I was asked to fill in for the Cruise Director as a tour escort to
Catherine's Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia. I was super stoked
about it, because it was an awesome tour, but it ended with the State
Orchestra ensemble playing a concert in the grand hall. Here is the
story as I lived it:
It was a warm June evening. And by evening (at 7:30pm local
time) the sun was shinning like it was a summer day at noon in
Florida. Ellery (the ship's social hostess) and I went through
customs, which when you have the proper documents is surprisingly
easy. They looked at my passport, my tour ticket, my face, my
passport, my face, my ticket, said "ship name", my face…. (Still
face…), then stamped 15 different things that I gave them, then said
next as coldly as a Soviet-era military person would act towards an
American citizen I presume. So once outside of the customs area, we
walked onto sacred land. As you know I have been here about 22 times
and I have never been allowed to leave the ship. That sucks. So as I
stepped by awesome "Moods of Norway" Black and blue leather shoes onto
USSR soil it was totally awesome. We walked towards the 6 buses that
were waiting for the 200+ guests that were signed up to attend. So as
we guided them to the buses, Ellery went with the first bus, I went
with the second, Heidi (The ship's assistant cruise director) went
with the third, and Pinky (Guest service specialist) went with the
fourth.
It was an hour-long bus ride to the palace. Needless to say at
this point in the day, warm, wearing a suit with vest, a bit
de-hydrated the narcolepsy kicked in and I passed out for the bus
ride. Amazing! Once we got there the 4 of us met up and decided what
we were going to do. It was a private tour that only our people were a
part of and it was one place that we were allowed to walk, so there
was no way anyone and going to get side tracked or lost. So Heidi,
Ellery and myself went with one of the groups and just did the
touristy bits (FB photos are available). I took over 200 photos and
took some videos, but I aint paying to post that many photos.
The tour was awesome. The amber room was magnificent. And the
grand hall with the orchestra was utterly amazing. The room was a
perfect example of acoustics. The sound carried in a way that
engineers only dream of making a room sound. No matter the
technologies that come our way, how good their 'ear' is, nothing will
sound the way this room with this ensemble sounded. They played songs
from Baroque to Blues, and they were phenomenal. I had a glass of
champagne, the sun's final rays (its 11pm at this time by the way) at
my back, several beautiful woman standing next to me, and I wasn't
working on the ship at night. It's the first time I have felt normal
in a long time.
It was so much fun and once we got back the Cruise Director, Heidi,
Ellery, and myself had dinner with all the other guests in one of the
restaurants. AMAZING. My team is truly amazing, and I am stoked to
be working with them.
Much love my America. I miss starbucks. I miss you all
Chadillac – "a sweet ride"
