Homecoming concert

Dolce Trio´s homecoming concert was a great success last thursday. In a relaxed environment Dolce Trio performed pieces from the cruise repertoire, answered questions about the experience and showed pictures from our "Epic" adventure. It´s great to be back home!

- Sofia

Great news for Dolce!

Our agent sent us an e -mail yesterday telling us not only about our positive rewievs we got from our previous employer NCL but also that we earned us a spot on the front page of Landau Music´s website. 

Out of excitement I didn´t read further because I wanted to check our pic on their website. After a reminder on Facebook by both Henrik and Bea I realized that I missed some important information. Back to the e-mail I soon found out that Dolce Trio got a new CONTRACT starting at the end of next european season, 26 august 2012 to the crossing to Miami 3 november 2012. As if we subconsciously knew about this we had already sceduled a meeting at Bea´s place the same evening. Suddenly we had a lot more to talk about than we originally planned. We are all excited about this new 10 week contract and this give us more energy to continue working with this ensemble. 

Dolce planning for the future

Tonight we will organize a concert and gathering in Gothenburg showing our swedish audience what we have been doing onboard the Norwegian Epic for the past 4 months. 

Stay tuned!

- Sofia

Dolce Trio plays at the Norwegian Association Dovre's annual meeting.

 Three days after coming home from the contract on the Norwegian Epic Dolce Trio met to entertain on the Norwegian Association Dovre's annual meeting. The program included the Spring by Grieg, Melody in F by Rubinstein, Songs from a Secret Garden by Løvland and a waltz by Shostakovich. Thank you Dovre for the wonderful  cod dinner and nice flowers!  http://norskeforeningen.se/

-Bea

Fire drill on the Norwegian Epic

 Bea and I are ready for the weekly fire drill where the announcements start at 9:45 in the loudspeakers in every cabin and corridor. 10:15 the general emergency alarm that consists of seven short blasts and one long sounds, it´s time to go to your assigned assembly station. For Bea and me it´s Z5, for Henrik it´s Z4 on deck 6.

 I´m getting ready with my assembly station emergency card waiting for the alarm. 

 Going to Z5.

 Assembly stations Z1-6

 Life jackets

 Z5

 Time to go to our life boats on deck 7

 Deck 7, waiting for the abandon ship alarm that consists of one long blast

 A lot of crew.

 Happy fire drill crew

 Deck 7

Finally over. 

Dolce trio checkin´out Pisa

EPIC Marathon

Today I (Henrik) decided to run the Epic Crew Half-marathon in Palma. The route was not really marked out, but the directions was pretty easy: follow the bike trail, or the water, it's almost the same. First through the port, pass airport with airplanes flying over your head and then run alongside all the nice little beaches and all the way to the 'German beach', where supposedly there are only Germans residing (which was true judging by the numerous beer tents we passed). Anyway, after that there is a turning point where Steffen, the instrument tech from Blue Man Group, is waiting with the second water point (the first one was after 10km). When you have turned around, after the last 4km there will be a Norwegian cruise line tent which is the finish line.

I followed Andy (a blue man) a couple of kilometers, but after a while I was warm and feeling good so I took the lead. After the turning point I started to meet all the other runners going the other way which was very pleasant, and after 1h 39min I actually won the whole thing. Although we were only 12 people or so that ran it, but still. I had been training for several weeks though, starting at 10km going up to do 12 and even 16km some times.

Here's a photo of the 'medalists' (no actual medals though) with the Captain of the ship who had come to the finish line on his bike, going maybe half of what he usually does in every port. From the left: Inez/Shakira, me/Dolce, Sverre/Captain and Andy/Blue man. The flags are ours, Sofia and Bea literally just made it by the bus when I finished. Captain Sverre actually mentioned the marathon in his daily speech over the PA system to the guests at dinner time, we were dining and were very amused by this!

Sofia didn't run so she didn't finish, but she's Finish nevertheless!

/Henrik

You know you’re working on the Epic when…

…you use the term ‘how are you’ as you say Hi in Scandinavia.

…you do the laundry on a ‘sea day’ because everybody else is working those days.

…you forget to tip your steward this week too (he’ll get it all next week).

…you hurry to crew bar to get the last order at 1.30am.

…you wake up to the general emergency alarm every Tuesday at 10am – seven short blasts followed by one long, equivalent in length to the last note of Händel’s Hallalujah choir.

…you’re always too late for breakfast. A cup of coffee will have to do, pizza lunch is not too far away.

…1-2am seems like a perfectly normal time to practice.

…you spend a few hours on crew deck to work on your tan.

…you get off the ship just to get off the ship and be able to walk around on your own more than 300m.

…you realise you’ve just passed through the security checkpoint without noticing it – it’s second nature to you.

…you change clothes in order to go to the passanger buffet or restaurants.

…your hands smell like Sanbucca after you’ve sanatized them before eating.

…you order a spring roll for starter because it’s the best item on the menu.

…you forget your keycard in your cabin and have to wait for Security to come and open it – again.

…you realise you have played a whole set with your nametag on (you’re supposed to wear them at all times, except when you play)

…American guests request Led Zeppelin from the classical trio.

…guests gets up their camera as soon as you start to play Vivaldi’s Spring.

…you go down to crew mess in the breaks just to get away from the guests.

…you regard the last set of 45mins of music as almost done.

…you see dolphins jump in the water in the front of the ship in the sunset.

/Henrik