Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Today marks a day of transition for our cruise ship team. Mindy, Brandon, and Claire are on the Norwegian Spirit getting the new cast settled into life at sea. I just read Brandon's blog and it sounds like things are totally under control out there. I haven't met the current cast of the Spirit, but it sounds like they are an awesome group! I will get to see them on Thursday night in their final performance. Really looking forward to that! 

Curt, Angi, Steve and Erin are out on the Celebrity Summit with the new cast in their first week of performances. Angi sends us daily reports on their progress and all seems to be going well. Technical issues have been a problem in recent months on the Summit. Our team is working with the on board tech staff to get the systems back up to speed. We wish our team and the cast all the best in the coming week.  I hope to have some pictures to post for you from the Summit and the Spirit in the next few days. 

Meanwhile, back in Nashville we are welcoming the new cast of the Celebrity Constellation. Many of their flights were delayed today because of weather, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that all of them make it in tonight. We will meet them for the first time tomorrow morning when they come to the studio for orientation. Can it possibly be time for a new cast already? This cast is very unique in that they come from around the world - truly and international cast. We have performers from Hungary, Australia, Great Britain, Hong Kong, South Africa, and the US. This is a great looking cast, too! We're looking forward to meeting all of them.

On a more serious note, we were incredibly disappointed to learn that two of our dancers were dismissed from ships in the past week because of alcohol related issues. Personal and professional responsibility is something we preach endlessly to every cast, so it always makes me sad when careers are needlessly sidetracked over substance abuse problems. Cruise ships are a wonderful environment to grow professionally while having an incredible life experience. Unfortunately, they can be a place where otherwise talented young performers can lose their way by making bad choices. If you are working for us now, let me encourage you once again to be responsible and know your limits. If you are thinking about working on ships, make sure you're willing to do whatever it takes to remain resolute in your personal commitment to high professional standards. If you can do that, you'll have a great experience on board any of our ships.

We are in pre-production on several large projects coming up in the next two months. You'll be hearing more about those in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, have a great week! I hope you're all having some of the warm weather we've had here in the last few days!