First Real Post

Hello everyone…I said I would be better about writing on this blog and I have not done so…so here it goes. I hope everyone is doing well back home and getting ready for Christmas. I hope Thanksgiving was pleasant.

We are doing well here on the ship. Today is December 10, 2008 and we left Peru today and heading for Chile. If you did not know the itinerary for this ship is South America and Antarctica. We hit Antarctica for Christmas…talk about a white Christmas. : ) Many people have asked, “How is the Ship?” The M.S. Amsterdam is gorgeous. It is one of two flagships for Holland America. It is slightly bigger then my last ship, the M.S. Veendam but has a slightly smaller stage. The décor of the ship is beautiful and has some things The Veendam did not. As for the crew, they are super nice as usual and are easy to get along with. We have already made friends with a lot of crew on board. The quicker to get to know everyone the better.

The second question everyone is asking is, “How are the shows?” They are pretty great. We have around 4-5 day’s to install every show which gives us plenty of time to clean each show and make it look good for our opening night. There are always those moments that get away but after a few weeks those get ironed out. We are doing an opening night show called, “Let Us Entertain You,” and 4 full production shows, “Tribute,” a Vegas review show, “Love Broadway,” and Broadway themed show, “On the Air,” hitting the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and “today.” That is a high energy show which of course makes you sweat a lot. Right now we are installing our 4 show called, “Showgirl.” It is a showgirl show with lots of feathers and showcasing the girls…of course. The guys do work a lot in this show as well which is nice….The show is costume heavy which means there are a lot of costume changes not only for the girls but for us guys as well. We will open this show on Saturday night. The time on this ship is going by fast. I feel like we just got here but we have been on for a couple weeks now. Our production staff leaves on the 15th of December as we port in Valparaiso, Chile. Then we are on our own for the next 4 months. Due to long duration of these cruises, (16, 22, etc day cruises) we have a lot of down time. Ramon, my roommate has a Nintendo DS as well as me so that will come in handy. Also I have collected a little library of books so those will be taking up some time as well. Besides that I will be helping Kristen with vents throughout the ship and also plan to teach some crew hip hop classes. It’s always nice to give back to the crew on these ships because they work sooooooo hard. Another questions people have is, “How are the living conditions?” Well my cabin in pretty small but we do have the biggest room out of the cast. It has a pole in the middle making it a bigger cabin…nice. : ) It’s like dorm room living but free. We have a bathroom, TV, mini fridge, closet space…ohhh and curtains on our bed for some privacy. It could be a lot worse I think and we are never in here for to long at a time so it’s not too bad. The best part of working on a ship is the free food. We re lucky in the sense that we can eat our meals in the Lido, which is the casual dining or Buffet style type of eating you find on ships. The food is pretty good...but can get repetitive after a few weeks. It is free though, so you can’t complain. We are also able to enjoy a beverage or few in public areas on the ship...which is weird because you are basically getting paid to drink on the job. Hmmmmmm….. This is mainly in the evening in the bars and nightclub. A few days ago they hosted the Black and White Ball, which is a way to meet the Captain, his staff and the officers on the ship. We are able to go to things like that’s and they provide free drinks o that’s pretty cool. They also have crew parties for the crew as we did a few nights ago while we were doing an over-night in Callou, Peru (Lima). It was on the bow of the ship and is just for the crew so that’s great….again free drinks and food.

The last question people pretty much ask is, “Do you ever get off the ship?” The answer is Yes. We are able to get off the ship almost in ever port. Every port 3 cast members have to stay on for IPM (In Port Manning). Basically a certain number of crew have to be on board in the case of an emergency. This rotates every port so most likely you don’t have to stay on the ship twice in a row. We have been able to get off the ship lately. Most recently Kristen and I got off in Peru. Most passengers g on excursions of shop and I had to get some essentials…..We rode on a 30 minute shuttle ride to Mira Flores which is a higher end part of Peru. They have a pretty nice outdoor mall with restaurants such as Hooters, Tony Romas, Burger King and a Sushi place, not to mention the little fast food places as well. They had a good selection of stores which you would find in any mall in the states or Canada. We were warned many times because it is not the safest place to travel to and the day before a comedian on our ship was robbed. But we had no problem and I was able to get what I needed…2 shower lufa’s, and more razors to shave with. I know…I’m a big shopper. If don’t right you can save a lot of money on these contracts and that’s what I plan to do. I just have to stop my cell phone for a few months. Speaking of which if you need to get a hold of me please email me or send me a message on facebook or myspace as my cell phone will not be working while in South America. My email address is danny.hochman@gmail.com. Or you can comment back to me on this Blog.

Well I hope all is going well back home and I miss everyone soooo much. Please if possible stay in contact as it is good to hear how you are all doing. I will be back April 27th, 2009 and might possible be home for a week then heading back out to this ship for 7 months. I know pretty crazy. I will update that as the time gets closer. Have a good Holiday and I love you all.

Danny