January 2026 NCL Jewel

Roatan

Once again you find me on board the Norwegian Jewel where I am more than halfway through this 11-day cruise from Miami. So far we have visited Cartagena, Colombia; Colon, Panama (and a bit of the canal); Limon, Costa Rica and now we are on the beautiful island of Roatan, Honduras. I've been off the ship and had a little exploration and a bit of a lounge at the beach. As tonight is my second show night, I cannot do too much, so now I am sat in a café doing this. It's all very nice. I am scheduled to return to Roatan on the Norwegian Escape in early February, and I fully intend to take full advantage of the island's incredible beaches when I do.

If I have one criticism of the cruise ship itineraries, it is that we are only every in ports during the mornings and afternoons, the latest we ever leave anywhere seems to 8 pm and that is when things just start to liven up. Cartagena, Colombia may be a great place to buy coffee during the day, but I would so much like to see the nightlife which is apparently abundant, I'm told that people dance in the streets. So I guess I am just going to have to come back one day privately if I ever want to see that. It's a very reasonably priced place, so it certainly is an option.

I will be cruising for most of January and February, with only around 14 sporadic days at home in Vermont. I'm also booked for a contract on the Norwegian Star over Easter and so will not be able to perform in Covent Garden, London during the Easter holidays, which has been a fun tradition of mine for the last few years. At the moment, I do have most of March off, and I am hoping that the snow in Vermont will be at it's finest at that time as I am very much enjoying my new cross country skis, and I have plans to ski a bit of the Catamount trail.

The Catamount trail is a 300-mile cross country ski trail that runs from the South to the North end of Vermont all along the Green Mountains, for those of you who are interested here is a link to the Catamount Trail Association https://catamounttrail.org/

In the meantime, I have settled in nicely to ship life. As a younger man, I couldn't bear it at all, and I felt trapped onboard. Age has brought with it patience and an ability to enjoy the space. It is after all a pretty good gig. I get fed, I work two nights per cruise at most, the theatres on board the ships are lovely, it's air-conditioned and the audiences are up for fun.

Tomorrow I will be in Belize and I don't have to work, so I will be much more active, who knows what I will discover there!