General Hospital - NEWS ROOM

The word blog just makes me laugh; every single time I type it, I feel silly. It's an odd combination of letters, don't you think? Or maybe it's too close to "blob", which is really pretty much what a blog is…a blob of thoughts written by someone to someone. Or, in the case of the internet, millions of someones. In any case, here is my blob of thoughts regarding being on first annual Soap Cruise - with General Hospital's Tyler Christopher. I've been covering GH for Soaps.com for over a year now and have been watching Tyler since Nikolas Cassadine first came to Port Charles to give Lulu his bone marrow! I've written spoilers about Nik's actions and even interviewed Tyler on the phone. But late last Friday night I found myself chatting with him on the Lido deck of a cruise ship when he and his fiancé, Brienne Pedigo, came out for a dose of fresh air before turning in. The first thing I said? I told Tyler that it freaked me out a bit to be talking with him when only the day before on GH he whacked Emily. His dashingly handsome face cracked a smile and he joked, "But we don't know that yet, do we?" I complimented Tyler on his acting during his big sweeps storyline by saying that he really seemed stark-raving mad to me and Brienne shook her head and told me that Tyler is really just very sweet.

Tyler's overall goodness is something that I did see for myself while on the cruise. When the Soaps.com contest winner, Lori Kaplan, interviewed him, he graciously took the time to do the interview twice because the background noise (a.k.a. the fans!) was too loud the first time around. (Note to self…next year do interviews in a separate room.) Later, when I was like a rat in a maze as all cruisers are on the first day on a BIG ship, he pointed me in the direction of the bathroom. Heck, he even walked away from the black jack table after losing repetitively so that he didn't "cool off the table for everyone else."

Compared to all the other, shall we say…"big" personalities on the cruise, Tyler was the grown up. That is, until he and Christian LeBlanc (Michael Baldwin from The Young and the Restless ) hung out together in the wings when fans were invited to act out their written scenes with the actor of their choice. (As we will report in other Soap Cruise stories, Christian is "Robin Williams Funny".) I learned for myself that it's hard to be around Christian without shaving about 35 years off of my age, and Tyler seemed to experience a similar age-reducing phenomenon. It was nice to for me to see because those few giggle fits showed me how very un-prince like Tyler can be!

For most people, Saturday, November 17 was a normal day, but for people from the Midwest, it was Ohio State vs. Michigan day. As happy as I was to be on a cruise ship in the middle of the Caribbean, I found myself wondering what the final score was. I didn't have to wonder long. Tyler, a fellow Ohioan, provided me with my answer - the Buckeyes won, 14-3! As the cruise was winding down (unlike Christian, by the way), I had the chance to tell Tyler that I know some of his buddies from high school. His face brightened up at the mention of their names and he asked me to tell them hello for me.

As for finding out all the scoops from Tyler, I left that in the very capable hands of the lovely Lori Kaplan. Her interview with Tyler will be on Soaps.com soon, as well as HER blog about her experience. I look forward to reading it, and from what I saw Lori and her husband Ysaac doing all weekend long, so should you!

If you want to read more about the cruise, go to the Soaps.com main page! (Julie's Soap Cruise Blog). To see more pictures from the cruise or keep up with what's underway for Soap Cruise 2008, go to Soap Cruise 2007.

Julie Clark Robinson
GH Editor, Soaps.com