This blog is a personal account of the journey of Paul Zaidman and Cheryl Smith dating back to March 2005 when we first were recruited to sail onboard the QE2 as dancers, performers and teachers.
What started as a 4 month contract turned into almost two years as we progressed to the number 1 cruiseline, Crystal Cruises. This blog was updated regularly with photos and stories
The latest updates are from the most recent cruises in January 2010
Check out the PHOTOS in our gallery, there are loads of them since 2007
No. 1 Question.... So how was the trip?
Illnesses are amazing things; they stop you dead in your tracks, sit you down and make you think.
Yes, I know, you all told me I needed to stop…
That’s exactly what I did just before Xmas when my Thyroid went bezerk. I looked at my life and realized I had it all out of whack. I was under the impression that if I was doing the thing I loved, I would have boundless energy and could just keep going and going. Oh that’s right, there’s this thing called “rest” we human beings need every once in a while! What a crazy concept!
But I had created my life as “incredibly busy” with all these tasks, jobs and things to do, how could I NOT do them? Even more intriguing was my reaction to letting go of some of these precious tasks, they were like my babies, my newborn children, I couldn’t possibly leave them with someone else, someone who didn’t know how to look after them like I did!
Let go was exactly what I needed and what the Doctor was ordering. My mind knew it but my body was terrified. I love the concept of COURAGE “Feel the fear and still do it” and that’s exactly what I did. I arranged meetings, wrote emails, wrote documents and made telephone calls, all of them giving away my precious babies! So when I set foot on that international flight to South America, I was suitably lighter and ready for the next phase of my life.
Hurry up and wait
After 40 hours in transit and non-stop turbulence, Paul and I arrived at our ship to be told to hurry up and wait. For 2 hours we sat on the dock, waiting to get onboard. When we got onboard at around 9am, we knew our room might not be ready but we didn’t expect to wait until 4pm! And even so, we had a rehearsal scheduled for 4.30pm as we just heard we had a performance scheduled for that night!
Needless to say, we dragged our sorry butts around the ship, saying hi to the fabulous crew that have been there for 15-20 years, even saying hello to some of the same guests we cruised with 3 years ago!
Fortunately for us, we didn’t perform that night, our luggage mysteriously disappeared and we figured that someone was on our side cos our legs wouldn’t co-operate and we looked like doggy doo-doo on that big stage with bright lights to enhance all our flaws.
Back on board, same ship, same crew, same room even!
Yep, we had the same Cruise Director, the same Deck Hands, even the same waiters in the dining room! The best of all was the coffee shop boys; I was greeted with “Hello Miss Cherril, would you like your usual Soy Latte, weak and hot?” Crystal is renowned for having the best crew in the world. To be a waiter on this ship means you have probably sat in a queue for 2 years for even the most basic waiting job.
Whets it like on board?
Being onboard is a dream. There’s a bit of effort getting on but once you’re unpacked, that’s it, the hard work is over. The best thing is you don’t pay for anything! The food is covered, the coffee shop, the shows everything! For us anyway, we don’t drink or smoke cigars, so they are the other costs.
The best thing is there are NO MOBILE PHONES onboard the ship! And even if people try to talk on them, everyone looks at you like you’re a wanker and if you try it on in the dining room; the Matre D will come and ask you to put it away! I LOVE IT!
Internet is available but it’s diabolically slow, so it’s a once every few days for 20 mins kind of thing. Makes for so much more time to sit in the Jacuzzi, have High Tea or watch a show. It’s awesome!
What did we do?
We had been to most of the ports before, so our aim was to sit back, relax and enjoy the whole experience. And that’s exactly what we did. We tried to get as much sleep as possible (without denying our guests our energy), we ate well, looked after ourselves, went to the gym and generally relaxed.
The funniest part is the number of classes we did. If you hang with us in Australia, you know the pace we run at, it’s fast and furious. On the ship, we did 1 class every sea day (while we were at sea during the day) and on this contract, there were 4 sea days for every 12 days. So compared to teaching at home, we had it very easy.
We chose not to pursue too many private lessons, plus the ship was madly booked so it made it very hard to teach so we had even more relaxation time than other contracts.
Ports we visited
When we did go ashore, we took the whole day and hired a moped and explored on our own. We saw Columbia for the first time, Key West Miami was our first and it was awesome. We also saw a few new ports in the Caribbean and Peru was a first for us too. We didn’t get to see much in Peru, Machupichu is too far away, so we just went local and enjoyed the country.
Will we do it again?
We were offered another short contract but we declined as it was too close to this one and we needed to get back to Melbourne. But definitely we would love to cruise again with Crystal, it’s an amazing experience, we are truly blessed to be able to have the opportunity.
We did a small BLOG this time but there’s an even BIGGER BLOG from the first time we cruised 3 years ago. Check them out and please, don’t feel like a voyeur, we love to share!
