72 cities in 18 countries! - our last cruise

OUR LAST CRUISE!

Hello all,

A couple photos for last time i missed out on:
Me with one of the windmills of Mykonos:

The girls and I in Ajjacio (of course in France I always have my orangina on me:

Gemma and Nina and I with the windmills in the background:

And Gemma & I at the windmills:

Well last time we left off, I was in Athens; so from there we sailed onto Irakalion Greece, where I popped off for a little greek food for the last time and wandered around the wonderful island of Crete. Nina and I found a local Greek fast food type place where all the locals were eating these amazing looking gyros, so we got a couple and boy they were delicious, stuffed with thick cut fries and tasty chicken all wrapped in pita.

We wandered through the market type streets and of course hit Starbucks (you can’t know how amazing Starbucks is, until you can’t have it whenever you want it! Lol) for some frapps and some wifi. The girls bought these beautiful bed throws handmade in India.

Nina, Olivia, and I on Crete:

We then headed to Taromina, Italy, after a sea day; however, the water was so rocky (the worst night we had) that we couldn’t port in there so we instead went to Catania, which was apparently not as nice, but still good for a great Sicilian Margarita Pizza! So tasty! I wandered the streets a bit as it was our last day for Italy and then headed back to the ship full and satisfied. OH, by the way on our day at sea we had an amazing guest entertainer, named Michel Bell! He has a brialliant Bass voice and his wife Catherine Matejka is his incredible musical director. They performed to a small crowd because the waves were literally making things in our suites fall off shelves and slide our furniture. Anyway, I realized when he sang his Tony Nominated version of “Old Man River” that I had heard him do it 10 years earlier, at a workshop I attended in school! We chatted for a while and brought back old memories and then he asked if I would sing with him for his second show!!

So a long story short I sang “You’ve lost that Lovin’ Feelin’” with Tony nominee Michel Bell in his concert! It was an incredible experience working with him and being musically directed by the incredible Catherine Matejka, both of whom have worked countless years on Broadway. The show went off without a hitch and the number was a great success!

The next day we hit our last new Port of the Trip Valletta, Malta! I loved it! My brother-in-law’s sister-in-law (did you follow that) had said it was one of her favorite places in Europe and I can see why! It is such an amazing city because it feels so unconquered. It has been taken over by so many different countries over hundreds of years that it has really no dominating feel to it. I ran all over the city with first Nina and then with Gemma and Joanne. I witnessed the changing of the guard at the Palace (and btw did I mention Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was there that day?! …I didn’t see her though lol. What, were you expecting me to say that she invited me up for tea?! Nope) Anyway Malta was a lovely place with beautiful views of the harbor and island.
ME with the ship in Valletta's Harbor:

After a calmer day at sea we headed into Palma de Mallorca, and our stager Claire came back on board! It was so great to see her again! She came back of course, to take care of the end of our contracts and whatnot. We performed all of our last shows. Sad face. They all went wonderfully and were performed with great emotion. After six months with a cast you form bonds that last and of course it was difficult to end everything.

THE CAST:

We had our last day at sea on our way to Malaga, and packing was in full swing. I headed off the ship in the rain with Claire our stager. We had a wonderful tapas lunch which included two rounds of the most delicious fried camembert with a raspberry sauce and orange slices. So good. We also found a pansy bush which we had found at the very beginning of the trip when she set us on the ship in Cadiz! Amazing, I think, a great way to come full circle:

Because of weather we skipped our last port of call and headed straight for Lisbon, where we over-nighted and did our last show. The entire cast, our wonderful international hostess, and Claire (our stager) were all invited to dinner, in the restaurant on the last night, by our on ship boss: the amazing cruise director Judie! It was a special night complete with Champagne toasts, gifts to our dance captain, and photos! A magical way to end what will be hopefully the first of many great ship contracts! I then finished my packing and signed off the ship in the morning. Went with Claire to the cargo bay to ship off most of our shows back to Jean Ann Ryan Prod. in Florida; then headed over to the passenger terminal and got onto the plane, where I am currently writing this!

THE CAST with our Cruise Director Judie (a gem):

Wow, what a journey this has been. From Miami to Europe and back to New York, with seven months in-between! It has been such a pleasure working for Jean Ann Ryan Productions, and being her principle male singer on board the M/V Silver Cloud. I would like to take this opportunity to thank her and her whole team, including Joanne, Eric, Brian, Gabriella, and especially our a…mazing stagers Heather and Claire, and musical director Manny. What a thrill this has been for me, seeing the sights of Iceland, Norway, the top of Russia, The British Isles, Denmark, the Baltic, transiting the Kiel Canal, the western coast of Europe, Gibraltar, and the Mediterranean.

72 cities in 18 Countries!!

I love singing on a cruise ship and can see myself doing it a bit more. So we’ll see what happens. As you may or may not know, the life of an actor is always up in the air so, for now, I’m taking a little vacation from work and am very happy and excited at the thought of spending the holidays with family this time!

Thank you all for reading and staying on the up and up on the adventures of my Life on the SilverSea! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading as much as I’ve enjoyed living it. I will most likely come back in a bit with some updates so check back!

Lots of love from who knows where,
Rhett

Spread love and be happy!

GREECE!

Hello All!

This marks another cruise down and ONLY ONE TO GO!

What will you do without my exciting adventures? Hah. I’m sure you’ll think of something. Well, it’s not the end yet, there will be this cruise I’m posting now, and the next one to come, and then most likely a few photo uploads!

From Civi we continued our Italian journey southward bound to the cliff town of Sorrento.

We set anchor, and tendered in. Remember tendering? I was very excited to go ashore with Gemma! She had a few hours off, so we took the shuttle up the cliff, and decided to walk through the town to the sea. The town was nice, but it was all about the incredible views over the edge of this high cliff sea town.

We walked down an incredible stairway carved into the cliff itself, and were at the pebbly beachside dipping our feet in the crystal water as soon as poss. We headed over to the port area and were coerced into having a coffee (slash milkshake, slash pizza) in a little Italian restaurant overlooking the harbor. It was all in all a lovely day out with a lovely lady.

Our next port was the amazing city of Livorno, Sicily, Italy. A dusty city, but a cool one; the stores like Zara, and H&M were in modern buildings, next to three hundred year old marvels. The traffic of Livorno was a site to see, from anywhere. You had to be careful, I almost got run over by a motorcycle…on the sidewalk! It came blazing at me from behind, on the sideWALK! (I thought you were safe as a pedestrian there, but apparently not! Lol) I did a little shopping and headed to the ship, BUT not before trying my very first Italian canoli with Celina, our DTP. What an AMAZING thing to eat! I can only describe it as being close to the taste of the sweet cream-cheese filling of the Cream-cheese Pretzels at Disneyland! What a tasty morsel! YUM

We then had a day at sea, and headed on over to GREECE! (It’s the word, after all.) My first day spent in Greece, was on the island of Corfu.

It was a nice island, the water so light blue that I felt like I was on a set. The town we saw from the ship was a bit rundown, but after we passed a fortress, we hit the “old town” and it was a wonderful pedestrian area with restaurants and little shops as far as the eye could see. It was packed with people of all kinds, as there were two giant ships also in port with us. While wondering I ran into Gemma, Celina, Tim (our guest relations manager), and Maria (our shore concierge assistant) all having lunch, so I joined, naturally. Ha.

Some real Greek food on my first Greek adventure was amazing.

After Corfu, came Itea, but I was on IPM; however as if was the only rainy day, I was glad I had it inside! We then sailed onto Katakolion, which was a a three street town! This was the first time I caught a glimpse of the Grecian Fakes! They had fake bags, belts, and wallets lining the street, from Louis Vuittton to Prado to Borberry, and everything in between. I had a look-see, but didn’t find anything worth taking, so I continued my stroll and then sat down for some ice-cream with Ares and Nina and when I was done headed back to the ship.

Next came one of my favorites, Mykonos!

It was such a beautiful island, with its tiny streets of white walls and colorful stairs and doors of blue and green. The shops that lined the streets are hard to describe, as you could just take a turn walk by some houses and then come up on some amazing little stores without knowing where you were!

It was so nice to be able to roam around and walk into whatever store we chose. I came across a little store called Loco, and got the most beautiful hand made knit shirt, which is very much like something the people in Greece wear. Gemma, Nina and I stopped for lunch and we had the most delicious Taromosalata and Tatziki, with delicious crusty bread and of course a coca-cola as it is the soda of the world. We then headed over to see its famous windmills, and boy they were beautiful, sitting near “little Venice” where the houses jut out over the water.

Our next island adventure was Santorini.

This has to be one of my favorite places we’ve been to so far. Sitting atop of a sunken volcano, the whitewashed town looks like snow from the window of the ship.

It is just amazing to realize that the closer you get the more it starts to look like an actual town. You can take a long smelly donkey ride up the hill or a cable car…I opted for the cable car (obvi). Once atop the mountain, you’re in the heart of its biggest town Fira. Karen (the boutique manager) and I spent the day together, and did a bit of shopping, where I finally got the white linen pants I’ve wanted for a few years, and did some wine and olive oil tasting. The man also refused to not let me try a whole olive stuffed with garlic (a specialty of the island), even after I said I wasn’t a big fan of the olives themselves, and so I ate it. For the rest of the day, Karen and I could taste those giant olives (they were awful for non olive lovers) and I think I can still taste it every now and again. Luckily we found a great little very Greek restaurant and sat down to the best meal Ive had off the ship on the trip. I had my first taste of a real Greek Gyro! (btw, it’s pronounced e-you-row for all those Americans who pronounce it gy-i-row like I did.) It was the most delicious thing, the chicken cooked in the most gorgeous way, with delicious Tatziki sauce, lettuce, and fresh cut thick steak fries. When I asked for ketchup, he said to me in a thick Greek accent, “ketchup was made to cover up mistakes, those are hand cut fresh fires don’t waste them.” Then he smiled, and handed me ketchup. I tell you folks, of ketchup was made to cover up mistakes, I must love mistakes. Anyway, delicious lunch, is the point.

Our next and final stop for this cruise was Piraeus, Greece port for Athens. I put myself on as the escort for the in-transit (meaning the people who are staying for the next leg of the cruise) tour to the Acropolis and it’s museum, as I’ve always wanted to see the Parthenon. We headed into Athens, when there was a strike of all public transit (lucky we had our own bus), and went to the beautiful Acropolis museum seeing many of the original statues of the Parthenon, and then headed to the Acropolis itself. We saw Dionosys’ theatre, where Greek tragedy was born, the beautiful Roman amphitheatre where greats like Pavarotti have performed, the temple of Athena Nike, and others, and of course sitting atop the hill the (un-equaled in architectural beauty) Parthenon. I was literally in awe with my mouth hanging wide open, staring up at this gorgeous building, and of course got a great snapshot. It is absolutely stunning to see in person, and to think that it’s been there for thousands of years. WOW.

WHAT A TRIP!
Well, I’ll see you all for the last cruise from Piraeus back to Lisbon!

Lots of love all the time,
Rhett

ONLY 3 LEFT! PART 1: Lisbon to Civitavecchia

HOLDING UP THE LEANING TOWER!!

We’re starting to hit some of the same ports again, so I started to hit the beach. I figured, for the most part, if I hadn’t seen the place I should do that, and then I’d hit the beach! Well, that proved to be a good plan, but it definitely had its hiccoughs. Once we hit the beautiful beach Praia da Rocha in Portimao, I layed out in the glorious sun and came back to the ship as a steamed lobster.

On the way to the beach:

With some Aloe vera and four days time, the burn has turned into a bit of a tan, which is good, because I would usually peal from a sunburn like that. (meaning I almost emptied a bottle of aloe vera!) Of course that changed my plan for a few days, and when we came back to Cadiz, I wondered around town in full on protective clothing (a t-shirt and long shorts vs. my usual tank and regular shorts). Our barbeque in Palma de Mallorca got rained out, which was very sad, so we did our deck show in the theatre instead. Cooler in temperature, but way less fun! While in Mallorca, I hit the shopping mall to get some wifi and got a good dose of Fbook, and sent some very important e-mails that needed sending.

Our next stop was Port de Mahon a port in Menorca, which is a little island off the coast of the bigger island of Mallorca, off the east coast of Spain. It had a charming little town, with winding shopping streets that led up to a big market square, right next to the port. We walked off the ship in a huge group, climbed a few stairs, and were in the center of the town Mão. Olga and I continued to walk around for a bit and then, (after purchasing some ice-cream and a postcard) headed back for the ship.
Spanish jamon:

Next came Ajjacio, Corsica. An unbelievably beautiful coast line surrounds the French island of Corsica, which I need to go back to in my life:

The French people, unlike Paris, are very friendly and the surroundings are gorgeous. The water is the clearest water I’ve seen in years and was a lovely temperature, I just jumped right in. The only drawback was that the beach we went to was literally fifteen feet from wall to water, and maybe, MAYBE, the length of one football field from rocky point to rocky wall. But I’m sure there are other beaches and that one certainly did the trick!
A side street:

We then hit Italy for the first time on the ship to the port of Livorno, and man, was it a great day! I left with most of the cast, and Juliana (who was our Jewelry manager), and Alix one of our receptionists. We were all headed to Florence for the day, but while I was on the train, I met a lovely young man from Pisa, who offered to show us around his town and take us the leaning tower. Of course I said yes, and Juliana and Alix came with me. We walked around as I chatted with Cesare, (pronounced Chess-are-eh) about his home and then we arrived at the stunning Leaning tower.
Juliana, Alix, myself, and Cesare:

We all took some photos, Cesare left off to a dentist appointment, and then the girls and I headed back to the station and on to Firenze (Florence). Arriving in Florence we were greeted by one of our receptionists that was on vacation (who lives in Italy) and it was really nice to see her. We walked around, and saw the Duomo and Baptistry, the Piazza della Signore, and while on the Ponte Veccio, I took a photo (for my mother) of me in the same place I sat 10 years earlier when I was visiting with my mother:

The orginal of me is sitting in her living room (hi mum!) Then we went for a beautiful Italian Pizza lunch, and the lovely Alessia bought it for us!
Jules & I at lunch:

She said, when she comes to our countries, we could buy her lunch. (so sweet!)
mmm pizza:

We “Romed” the streets a bit and then headed back to Livorno and the ship. A great day indeed!

The next day we were in Portofino, and I would love to be back there. A charming little Italian yacht town with high end shopping, what could be better? Have a million dollar yacht and a million dollars to spend in the shops of Hermes, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Zegna, Feragamo, and more! The crystal blue deep water harbour was a tender port, so looking back to the bay and seeing our ship in the middle of the sea surrounded by twenty thirty fifty foot yachts was quite a site!
Portofino:

and the yachts:

After Portofino, we sailed into Civittavecchia, the port city of Rome, and we there docked with The Silver Spirit! As we were in rehearsals with the Spirit, I came to love the cast like my own, so it was very exciting for me to see them all and to go on board the ship to see what it was like!
me with claire and Annie of the Spirit cast:

A much larger ship (but still fairly small comparatively) it houses 540 guests, unlike our 290 guests. With a few extra decks the theatre is actually smaller then ours, but has no tables for drinks, so it feels more like a theatre then a lounge. However their theatre is one deck, so you can touch the lights on the ceiling, where as ours is two, so its much more roomy and open. Their dressing rooms are much nicer though, but we have better accommodations. So, like with all things, you win some, you loose some. After giving Claire (one of the dancers on the Spirit) a tour of our ship I did a bit of Embarkation work and then went out to lunch with her and Annie (the female singer on the Spirit from California!) It was amazing just to spend some time with them and to see what they had been up to the past five months. I felt so sad to have to leave them after spending the day together, especially, since we were loosing quite a few of our favorite staff members on board; however, at 5.45, I heard the wonderful sweet voice of Judie our original cruise director (who had been on vacation) booming over the speakers, and it was all better. Oh how we missed her!

That concludes this trip. Please turn over to side B to hear about next cruise! (Hehe)

Lots of Love with two cruises to go,

Rhett

7 Days and The Top of The Rock!

A very quick cruise indeed we squeezed seven shows into six days as we headed back to Lisbon, Portugal. This cruise, apart from the shows of course, allowed me to catch up on my sleep and refresh for the month left of my contract. I didn’t do too much…

Debarking from Barcelona, we headed to Palma de Mallorca, which was a lovely little city in the harbor of a beautiful island off the coast of eastern Spain. I wondered around the tiny little cobblestone streets packed with history and culture. I walked into a few little corridors one of which turned out to be a beautiful Public Gardens. I wandered around the outside of the gorgeous cathedral that sits centrally atop the hill of the city. When I was completely exhausted from walking and had pulled a muscle in my toe, which still is aggravating me a week later, I headed back for the ship.

Palma alleyways:

We headed onto Malaga, but I was on IPM that day so, I did my duties and rested on the ship catching up of my movie watching (translation catching up on finally watching Pirates of the Caribbean 4).

Our next port was Gibraltar, which was amazing and one of my favorite spots so far. It is sort of like a little England with a suntan. Perhaps better described as Spain trying to do England trying to do a summer holiday city. It had all the English foods and stores, and had the charm of a Spanish town, and I really quite enjoyed that. Mark, a new friend and addition to the clan (he is the Shore concierge manager), Victoria, Nina, Kelly, Olivia and I took a cable car ride to the top of the rock of Gibraltar. (Did I mention that Mark got us the free tickets?…but don’t worry, that’s not the only reason we’ve added him to the group, he’s also a awesome guy.) Once at the top of the rock, we looked out over the straight of Gibraltar and saw Africa! Standing in the UK, looking out at Spain and Africa was a sight to see. It was an amazing thing that I would recommend to everyone. There were also these crazy monkeys that live all over the rock, and they are not scared of humans at all. When we got out of the cable car one jumped on the back of the guy in front of me. While we were looking at the view I asked Oli to take a picture of me next to a giant one and I must have gotten a bit to close as he batted me away. He hit my leg with his arm; it frightened the daylight out of me, but didn’t hurt. Mark, Vicki and I went to go get some fish & chips, (why not?) and they were delicious! It started to rain, so I headed back for the ship.

the group of us on top of the rock:

the monkey that attacked me:

That evening we sailed through the straight while there was still light out and it was astonishing to see Spain starboard and to see Africa on our Port. I really enjoyed walking around our top deck just looking at the night lights of Morocco! We next came to Cadiz and Vicki, Kelly, and I set out for the beautiful beach I had spotted while on tour the week earlier. We soaked up some sun and paddled about in the water and then headed into town for a late lunch where Victoria was exchanged for Olivia and Antonio (one of the waiters who was about to leave us in Lisbon.) I headed back to the ship for a late siesta after roaming the streets a bit, and then without even suspecting it, we were off to Portugal.

We came into Portimao, Portugal and I headed out with Kelly and Vicki to town. It, however, was a Sunday, so literally everything was closed; so instead I came back to the ship for lunch and picked up Gemma and Joanne, from the spa; who by the way cut my hair to the original length of my contract, which was very nice to be cleaned up. So Gem and Jo and I went to the beautiful beach Playa de Russia, and laid out next to some very good looking Spaniards. I looked white. I mean seriously white next to these tan young women and men. But what was I gonna do, the only way to get a little color was to be there in all my whiteness, so that’s what I did.

We pulled into Lisbon and I headed into town for some wifi at the Starbucks I had found with Lara and Rob, a few days earlier, and it was at this point that I caught up on my birthdays. I had missed some very important ones, what with no internet and no track of days. I literally as I am writing this have no idea what day it is. Is that bad? I know it’s somewhere near the end of September. I apologize to all those people who’s birthdays I missed celebrating. Post the starbucks, I headed back to the ship for embarkation and a nap. Which brings us up to the next voyage, which we just started heading to Civitavecchia (Rome).

Me at the top of gibraltar with africa on the left and Spain on the right:

Love heals,
Rhett

My sister and Brother-in-law came to the Ship!

WOW!

What a cruise we have had!

Hello all, thanks for joining in on my adventures. I hope you are enjoying reading along as much as I enjoy filling you in!

So as you may have read, Lara & Rob, my sister and her husband, my brother-in-law, joined us in Southampton and stayed through the end of the cruise in Barcelona. We took off heading to St. Malo, France and on the way I showed them both around this ship and they became familiar with all the amazing levels of pampering that Silversea has to offer. We arrived in St. Malo, and unfortunately I had IPM, so I couldn’t get off the ship with them, because I wanted to get my IPM out of the way in a place I had been to before. It turned out to be a great thing.

Upon leaving St. Malo, we had a day at sea, and then we headed for Bordeaux, France. Bordeaux is a beautiful city, with some amazing Parisian looking buildings. In fact, it looks almost exactly like a little Paris. This is mostly because the architects in the 17th and 18th centuries worked on designs for both cities. Rob, Lara and I went on our first tour the moment we arrived to the Graves area, which produces some wonderful white wines. Our tour unfortunately left a bit to be desired as the wines we tasted were not the best. Oh well, you win some you loose some I guess. It’s been worse. After the tour we went out to explore the beautiful city during the evening and then found a wonderful bistro that had some amazing escargots, moules frites, and of course a crepe for dessert all for 15 euro! Rob and Lara also got a Charcuterie plate and a fromage plate, which are meat and cheese plates. We stumbled around the city with the cast looking for somewhere to dance, and it turned out that the city didn’t really get buzzing until 2am! So we decided to head back to the area around the ship. While we were on the train, some gangster type Frenchmen started to annoy some of the girls and Marlin was born. I stepped in, but suddenly in an Australian accent, a very bold and courageous character came out. Marlin, from Sydney, who wouldn’t stop talking to the Frenchmen, in a very polite and friendly manner I might add, made the Frenchmen back off as it wasn’t worth the trouble. HAH! As we had an overnight in the amazing Bordeaux, the next day we had our next tour, which was of the Medóc region, where we visited the unbelievably amazing and incredibly tasty Chateau Lynch Bages, which produces some of the best red wine in the amazing wine region of Bordeaux. They took us around the winery and we tasted a couple of there amazing reds. Then we headed back to the ship and we took off.
The weather where we were headed in St. Jean de Luz, France was supposed to be a bit rough, so the Captain, in the first time ever since I’ve been on board, decided to skip the town and arrive in our next city a day early. It turned out to be a wonderful thing as we headed into Bilbao, Spain. Upon arriving we headed into the city and took a wander. We headed over the famous Guggenheim museum of Bilbao, but as it was a Monday it was closed. However the building itself is a marvel, designed by the great Frank Gehery. If you happen to be a Disney fan (lol) it looks very similar to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California designed by the same man. It just has more sandstone elements to it and is more of a gold version. It also had a giant flower dog outside of the museum, which I can only describe with this picture:

**By the way that's me standing beneath it!**

We walked around the building and then headed into the heart of the city for a delicious lunch made up of white asparagus, langoustine salad, and Rob of course got a plate of jamón, or ham! It was delicious. We headed back to the ship, as there was our second show to do, fittingly our Latin show, Fiesta Latina Nights. As this was our surprise last overnight we were able to go out the next morning on a tour of the Rioja region of wine in the north of Spain. We visited a beautiful little town on top of a hill (which most of my readers will know as the same name as my home airport) La Guardia. It had a castle, which we retuned later to eat a fabulous lunch in, and its little alleyways and streets were not to be missed. Unfortunately Lara wasn’t feeling too well the morning we left so it was up to Rob and I to enjoy it for her. We then headed over to the famous and oldest Rioja winery Marques de Riscal:

During our tour of the amazing winery (did I mention that the Hotel which sits on the winery was another of the amazing buildings designed by Frank Gehery which I almost prefer to the Guggenheim. It really is a marvel:

) we got to see bottling in the works and it was so neat to see the atomized machines placing the labels on the bottles and such. We went into their “cathedral” which had wines from every year of production since the winery opened in 1819! After touring the entire place, we had a tasting of their white, which was lovely and their reserve red, which was also really scrumptious! What an amazing tour it was to see everything in production. When we got back to the ship we had our Broadway show that night and after the show ended I did a special encore number, in which I performed the song “In Whatever Time We Have.” The last time that I sang the song was six years ago after Lara and Rob said their vows to each other and so it was a special dedication to them on their six-year anniversary, and I think they really enjoyed it.

We then had a day at sea, in which Lara and Rob had an onboard wine tasting, the three of us went to the onboard Galley Lunch, in which they open up the galley, or kitchen, and put up a bountiful display of food including an Eiffel tower made of chocolate and a little Italian chef- man made of marzipan. The two of them also went to the amazing restaurant Le Champagne onboard that evening, and they really enjoyed the menu consisting of, and each dish based around Foie Gras. Rob even said he got the duck sweats from too much duck! Lol.

The next day we hit Lisbon, Portugal. With the sun shining high in the sky, the beautiful hot days that we’ve been having kept up strong. Lara, Rob, and I walked around the beautiful hilly city, visiting an amazing elevator, the only vertical elevator in the city, built in 1908, among other neat places. Back on board to leave at one, there was a bit of a hiccough. The drummer was missing. Our drummer was no-where to be found, so the ship had to leave without him. That night we did two shows, our Italian show, and that evening was Jazz a la carte. Jazz with no drummer was an interesting show indeed, but it was fine because prior to it the cast joined Lara and Rob for dinner in our lovely La Terrazza restaurant! Mmm yumm!

The next day we changed countries again, and hit Cadiz, Spain. Lara and Rob and I went on a wonderful tour of the Jarez area famous for being the home of Sherry! We went to one of the most known and oldest Sherry makers Gonzalez-Byass. Now the wine which makes some of the sherrys, Tio Pepe is not the best of the best, which is too bad and rather funny because so many Spaniards drink it quite regularly as its fairly cheap. The Sherrys that are made however, are absolutely phenomenal. We did a tasting of 9 wines, four of which were sherrys that were over thirty years old, mixed from over 150 vineyards! Talk about drinking history. A side note and funny little story: On the way back from Gonzalez-Byass, who’s wine Tio Pepe’s logo is a wine bottle with a guitar (don’t ask me why), we passed some pools of salt water outside of Cadiz where they make sea salt by having the water evaporate over time. In the pools were hundreds of little pinkish white dots and when asked, our guide explained that they were flamingos! Flamingos which fly from miles away where their nests are and spend eight hours feeding in these pools and then fly back. Now you might be asking yourself what about the baby flamingos who cant fly that far, well, I am happy to report that the flamingos have a daycare system! Two parents stay behind to watch all the children for the day and the “mother and father” couple swaps every day! “Alright its Fred and Barb’s turn to watch all the kids! Hah!”

Our next stop was Malaga.

We headed into the foot traffic city center for some lunch and boy, was it a beautiful area. The streets were paved with beautiful shiny tile as far as the eye could see. It was like being in an indoor mall outside with gorgeous buildings and 28 / 83 degree weather! It was gorgeous. We had lunch at a wonderful little tapas place called Salinas 3! Haha! It was amazing; we had kangaroo, croquettes of cheese, foie gras with caramelized apples, ham, mini burgers, among other things. The lunch was rockin’! We then walked around looking for some ice cream but decided later to not get any and headed back for the ship. The cast prepped for Studio 54, but for the first time we were having it done the proper way, as we were back in the heat, we had a deck BBQ and our show follows that outside on the deck! So we rehearsed in the 83 degree weather at 4.30PM and then we came back to perform the show drenched in sweat at 9PM. It was so awesome up there and the energy felt much better then it did in the dark theatre, especially for that show.

We then had a day at sea, in which it was very hard to come to terms with the fact that Lara and Rob would be leaving the next day, so we played lots of UNO and spent a lot of time together. The next day we arrived in Barcelona and we left the ship to go have some famous churros and chocolate, which is like drinkable liquid hot chocolate that you dip the delicious churros into. Tasty Tasty. We walked back to the taxi line and said our goodbyes and then they headed off to the airport. CIAO! I then embarked a few guests and went out once more in Barcelona in search of La Sagrada Familia, which I found by using the metro. It was so beautiful! The gorgeous Gaudi designed church which was on the front of my Spanish book in middle school, did not disappoint.
It was only a shame that I didn’t have forever to explore it.

That leads us into our next cruise. A quickie; back to Lisbon!
See you then!

Lots of love,
Rhett

SOME NEW PICS! (and around the British Isles)

Hello all! Hope your lives are filled with happiness!

Well we went around the British isles again from London to Southampton. Rather than boring you with much of the same thing about many of the ports that were repeated, I thought I’d make this blog a bit shorter.

We Stopped first in Edinburgh, but this time it was during the Fringe Festival! How amazing the Fringe is, is something you have to experience for yourself. We over-nighted, and while walking around I caught two performances from two different oxford a capella groups performing outside. They were awesome and one group did an arrangement of “Feelin’ Good,” a song I sing on the ship, so that was fun to hear. After that, I managed to get a front row center ticket to the hysterical Margaret Cho, and it about changed my life. She is one of my favorite American stand up comedians, who talks about the liberal taboo. After the set, Olivia, who was with me, and I met her and she invited us to another show that she was going to. HOW COOL! To be invited like a friend to another show to hang out with Margaret Cho! Unfortunately, we couldn’t attend as we were going to a different show, which wore us out. Kelly joined us and we went to a performance called “Showstopper! The improvised musical” in which they improvised an entire musical based on audience suggestions, it ended up being about a dead couple trying to save another couple from committing murder. Having just written that out it doesn’t sound very funny, but believe me this was an entire night of ab-hurting laughter. All in all a successful night.

Me and Margaret Cho!!

After that came Ivergorden where I took a tour trip to go to St. Andrews, the home of golf. It was a very fun and exciting trip to see the old course and the beautiful town of St. Andrews who’s college that I viewed was attended by none other then Prince William. (That’s right Auri.) I also went down to the beautiful West-Sands and ran along the amazing beach singing the Chariots of Fire theme song as that was the beach where the famous opening sequence was filmed!
Me at St. Andrews Old Course:

Running on the West Sands singing the Chariots of Fire theme:

We moved on to a few other ports, Portree had some amazing curry & cream mussels and was a lovely little harbor town nestled within high cliffs of the Isle of Skye.
Nina and I in Portree:

We also hit Balleycastle, a pretty little Northern Ireland port beach town, which latterly was lovely to look at but who’s one street town was nothing exciting. The other ports we had mainly been to before, luckily, as I developed a throat virus, which I have now recovered from due to more sleep than I’ve ever gotten and a lot of heavy-duty antibiotics. However I did of course get off the ship in my favorite, Dublin. I had a lovely little walk, but it was rainy as most of this cruise was, so I quickly returned to my warm Starbucks cup and my skype chat with a fellow performer on a different Silversea ship, my great friend Carina.
We arrived into Southampton where we debarked all the guests after a very stormy night of seventeen feet swells! My sister and brother-in-law embarked with us and are now on the ship through the end of this next cruise, which will be in Barcelona.
I’ll write to you all once we finish this cruise in a week and a half, but for now enjoy some NEW photos and stay well!
Love like always,
Rhett

A sunset from my cabin window:

Nina and I at the top of Europe, The North Cape, Norway:

The Norwegian Troll in Honningsvag, Norway:

The Waterlilly Gardens of Monet at Giverney, France:

Monet’s Pink and Green House in Giverney:

The Famous Angry Baby in Oslo:

The original dock of The Mayflower in Plymouth England:

Nina and I in Amsterdam:

The canal boat I took in Amsterdam:

In a sweatshop in Russia:

At a waterfall in Geiranger, Norway:

The Mussels I had for lunch in Bruges, Belgium:

Sitting "In Bruges":

Granny and I met up outside the ship:

Finally, I had to let out a crow like Peter Pan on Tower Bridge:

If you made it this far I thought I'd share a funny story:
I had this elderly woman come up to me on the last day of her cruise, that I hadn't seen before and she said to me, "you know, I'm in love with you.... You... you're just so handsome up on stage and..." she went on to say some other really nice things so I helped her with her luggage and i think it was perhaps her husband that said, "oh you're making her day, you know she's in love with you. You're all she talks about!" What an amazing way to end a cruise I'd say!

LOVE LOVE