Live Blog (Hopefully) – 02/20/2013 -03/06/2013 – Atlantis Events - HAL Oosterdam

[Northshorecruisers]

Great post so far!!

 

Love hearing how the charter is different from a regular sailing. Keep up the great work - can't wait to read more!

[Kiwi Kruzer]

The charter itinerary differs from the standard Au/NZ calls.

Do you get to cruise Milford Sound?

 

20 February Auckland

21 February Scenic Cruising – White Island 10 AM Noon

22 February Wellington, New Zealand Noon 7 PM

23 February Akaroa (Christchurch), NZ 7 AM 6:30 PM

24 February Port Chalmers (Dunedin), NZ 8 AM 5 PM

25 February At Sea

26 February At Sea

27 February Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 2 PM overnight

28 February Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 6 PM

1 March At Sea

2 March Sydney, NSW, Australia 10 AM overnight

3 March Sydney, NSW, Australia Noon

[tali71]

Do they really disembark at noon? We are supposed to start embarkation at 12:30pm on the same day???

[absolutboy20]

Day 2 – Thursday February 21, 2013 (At Sea)

 

 

Got Bud Light?

 

 

There seems to be a dire situation on board that it's only day two and the ship has run out of Bud Light. I will verify this myself later this afternoon at the afternoon tea dance. HAL has been used for many gay charters, and I think they need to tell each ship's food and beverage manager that there are there are three items that need to be carried in excess as we seem to run out of it often on these cruises. The shortage creates a scene similar the movie Airplane on board when Elaine states to the passengers they had run out of coffee. The three items are: Diet Coke, Bud Light, and ice cream. One item they can probably make two loaves of every day and go unused would be bread until about day 5 when 99% of the passengers give up on their diet.

 

 

Today's meal schedule is the same as I posted prior, but there seems to be one glaring issue. When we left the Dame Edna Experience last night and headed to the Lido deck for dinner around 10:00PM, the Lido had completely closed down and would not reopen until midnight. I don't quite know why this is happening as on previous cruises, they always had a small section of the Lido open for sandwiches when they were transitioning between dinner/late night dining. Luckily, Canaletto was still open and they allowed us to be seated at 10:00PM. This was my first time eating at Canaletto and I thought the chicken I had was quite tasty and moist. I give it a thumbs up even with the surcharge, not to mention I was starving.

 

 

Update of last night's performance. The Dame Edna Experience with Jonathan Hellyer was quite amusing and his impersonations were incredible. I definitely can see him in Las Vegas soon doing a show with the jokes tailored more towards the mainstream crowd. He is one of those performers who you can truly tell that they enjoy what they do, and appreciate the audience which I find rare in entertainers these days. Matt Yee's sing-along was also fun, except for the part that I was roasted but comes with the territory of a gay charter =) .

 

 

Meals: Breakfast was at the Pinnacle where I had a made to order omelet, no potatoes, side of bacon and sausages. Yes folks, I'm still on my low-carb diet. Lunch was at the Lido, but in my opinion the food quality has gone down from what I remember. I notice it especially in the beef, where I find it quite tough and flavorless. That beef round they serve on day 1 is similar to shoe leather. Dinner is planned tonight for the MDR as I think it's such a great way to meet people, and the food quality seems better..

 

 

Activities for Today: We started off the morning after breakfast heading towards the back lido pool, but after spending 45 minutes there huddled in three towels each, we gave up came back to the room and slept. We headed to the Lido again for lunch (I didn't realize the MDR had brunch today), and as soon as I sat down the queasy feeling of motion sickness just hit me. I took one bite of my roast beef and had to excuse myself to go to the room and throw on a Scop patch behind my ear. Now I know there are believers and haters of this product, but for me in general it seems to work well except for when the patch starts wearing out around day 3 and I have a severe case of nausea in the morning for about five minutes, usually at the smell of food. And no I am not pregnant for those of you wondering. My partner wanted me to try going without the patch as he felt the nausea was caused by Scop, but after Day 2 and feeling a little queasy, I'm back on.

 

 

My partner had a some type of deep tissue massage that uses stones and he just came back stating it was fairly good, but again was pressured to buy product at the end which he gave into. Apparently it's a revolutionary product folks where you put the product in the tub and it detoxifies you. There was some eye roll on my part but what he can't see behind my glasses as I type this on my balcony can't hurt. “

 

 

Pool games involved “So You Think You can Dance”. Eight volunteer contestants (forced up if not enough people volunteer) perform to various songs and are initially split into two groups of four. The two groups have a dance captain which is a HAL dance crew cast member, today the two members were brother/sister which I found cute. They have roughly three minutes to come up with a dance routine to songs that are selected, and the losing team is eliminated. The winning team is then split to two groups, until finally there are only two people left. At that point, the contestants

have to “lip sync for their life” and the winner is finally chosen. There was a clear winner this time around who had great charisma.

 

 

So what's on tap for the rest of the day. The weather has warmed up in the last few hours that both pool decks were completely packed and I decided to come back to the room to lay out on our balcony. I would say it's about 80 degrees on this deck. I missed Bingo to spend some more time laying out and listening to music. 5:30PM is a afternoon dance at the covered Lido pool. Patrons are given red,yellow, or green stickers, so that singles and couples can mingle/dance and to let singles know who's single. The rest of the night includes Gay Comedy Stars at 8:30PMh , Piano Bar with Brian Nash at 10:30PM, and the “REALLY South Pacific Party” at 11:00PM. This has been explained in prior gay cruise reviews, but the dance parties have a theme, and many people dress up to make it more entertaining. My costumer tonight: Indiana Jones.

 

 

Telecommunication Access: I just wanted to add this as I wanted to state that for people needing internet access for work while on a cruise, do NOT bother with the internet access provided on board. It is so unreliable and all of the minutes are used up just trying to log on to the system which constantly lose connection. I had better success using my Iphone which I bought a prepaid international data roaming package, and while we are currently cruising coast side along New Zealand, I was able to get a Vodafone signal from on shore and was able to check e-mails so much faster than trying to use the ship's satellite service. So check your wireless carrier as I'm finding it a better option, and just make sure that Cellular-At-Sea isn't showing as the provider, as AT&T data package doesn't include the ship's service.

 

 

I apologize as I can't address the questions that were asked on the board by the person's cruise handle as I am using my laptop which goes through the ship's satellite service. This morning I wanted to throw my laptop overboard but then it would be littering and insurance doesn't cover user caused losses.

 

 

I believe one question was what time we disembark in Sydney. Yes it is my understanding that we have late debarkation with Mardi Gras the night before and is scheduled to be with the last passenger off at 11:30AM. Now if that really true, I won't be able to tell you until day of. Milfordd Sound is unfortunately a no =(

 

 

Until tomorrow when we get to Wellington, and we have Seal Coast Safari tour.

[boaterette]

Thank you.

[RuthC]

Milfordd Sound is unfortunately a no =(

Awww. That's a shame. My day sailing through the various Sounds was probably the most memorable of my Auckland to Sydney portion down under.

 

Enjoying the telling of the tale. Sure is different from the typical cruise. Sounds like a lot of fun! :D

[Boytjie]

Enjoy your cruise and looking forward to the rest of it. If you happen to run into my friend Surjit from Vancouver Island, tell him Peter says HI :D (He is hard to miss, LOL)

 

I am impressed that you find time on a gay charter to do this! I did not even boot up my notebook once on last week's RSVP cruise!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Docked in Wellington 10 am local time.

 

 

 

[roadbeagle]

Thanks for your blog. I have two friends on this cruise. They are Ralph and Jeff from San Francisco. I hope you have a great cruise.

[absolutboy20]

Roadbeagle this is too funny. We ran into Ralph and Jeff on the top deck while we were pulling to Wellington. Btw, it was Ralph that one So You Think You Can Dance.

 

Wellington is ver cold!!

[linanles]

I'm enjoying your blog as we will be on the same cruise, reverse direction, on 16th March.

 

Can you report whether you can also get TelecomNZ 3G signal as you cruise down the coast?

 

Thanks,

Lester

[absolutboy20]

Day 3 – Wellington Friday February 22, 2013

 

This morning when we woke up we had quite a few white caps in the ocean and you definitely felt the ship moving. We arrived into port this morning and a Carnival ship had already arrived. The temperature has significantly dropped and it is extremely windy. We tried strolling through the downtown area, found the Parliament building which is shaped like a bee hive, but we could not find the cable car up the mountain. We eventually gave up and had to return back to the ship for the Seal Coast Safari tour.

 

Excursion/Sites

 

I forgot to mention one thing about the excursions, they are all very expensive compared to ones offered in the Caribbean through HAL. Walking tours start at round $80.00, our Safari excursion was $169.95 per person. Pretty much all of the excursions are over $100.00, and can go as high as $400.00. This is excluding the private car choices which I believe were around $800.00. You can book outside of HAL but most of the ones that are space limited are closed off from being able to purchase directly to the provider. I also have this fear I'm going to miss the boat if I did a non HAL excursion.

 

Seal Coast Safari Tour

 

I highly recommend this tour over the Scenic South Coast by 4wd. Our tour guide Ben's family actually owns most of the land where you go offroading to see the sea lions. As he was our driver, he detoured from the main roads, and we drove by his house, his mom's house, as well as his brother's house which are all spread out over a steep mountainside. We even stopped to see his deer that they own and ran into small wild piglets on the dirt road. The off-roading on the coast side was a lot of fun, but it is jerky. Apparently one of the their vehicles got caught by a wave on the morning tour, and they were down to three vehicles for us. So we were definitely crammed into the cars. The SUV's are older Toyota Land Cruisers where after the first row of seats, he has bench seats on the sides. The vehicle can hold a maximum of 9 passengers, and with 9 guys in the SUV we were packed in like sardines. Ben our guide also picked up some leaves/herbs on the way to Tongue's Point, and brewed the group some tea and had fresh muffins for when we arrived at the seal colony. Since the current/waves were so strong, it was a benefit for us as the sea lions preferred to be the rocks sleeping, rather than being out in the ocean. It is real offroading, and one the vehicles did end up getting stuck for a while. We were behind them and the waves started to come up to our vehicle, before he was eventually able to get the car off of a boulder.. I don't recommend this tour to anyone who may be prone to motion sickness unless you're wearing a patch, I was fine, or people with back problems as you can get thrown around during the tour. We spent about a ½ an hour at Tongue's Point where there were a good number of seals sleeping.. On our way back, he asked if anyone would like to get off in downtown Wellington, and the majority of us wanted to do that as the walk from the ship to the central area is about 15 minutes.

 

Once we were dropped off by Ben in downtown, we tried finding the cable car again. A local saw us with a map and directed us in the right direction (Basically entrance is near the McDonald's). IMHO, the cable car was over-rated, short, and the views from the top are not that great as there are trees blocking some of the views. So if you're short on time, I say skip it. We got back to the ship around 5:00PM, and I watched the Carnival ship leave from the back lido pool.

 

What's on tap for tonight? Well we have the poolside barbeque until 9PM, and a performance called “Stage & Screen” by the HAL crew in the vista lounge. No special dancing/theme tonight except the club at Northern Lights. With the lido pool being used for the BBQ, no dancing there tonight until 4 in the morning.

 

Tomorrow is Akaroa, and my goal is to come back with a sheep I purchased at the sheep farm. It shouldn't be too hard to send through the x-ray machines when we get back onboard.

[brucory]

Thanks for all the updates.

 

Enjoying your "Live from", particularly about the entertainment!

 

Would have loved to hear Wayne G spin as I listen to his podcasts while I am on the treadmill!

 

Hope the crossing will not be too bumpy!!!

 

:D:D:D

[absolutboy20]

Lilannes,

 

I saw your post earlier and wanted to see I could get telecom NZ on my phone. I have an iPhone 5 that automatically defaults to a carrier my service provider has a contract with. I don't know what kind of phone you have, but after the show tonight I did step out on our balcony to see I could get telecom NZ. My phone defaulted to voda NZ, but once I turned off automatic settings for the service provider I was able to get four different carriers including telecom NZ. I just have to emphasize how careful everyone needs to be in accessing data on a phone on board. As soon I get into the hallways of the ship, it automatically switches to the "cell at sea" network. At least on my service provider cellular at sea is not included in my international data service package. What I found was if cellular at sea is showing up as the provider, I could step outside, start the hard reset on my phone, and it would switch to the voda network. Hope that helps

[absolutboy20]

Bruce,

 

I think Wayne G has great podcasts. But I have to ask you to download DJ Grind's podcasts to see if you like it. Just download February 2012 tea dance episode and let me know what you think =)

[brucory]

Bruce,

 

I think Wayne G has great podcasts. But I have to ask you to download DJ Grind's podcasts to see if you like it. Just download February 2012 tea dance episode and let me know what you think =)

 

Thanks for the tip on this! Always on the look out for a great DJ with itunes podcasts!!!! :D:D:D

 

Looking forward to all your updates!!!

 

 

;););)

[debsjc]

Thanks for your really interesting reports. All the port information is great for me, as we are stopping at a lot of the same places. :)

[Krazy Kruizers]

Love your port descriptions.

[linanles]

Thanks Absolutboy20,

 

I have an unlocked Android Smartphone and my friend has an iphone3 which will be unlocked. We were each planning on purchasing a SIM and Bundle (60 minutes of NZ calls (international calls 91c/m), unlimited NZ text and 500MB of data for NZ$24. We could then use our phones as personal hotspots for internet connection for our notebooks.

[Kiwi Kruzer]

At anchor , in Akaroa today.

A lucky grab from the Dawn Princess bridge cam.

 

 

[erewhon]

Kiwi Kruzer,

 

Thanks for posting the photo.

 

A busy day for Akaroa with two cruise ships visiting.

[absolutboy20]

Day 4 – Akaroa – Saturday February 23, 2013

 

We woke up this morning to the sounds of the tenders being dropped as we arrived in Akaroa. When I got outside on the balcony, I could see a Princess cruise ship pulling into the harbor in the distance. For those who are unfamiliar with the situation, Akaroa is being used now after the earthquakes in Christchurch decimated their dock. It is a long bus ride if you wanted to venture to Christchurch from Akaroa. We went to the MDR for breakfast as the Pinnacle in all honesty on our cruise is quite lonely. The last two mornings when we ate there we we were one of two tables that was occupied. After speaking with the manager at the Pinnacle, he mentioned that on a regular cruise they would normally have all the window tables full. Our change in venue to the MDR this morning was pretty much in line with what we experienced in the Pinnacle. I would say there were less than 10 tables occupied while we dined. So as you can imagine, the service was AMAZING as we had two waiters helping just our table.

 

As far as Akaroa, I need to point out that you need to book an excursion. The town can pretty much be walked through in about 15 minutes, 30 minutes if you check out the lighthouse on the other end. So if you don't have an excursion planned, you're going to find this stop quite boring. Our excursion for the day is visiting Manderley Farms, a working sheep farm. However, this excursion was bumped from from it's original scheduled time of 1:30PM to 2:30PM as the Princess ship has requested an excursion as well.

 

As we had several hours to kill, we took a tender around 11:00AM and headed to shore. We visited the gift stores but couldn't find anything I really liked except for a zip up jacket made of merino wool. Unfortunately the price tag was $250.00 so I had to pass. Akaroa also had a swim meet in the harbor today so the park was bustling with people. As we had already walked the storefronts and it was only 12:30PM, we decided to have something to eat in town. We ended up at a restaurant at the end of the “downtown” district.. With the swim meet competition and two cruise ships in port, the place was packed. Luckily, we were able to snatch a table from cruisers from the Princess ship when they left. The restaurant is not full-service, so you need to go order your food, and get a number that you place on your table so that they can serve you when the food is ready. As I didn't want to leave my bag on the table, I stated I would go in first to order. Right away, I saw an item called the John Wayne Burger. This included a beef patty, cheese, fried egg, some type of cranberry relish sauce, lettuce and tomato. I ordered two as I thought my partner would love this as well, along with a glass of house white wine. The total bill came out to be a little under $60.00. Before I forget, credit cards have been widely accepted at the ports we visited. The one quirky thing is that when they run the credit card, they will give you a keypad to type in a pin code. I've never set that feature up on my credit card, as they normally treat any type of activity like that as a cash advance with ridiculous percentage rates. What you need to do is to hit the sign option on the screen, and their register will print out a receipt for your sign. Now back home, my signature never matches what is on my card as I'm lazy and scribble something on the screen to get out of the store. Here they will look at your credit card signature to see if they match, so make sure you sign well. After I came back to the table and told him that I ordered two burgers, he stated he was able to get a menu from another guest sitting outside and wanted to get the fish and chips. As I didn't want to deal with the hassle of canceling one of the burgers, I ended up eating both. Yes I am a pig. I have to tell you that the beef patty at this restaurant was GREAT, which for me is not fatty/grisly , and not too salty.

 

After lunch we walked around to the other end of the town to view the lighthouse, and spent the remainder of the time sitting on the benches at the end of the pier while answering several questions about where the women were on our cruise. I pointed out a few and then told them it was a gay charter..

 

Around 2:30PM, we headed towards the meeting point and were greeted by three minivans to take us to the ranch. It takes about 25 minutes to get to Manderley. You cross over the island and get to an elevation of about 2000 feet at the summit. At that point, you start making your way down the other side of the island. This is when the road turns into gravel, and there are several areas that are quite steep but give you amazing views. Our charter had occupied all the 20 spaces for this excursion. When you arrive at the farm, the owner will escort you to a large farmhouse when there are green plastic patio chairs for the guests that overlook a stage that has been set up. He goes into the entire history of being the 5th generation of sheep farmer, and why he started doing sheep farm excursions. There is a a lot of history with the farm, but I have to be honest in that the storyline was interesting but a little long. His daughter-in-law demonstrated how they sheer a sheep, and you were able to take pictures with the sheep. After the sheering, we were told to go outside to watch the dogs herd. They have roughly 4,000 sheep at this farm. This was a quick demonstration, but the speed at which the dogs are able to round up the sheep was amazing. The area where the sheep were on a very steep mountainside, and to watch the dogs run and be able to bring the sheep to where we were located on the other side of the hill was incredible. After the demonstration, we were escorted to the owners actual residence, where the wife Sue had made coffee, scones, and tea for everyone. They encouraged us to walk around their property, and as their home is built on a hillside it has panoramic views of the sea..She even encouraged us to pick the grapes that were growing in the lattice of her patio. We left around 5:00PM and were back on board by around 6:00PM.

 

Dining: Tonight we have signed up for the Le Cirque experience at the Pinnacle. I've only dined at Le Cirque once and it was in Las Vegas, so I'm curious to see if they are able to pull it off similar to the actual restaurant.

 

Entertainment: Here's the list for tonight:

 

8:30PM and 10:30PM - Miss Richfield 1981

She's a comedian drag entertainer that was even on the Travel Channel when they visited Provincetown with Samantha Brown. I've heard great reviews of her in terms of her quick wit and comedic skills so I will be looking forward to this one.

 

9:30PM – The Dating Game

Four couples are selected and asked various kinds of questions about their relationship.

 

11:00PM – The “WAY Down Under Party” Lido Pool Deck

This theme is anything Australian. My costume is an inflatable bull where I am the cowboy. I don't know how to describe it but the front legs of the bull are actually my legs, I have fake inflatable short legs on the side of the bull, and it looks like the bull is trying to buck me. I think the costume will be a hit but we shall see.

 

11:00PM – David Hernandez – Queen's Lounge

He was one of the contestants on American Idol who did make it in the top 10 but got eliminated.

 

11:45PM – Comedian Shawn Pelofsky, Vista Lounge

Female comedienne who has a great following in our community.

 

Well, that's about as much time I have today to blog, I need to get ready for Le Cirque, go to see Miss Richfield, and then change for the dance party. Boytjie(Peter), you're right in the fact that writing a daily blog can get a little overwhelming with the schedule of these cruises, but if someone finds the blog interesting,fun or helpful, it's worth it.

 

Tomorrow is Dunedin. We have a kayak excursion booked through HAL. The weather looks cold so I'll need to bundle up. Until next time.

 

PS. Sorry but I wanted to post this yesterday, but satellite internet was down.

[bradpole]

Day 4 – Akaroa – Saturday February 23, 2013

 

We woke up this morning to the sounds of the tenders being dropped as we arrived in Akaroa. When I got outside on the balcony, I could see a Princess cruise ship pulling into the harbor in the distance. For those who are unfamiliar with the situation, Akaroa is being used now after the earthquakes in Christchurch decimated their dock. It is a long bus ride if you wanted to venture to Christchurch from Akaroa. We went to the MDR for breakfast as the Pinnacle in all honesty on our cruise is quite lonely. The last two mornings when we ate there we we were one of two tables that was occupied. After speaking with the manager at the Pinnacle, he mentioned that on a regular cruise they would normally have all the window tables full. Our change in venue to the MDR this morning was pretty much in line with what we experienced in the Pinnacle. I would say there were less than 10 tables occupied while we dined. So as you can imagine, the service was AMAZING as we had two waiters helping just our table.

 

As far as Akaroa, I need to point out that you need to book an excursion. The town can pretty much be walked through in about 15 minutes, 30 minutes if you check out the lighthouse on the other end. So if you don't have an excursion planned, you're going to find this stop quite boring. Our excursion for the day is visiting Manderley Farms, a working sheep farm. However, this excursion was bumped from from it's original scheduled time of 1:30PM to 2:30PM as the Princess ship has requested an excursion as well.

 

As we had several hours to kill, we took a tender around 11:00AM and headed to shore. We visited the gift stores but couldn't find anything I really liked except for a zip up jacket made of merino wool. Unfortunately the price tag was $250.00 so I had to pass. Akaroa also had a swim meet in the harbor today so the park was bustling with people. As we had already walked the storefronts and it was only 12:30PM, we decided to have something to eat in town. We ended up at a restaurant at the end of the “downtown” district.. With the swim meet competition and two cruise ships in port, the place was packed. Luckily, we were able to snatch a table from cruisers from the Princess ship when they left. The restaurant is not full-service, so you need to go order your food, and get a number that you place on your table so that they can serve you when the food is ready. As I didn't want to leave my bag on the table, I stated I would go in first to order. Right away, I saw an item called the John Wayne Burger. This included a beef patty, cheese, fried egg, some type of cranberry relish sauce, lettuce and tomato. I ordered two as I thought my partner would love this as well, along with a glass of house white wine. The total bill came out to be a little under $60.00. Before I forget, credit cards have been widely accepted at the ports we visited. The one quirky thing is that when they run the credit card, they will give you a keypad to type in a pin code. I've never set that feature up on my credit card, as they normally treat any type of activity like that as a cash advance with ridiculous percentage rates. What you need to do is to hit the sign option on the screen, and their register will print out a receipt for your sign. Now back home, my signature never matches what is on my card as I'm lazy and scribble something on the screen to get out of the store. Here they will look at your credit card signature to see if they match, so make sure you sign well. After I came back to the table and told him that I ordered two burgers, he stated he was able to get a menu from another guest sitting outside and wanted to get the fish and chips. As I didn't want to deal with the hassle of canceling one of the burgers, I ended up eating both. Yes I am a pig. I have to tell you that the beef patty at this restaurant was GREAT, which for me is not fatty/grisly , and not too salty.

 

After lunch we walked around to the other end of the town to view the lighthouse, and spent the remainder of the time sitting on the benches at the end of the pier while answering several questions about where the women were on our cruise. I pointed out a few and then told them it was a gay charter..

 

Around 2:30PM, we headed towards the meeting point and were greeted by three minivans to take us to the ranch. It takes about 25 minutes to get to Manderley. You cross over the island and get to an elevation of about 2000 feet at the summit. At that point, you start making your way down the other side of the island. This is when the road turns into gravel, and there are several areas that are quite steep but give you amazing views. Our charter had occupied all the 20 spaces for this excursion. When you arrive at the farm, the owner will escort you to a large farmhouse when there are green plastic patio chairs for the guests that overlook a stage that has been set up. He goes into the entire history of being the 5th generation of sheep farmer, and why he started doing sheep farm excursions. There is a a lot of history with the farm, but I have to be honest in that the storyline was interesting but a little long. His daughter-in-law demonstrated how they sheer a sheep, and you were able to take pictures with the sheep. After the sheering, we were told to go outside to watch the dogs herd. They have roughly 4,000 sheep at this farm. This was a quick demonstration, but the speed at which the dogs are able to round up the sheep was amazing. The area where the sheep were on a very steep mountainside, and to watch the dogs run and be able to bring the sheep to where we were located on the other side of the hill was incredible. After the demonstration, we were escorted to the owners actual residence, where the wife Sue had made coffee, scones, and tea for everyone. They encouraged us to walk around their property, and as their home is built on a hillside it has panoramic views of the sea..She even encouraged us to pick the grapes that were growing in the lattice of her patio. We left around 5:00PM and were back on board by around 6:00PM.

 

Dining: Tonight we have signed up for the Le Cirque experience at the Pinnacle. I've only dined at Le Cirque once and it was in Las Vegas, so I'm curious to see if they are able to pull it off similar to the actual restaurant.

 

Entertainment: Here's the list for tonight:

 

8:30PM and 10:30PM - Miss Richfield 1981

She's a comedian drag entertainer that was even on the Travel Channel when they visited Provincetown with Samantha Brown. I've heard great reviews of her in terms of her quick wit and comedic skills so I will be looking forward to this one.

 

9:30PM – The Dating Game

Four couples are selected and asked various kinds of questions about their relationship.

 

11:00PM – The “WAY Down Under Party” Lido Pool Deck

This theme is anything Australian. My costume is an inflatable bull where I am the cowboy. I don't know how to describe it but the front legs of the bull are actually my legs, I have fake inflatable short legs on the side of the bull, and it looks like the bull is trying to buck me. I think the costume will be a hit but we shall see.

 

11:00PM – David Hernandez – Queen's Lounge

He was one of the contestants on American Idol who did make it in the top 10 but got eliminated.

 

11:45PM – Comedian Shawn Pelofsky, Vista Lounge

Female comedienne who has a great following in our community.

 

Well, that's about as much time I have today to blog, I need to get ready for Le Cirque, go to see Miss Richfield, and then change for the dance party. Boytjie(Peter), you're right in the fact that writing a daily blog can get a little overwhelming with the schedule of these cruises, but if someone finds the blog interesting,fun or helpful, it's worth it.

 

Tomorrow is Dunedin. We have a kayak excursion booked through HAL. The weather looks cold so I'll need to bundle up. Until next time.

 

PS. Sorry but I wanted to post this yesterday, but satellite internet was down.

Thank you for taking the time to do a live report while on your cruise!

My partner and I have done a few RSVP cruises and will be following this with great interest.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[RuthC]

Boytjie(Peter), you're right in the fact that writing a daily blog can get a little overwhelming with the schedule of these cruises, but if someone finds the blog interesting,fun or helpful, it's worth it.

Two out of three ain't bad. I am finding it interesting and fun. :D

Not so sure about "helpful", as I don't expect to get back that way again.

 

I loved my stop in Akaroa, even though the day turned miserable by the end, and the tender ride back was one heck of a slow, bumpy, take your life in your hands time.

 

Thanks for the post.