Friday and Aruba

It’s seems as though I don’t get a day off this week, which really is a non-issue since I will be done my contract Sunday and can rest my voice after that. I will be spending the next week music directing the one-woman Judy Garland tribute cabaret show that I had worked on over the summer. We are doing another show, and I must say, she’s gotten better after going to cabaret camp and also after working with me on song interpretation. I have finally managed to get her to talk less and listen more, something that most of my own teachers always struggled with too! I straightened out my arrangements for getting off the ship on Sunday. I fly back to NYC via Detroit. God willing and the creeks don’t rise, I’ll be at JFK at 11pm.

I woke up in Aruba today and went into town with a friend from the crew. He was set upon getting Chinese food. We walked around asking directions for a Chinese restaurant, and every time we got directions they were pointing us back from wherever we had just been. I was getting grumpier and grumpier and finally after a solid hour of walking around in circles I abandoned my friend and almost immediately met up with some of the other performers on the ship and we all went and ate at a very touristy Mexican restaurant. There was a note in small print on the menu that stated that a 15% service charge would be added to all checks but that only a third of that amount (5%) goes directly to the server, so additional gratuities are encouraged. When the check came, there was indeed a 15% service charge added and at the bottom of the check were the words “gratuity not included.” That pissed me off. In America that would have been illegal and no decent waiter would ever work for an establishment like that. You are ripping off your customers by making them pay for the service twice, and you are ripping off your staff by not paying them the entire 15% service charge collected from the bill. I hate greedy restaurant owners.