ftn807

When chatting with Zai Ma, was his last ship the Freedom, do you recall?

Glad you enjoyed it. Have fun on the Anthem!

You know, I really don't recall where he said he came from last. Wherever it was, though, the rum flowed freely!

And thank you to ftn807 for joining me in this adventure and in the adventure of marriage. Happy anniversary, my love, and here's to many more to come!

Thank you too, my love. Any adventure with you is automatically fun and full of good times. An adventure on a cruise with you is the same, plus lots of old people wearing funny clothes.

Thank youfor this thread ;-)

The menu seems soooo gooodddd:D

It was sooooo good, actually. (You missed an 'o' in there.) We just ran into the sommelier from the chef's table, in fact, and let him know that it was the culinary highlight of the cruise. No exaggeration there.

Thanks guys. You have put together a wonderful review from the second you hit the cruise button.

 

Andrew

Thanks for the thanks. We've had a blast doing it. And we're really enjoying our going-away evening here. After dinner at Devinly Decadence, we soaked in the hot tubs in the (empty, literally) Solarium, caught a wonderful show by Horizon in the Music Hall, and are currently in the Schooner Bar listening to Graham Sinclair on the piano. Quite a nice way to wrap up the cruise.

DW is having Internet connectivity issues at the moment, but wanted me to say that her phone just auto-corrected 'canteloupe' to 'can't elope'. Mine did it too here, but I wrestled it to the ground and forced it to submit to my spelling will.

We're eating at Devinly Decadence tonight, hence the canteloupe reference, as they have a canteloupe soup on the menu. DW promises a review will be forthcoming. I promise nothing.

The happy couple bloggers celebrating their 10th anniversary, lounging in a 'chiminea chair' in Two70.

Thanks so much to all the people reading and posting on the board. We've enjoyed sharing our cruise with you!

A last sunset from our balcony, before we head to Vintages for an aperitif.

A little going-away token from my bud Zai Ma.

Where & when is your next cruise!?!? Want to follow along!

We're starting a Kickstarter. Contribute, and we will cruise (and blog!) Don't contribute, and we will go back to our day jobs. And only write things that make people sad.

As I was sailing solo last night, I thought I should write a lengthy, serious treatment of the evening. But that's probably not going to happen.

I made my way down to the Royal Theater around 6:30, and snagged a good seat for the 7:00 showing of Sonic Odyssey. It probably had THE best opening for any entertainment spectacle on this ship, as Ken Rush did NOT come on stage first to tell a bad joke. To sum up without giving away any spoilers, the singing, dancing, and sheer musical innovation make this show a worthy follow-up to the earlier, less well-known shipboard production of Aural Iliad.

**SPOILER ALERT**

(Always wanted to do that. You can certainly read this and enjoy the show, and there is no plot or surprise to give away, but if you don't want to know some specifics about the instruments, etc., then just skip the rest of the post. You won't be missing much!)

The show started out with a glass of Breckenridge whisky, on the rocks. At least it did for me. Then the lights dimmed, and they introduced the Maestro, who would play most of the over-the-top instruments, as well as do his best to tie the other elements of the show together. Oh, and he had hair.

First up, he wowed the crowd with the Earth Harp, which is just like a mouth harp, without the mouth and with the earth. It was impressive, mostly because the thick, long cables did not snap and kill the folks sitting in section G. Soon after, some people escaped from a dance prison, all hell broke loose, and a piano played them all off. (This May Not Be Entirely Accurate Due to Breckenridge. TMNBEADB.)

Next up, a very large, vertical drum had babies, and lots of banging noise almost managed to drown out the sound of the ship running over whales. (See DW's earlier post.) This act really brought some energy to the show. Imagine the back wall of the stage with about 40 drums arranged so the heads are vertical, facing the audience. The Maestro began banging on the large mother-drum, and gradually the curtain behind him lifted, revealing more and more of the drum wall. A percussionist with 4 arms (Again, TMNBEADB) began to percuss a center cluster of drums, and before the end of the set there were over a dozen drummers drumming, some standing on the stage, others hanging in harnesses. The lead guy from Mamma Mia was sitting in a nook on the wall, acting like he belonged there, but I'm fairly certain he has just been stuck there since that crazy wrap party last Wednesday.

Speaking of Mamma Mia, it looks like the whole cast from that show was involved in Sonic Odyssey, from the (truly wonderful) singing to the dancing and aforementioned drumming. And for accompaniment, they were joined by a percussionist at his set (because The Wall of Drums was not enough), a piano, saxophones and brass, a violinist, guitarists, and another guy who mostly tapped his foot and smiled a lot. All of it was brought together by the sound guy in front of me, who not only managed to control things from his NASA-level equipment booth, but also made it to level 343 of Candy Crush Saga. Oh, and I almost forgot (you don't know how hard I tried to forget this) but there was a lady in a, um, an, er, string dress. Basically, she stood there and was, um, bowed by the Maestro and his cohorts. (This Is Accurate Despite Breckenridge.) It was probably the third most-gimicky thing they did in the show, and I had a hard time not laughing.

But the Maestro was not done making me almost laugh.

There were the drum jackets he and the rest of the cast wore, because drums. Basically, each jacket had 6 or so patches that, when slapped, would generate a different percussion sound. By the end of that act, which had so many people on stage in those jackets I was sure I saw my cabin attendant out there (hi Adrian!), I was certain they couldn't possibly do any more percussion-themed acts, by law.

However, we're out at sea where the Captain makes the laws, and he clearly can't get enough of that stuff, because then there was the Gong Show at Sea. Imagine gongs, and it will save me some writing here. It's not easy doing this on a tablet, and DW is getting cold here in Two70.

I'll briefly mention The Guitar, about which I will lie and say was not ridiculous.

There were other acts, mostly singing and dancing with musical accompaniment, that rounded out all these things. And I know I was making fun of all these over-the-top instruments, but the show was very good. They did do a great job of incorporating all the pieces and parts, ending up with something that would be very entertaining to anyone with an appreciation for music. Music with enormous harps and guitars, a guy stuck in a wall, and lots and lots of drums.

I give this show 4 out of 5 Breckenridges.

Just curious, are there any donuts on the ship? If so, where can I find them?

There are a bunch of very large orange ones all over the place on the outside decks.

Got a great seat for Sonic Odyssey. I think I'm right under the F# string of the Earth Harp. (Or is it G flat?)

The Captain gave a brief explanation of the dining troubles from last night at the start of his talk.

We're waiting in Two70 for Captain Henrik Loft Sorensen to start his talk, 'The Secrets of Dealing with Passengers'. Wait, that's tomorrow. Today it's 'The Secrets of Ship Navigation '. I'm fairly sure most of the people think he's going to talk about finding your way around the ship, as I've heard a lot of whispered talk about 'finally finding out what this "starboard" thing is all about', and the guy we've repeatedly seen wandering around the passageways looking rather confused at all hours of the day seemed ebullient, muttering 'maybe I'll finally find my stateroom' over and over.

With the free drinks in all the bars due to the A/C failure do you get a discount on your drink pkg.??? Or some other compensation?

Actually, we got free cruises for life. And a leg lamp.

I finally did a speed test, for anybody interested:

Heard there were free drinks for everyone at all the bars last night due to having to close the 4 main restaurants last night because of air conditioning problems. How did that go over with the passengers?

Lots of fighting, rioting really. But don't worry, the robots from the Bionic Bar restored order. Do NOT mess with those two.

I assume by pool you mean billiards? I wasn't aware Quantum had a pool table. I have played on Jewel.

There are four (I think) tables on the fourth deck, behind the bar in the Music Hall. We were in port at the time, but I heard through the grapevine that they are self-leveling when the ship is rockin'. They are also smaller than what I consider to be a standard size table, and the balls are all either red or yellowish orange, plus a cue ball and eight ball. No cost to play.

If I'm wrong about any of this, I'm sure I'll be corrected in 3, 2, 1...

Live blogging from atop the North Star.

Our cruise director, everyone. Our cruise director.

Tonight is probably the absolute highlight of the entertainment on this cruise. Truly, this has to be the pinnacle of the long tradition of the show while at sea. After a wonderful dinner, my wife and I are seated in the Royal Theater, soaking in the vibrant buzz of hundreds of cruisers in anticipation of...

a puppet show.

Ironicly, I almost posted the same exact thing! So I'll just concur with that last post.

As you can tell, a crazy day.

A few pictorial highlights from today: