Jonathan Schwier

In 2014, as many friends and family already now, I decided to change the course of my musical career by taking an extended break from performing as a cruise ship musician.  In the months that followed this decision, I dabbled in a variety of projects including a full s...

Signing Off

As the OPP saga raged onward, Brent and I attempted to dodge the duties to the best of our abilities.  We would set our alarm for the scheduled time that we’d be working in the Ocean View Cafe only to clock into the system.  Then we’d go back to sleep.  Then...

Saying Goodbye to Ho Chi Mihn(Saigon) Vietnam

My buddy Brent and I decided to go experience an authentic Vietnamese lunch in the city of Ho Chi Mihn.  We opted to take a bicycle taxi to the restaurant which seemed like a good idea at the time, but we later realized it...

The life onboard the Millennium worsened this past week as more guests upstairs showed signs of gastrointestinal illness. Most of this likely involves food and water issues in the ports, but the doctors onboard have to assume the worst in these scenarios. This translat...

Feb 20, 2014 After exploring more of the nooks and crannies within the city of Hong Kong, I finally allotted one day to go to the famous statue of Buddha located on Lantau Island. Situated on top of a mountain, it’s the biggest statue of Buddha in the entire world. Peo...

After having gone home to the sub-zero winter weather in Indiana, I’ve returned to the ship. My mother nearly lost her life due to pneumonia and sepsis infections, necessitating my return home for a three week period. At this point, her health remains stable but her co...

New Years Eve ended up being a fairly relaxed evening for us.  We had to play only one set of big band music.  This contrasted immensely from my New Years experience on the Norwegian Dawn about 10 years ago.  As my memory recalls, we had to play for six hours back then...

Things took a turn for the interesting in the city of Hanoi.  We started the excursion with usual stops including the old French Governor’s mansion, the living quarters of the communist leader Ho Chi Mihn, and his mausoleum structured much as the one built for Lenin in...

Because the ship would be docked in the port for three days, I decided to scout the premise the first day. Most of the heavy exploration I saved for day two because we had the night off as luck would happen to be. Lisa and I attempted to walk to the city on day one, bu...

A Lucky Break

On Tuesday, we found out that the guest entertainer had an expired passport when attempting to pass through customs. This meant that our band would have the following day off! Lisa and I decided to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef again. This time, we...