Monday, November 12, 2018
Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico
Woke up around 7 am and made my way up to the buffet for breakfast. Had a hot breakfast and a "second-sies" continental breakfast. The pastries, like the desserts from last night were out of this world. And despite what many online reviews said about the free coffee offered on cruises, this coffee was great. As good or better than gourmet brands. The juices were full-flavored and not watered down like what I got when I cruised with Royal Caribbean a few years ago.
Went to a 9:00 am Early Risers Trivia, teamed up with an older couple and we came in second place. Prize? The game runner's initials on a slip of paper with 20 squares. I guess if you fill it up, you get something better? (Reminded me of where I used to work...our residents who were reticent about attending scheduled activities would need to fill up a slip of paper with initials of the hosts of the activities they participated in, then they'd get a reward.)
After that I made my way to the theater for a presentation about activities at our ports of call. What I didn't realize, though I should have, was the activities weren't just general fun things you could do, it was only about the excursions which you could buy. This was a sales presentation, not an unbiased travel guide. The presenter was lame as well which had me nodding off continually.
I walked around the ship some more trying to find interesting things. The art gallery was nice and had some really nice works including some by the artist who's responsible for the design of the colorful livery of this ship, Peter Max. They had a "guess the retail price" contest for one of his paintings displayed. Not sure which one but I saw three of his in the gallery all about 24" x 36". I didn't participate in the contest (you know that's a phishing scam to get your contact info for art sales) but, without even checking Google to see what his shit goes for, based on the style, and his fame, I'd price any one of those at, oh let's say $90,000. We'll see when I get home and can check it out how accurate I was. Or maybe they'll post the winning guess and actual price in the daily newsletter later this week. If so, I'll report it here. EDIT: After this trip, an Ebay search discovered I was overpricing his work a tad. Original oils and acrylics of his go for between $3,000 to $12,000 but nowhere in the $90,000 range so I would have lost the contest.
This was a sea day so only stuff to do was on ship. After lunch, I got tired and went to my cabin for an early afternoon nap but it turned into pretty much an all afternoon nap as I woke about 5:00 pm.
I took a refreshing shower, got dressed and made my way down to the theater at 6:15 pm. Even with reservations, it's a good idea to get to events early for good seating. Tonight's show was "Burn the Floor" a really energetic dance troupe with awesome vocalists and great musicians. Sat next to a couple from Arkansas and we chatted while waiting for the show to start. I'm finding that in general everyone is really friendly.
After the show I made my way over to the Howl at the Moon dueling pianos presentation at Headliners, the same club from the stand-up act the night before. Just like the I-drive version in Orlando, the performers took suggestions (and tips) from the audience and sing along participation was highly encouraged. I even got in on it when they were singing some silly song about wheels on a truck and the lyrics required counting up to 18, they mixed it up and asked people in the audience to sing on the mic being brought to them if they could do so in a language other than English. Well, Spanish was volunteered up pretty quickly by several offers and after the one person who was chosen sang her numbers they went on to much rarer languages being offered like Korean and Czech. I was like, to myself thinking "What, no French?" And since no one was offering it, I did. But when the guy came over with the mic and I started my count, I got stuck at 16 and blanked for a second. I made a cringe face and everybody clapped and laughed. Hopefully they realize that perhaps unlike the other volunteers, I'm not fluent in another language and even though when not under pressure, I can easily count to at least 49 in French with no problem, I crumbled slightly under pressure. BTW, dix-sept (17) and dix-huit (18) were the numbers I temporarily stumbled on.
Went to Syd Norman's for the band over there and on the way passed two more sing-along shows at Shakers and the Atrium. Too packed at Syd's so quickly left though the band sounded great. Called it a night and went back to my cabin, asleep by 12 am.