May 19- Grand Turk
So I decided I would get off in Grand Turk. I promised myself I would to my rig cleaning and relamping when I’m the tech on duty and won’t be able to get off at all. Brad said he was going to Jack’s Shack which is the local crew bar hangout and apparently they had delicious jerked chicken. I decided to tag along with him because he seemed to know a lot more about this than I did. Grand Turk is basically like Half Moon Cay except the island isn’t owned by Carnival. White sand beaches and wonderful clear water. We started the day a little bit late because we knew that we would be in Grand Turk until about 5. We walked past all the tourist places and headed straight down the beach in search for Jack’s Shack. There even is a local dog that lives with Jack and Janet (the owners of the bar) and all he does is chase people at the bar and swims in the ocean all day. Oh what a hard life he has. Brad bought him a toy in San Juan since he knew we would be going to see him. We basically hung out on the beach all day and I even found a conch shell. I wanted to bring it back but was afraid that something might be living in it and that would problematic for security, especially in Miami. The water was a wonderful blue (almost as if someone had dyed it) and the jerked chicken was indeed fantastic. I just had to be careful for bones. Janet is really nice (she’s the main bartender) and makes darn good drinks. I even saw a couple of people getting mojitos. I may have to grab one the next time I’m there. The day went by pretty quick (as it always does when you’re hanging out on the beach) and it was no time when we had to make our way back to the ship. We headed back a little early because I wanted to take a nap before my show tonight. Security was a breeze and the lines were minimal. Once back onboard I headed straight to my cabin for a nice nap. It didn’t feel like long but I woke up and looked at my watch and it read 8:00 pm. I was going to be late for the show! I jumped down from the bunk and managed to get my uniform and boots on in record time and sprinted down the decks to head to the booth. I like to get there at least 45 minutes early just to set up everything and make sure everything is working the way it should. I got everything set up in record time and it wasn’t too long before they were calling places. Luckily this was the Swing show so it didn’t need any lasers or CO2. Setting up the laser systems and chillers probably would have made me late if I arrived 30 minutes before show time. Jen completed her introduction and the show was on its way. SMPTE took the time cues perfectly but as the show went on I noticed something was terribly wrong. None of the movers were lamped up! Oh my God! I told Dianna that we needed to hold the show and restart. Apparently AMX (the brain that controls the different stage systems onboard) didn’t fire the correct macro and didn’t lamp on the movers. I brought the wash back up and Jen took her cue pretty well. She explained that we were experiencing some problems and the show would begin again soon. We waited for a few seconds and I made sure that everything was where it was suppose to be. I even grabbed one of the movers on the console and checked manually just to be sure. I really don’t have a lot of faith in the AMX system mainly because of the delay in the macros and the physical even that’s happening onstage. Jen completed her introduction again and we were off! Luckily the show was pretty uneventful after that. I hit all my spot cues and it was a pretty good show. After it ended we reset all of the movers and waited until the next show began. I didn’t really read much in my book during the show this time because after the events with AMX I was constantly looking for stuff to go wrong. It was almost like my paranoia with the dry ice systems when I ran Christmas Carol at the Alliance (I was constantly looking for things to go wrong- and they frequently did). I did all of my checks for the second show and this time I knew everything was ok. We started with Jen’s introduction again and took my normal SMPTE cues. I heard a series of two bangs and a thud. Apparently the Stage Right projector screen fell from its position and rolled out onstage. At that moment headset chatter exploded to figure out what we should do and how we could fix it. After a few moments of crisis management we decided to hold the show yet again to fix the screens. We couldn’t have the dancers going near the screens when they weren’t safe. Crap, two held shows in one day. This kind of thing never happens. Dan, the musical director, asked how many mirrors we broke before we got back on ship. I, personally, believe someone uttered The Scottish Play backstage and that was to blame for everything that happened. Kevin, the assistant cruise director managed to get the screen down (it was caught on one of the gigantic jester statue that are positioned on either sides of the stage). After it was safe Jen restarted her intro, yet again, and we proceeded with the rest of the show. After the end of the show all the technicians congregated backstage to inspect the screen and its anchor. Apparently one of the bolts in the anchoring had gotten loose over time and just decided to fall. It would have happened eventually but it just chose tonight to fail. Jen joked that we should start checking the projector screens in our preshow rig check just in case. Everyone was so concentrated about the screen falling from the sky they had completely forgot about my little mishap with the movers. Everyone was so stressed about the screens we all decided to head down to the crew bar after the show for a drink. I chose instead to go upstairs and visit the piano bar for some laughs and good tunes. I didn’t drink much because I would have to pay regular price for them and honestly it’s not worth it. I stayed there until the piano bar closed which was around 1:30 and headed straight to bed.
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