TravelStream™ news feed for member sophiestikated on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/sophiestikated en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:56:18 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1231937520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1231937520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1231937520/tpod.html Sun, 15 Feb 2009 07:56:18 -0500 Contact from the Tahitian Princess - Sophie and Andrew's adventures!

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Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

This is where we ended our 1st cruise experience. We were on a plane later that day and missed out the day of the 15th on our flight back to Sydney, Australia where we landed on the 16th.
Stay peeled for our adventures on the Pacific Princess - going to many of the same places, but with a few extras we haven't seen!
Bye-bye :)
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Pitcairn Island, United Kingdom

We never went to the island, but we sailed around it and the Pitcairners came aboard.
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Papeete, Society Islands, French Polynesia

This is just a recap of our final cruise on the Tahitian Princess.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1227152760/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1227152760/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1227152760/tpod.html Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:53:47 -0500 Contact from the Tahitian Princess - Sophie and Andrew's adventures!

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Papeete, Society Islands, French Polynesia

Life on board has gradually evolved for us. These days we spend most of our time reading. The food has become too familiar and hence has lost our interest. We eat salad when there are decent veggies on the salad bar, and we never grow tired of the pizza (though we do limit our visits to the Pizzeria for reasons of needing to fit into our costumes!) We're still really enjoying life on board, but we visit the shore less and Tahiti is losing our interest - we've been here a month and a half and apart from beaching it up, there's not much down here. My tan has faded since our hot and heavy beach days, but each time we head out in the sun it gains a bit more colour again. Plus, we did go to the beach 2 days ago in BoraBora where Andrew's wedding ring managed to fly off in the water. We proceeded to spend the longest 4 minutes in the world searching for it with a kind stranger's snorkel mask; me standing still so as not to lose the location, Andrew floating around fighting the current to stay in the vicinity. Once we FOUND it he swam around with his hand in a tight fist for the rest of the day.
We're looking forward to learning completely new shows for our next contract. Although we do enjoy the work, it can get tiresome repeating the same songs and chore for such a long time, and for me the make-up and hair routines are the most painful part. I like doing 'Ports of Call' for the simple fact that I wear wigs for the entire show, so there's no need to spend time brushing and teasing and spraying! Not that we're complaining - The simple fact that we're not in pointless part time jobs trying to cover rent and food is enough to keep us singing for joy! As I'm sure you can see we have some fantastic costumes. It's lots of fun playing around with them. And my wigs are great fun too! I always loved dress ups as a kid and that feeling has obviously carried through to my 'grown-uphood'. Andrew says he shares my childhood experiences on this subject as well.
We still have Thanksgiving and Christmas to come on the ship. I'm sure we'll have lots of wonderful stories to relay back and we expect stories from your side as well! It's hard enough missing Christmas back home let alone missing out on the stories!

Hope everyone's well. We miss you all terribly and can't wait to see you in 2 months time!
Love and kisses.

PS - For some of you this will be big news...
As I said, Andrew and I have taken up reading as a hobby. For those of you who know my study habits through school (and probably Uni too, I can't remember exactly) I was not really a model student - I was lucky to even get through 1 of the prescribed texts through senior high. My whole life I read maybe 3 books from cover to cover - That's 3 books in 25 years! In the past month I have read 4 books! And not just simple little short stories or mini novels, 3 of the books were around 500 pages and one of them was between 200 and 300. This is beyond an achievement for me and I just wanted to share that with you all. Although Andrew has not shared my dismal history with reading to the same extent, the amount of time and interest in this new hobby is also an achievement for him. He's in the middle of a 600 page biography on the life of Einstein (plus, it has really small text!) We're both really proud of our new pass time and I'll share with you the names of the books we've read simply because they are all really great books!

Sophie and Andrew
The Visitation by Frank Peretti - F
House by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker - F
Andrew
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown - F (a lot of junk facts in this book hidden behind the guise of fiction, but he's a really good writer and it's an interesting read)
Einstein by Walter Isaacson (still reading now) - NF
Sophie
The Three Evangelists by Fred Vargas - F
The Innocent Man by John Grisham - NF (This book is infuriating! About an innocent man (in fact several) sentenced to death; showing the corruption in the police and legal system of one county in America that to this day has not truly been corrected!) A MUST READ.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1225376040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1225376040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1225376040/tpod.html Fri, 31 Oct 2008 04:16:17 -0400 Contact from the Tahitian Princess - Sophie and Andrew's adventures!

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Papeete, Society Islands, French Polynesia

Well, it has been quite a while since my last entry, hasn't it...
Sorry 'bout that... We've passed through Hawaii and are now in Tahiti. Hawaii was beautiful. Waikiki was great, but really, it doesn't even compare (visually) to any of the beaches down here. Although, if you are a surfer, Tahiti is not for you. The water is crystal clear, beautifully warm and only ever reaches your waist. Seriously, you could walk for about a mile with out the water even covering you belly button! You wouldn't believe the colour - the photos are NOT doctored! Those are truly the colours.
The shows are going well, although we're going to be having some touch up rehearsals this cruise because there are a few areas that are getting a bit sloppy, including marks (that's our positioning on the stage - it's very particular on the ships)!
We've made some great friends. Jess, One of the dancer's, folks came and stayed in our spare room a few cruises ago and we became great mates with them! And Karlie, another dancer's, boyfriend was on this last cruise - another good mate now. Not to mention our little family - that's our cast. We all know each other so well now, and even when we don't like each other at times, we're family...it works itself out!
There's been a bit of a sad occurrence with another friend - Branco, one of the kitchen hands, has had troubles with the new chef (and he's not the only one...), and today he left the ship. He quit a few days ago. Its sad how one person can come in and throw out the delicate working balance. This new guys is arrogant and inconsiderate! He has cut down the break times for his staff to almost criminal lengths. SO frustrating!
Another friend left today too. Johnny (aka Junjun) finished his contract this morning and left the ship 40mins ago. We had dinner with our friend, Mike - my dresser for the shows, and then went to farewell Johnny.
Anyway, that's all I have for now. Just finished a fantastic book; 'The Visitation' by Frank Peretti. He's my new favourite author, and reading's one thing we have a lot of time for. That and swimming in the pristine beaches here...woe is me...hehe
Anyway, although it sounds like we never wanna leave, we miss you all back home soooo much! And we really can't wait to get back and see you all.
We should be getting some dvds made of the shows in 2 cruises time, which I know will make you very happy Mum.
Miss you all and love you too!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1221259320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1221259320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1221259320/tpod.html Fri, 12 Sep 2008 18:48:36 -0400 Contact from the Tahitian Princess - Sophie and Andrew's adventures!

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Kodiak Island, Alaska, United States

Weather's getting cold and bleak! But we're still loving the Cruise Ship game!
Check out these photos!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1221084240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1221084240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1221084240/tpod.html Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:30:00 -0400 Contact from the Tahitian Princess - Sophie and Andrew's adventures!

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Valdez, Alaska, United States

Hey Everyone,

Sorry It's been so long. It's hard to get on to the internet sometimes. We're back in Valdez. We had planned to go Kayaking today, BUT because yesterday was so rough at sea we had to potpone the show from last night to tonight. AND When we were awoken by the announcement this morning we learned that it was 7 degrees and raining! So we called off our plans (which is really crappy especially because it's Kalie's birthday today and that was going to be our celebration!) So the weather has been interrupting with our plans a bit!
Last Glacier Bay day (7th Sept) there was a special staff discount night in the Lotus Spa, so I got a facial and had an Iothermie treatment done. It was great! Andrew got his hair cut and most of the other performers either got massages or facials too! I love staff special days!
So my big exciting news (for me anyway) is that Andrew bought me a gorgeous, wonderful ring which we will be picking up this Sunday in Juneau. It's a blue diamond! Will post photos of it later on. :)
Anyway, our Alaska stint is almost over. We head off for Honolulu next friday. WE HAVE 5 SEA DAYS!!!!! That means almost definitely a sea sickness invasion. They are not fun! Yesterday was ALMOST as bad as that 1st one I wrote of previously and we have more forcast for later in the week. Being a small ship, the Tahitian tends to feel the big, stormy, windy days pretty bad. But they are minimal really. We're loving this experience so far and looking into more work like this in the future.
...Speaking of this kind of work in the future, our work on our little ship has secured us great possibilities for other SMALL ships in the future, but if we would like to look into the larger ships we need to impress a different crowd... this crowd just happens to be joining our cruise in Juneau where they will be watching a full run of 1 of our shows, which one we don't know yet. So we basically have an audition this Sunday. Wish us luck. :)

That's probably enough for now. Miss you all terribly. Feel a bit like we're in a time vortex where time doesn't really exist! I almost feel like when we come home time will have been standing still and everyone will be at the exact same place as they were the day we left...if only...
Hope everyone's well and experiencing great things.

Love
Soph and Andrew
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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Finally!!!!
Some photos :)
Check out some of the show piccies.
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Skagway, Alaska, United States

Hi All!!!
It's been a little while since the last entry because we've been completely flat out! Whatever free time we have at the moment is usually spent sleeping. Most of our rehearsals start at 11pm and finish between 2-4am. And in the first few days we had orientation at around 9 or 10am. Sometimes we have rehearsals during the day - today rehearsals were 9am-1pm, 2-4pm and we'll be having more rehearsals starting at 11pm. This is mainly because the Cruise Director has no clue about performing and the energy that goes into it! The schedule he's arranged for us is ridiculous and poor Olivia (our dance teacher/blocking director) is getting the brunt of the frustration from the cast. Difficult times... Having said that, I'm still loving every moment here. Even the tense, exhausting and painful ones. My right knee has been acting up a bit - I think it's from the 3" high heels I'm still getting used to wearing.
On a happier note...
The ship is exquisite! Absolutely beautiful! The décor is so regal and the options are many. There's a library, health spa, fitness centre, several restaurants (including a buffet that's open a lot of the time), a mini casino, a few duty free shops with perfume, make-up, jewellery, and lots more. There's also an auction where I might be able to get a part time job modeling thousand dollar jewellery. So all in all, life's going pretty well on the ship.

Canada was great! The hotel we stayed in was fantastic - Best Western Richmond Inn. Great sized rooms, well maintained, friendly staff, a pool and sauna, and a fantastic restaurant with meals so huge you'd explode if attempting to eat the entire thing! On our second day in Vancouver we (the whole cast - 8 of us) decided to go to a theme park - "Playland". It was so much fun! We had a blast scaring ourselves on the rollercoasters and any other ridiculous ride we could find...but the scariest attraction was the Ghost House. 6 of us went in clutching each other trying to navigate our way around this spooky maze, being lead by Andrew. Lets just say we're lucky that all underwear remained dry!

Alaska is beautiful. Not heaps of snow at this time, but there's still a few mountains capped with snow, plus there are lots of icebergs and glaciers. You'll see a few photos of these. Ketchikan was great! Lots to see and do. Skagway was really small and quaint. Kinda reminded me of Sovereign Hill. Nice for a short stroll. We haven't had much of a chance to really experience these places properly yet. Once the handover cruise is over and we have more time to sleep and experience the places we're docking at, there'll be much more detailed and exciting entries!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1217989140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1217989140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/sophiestikated/1/1217989140/tpod.html Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:21:39 -0400 Contact from the Tahitian Princess - Sophie and Andrew's adventures!

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Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

So, the most draining part of the travel is over! We have endured the 14 hour flight from Sydney to Vancouver and in 2 days we'll be boarding our new home for the next 5 and a half months... freaky!!!
Canada's been great so far! The people are really friendly and helpful, but they're not fake at all. Straight to the point and with that little hint of sarcasm to spice up the conversation. We're loving it!
Tomorrow, we're going to 'Playland at PNE Vancouver' with the rest of the cast. Can't wait!
The food here at the Best Western is awesome!!! Really great bar and grill with huge servings! Haven't been able to eat an entire meal yet... don't think I ever will.
Sorry no piccies yet. I'll try and get some up on the blog tomorrow after our big exciting day at the theme park!

Love from afar!!!

Soph and Andrew
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