alcohol and food so I became more of an errand runner than a stage hand. But then they couldn't have tap water, they wanted bottled water. After that all arrived then they told us the MC wanted food and water of his own. After that arrived, then Fafa and her band needed 4 more bottled waters (smaller than the ones in her room) and a bucket of ice. When the ice arrived, apparently the bucket was too big. Ugh! Divas...

So basically, my work day yesterday was from 9:30am to 1:00am. I got up at 10am today so I could go to shore, and now I've eaten dinner, I'm waiting for the DVD rental place to open so I can get "Little Britain" season 1 and something else. Then I'm working at 8:45 and 10:30 tonight for the Welcome aboard show for the passengers who joined us in Rio.

Well, I better be on my way. Miss you all and love you lots. Robyn, turn off Ryan's TV and Mom I hope you're enjoying Da Vinci Code. Dad, I'll call again soon. My first pay day is in 2 days and I have no idea how this works since I'm having most of my money directly deposited into the savings account.

Roxanne

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