I am now on the Eclipse and have already been on stage, my 7pm show went great and I have my 9pm now to go. I do love this ship, it has the most amazing theatre and the sound in there is simply the best thanks to sound man Steffen Edwards, he is such a talent and gives me an outstanding sound onstage. I am so tired as I didn’t get much sleep last night so it will be straight to bed for me tonight after my show.
My 9pm show was packed and went just great, I LOVE this theatre and the band and the sound is absolutely fantastic, some people are against the “big ship” thing but do you what, it’s the future of cruising for many. After my show I stood with cruise director Dru Pavlov at the exit of the theatre and shook hands with a few guests then met with my old mate Food & Beverage Manager Mark Tomley for a night cap.
Good Morning! It’s a day at sea today and the weather is partly cloudy but the sea is calm, we are now in the Bay of Biscay heading south for the old Spanish port of Cadiz and this time I think I will get off and have a nice walk around, I love Cadiz, I remember once I went with a mate of mine from P&O Cruises Steve Beswick into Cadiz and we found the most fantastic place that had the best cured ham you will ever taste, most places sell the ham but my goodness this was first class. It’s a formal night tonight so I have decided to stay in and watch TV; I watched a vampire film which was also a love story, what a film to watch just before you want to go to sleep!
Good Morning! Another day at sea today and the sun is shining brightly through my window. I have my show to organise and then I am going for my walk around deck 12 with my heart monitor on and go over my new songs for the tour which is around the corner now, we open at the Swansea Grand Theatre on the 24th September, are you coming?
I have my 2nd show tonight in the Eclipse Theatre at 7pm and 9pm, it’s a strange one for me tonight because I have taken the first bit of my main show and put it in the Welcome Show the other night, so I must be pretty switched on tonight and think hard what I’m doing as I will be opening with a different song and going into gags that I usually do in another show, oh I’ll be fine it’ll just be slightly different that’s all, stop moaning Doyle! OK, have a nice day where ever you are and whatever you are doing, I’m off for my walk now!
I had a great walk/run this morning, its great what I do is I warm up using my heart monitor and get my heart up to 120 beats per minute then once there I run until it gets to 130 beats per minute then walk again until it goes back down to 120 beats sometime’s it goes up to 147 beats but that is too much so I try and keep it between 120 and 130 and do this for 45 minutes then cool down for 10 minutes, sorry it’s a bit boring all this jargon but it works for me and I get to listen to my iPod and get learning the new songs. Breakfast followed I had smoked salmon and an omelette and a pint of freshly squeezed orange juice. After a nice hot shower I went to the beautiful library onboard and sat there with a pad and pen and started to work out how the show is going to work out on the tour, I am so pleased my dear friend Rhian Griffith is on the show with me, she has a voice to die for and is one of the nicest persons you will ever meet, also joining us on the tour is my son Tom, he is going to be our Production Manager so I am very excited about that and once he finishes on the tour he shoots to London for his rehearsals for Pantomime with Sam Kane and Linda Lusardi, they will at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton, he goes there as DSM (Deputy Stage Manager) he did so well at the Royal Welsh Collage of Music and Drama in Cardiff so looks like he’s on his way now, ha I am so proud of him, check him out on YouTube and facebook, he also has his own production company called Nos Da Productions.
I have my rehearsal at 4.30pm this afternoon and my shows are at 7pm & 9pm.
It’s now 4.15pm and I am just about to go to rehearsal, it has been a fabulous day onboard the sun has been shining all day so that makes happy people and a theatre full of happy, tanned smiley people will do me nicely thank you very much!
I had a very quick rehearsal and sound check as we have all done the show loads of times.
I have 45mins now to “ShowTime” and I feel good about it, maybe doing the Welcome show on the first night has done me a favour as all the guests know who I am now so I am hoping for two full houses and a great night ahead. I have Christopher Cross playing loudly on my iPod as I’m getting ready, he has an amazing voice and I have always loved his music.
Great news I got two full houses last night and both went great, more than great really, I think that’s the best the show has gone on here, and I really enjoyed it.
Today we are in Cadiz and the sun is shining again and with a high of 28degs it’s going to be a great day for everyone, people smile more when the weather is good don’t they. We set sail at 4pm only to turn back to Cadiz an hour later because we had to unfortunately medically disembark one of the guests, I am not sure of what was wrong with him but it was necessary to land him and get him to a hospital right away. We have a medical facility here onboard but it wasn’t enough for this poor chap, I wish him well and a speedy recovery!
On a lighter note, last night at midnight there was a show for the crew and it featured an amazing talent, a hypnotist called Christopher Caress, well I have never seen anything like it, he had about thirty people on stage with him and literally put them to sleep and then had them doing the most funniest things from milking a cow to crying their eyes out over a sad film to wait for it, wiping their bums on a clean piece of stage as they had a very hot curry the night before, I laughed my head off it was so funny, he is also a very nice man.
I’m going to stay in again tonight and watch some TV a film maybe, I should give Jonathan Clarke a call, he got on today he is a very good impressionist and I haven’t seen him for 21years, we used to be on the summer park seasons together way back in the day, I am so looking forward to seeing him again.
There is allot of talent on this ship like Jeff Stevenson who you may remember from ITV he had a game show called “Jumble” a top bloke and a good friend, then there’s me old mate Pete Mathews who I have known since 1991 we were on the Cannon & Ball Summer Show at the North Pier Blackpool and again the next year at the Britannia Pier in Gt. Yarmouth, Pete’s a great act he does a comedy juggling act and is very funny, then we have Jonathan Clark who I mentioned earlier who is probably one of the finest impressionists in the world and Chris Caress the Hypnotist who is just amazing, there’s also Adam Westcott who is a Spanish flamenco guitarist and he is world class let me tell you, there’s a classical trio of strings who are also right up there with the best, an acapella group that sing the Jersey Boys songs better than the Jersey Boys, also another guitar player Owen who also sings and has the most beautiful voice, then the bands on the ship are tip top fantastic, this really is an amazing place to be entertained.
My son Sam starts school on Thursday and I won’t be there so poor Marie has to take him on her own, I do hope he goes into school again, I remember my other son Tom starting and little face was like a false smile and horror at the same time, here’s some photos of Sam in his new school uniform.
Today is a sea day and unfortunately its overcast and it’s trying to rain, mind you that could be good for me as I am back in the Eclipse Theatre at 3pm giving a talk on my life in show business and well anything really including my family! I found out this morning that Jonathan Clarke has been on since Southampton and we haven’t even seen each other, I can’t believe it he has been in his cabin all this time, I hope he’s ok, I haven’t seen him in ages!
I found him, Jonathan Clark; he was in his cabin he says he hasn’t come out since we left Southampton? He is on tonight and I can’t wait to see his act, he was always a great singer impressionist.
I have just come back from my talk in the theatre and it was another full house and it went better than ever, I was approached by a lovely lady after my talk and she is a journalist for the papers, she wants to do an article on me for the Scottish Mail On Sunday, what a shame it’s not for Wales I could do with some more publicity for my tour, having said that my publicist Katie Vokes of MSI Creative is doing a fab job.
I spent some time catching up with Jonathan Clark last night, he did a fantastic job, his act is new and fresh with up to date impressions and he is doing so well in the USA too, we had a good chat and a laugh over old times we spent in the summer parks back in 1989, a top man is he and I wish him well.
I’m now at my gate at Palermo Airport and my first flight is to Milan, Marie and I had our honeymoon in Milan, then onto Heathrow where Executive Cars will be there to take me home www.executivecarswales.com I can’t wait to get home and hear all Sam’s news about starting school, I am so gutted I wasn’t there to mark that day. Never mind I am taking him to school on Monday morning. Tonight my friends Chris and Megan Stuart are having a party to say thank you to all who worked with them at Presentable www.presentable.com they were responsible for filming all my TV shows for BBC One Wales, I do hope I can make it, trouble is I don’t get into Heathrow until 6.30pm and by the time I get out of Heathrow it will be gone 7pm so I would be lucky to get home by 9.45pm so it may be too late to go to the Presentable bash in Llandaff, I owe so much to them for giving my career a massive boost back in 2001, so if I don’t make the party THANK YOU CHRIS and MEGAN STUART so very much.
I’m now on the plane and left Palermo late so I do hope I get my next flight to Heathrow ok! I had a text from my PA Ian Parsons and he tells me the Swansea Grand is selling fast so if you haven’t got a ticket yet and you would like to join me there get your ticket now.
It has been another successful cruise and I can’t wait to come back to the Celebrity Eclipse and do it all again, lucky for me I am doing the brand spanking new Celebrity Silhouette at the end of September so I’m excited about that too. I have the RCI Grandeur of the Seas to do next week, I haven’t been on there for years so that will be nice to go back there, oh did I tell you the Oriana sailed past us in the Med and she looked lovely, I miss that ship, I owe allot to her as I worked on her for many years working on my show, my heart skipped a beat when she sailed past, silly aren’t I!
Oh well it’s time now for an in-flight culinary delight of a cheese sandwich the smallest coke on planet earth. Bon Appetite!
It was a mad dash to the next flight but I made it, now all I just need to see that my luggage made it too. Another paste sarnie and an apple juice slips down nicely as I think to myself “look at you Doylie living the dream” hah I wish, I can see the business class lot down there having their meals served on proper plates and with real knives and forks, oh boy they having soup as well, once upon a time I was flown business class I even went first class once or twice but not anymore, cutbacks you see. It doesn’t look like I will make the Presentable party in Llandaff tonight, I won’t be home until at least 10pm now due to being delayed at Milan, it is a shame as there will be loads of people there I would love to see again like David Firman who was my musical director during all my TV shows, a great man who was so much fun to be around, I’d love to do it all again one day.
I have a busy week ahead, I have radio interviews Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and probably some ads to record for Trade Centre Wales too, Thursday evening I have a after dinner speech to deliver then Friday I have a concert at the Llangenech Hall near Llanelli, I played it last year and it is a lovely little place, we are going to rehearse there to for the upcoming tour, then Saturday I fly from Heathrow once again this time to Palma Mallorca via Frankfurt and I join the beautiful Royal Caribbean’s Grandeur of the Seas for a week in the Med, then home, then the Celebrity Silhouette, then my birthday (1st October) then back on Grandeur, then over to the Independence of the Seas also taking my son Tom on that one, then back for my final cruise for this year on Celebrity Eclipse, then THE TOUR!
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