Does the Spirit's Can/NE Itinerary have a murder mystery night?

[okfarmerswife]

Thanks!

[J&JCRUISE]

We just got off the Spirit (Oct. 14 - 20 cruise). There was a Murder Mystery Dinner on Wednesday night, limited to about 96 people. Sign up was Monday, starting at 9 A.M. in the Library. You met at 5 P.M. Wednesday evening in the Stardust Theater and were arranged into groups of 6. You were given identities and packets with information on your character and dialogue for 3 "scenes." You were then taken to Windows (the main dining room) where you ordered normally from the menu and were served normally. Through dinner, you read from your packets and "acted" out your parts; at the end guessing "who did it." (One of you six are told in your packet that you are the murderer and to not expose that fact until the end.) The mystery was all done by you and your 5 tablemates reading from your packets; each table functioning independently - no interaction with anyone other than your tablemates.

 

Most of us had been part of murder mystery dinners which were actual dinner theaters where actors played out the parts, with maybe some minimal audience participation. This was not that.

 

The execution of this event was terrible. When given the packets, many groups were missing packets for one of the characters. And some had pages from other characters mixed inside their packets and/or pages out of order. Also, having us seated in the middle of the Windows dining room was not a good idea. It was very noisy and we were unable to hear some of our tablemates read their parts. It was also dimly lit and difficult for some of us to read our parts also.

 

The script was confusing for many of the participants as the instructions and dialogue in the packets switched back and forth between first and third person.

 

It was a good idea, but as I said, the execution could have been a whole lot better. I would love to see them do this in a separate venue (not a main dining room) and really put together something with cruise crew members acting out the parts.

[okfarmerswife]

Thanks for the info. It certainly does not sound like what I thought it would be! Don't know if we'll participate or not! I was hoping for something a little more imaginative than just reading from a script! Did you enjoy the cruise?

[vivian02]

Thanks for the heads up. My wife has always wanted to go to a muder mystery however I think we will pass on this one. Tim

[samdham]

We had a different experience a couple years ago. We met in the theater and were seated in groups of 8. Each member chose a name of a character and put a nametag on. Then each character received a little booklet describing the character. Ours was very funny because a man accidentally chose a woman's character, so his wife took the male character. We watched a short video of the murder to give us some background, and then we went to dinner.

 

At dinner, we acted out a certain part for each course of the meal. We ordered, then did the first part. We weren't given a script, but instead we were given certain points that we had to make known about our character. The man who had chosen the woman's part was hi-larious, and totally got into his role. The "murderer" was awesome and we were all surprised when that person was revealed. Later we met in the library for the results. It was tons of fun, and it was nice to see those people for the rest of the cruise. It was one of the best parts of our trip.

[J&JCRUISE]

okfarmerswife: yes, we did enjoy the cruise. The Spirit is a lovely ship. It was our first time on her. I was expecting to see more signs of her age and wear from things I had read on this board; but really saw nothing to comment on. Everything also appeared very clean to me. Public bathrooms, that were also commented on several times in the recent past on this board as being dirty, were very clean every time I used them. (I often ran into crew members cleaning or about to clean them.) The Spirit is in great shape and the crew are wonderful; extremely friendly, helpful and most every area appeared well staffed.

 

I envied any children that might sail on the Spirit. The kids pool and other kids areas were wonderful. I also liked the open areas on multiple decks at the back of the ship.

 

One minor complaint: The Stardust Theater is set up a bit strangely; you enter on decks 7 or 8 from the front of the theater.

 

I think our cruise was fully booked. I had also read on these boards that Raffles, Blue Lagoon, Windows, etc. were often very crowded (long lines and/or difficult to find places to sit). We did not experience this either.

 

 

samdham: Your Mystery Dinner Theater experience sounds a lot better than ours. I don't know if all of the Mystery Dinner Theaters on the Spirit or other NCL ships are currently being done like ours. I'd be interested to hear from people about other Mystery Dinner Theaters and how they were done.