Ship Show quality amazingly improved

[cantgetin]

We cruised VV a year ago.  THe food at Ship Show was basically inedible.  2 of the 3 professional acts were food, but there was way too much of the audience participation stuff and the "ship show dancers."

We tried it again tonight.  THe food was GOOD.  Seriously, it was some of the best during the cruise.  There were now 4 professional acts with far less audience participation stuff.  The dancers had been cut from 6 to 3, and did a lot less.  The singer was good.  A good evening and my only complaint would be that the show was listed as starting at 5:30.  They didn't even open the doors to start seating till 5:35.  Not a big deal, just a lot of people standing in line for quite a while as there was a significant line at 5:15.

[jon81uk]

8 hours ago, cantgetin said:

A good evening and my only complaint would be that the show was listed as starting at 5:30.  They didn't even open the doors to start seating till 5:35.  Not a big deal, just a lot of people standing in line for quite a while as there was a significant line at 5:15.

Yep this annoyed me too as the text in the app said to arrive 15 minutes before, but they have actually changed the timing in the app so that 15 minutes is now included in the time shown. Last year it showed a start time of 5.45 (which is when the singer takes the stage, with the host out at 6pm) so you arrive at 5.30. Now shows a start time of 5.30 but the app still encourages arriving 15 minutes before that so the casino has a queue filling it!

 

I agree that the food quality has improved, the new roast vegetable salad and tomato mozzarella were booth good. Chicken still needs a side with it I think.

 

i thought I saw better acts a year ago than a month ago, but they change all the time. Also the amount of audience participation seemed the same to me, but the quality of the interaction depends a lot on the host and the one last month was great.

[cantgetin]

Agree that the chicken needs a side....but still, a huge improvement.  A year ago we ate almost nothing beyond a taste and went to dinner afterward.  This time, no "second dinner" needed.  Since the professional acts change quite regularly, it is hard to evaluate...but I liked 4 professionals acts this time rather than 3 on our last experience.

[periodic itinerant]

I thought the roasted veggie salad and the burrata (with that lovely basil oil, not quite a pesto, drizzle) were really nice starters. My fish main with the crispy skin was also better than I was expecting for a "dinner show." 

 

I had a random fun interaction with the host later when we both happened to be in Squid Ink at the same time. He asked the tablet drawing guy (whose name is completely escaping me right now) if he could sketch out a Maryland blue crab on a stripper pole, and I let out a little yelp of laughter at the confused look on the shop guy's face. 

 

We ended up chatting briefly about his experience on the ship so far and such and he was a really sweet and personable guy (also having a hard time remembering his name, think it starts with D and is fairly long). I'm always fascinated by the career paths of all the different types of entertainers on ships and it feels like they are out and mingling around and able to enjoy the amenities so much more on Virgin.

[CruisingWalter]

@cantgetin thanks for the updated report. We're on Valiant for Thanksgiving and might have to give that show a try.