Today we have another post from Ryan Doolittle, one of our glassblowers currently onboard the Celebrity Solstice.
I love to ask our audience the questions, “Who has never seen glassblowing before and did you have any idea that there would be a hot glass show onboard?” Of course, a favorite answer is “Yes, we saw you on the Eclipse or the Equinox and it was the highlight of our cruise so we had to come back to a cruise ship with the CMOG Hot Glass Show on it!” I also love it when people say that they have never seen hot glass in action because the glass bug swiftly hooks them and as we all know, once the glass bug gets you, it never lets go. Our extreme glass groupie fans will forego their fancy dinners so that they don’t miss a show and these are the folks that make my day.
The Celebrity Solstice
The cherry on top of this incredible itinerary of ports in Italy, Greece, Turkey, Spain, and France is when we overnight in Venice and get to spend an afternoon in Murano. Yay glassblower paradise!! The first time I went to Murano I was literally shaking with excitement as we pulled up to the island in the water taxi. Luckily I was with my fellow glassblowers and they were able to show me some hidden highlights. I would never have been able to find Carlo Dona’s toolmaking workshop on my own and to meet the man himself and purchase a pair of jacks from him was absolute dynamite! I shot straight from cloud nine to cloud fifty.
At Carlo Dona’s toolmaking workshop
Bob, my generous purple kitty coin purse giver-glass-mate, has started a traveler’s guide called “A Gaffer’s Guide to the Med.” We have begun telling our audiences tips about what we like and dislike in our varying ports of call. My favorite instance was when Tom and Bob told our darling fans that they were planning on getting an infamous Kusadasi haircut in Turkey. This is far beyond a normal barbershop haircut and shave since it entails burning the hair out of your ears, a lot of waxing and a bit of a massage as well. Of course sometimes there is a bit of a language barrier and if you ask for just 2 millimeters to be taken off, you might end up with just 2 mm of hair left period. Yikes! We were all rather surprised when one of our frequent audience members came back from Turkey having gotten the infamous Kusadasi haircut. Let the good times roll!
Arrivederci for now!