Long ago and far away...

I discovered that I hadn't uploaded a few posts from our trip back to Southampton from Italy and our inaugural week, so - for the sake of completeness - I've added them here. Re-reading these posts again has made it all seem like a VERY long time ago!!

Azura (Monfalcone) Day 14 - 31st March 2010

Having survived our couple of days of 'Sea Trials' unscathed, today was originally scheduled to be our departure day from the shipyard and the start of the first cruise, but as there was still work going on on-board, we had to sit tight a little longer. To be honest, it didn't make all that much of a difference for us, as we would be rehearsing in the theatre whether we were at sea or not!

---

Azura A001 - Day 1 (1st April 2010)

Yes - it did sound a little like an April fool when we heard the Captain speaking from the bridge to say that we would be setting sail from Monfalcone this morning. But it wasn't, and the crew and officers and technicians, and anyone who wasn't on duty headed up on deck to wave goodbye to the shipyard (to the strains of Sarah Brightman and Andrea Boccelli singing 'Time To Say Goodbye - aptly!) with the Italian fire crews saluting our departure with their hoses firing into the air. It was a great feeling to be finally on our way, and know we were heading back to Southampton for all that the inaugural week will hold. Hurrah!  So we are now officially on the ship's first Cruise (A001).

---

Azura A001 - Day 4 (4th April 2010)

Today gave us a chance to get on stage with the "When Swing Was King" set, and get used to it. Technically this is a slightly simpler show, as there is less use of the pit, or flying pieces and so on. So it's great to be able to use the set and know it'll be the same each time you step on stage :-)

We spent the day running the show a couple of times, ending with a full run using the band as well, so it could be recorded to help the lighting team work on it whilst we weren't there. Whilst we were working on stage, we had taken a brief "pause" at Gibraltar to pick up and drop off (not literally!) some crew members - and we were so engrossed in our work, we didn't even notice - it wasn't until I went out on deck and noticed "the rock" that I realised it had happened at all.

Then it was a mad rush to get ready for dinner, as we've were lucky enough to wangle reservations at a number of the ship's restaurants this evening. Only to help them prepare and get used to guests of course - we get nothing from it at all ;-)

Sara, Dominic, Charles and I were booked into XVII, on Deck... yep, you guessed it - 17! It's a small, exclusive restaurant at the aft of the ship, with the Planet Bar on the deck above, and the terraces below. All the food we had was beautiful, and the service was great. We felt very well looked after - even though as every dish was brought to the table you had that slight 'food envy' creeping up, as each one looked delicious! None of us were disappointed though and, despite it showing a great lack of social graces, we did do a bit of tasting eachothers meals... well, just for testing purposes you understand!

After dinner, we all gradually migrated to Brodies to swap tales of our various culinary experiences. The Cruise staff were running Karaoke this evening, so Steph & Sarah did their bit for team HTC.Bless 'em!

---

Azura A001 - Day 6 (6th April 2010)

Today saw us saying 'goodbye' to "When Swing Was King" for a while, until the time comes round to perform the show proper. We had a somewhat stumbling or staggering dress run through this morning, and then a full dress rehearsal with lights and the orchestra too to round off the day. It's a really 'classy' show, and it's fab getting the chance to sing some real old favourites from the swing songbook, and pretend to be Frank Sinatra - just a little bit!

As tomorrow is Natalie's birthday, we arranged to go to dinner as a company, and went to eat in the fabulous Meridian Restaurant this evening. It's probably a good thing that I managed to visist the gym twice today, as I certainly made up for that with a 3 course meal and birthday cake after! Many Happy Returns Nat :-)

And don't forget of course that we're all excited to be arriving back into Southampton in a few hours time. It'll be good to be back on our mobiles at a reasonable rate again, and be able to pop to the shops for supplies! Whopee :-)

---

Azura Inaugural Week - Day 2 (8th April 2010)

Today has been quite odd for some of us, as it feels a little like we are relinquishing "our" ship to other people. Since we got on board back in March, it has only been Crew and staff from Fincantieri who have been on board. Now, there are others! Obviously this is some thing we need to get used to - as a cruise ship runs for it's Passengers... but it's just a bit new :-)

Today there have been a number of 'past passengers' invited on to the ship to wander around and sample some of the things Azura has to offer. Tonight we will be doing a performance of "Blame It On The Boogie" for the assembled masses, as they spend there evening on board. Hope they enjoy it!!

Azura A005 - Day 1 (26th May 2010)

Ummm, where did that month-and-a-half go?? I'm not sure... well, I do have an idea - it'll have gone on doing shows and rehearsing quite a lot!!

We're actually on our 4th cruise now (it's named A0005, but our 1st 'real' cruise, the maiden voyage, was A002 - get it?) and the time is racing by. Although we manage to jump off the ship every now and then (not literally!) and run to an internet cafe (!) tt's been pretty tough work at times, as there is such a lot of material to learn, and then get each show up and running in the theatre. We're working on our 7th show this coming cruise, with 2 more still to do. It's great to have the variety of material, but it does lead to some slight brain freezes at times!

"My Generation" is what will be keeping us busy for this next cruise, along with some pre-rehearsals on the vocals for "Reel To Reel" and "Tropical Fever". I must admit, given some of the weather we have had on the 1st few cruises, I hope we wait a while for "Tropical Fever" as it's our outdoor deck show. Brrrrr!

Although we won't have much time to see them, this cruise is our 1st 'Baltic' cruise, which is one I'm really looking forward to, as it includes some cities and I've never visited, and ends up at St Petersburg, which is very exciting. Hopefully when we re-visit this cruise later in the year I'll be able to spend some time ashore and get a feel for the places.

Neil & I managed to get our cabaret spot up and running on this last cruise, which was great fun. It was a little nerve-wracking at times, but we got through it. We were accompanied by the fabulous boys from Jet Set, which certainly helped as we knew we could rely on them (except perhaps for the odd 'segue'!) The response and comments from the audience after the show were really encouraging, so we'll look forward to doing it on some future cruises as well.

I am going to attempt to do some more blogging from now on (not sure how I'll fit it in... I can but try!) so hopefully it'll be a little more frequent than once ever month!!

Azura A001 - Day 5 (5th April 2010)

As I write I'm sat out on Deck 16 enjoying the last hour or so of sunshine on a very welcome (and rare!) evening off. 

Today started with a Crew safety drill at 9.30, so we donned our warm clothing, grabbed our head coverings and lifejackets and headed down to our muster station. The ship had been "moving" (!) somewhat during the night and continued to do so this morning, so by the time we got to rehearsals there were a few green faces amongst the cast. That even applied to some of the more sea-hardened travellers in our merry band, but once we got rehearsal underway and broke for lunch, things felt a bit calmer - phew!

We had a technical run-through with the band on stage in the afternoon, which went without any major hitches, so after a quick costume fitting for the show we were broken - in time to make our daily outing to the gym. Since leaving the shipyard (and because the Officers' Mess is being remodelled) we've been lucky enough to be sampling the cuisine in some of the onboard restaurants, as they prepare for passengers to come aboard from next week. Lucky passengers too, I say! So I have just come up from another sumptuous dinner in the Peninsular Restaurant and am getting a late evening sun tan at Breakers Bar. It's a tough life!!

BUT it hasn't ALL been suntans and cocktails thus far - there's been quite a lot of hard work too (honest!) As I've not had much time to keep up with the blog, I'll try and do a few 'catch up' sessions with photographic evidence over the coming days, so you can get up to date with the story so far.

It all began 19 days ago......

---

Azura (Monfalcone) Day 1 - 18th March 2010

(Ready for the off at Heathrow)
As our rehearsal period in London came to a close, another started for us over at the Fincantieri Shipyard in Monfalcone, Italy - where Azura has been under construction. We arrived from London - via Munich, and via some minor baggage stresses... no names mentioned (Neil!) - and were bussed from Trieste airport round the coast to Monfalcone - about 20mins - and then onto the shipyard to get our first view of our new home!

(Our first view of our new home...)
You could tell by everyone's reactions that she certainly made an impression! Following a quick introduction meeting from the Cruise staff (Neil, Benne and Jack) we headed on board, and began the process of finding our way around the ship. The Headliners Theatre Company (us lot... HTC) had been assigned cabins on Deck 4 and Deck 7, so -with a little help from some crew who knew better than we! - we found our cabins. 

The next milestone, once we'd been issued with some "happy feet" (you might notice these in some of the pics... plastic shoe covers to protect the carpets around the ship - can you guess why they've become christened "happy feet"....??), was to be taken in to see the Playhouse Theatre for the 1st time. More general excitement all round and a fair amount of screaming from some.

(Welcome to the Playhouse Theatre)
It was great to finally see the place we'd be performing these shows that we have been working on for such a long time. The technical team and stage crew were hard at work as we arrived, and running a little bit of "Destination Dance", so we got a little feel for things right away. The next task was to get escorted en-masse and head down to the Officers' Mess to meet our next vital requirement - food. At every turn there were (and still are!) things to learn - rules to abide by, traditions to figure out, names to remembers, routes to forget and re-learn (!) - so for those of us who were not fully versed in life on a ship, the first few hours and days were quite an eye-opening experience. And tiring too - so, night all!

---

Azura (Monfalcone) Day 2 - 19th March 2010

(Sporting my fetching Hard Hat - you like???)
Following a breakfast that you could easily get far too used to, we were issued with perhaps not THE most attractive fashion accessory - our hard hats. Although we were lucky enough to join the ship fairly late on in the building process, there was still a fair amount of work going on around the ship, with lots of bangs and clatters from the Fincantieri staff building and finishing off various parts of the ship. What with the headgear and the happy feet, we looked terribly dapper.

We had a number of safety inductions during the morning, for both ship-wide things and also specifically for the theatre - lots to learn and remember again. Finally after lunch we got the chance to get on to "our" stage and start rehearsals proper for Destination Dance in the theatre. There's always quite a lot to take on board in a new performing space, so we scrabbled our way through the day getting used to the space, and the pieces of set, and the routes backstage and so on.
(Neil & Sarah sampling the delights of Monfalcone)
And following a brief encounter with an Italian TV crew, we finished for the day and decided to make a brief trip into town (Monfalcone) to see what it had to offer.

---

Azura (Monfalcone) Day 3 - 20th March 2010

On the whole we had all figured out our preferred routes to the 3 most important places for us on the ship at the moment - our Cabins; the Theatre; and the Mess! I think we all had the odd geography malfunction and ended up somewhere that we didn't recognise, hadn't been to before, and had no idea how to get back from... how many times that happened I shall keep to myself!

(The girls sorting out the 'Carnival Cloak' bit!)

We spent the day working on 'Destination Dance' technical rehearsals. There are quite a lot of technical "things" happening throughout the show - including things flying, things rolling, things going up and down ... and that's just the dancers! As it's a new show and a new theatre there were a lot of things to be sorted as each new section was reached. As ever with technical rehearsals things can take a little time, but it certainly gives you a chance to get things back in your head that you learned back in January!

We worked through to the evening, but our day wasn't over once we'd finished rehearsals as we had fitting sessions for the raft of costumes we will be wearing in the show. Although the show is only 45 minutes long, there are as many (if not more...) costumes as you'd find in a 3 hours show. Lots of quick changes - so a fair amount of Velcro needed too!  Ellie & Kate have their work cut out for them... forgive the pun ;-)

(Charles and I sporting out Lion King cossies....ooooh!)

Finally here...

A quick message, as it's only the 2nd chance to be online since joining the ship. Lots of news and photos to pass on - but it may have to wait until we get back to Southampton on the 7th April.

We joined Azura on the 18th March, and have been frantically rehearsing our shows in the Playhouse Theatre onboard since then; checking costumes, working with our new tracks, getting used to the space - and trying to find our way around an ENORMOUS ship! :-)

Everything is going very well, and we're all still friends - which is no bad thing. Lots still to do, as we do have 9 shows to get sorted, but we're working our way through and will be moving on to the 3rd next week.

More photos to come, and a bit of "catch up" news when I have time online.

One day more...

Well - we're nearly there!!

Tomorrow is the last day in the UK for the Azura cast for some time, as we fly out to Monfalcone Shipyard   in the morning of Thursday 18th March, and won't be back until the beginning of April.

We finished up our London rehearsals on Saturday with a bit of revision of the shows we have learned so far. It was tough week last week, as we needed to prepare a 'show off' of Hitsville USA, When Swing was King and also Destination Dance with a new number included (watch out for flying flags... that's all I'll say!)

So it was a fairly frazzled cast that said 'Cheerio' to Alford House on Saturday evening, headed home and will be meeting up again at Heathrow at 9.00am on Thursday morning for our flights over to Europe ... "Do not pass go; Do not collect £200; Do not enter the Duty Free"!! :-)

So the next instalment should be from somewhere in Italy - watch this space!

Azura "on trial"...

Well, she's on the water!

Click the link to see some pictures of our new home being put through her paces (Azura Sea Trials )

Good grief - she's ENORMOUS!!!

Rehearsals Day 57 - Ain't no mountain high enough...

Phew what a long day! Good, but tough... there's a touch of the "lurgy" floating around, so all the numbers are interspersed with the odd cough and splutter! Hey ho... get it all out of the way now :-)

It's hard to believe that we are in our final week of rehearsals in London (it's arrived AT LAST!) It seems like a lifetime ago that we all arrived on the 4th Jan, nervously introducing ourselves in the green room at Alford House on our first day. All old friends now... nice :-)

Yesterday saw us revising our swing show - "When Swing Was King", and also the Motown singers' show "Hitsville USA". Talk about a lifetime ago - until last weekend we hadn't visited Hitsville since January, so we needed some fairly hefty "reminding", I can tell you. No worries though, as we have spent the bulk of today working through the show and polishing it up. Also, we've been working in a more precise space which matches that which we'll be working on onboard. Hitsville is the show that we will be performing more as a lounge show, and not in the Playhouse Theatre, so it's more intimate. It will be great doing this kind of show in that setting - it just means we mustn't get TOO carried away with big dance moves!

The dancers had spent all day working on our Boogie show ("Blame it on the Boogie") and "Destination Dance", as we'll be performing these later in the week. And then - bless them - Jerry our Choreographer brought them all downstairs to watch our run of Hitsville to give us an audience... Awww!

So - we are ploughing headlong into our final few days of rehearsals on land. A little sign that we're almost there appeared yesterday as well, with the arrival of our Seaman's Discharge books... get us, all official! No stopping us... roll on Thursday 18th March - Azura here we come :-)