September 1, 2011

SEADAY enroute to FTL

Well, got some interesting news yesterday. I went to the office to get some supplies for my Sudoku challenge and Mitch was there. We started talking and he gave me a great compliment telling me how Richard has his eye on me for promotion. Mitch asked what my goals were, and as I told Amy, I said I wanted the fast track. Mitch then told me that he was not going to make me Bingo Host, as he felt that it would adversely affect my goals. Since we are losing so many team members over the next few weeks and replacing them with others he has asked for a man named Andre to come over from Allure. Andre is the Bingo Host on Allure, which has the best Bingo record of the fleet. Mitch wants me to shadow him for a couple of months, but also wants me to firmly get everything under my belt. He feels that making me BH would make it impossible for me to get everything else. I can see that, and I would prefer to have someone here that can bring us back up to scratch in terms of our Bingo revenue. I would be lying though if I said that I was not disappointed in not getting the extra money. I really need it.

Mitch also told me that he wants me to take charge of the new automated Trivia games we are rolling out next week. This is fine with me, but again, I’m all about the money right now. And having a single room to myself. I went to Sabrina, our Cruise Program Administrator, and asked her to put me on the list for a single when Luis and Joyce leave. I need my own room. It is just not right to room with someone young enough to be your son. She agreed, so hopefully even though I will not be Bingo Host for a couple months I can still get a single.

Karaoke went really well, I am glad to say “as usual”. The quality of the singers was not all that great overall, but there was one amazing standout. I have been driving the Rising Tide a few days ago and a group of African Americans were there. We started talking Karaoke and the girls just started to a cappella sing some Gospel harmony. It was incredible and I made a point to make sure they showed up at the Contest. Well they all did, and wow, am I glad. One of the girls, Nikita, blew everyone away from the moment she opened her mouth. She was by far the loudest of the audience reactions. Her second song she didn’t know, so she made it up, playing with the lyrics and the harmonies and making it her own. It was flawless. Another load crowd reaction. Well, it was a foregone conclusion, but we went through the whole process. Sure enough, she won.

It has become something of a constant ‘riff’ of mine to call the contest my “Church of Music”, and introduce myself as the Reverend Key West Mike. By the time the show ends with my singing “Lead Me Not” I have them all shouting Halleluja’s and Amen’s, and calling each other Brother and Sister. It’s a lot of fun, but more so when I have a large contingent of African Americans to play off of. All the next day whenever I saw them around they would High-5 me and tell me that they were coming back to “church” on Friday when I host the Final Karaoke.

There is something about music. It is truly the Universal Language. I find it constantly amazing that people from all over the world all know the same songs, even if they are not native English speakers. You start playing the first few chords of “New York, New York”, and everyone knows it…I don’t care if you come from Belgium or Botswana. For a short while everyone is equal and everyone supports each other. The Ancient Greeks knew the power of music, and its ability to manipulate the emotions of the listeners. It’s a powerful magic, and I love being a part of bringing all these people together as one.
I have been assured that this event is mine, and that I will always host it, and I am glad. It is the one point of the week I look forward to most. I know that anyone of the Cruise Staff could host a karaoke contest, but I feel that my sessions offer something special, and something that the others would not be able to do in the same style. It becomes a show in itself, not just a contest, and everyone is involved…from the barstaff to the performers, to the audience themselves. It’s a complete rush for me and I would be devastated if I had to go a week without my fix.

I also found out that I will hosting the Surf’s Up party on the Boardwalk. This is an event that is a Beach Party style event and has been hosted by T.T. the entire time. As he is going in a couple weeks I will be taking that over as well. That’s two big events to host, as well as the Final Farewell on the Promenade. I’m pretty happy about all that.