Is Richard Spacey still a CD?

[nlcentralchmps03]

That is awful (for us, great for him). I was so excited to have him in 2 weeks.

 

Ugh :(

[toonjie]

Here's a true story that happened to us when Richard Spacey was the cruise director on the AOS, his first line at the closing show after this happened was just hilarious! He's the best CD we have ever had!

 

“Final Countdown on the AOS”

 

The following is a true story that happened on our first AOS cruise which departed San Juan on May 14th, 2006 back when the AOS ran the same itinerary as the Serenade is now, San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados, then a day at sea on the way back to Barbados.

 

The captain was Arnolf Remo

The cruise director was Richard Spacey

 

Saturday, May 20, 2006 Day at Sea

 

This cruise was my mom’s first and she had had a blast, as did I and we had done a lot since this was her first time visiting these islands and we were looking forward to a relaxing day at sea….

 

 

We began the day with breakfast on the balcony. After breakfast we went up to the rock climbing wall to catch them when they first opened. I remember I had to wait for them to open. I climbed the wall and made it to the top on each of the three courses, but it was tough since I started on the easy one and then moved to the hardest, should have done it the other way around! As I reached the top of the final course I noted storm clouds off in the distance, the same direction we were traveling, and I was glad we had gotten up and at ‘em early, before it rained. I then went to the fitness center to hit the elliptical machine and my mom went to the solarium and I was to meet her in the hot tub after my workout. My goal for the day was to workout really hard, (I had a 3:00pm spin class as well) and then enjoy the highlight of the cruise, a massage at 4:00pm.

I was on the elliptical for around 15 or twenty minutes when I saw we were heading into a thunderstorm way off in the distance. It was a very small circle of clouds of in the distance at the time and I remember wondering if we would divert course around it. A few minutes later the ship still was heading on the same course, directly into the clouds. I had a great view of the bow and I remember thinking it was like we were on autopilot lumbering towards rain without concern for the hundreds who by this time were sunning themselves on the pool deck. It was sunny everywhere else and the seas were normal, there was just one big ball of thunderstorm clouds and we were sailing on a direct collision course.

As the ship neared the clouds, they grew more and more ominous, I remember thinking they looked a little reminiscent of the storm in one of my favorite movies as a teen, The Final Countdown. It’s a movie about a freak storm that carries the USS Nimitz along with its carrier attack group and all its planes from 1980 back to December 6, 1941. The captain and crew then have to decide whether or not they should stop the Japanese invasion fleet before they attack Pearl Harbor. As I was thinking of this movie from long ago, the storm was no longer just reminiscent of the one that was in the movie, it was looking more and more exactly like it, more and more so, each minute we got closer and closer to it. By now I was thinking surely the master of the watch was calling the captain for permission to deviate course, but as we got closer, the storm seemed to grow larger and larger and deviation seemed like less and less of an option. If you saw the final Countdown, then you know the kind of storm I am talking about. Lightening was flashing from within the clouds, but it wasn’t the usual color, it had a grayish, bluish metallic color to it and the flashes seemed to glow with almost a fluorescent iridescence that was at once both captivating and spooky. Our bow still plied the waves heading straight into this storm and finally I could see the first drops of rain hit the fitness center window. I was so glad I got all my outside activities done early! Soon after the rain started, I remember hearing an announcement over the loudspeakers and I took my Ipod’s earbuds out and it was Richard Spacey telling everyone that they should all get under cover, that they didn’t know what it was that was falling and that just to make sure everyone should seek shelter inside the ship! Well that peaked my interest, from my vantage point on the elliptical machine looking out onto the bow of the ship, all you could see was rain. There was lightening off in the distance and some driving wind, but you couldn’t see anything falling. A few minutes later, Richard Spacey was again heard on the loudspeakers, this time I took my earbuds right out and could hear him say they believed what was falling with the rain was volcanic ash from a volcano in Southeast Asia. At the time that was the only volcano erupting anywhere on the planet and the first thought. was that the fine grey ash that was falling must have traveled around the world and be falling on us. I remember when I was in High School and Mt. St. Helens in Washington State was erupting and after school, all the way in New York, there was ash on our cars so I thought this theory was certainly plausible.

By this time I ended my workout and went out to explore this phenomenon. There were still loads of people out on the pool deck, but they were all either under cover on the sides or else actually in the pools. As I was exploring, Captain Remo came on over the loudspeakers and repeated the warning to seek cover just in case since they didn’t know of any danger, but just to be safe everyone should head inside. I check the Solarium and mom had obviously heeded the warning and there were just a few young adults in the pool. At the main pool, crews are beginning to clean the ash off as much as possible with their normal high-pressure hoses. They later abandoned this and switched to using the fire fighting hoses, that is how much ash was on the pool deck! The pools had to be closed and completely drained and fire hoses were being used to wash the ash down the drain. I felt so sorry for the crew, here it is the day before they have to turn around the ship and have everything looking perfect for the next sailing and the ship is just absolutely trashed. The hull of the ship looked grey and even the next day it was still not cleaned. I think the crew abandoned the idea of cleaning the whole ship and just got the passenger decks ready for the next sailing. It would be interesting to see if any CCers were on the May 21st 2006 sailing and could tell us how long it took to get everything clean?

We went to the captain’s question and answer time and Captain Remo said this was the first time he had ever seen anything like this in his 30 years at sea! The rest of the day went on quite normal for the passengers and hopefully the crew got loads of overtime! At the closing show, Richard Spacey, who I think is the funniest cruise director I have ever had, opened with the line, I hope everyone had a good day in spite of a little rain. I mean it’s not like it was raining down volcanic ash or anything!”

 

It wasn’t until the next day that we learned the volcanic ash wasn’t from the eruption in SE Asia, but a crater collapsed on the volcano on Montserrat spewing ash as high as 30,000 feet in the air. That ash, combined with a powerful thunderstorm at sea, created the final countdown on the AOS.

 

To read the story from other perspectives:

 

http://www.nerc.ac.uk/publications/p...06-volcano.pdf

 

http://www.cdera.org/cunews/news//mo...ticle_1652.php

 

http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EGU20...07-J-11090.pdf

 

Check out the posts on this forum, there are satellite pics that show the cloud growing and heading right into the path of the AOS

 

http://www.geographia.com/antiguanew...tml?1148411586

[BillOh]

Racey Spacey was on Freedom last week- he's nuts but really good at what he does.

 

We don't usually buy the cruise in review DVD, but he does make them worthwhile.

[madkil]

does anyone know where james andrews is?

[p0mpey]

We were just on the Mariner and Ken Rush was the CD. He announced that he was going to the Oasis! He has one more week on the Mariner, which was a charter voyage (Tom Joyner) and he would be on board but not doing his regular CD duties and then he would be on VC until the Oasis inaugral.

[baddriver]

Richards last cruise with the Freedom was on May 17th-24th, 2009.

 

He's going to be on the Oasis now!

[Cruising89143]

Glad to see that he is going to the Oasis. I don't usually think a lot of cruise directors but Spacey is a different story. The guy is great. The best that I have seen to date on any ship.

[ExAstris]

My wife and I just returned from our honeymoon cruise on the Freedom of the Seas this morning. Richard Spacey was still the Cruise Director on the ship, and he was incredible. I didn't hear him make any reference to leaving the ship, but I do know he was still on board for our cruise.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if RCI offered him the new ship; he's an incredible talent who will probably go very far if he chooses.

[Sky616]

My wife and I just returned from our honeymoon cruise on the Freedom of the Seas this morning. Richard Spacey was still the Cruise Director on the ship, and he was incredible. I didn't hear him make any reference to leaving the ship, but I do know he was still on board for our cruise.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if RCI offered him the new ship; he's an incredible talent who will probably go very far if he chooses.

They already have. He leaves for the Oasis in a month or so. He is a wonderful CD.

[cpa2be]

We just returned from Freedom 10/18 sailing. Richard Spacey is a true original! :D He is hilarious and adds so much to the entertainment. If you ever had the pleasure of sailing with Graham Seymour, you get an idea of what Richard is like.

 

He opens and closes each show in the theater with very funny material. The videos that you see are quite well done and not to be missed.

 

We are booked on the Oasis for Oct 2010. I hope Richard will be there, too!