09/07/09

Howdy Friends and Family,

Welcome to my blog, aka-how you can keep up with what I'm doing and where I'm at around the world. For those of you who don't know, I am the lead male singer (or M1) on Holland America Line's ms Volendam for the next 8½-ish months! While on the ship, I'll be sailing to Alaska for the next few weeks, then cross over the Pacific Ocean/Bearing Sea and sail around Asia for about 2½ months! While in Asia I'll visit Japan, China, S. Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, and Fiji. After that, I'll be in and around Australia and New Zealand for about 4 months and then finish up in Hawaii for about a month.

While I'm going to all of these amazing places I'm going to try and be diligent, update this blog with stories and pictures, and attempt to take you along with me on this amazing journey as best I can! “What can I do,” you may ask? Ask questions, ask for and look at pictures, suggest places to go, read the blog, and reply to my posts with your own! The more you interact on this site, the more I will too and the more I'll be enticed to post more frequently.

So, what am I up to now? Well, today I'm in Ketchikan, AK but am not able to get off the ship because I have IPM (In Port Manning). IPM is where several people from each department have to stay on the ship at every port just in case there's an emergency (but hello, we're in a port!). Tonight we are performing one of our four production shows (tonight – H2Oh!) but before that I am going to get a massage in the ship's spa (we get 50% off on port days)! For the next few weeks we'll be doing 7-day Alaskan Inside Passage cruises going to Vancouver, Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan with sea days pretty much in between each port day. I will try and post pictures of all of the touristy things I do at each port as well as events on the ship and photos from shows. However, know that the ship's internet is expensive and relatively slow, so be patient on the picture upload – I may have to wait till free, good internet in port.

In the meantime, take care, know that you are all in my thoughts, and keep in touch!

~Ben