Passengers never see all the work that goes into a production show onboard a cruise ship.
They never witness the months of rehearsal on land and the countless hours put in by the crew onboard the ship needed to get things just right.
By the time a show actually gets performed, it’s a well-honed machine ready to delight passengers and look effortless. It’s not, however, anywhere close to effortless, and even an experienced cast gets jittery on show day.
Krista Jocelyn, a singer and dancer for Royal Caribbean, used her popular YouTube channel to take people behind the scenes of what a show day is like on Freedom of the Seas as the cast gets ready to perform the popular “Once Upon a Time Show.”
With only five weeks left on her contract and no new contract lined up, Jocelyn is also a little bit nostalgic about the show. She does not have her next contract lined up, so she truly does not know what’s next for her and is a little bit reflective about her cruise ship experience.
In addition, the Royal Caribbean entertainer also shares her show-day routine and offers some makeup tips.
It’s show day on Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas
Transcript:
It’s showtime. Good morning. It is a show day.
But before we do anything else, we need some coffee. Okay, it is “Once Upon a Time” show day. Also if you were wondering why I was sleeping on the top bunk, it is because Robert has been sick for like almost a week now.
And I was just kind of trying to avoid getting sick because I was sick at the beginning of November. Now he’s sick, and I really just cannot afford to get sick again.
So I just kind of separated myself and I’ve been sleeping on the top bunk, which has been kind of convenient to have. Today is our show called “Once Upon a Time.”
This show is like a compilation of fairy tale stories to pop music. So we’ve got Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, and I think that’s it. Robert is Pinocchio, and I am Little Red.
This show is my favorite of the two that we do. It is so much fun. I think that the music is really fun.
The whole show is just very clever. It’s very Shrek-coded. It just gives Shrek vibes.
I think also like compared to our other show “Marquee,” that’s more of like musical theater, this show I’m just in a lot more of it, which is more fun for me. And I think it’s usually the guest’s favorite as well, but I’m going to show you all of that today. We’re going to do a full show day in the life and I’m just going to take you along for the whole day.
It is about 11:30 now. Robert and I are going to run up to the mess really quickly and have lunch, and then we’ll head to the theater for Tech Run at 12:30.
I’m not judging. Don’t put this. People are going to judge me. This is what I’m eating. People are going to be like, why are you juking? Because I like it.
Okay. When we first get to the theater for Tech Run, we meet in the house for notes. We get vocal notes from the vocal captain and then blocking and dance notes from the dance captain.
Their job is to make sure the integrity of the show remains as it was when our directors who taught us the show left. So to make sure you’re still doing the correct choreography or singing the same parts we learned and not improvising, things like that. After notes, I will grab all of my props and put on my microphone.
While the cast is getting ready to start the Tech Run, the technicians are prepping the stage for the start of the show. For the start of this show, they bring in the large forest wall and then they set the fairy tale book on stage. At the start of the show, many of us are standing behind the book.
And I actually stand there for about 10 minutes until I come through the book as the fairy godmother. It does get a little bit boring back there after a while. So, the point of a Tech Run is kind of just as it sounds.
It’s to make sure that all of the technical elements are working properly for the show that night. As you can see, we don’t wear costumes or dance and sing full out, but it’s also a nice refresh before we do the show because there is a full week in between shows.
This show has a decent amount of technical elements between walls coming in and out, the pit moving up and down with the orchestra, the hydros moving people up and down, and of course, my red car.
Can I have two Red Bulls? Thank you. Ow. This is very much needed today.
Royal Caribbean entertainer shares show day makeup routine
I’m in the dressing room, about to get ready for the show. A lot of the time, I will nap in between Tech Run and show, but I just wasn’t feeling it today, and now that I’m here, I feel exhausted, and I kind of wish I did nap. But hopefully, the Red Bull will revive me.
I have a little bit of makeup left over from earlier today, so I’m not going to take it all off. I’m just going to kind of add to it, which is probably not the best way to go about it, but that’s okay. I feel like in literally every video I’ve been making lately, I’m just talking about how we only have however many weeks left we have.
We’re at the end of the sixth, so after this we’ll have five weeks left. It’s crazy. And I’m sad, and it just feels weird.
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And I think also just not knowing what we’re going to do next just adds a little bit of stress to it. I just want to enjoy the next five weeks, not think about the fact that we have five weeks left, but be grateful that I get five more weeks of performing shows that I really enjoy with people I really like. I’m going to start with my eyes.
I have been using this KKW Nude Palette and then I have the Too Faced Sweet Peach Palette, which honestly both of these are really old. I should probably get rid of them and get something new, but they last me forever, and so I haven’t gotten anything new, but I probably should. It’s probably kind of gross to keep using these.
I was thinking the other day how when I first auditioned to work on ships, I never knew where it was going to take me. I just was in college and was like, I think that that sounds like a really cool job. I’m going to audition, and we’ll see how it goes.
We’ll see what happens. But I never expected it to kind of be my career at this point. And as I’ve gotten older and seen kind of what the scene is like in other cities and especially New York, because I’ve lived in New York for a little while and auditioned there and it is a grind and a lot of respect for everyone who does it because it is so freaking hard, but I know that that is just not the life for me, which is okay.
I think a lot of people are like, if you’re not in New York and auditioning and grinding all the time, you don’t really want it. You’re not like a real performer or whatever and that’s just like not true. I get to perform very consistently while being here rather than just constantly auditioning and maybe doing a show for a couple of weeks and then it’s over and then you have to re-audition again and again. Working on ships is a very, it’s a much more stable job than a lot of other performing jobs because it lasts for, you know, an extended period of time between like 6 and 11 months, whereas a lot of regional shows can be a couple of weeks.
It can be a weekend really and then you’re back to the audition grind.
So I originally got an offer for Disney Cruise Line to be in “Frozen” and then to do like character work. I would have been Belle and then like one of the chipmunks, Chip and Dale.
A week before I was supposed to leave for that Disney contract, Norwegian reached out. They’re like, hey, we have this contract for you. It leaves in a week also.
It was like the same day or something and I’m reading this contract and it’s a world cruise. It’s completely opposite of Disney. It’s a luxury line.
It’s all like adults only. It’s going to be like retired people, no kids at all. And the itinerary of the Disney Cruise was all in the Caribbean.
I’d already signed the contract with Disney. So I knew that I would have to cut ties with Disney and to do this Norwegian one. And at the end of the day, it was a really hard decision to make, but I know I made the right decision.
I got to do the world cruise. That was no offense to my cast here because I know they’ll probably be watching this. My first cast was the best cast ever.
I still talk to a lot of them and we just had like the best time ever. And I met Robert. It was obviously destined to be that way, but I’m pretty sure I’m blacklisted from Disney.
So at least Disney Cruise Line. I could probably work in their parks, but I don’t know. It just makes me laugh because I think about the fact that I’m blacklisted from Disney now and that sounds like so crazy.
Okay, for foundation, I was using Dermablend for the longest time. Ran out of it, got a new one, way too light. So then I was like, I’m going to try something new.
I’m going to try the Too Faced Born This Way. Way too orange. So then I tried to mix them together and I just am bad at it.
I don’t know. I can’t get them to mix nicely. I think it’s… Now that I’m thinking about it, it’s probably because they’re different brands.
If you’re going to mix two colors, you should probably mix two of the same brand. Well, I think it’ll be better to be a little bit oranger on stage than too pale. Anyway, I don’t love this one.
I like the Dermablend better. I think it’s just better for my skin. Maybe I’ll try to mix them again.
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A nice part of working on cruise ships
There are so many really amazing parts about working on a cruise ship and it’s definitely not for everybody. I know people who have done one contract, and they’re like, yeah, I’m never going to do that again. And then there are other people who just love it like us, and the lifestyle is great.
And I think it also helps that we do it together for Robert and me. Having a person with you when things get really tough, obviously helps a lot. Time to try and do a wing.
I’ve been using the Kat Von D Tattoo Liner. I’ve been using this for a long time. It’s actually really good.
I’ll probably say this and then change my mind in the next like week after I get home, but I do feel like I’m kind of ready for something different. We’ve been doing this for a long time and I feel like when it comes to travel, I’d like to do like some of our own traveling and not on a ship and then maybe perform somewhere on land.
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I don’t know where that would be or what that means exactly, but I do feel like part of me is ready for something different and like a different challenge, but I don’t know what that would be.
It also gives me a lot of anxiety thinking about starting over fresh somewhere new. So that will have to happen no matter what. So it’s exciting but scary.
I think this just goes back to me wanting to really enjoy these last few performances, just not knowing what’s coming up next because I might be ready for a change in the near future. Okay, I think my makeup is pretty much done. I’ll have to add a red lip and probably some more blush a little bit later, but I’m gonna go preset my costumes and get ready to do soundcheck.
This is my rack with all my costumes on it. The dressing room is a deck up from the stage. So we have to take everything from the dressing room down a flight of stairs.
The stairs are very narrow and scary. We’ve gotten used to them. I remember the first time I went down these stairs, I was like going so slow.
It was so nervous to carry a lot of things and now we all just carry like as much as we can and hope we just don’t fall down the stairs. This one, this one is so heavy. This is my fairy godmother costume.
Now I have to go get the wigs. Made it. This show I don’t really have any quick changes.
So I just preset everything on my rack and I have time to come back here and change at the rack. There is one change I have to do on stage behind the book and that’s this one. In the middle of the show, I preset it and I’ll show you guys that when it happens.
But other than that, the show is pretty chill when it comes to quick changes for most of us. There’s not a ton of really fast changes, which is nice. Okay, now I’m in my little backstage corner because I need to warm up.
Oh, hello. It’s you. What are you sound checking? Well, “Once Upon a Time.”
Anything was possible. So guys, I was meant to say quite a long time ago. These vlogs make me seem like a crazy person and they make me seem like a bit of a, can I say a swear word? She’s probably flipped that out.
Can’t bleep me out now. It’s actually facing the other direction. I’m very sarcastic.
I’m very sarcastic. No one understands my British humour. Hi guys.
Frank’s neck. Now it’s show time. Say something inspirational.
I love y’all and God loves y’all. From Karl Warwick. Say something inspirational.
Come and get dressed with me. This is going to be better than Christmas. It’s so heavy guys.
Do it again. Each strap. Put each strap on.
Hook it through the top. Just fix it. And now, let’s go see.
Hello. Let’s go and see Krista on stage. Oh, you can’t see her guys.
Hey, hi Krista. We’re able to see her. Oh, there she is.
Hey. Hey. Hey.
Hey. Hey. Hey.
Hey. Okay, just finished show number one. Don’t mind my wig cap line and my insane hair right now.
Show number one went well. Usually, between shows, I honestly just stay in the theatre and read my book because I don’t really want to walk all the way back to the back of the ship to go to my room.
I don’t really have any reason to go back to my room. So, I’m just going to hang out in here, read my book, and chill before show number two at 9.30. Secret Santa. Oh my God.
Oh my God. Guys. Guys.
Guys. Let’s try this. Secret Santa.
Get your kids on Route 66. Said a word that he don’t want to hear. Get your kids on Route 66.
I believe anything is possible. This one is for you. Santa Claus.
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What happens after the show?
Laura. After the show, we spray everything with a vodka spray to keep them fresh. And then we also have a cleaning rotation where our wardrobe supervisors will clean certain sections of costumes for that week.
And, of course, we have to take all the costumes back upstairs. Hey, vlog. I broke my finger because I accidentally slammed it in a door.
It’s blue. Do you want to see? Wow. Am I going to get cameraman commission? Oh, honey.
Goodbye, Krista. Goodbye. Farewell.
Oh. After the show, we have show food. A lot of people don’t like to eat before the show because it can just be, like, uncomfortable when you’re full and trying to sing and dance.
So a lot of us will eat afterwards. We usually get burgers, salmon, rice, pizzas, salad, chicken breast, veggies, and fruit. But it kind of just depends on the day.
Two shows done. I am just getting back from show food. I’m vlogging.
This is kind of a look into what our show days are pretty much like every show day. It’s always, you know, we have tech run, we have sound check, and then we have the show. Nothing really else goes on during the day.
But now I need to wash my face, shower, and get ready for bed. I had this moment on stage tonight where I was just very aware of what was going on. And I just thought to myself, like, wow, I am singing in front of people right now in this weird wig and a ball gown.
And I just felt immense gratitude for this job and everything that it has brought into my life. A lot of people say that auditioning is the job and performing is the vacation. And while it’s not always easy, it is one of the most fulfilling jobs I have ever had.
Thank you so much for watching. Don’t forget to subscribe. And I will see you in the next one.
Bye! Bye!
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