Spotlight Cruises

[captbuzz]

We are booked on the May 14th Mariner to Alaska which is designated as a Spotlight Cruise for both Le Cordon Bleu and Photography. Has anyone participated in either of these is the past? Are they worth while and do they conflict with shore excrions? thanks

[jhp]

This will be the first Photography Spotlight cruise for RSSC. I hope you will report back on your experience! No knowledge of Cordon Bleu, as I have never participated.

[PaulaJK]

Hopefully, you will receive a response from someone who has

participated in the CB program. I did not. But one of my friends

did. She very much enjoyed it. The 'sessions' took place in

Latitudes during sea days. She loved the graduation dinner in Signatures.

The only on land component was an early morning to-the-market trip.

So don't worry about the program's interfering w. tours.

 

I'll be interested to hear of your expereinces w. phtography. I am imaging that some 'work' on land might be very instructive in that

subject.

[Shipless in Seattle]

I did the Cordon Bleu cooking school while on Mariner. It was well worth the $395 they were charging. Class was taught by an Executive Chef they flew in who had owned a few restaurants in England. There were 3 classes each with only dozen or so students (I think they had space for about 30 total that were divided into smaller groups). He taught you to make an appetizer in the first class, a main course in the 2nd and a dessert in the 3rd. All the dishes were on the Signatures restaurant menu. We also got a detailed tour of the kitchen, etc by the Exe Chef of Mariner. At the end we had a "graduation" that included a nice cookbook from Cordon Bleu.

 

If you want to do it reserve in advance as it sold out long before the actual cruise.

[Honeymooner2006]

We will be on your cruise as well, albeit picking it up the day before in Los Angeles. I, too, was curious about the Spotlights. A few months back there was a reasonably long thread about Cordon Bleu, so you might wish to do a search of this board.

 

I had asked about the Photography spotlight, but since it's new, no one had any info. Hopefully there is a Regent lurker who could be kind enough to fill us in on their plans - or at least provide a little more detail on the Regent website. :D

 

-Ann

[jhp]

Ann, unfortunately for us, but probably better for them, Regent never has company-sanctioned lurkers here! So we have to wait for returnees to report on their adventures.

 

On my last RSSC cruise in January through the Panama Canal, we did have a guest lecturer aboard who gave lectures on Photography. While interesting, they pretty much covered the basics of photography rules, like leading lines, filling the frame, rule of thirds, using settings for portrait photography and fast action, using flash when not needed, stuff like that. I had already done a Disney University thing for 4 days back in the days when they had them, so there was nothing new.

[Shipless in Seattle]

I don't know if it was a Photography spotlight cruise or not, but on Voyager they had a photography contest of a day in the life of the ship. Crew and passengers submitted photos taken on the hour every hour somewhere on the ship. The senior staff judged and the winners of each hour were posted sequentially in the main lobby on a few floors. It was a lot of fun and they had a prize ceremony with nice prizes from the gift shop. We were able to use the computers and photoshop software in the computer center gratis to print all the pictures and mount them.

 

I hope they do it again when I go on RSSC perhaps next year since I am doing 4 weeks on Silversea this year

[jhp]

Shipless, that was a wonderful story! Have to say, you can't go wrong with either of those lines for cruising!