Thursday, At Sea

by Pa Rock
Sailor

The sun is shining and the sea is calm.  We are sailing all day today.  Tomorrow we will be in Vancouver, British Columbia, our port of disembarkation. 

Tomorrow cannot come quickly enough.  I will issue a report card on the Celebrity Millennium experience sometime after crawling ashore.    It will not be pretty.

One thing I have enjoyed about this cruise, however, has been the shows.  Each evening there are performances in the ship’s theatre, and most have been what I would regard as “cruise-ship good.”  Last night’s show featured a young Russian married couple, Yulia and Alan Reva, who danced and performed some aerial acrobatics.  They were capable ballet performers, though certainly well below the skill level that I witnessed at the Bolshoi and Kirov while in Russia several years ago. 

Maybe my appreciation of the shipboard arts would be higher if I had not been exposed to so much high-quality entertainment in my lifetime.  Two nights ago the show featured an Elton John impersonator.  He was good, for a cruise ship act, but again, I had seen better.  Miss Susan and I were in New Orleans years ago when we stepped into a small, nondescript bar in the French Quarter – probably just to get out of the rain.  There was a piano player in the bar alternating between Elton John and Billy Joel.  He was terrific – and working for tips.  Susan kept me there until the place closed, and places tend to close very late in the French Quarter!

There is also a troupe of young singers and dancers who perform in the ship’s theatre every other night.  So far I have seen their productions of Boogie Wonderland and Simply Ballroom.  Tonight these very talented kids will be doing a tribute to Broadway and London’s West End called I, Broadway.   Their shows are fun – a bit like sitting in on a filming of Glee.  These kids are just starting out in their show business careers and have an upward trajectory, while some of the more established acts are definitely waning.

Bingo today with card packages ranging from $39.95 to $59.95.  Grand prize is a free Caribbean cruise on one of the Celebrity cruise ships.  I’m not playing because with my luck I would probably win the cruise!

Valerie, Nefredia, and Murphy – I’m thinking of you guys as I stare out across the steel gray Pacific Ocean – knowing that you are still out there, on the far edge of the ocean, and enjoying the Orient.  Color me green with envy!

And the ship sails on.