Tenerife - Canary Islands

It’s a rehearsal cruise!

21st November 2009.

Hola (hello), from Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands. The dominant feature of the island is Mount Teide (El Teide), at a height of 12,198 feet. Mount Teide is to Tenerife what Mount Etna is to Sicily; you can see the mountain from just about anywhere on the island.

We do not depart until 10.00pm tonight so we have taken advantage of this fact and are going to have a sailaway party straight into our Tropical Deck Party. The suggested dress code tonight is casual/tropical so we hope those Caribbean influenced fashion statements are out in force! You may be thinking is that all there is on tonight, no way! We have cabaret with vocal entertainer Ricky Zalez at 7.15pm for our second sitting passengers (who dine at 8.30pm) and that is repeated at 8.45pm for those passengers on first sitting dinner (who dine at 6.30pm). That means all passengers can see the cabaret but still be out on deck for sailing at 10.00pm and the spectacular party that will commence after that. We berth at the capital of Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife and it’s a great city to sail away from at night, it’s going to look wonderful.

I said I would let you have an update on the new cast of the Headliners Theatre Company and they are doing very well so far. The thirteen boys and girls have already performed two production shows on this cruise with two more still to go. Next cruise they will rehearse and add to these existing four shows with another six more. Then on the cruise commencing 28th December they will rehearse and perform two more shows they have not yet done. So by 18th January they will have twelve different production shows up and running and ready to wow our passengers with!!!

Being a member of the Headliners Theatre Company is very demanding but fulfilling. A performer in a musical theatre show in London’s West End will typically have a six month contract, and in this time they will work six days a week and do eight performances during that time. That’s right, the same show for six months eight times a week!! Our cast members of the Headliners Theatre Company are all trained professionals and have already or probably will in the future appear in the West End or on national musical theatre tours. Without exception the members with experience from the West End would all rather be working on board. Here they get to perform twelve varied production shows in their six month tour on board. It’s challenging and both physically and mentally demanding! Eleven shows to remember, all those different dance routines, costume changes, stage exits and entries, song lyrics, props, wigs, make up, and to top the lot have to contend with a moving platform! On the longer cruises they will get to perform all twelve production shows whilst on the shorter cruises we do not have enough nights to use them all.

Our audition process for the cast members is very demanding; we are only looking for hard working, talented dedicated professional singers and dancers. Once on board we expect a great deal from them as all of our passengers expect West End standards for our production shows and that’s exactly what they get!

It is one of the great parts of my job to work alongside the casts of ‘Headliners’, I am always in awe of their hard work and dedication.

Here is a shot for all the ladies out there, a man in uniform! The good looking one on the left is the Staff Captain of Oriana Chris Bourne. Chris is just back from leave and really looking forward to another tour of duty on board.

He is the Head of the Deck Department and second in command of Oriana. Chris joined the company 19 years ago as a deck cadet and has subsequently worked on eleven ships for P&O Cruises and Princess Cruises.


Adios.

Nigel