Ahoy Matey's

Greetings from Barbados! I have arrived and am on board the Sea Princess. The journey here went much smoother than anticipated! All my worries about luggage and carry-on were for not. If you act like you know what you're doing and keep on the DL, people pretty much let you do whatever.

I arrived in Barbados last night around 8:30 and was transported to my resort around 9:30. I learned a lot about the Caribbean's fastest and most sophisticated developing nation. There are 250,000 people on 166 square miles. What's more is that every one of those people owns at least one car! Traffic is a nightmare! They are also the only Caribbean nation to be colonized by only one nation - the U.K. They gained independence on November 30, 1966. The 2 top industries are tourism and sugar cane. Anyway, that's enough about the island.

I had a delicious meal of pan fried Flying fish and fresh island squashes and peppers - very tasty. Musicians get treated much better than crew as I had to report to the ship at 11:30 a.m. rather than 7:30 a.m.!

I arrived at the ship with 2 other musicians - a singing guitar duo from Australia. This is their 5th year working on ships and first contract with Princess. We were taken on a whirlwind tour of the ship then it was off to a safety induction. My main function is guiding people down an emergency stair at the aft (back) of the ship to the muster station. Not a single sole came by during the drill today. I also get to demonstrate proper life jacket wearing to passengers.

My band master is very laid back and a real nice guy. The band has the night off, but I'll be rehearsing and performing tomorrow. My roommate is the other sax player and hails from Canada. I'd say he's in his 50's, so it'll be interesting to see how things work out. It is quite an international scene. I've met people from U.K., Australia, Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, India, Thailand, Brazil, and some others I can't recall right now.

The internet situation is a little less than desirable as I have to go to either the crew mess hall or bar to access the wireless. And to top that off, I'm not allowed on Skype. I'll have to see if I can rectify the situation. Anyway, I should probably go grab some food. We sail for St. Lucia tonight.