Nov 05.2009 - Second Day At Sea in the Atlantic

DKP : Today the great weather held, we basked, slid down slides, worked in our ocean view offices, made money with the help of our diligent staff and felt grateful for made beds, laundered clothes and served meals.

The onboard activities continued, a feature that serves the demographic on this cruise quite well. Trivia, drawing classes, health talks, dance lesson, live bands, gambling and 24 hr pizza and frozen yogurt. A cruising lifestyle that doesn't speak to me in the least. I'd much rather run into the Bar Managers, Ivo and Dean, who act more married to each other then their wives ;-) and hear about how inventory is going since stocking the ship way back in September.

In fact, this is exactly what we discussed on the Promenade the other night while the passengers danced and swayed in the Ocean Plaza area by the coffee shop. I was facinated to learn that all beverages for the bars and food service were shipped over from the US in sealed containers months ago to Monfalcone to the shipyard. It's actually cheaper to do this than to buy it locally, plus quality is guaranteed.

The only catch is, the Bar Manager has to speculate on the amount of Wine vs Beer vs hard liquor that this particular set of passengers will be consuming for the next 40 days before the ship reaches NY where restocking takes place. Not an easy job in the least as witnessed by the fact that the ship has already run out of at least 12 wines with the best price points, oh well, there's over 40 to choose from, so we're covered just fine :-)

Our nightime adventures included a 200 waiter Michael Jackson routine rehearsal in the Scarlet Dining Room - what a site. We witnessed this huge energy on the Splendor when Head Team Waiter (and Dining Room choreographer) Savio Dias taught the guys the Jai Ho routine from the Oscar Winning Slum Dog Millionaire, a routine Sandy and I now know by heart. Even Diane jumps up from the table and joins us now, scarf and all and it's all good craic, as the Irish singing Maitre'd says.

The guys still have a lot of practice needed before they debut the show on the 11th when we leave Bermuda for New York. Can't wait to see it. Once the staff was off their service they all headed to the Encore Main Theater to see a debut peformace of "Get Ready", a new show presented by the Dream Team's entertianment staff.

For us, the show was entertaining and very ambitious considering they had already performed 2 other shows prior and did not begin this 3rd show until 12am. However, the dance routines and the set concepts seemed a bit Cruise Ship old school and were a bit of a dissappointment for our "seen it all" American entertainment business mentalities.

We really appreciated the hard work of the dancers and singers to make the lightning speed set and costume changes. I blame the show producer for not reaching for a brighter star on this one and what seems like following the party line. After all, this is THE DREAM... why not dream bigger than what's been done before?

It's definitely not the crew, they want to be cutting edge, it may go up the chain a bit with the corporate culture. There may be the philosophy of not spending resources on what is perceived as a non-revenue department and as much as I see that side of reason, I don't agree if this is the case. Music and Dance and Art is a MAJOR part of our lifetime experiences, it is the glue that bonds our experiences to our memories. It's what "repeater" guests are made of for this company or any other.

Why DREAM bigger?? To inspire... the crew, the staff, the passengers to feel they are experiencing the BEST life has to offer through what your company has to offer... it's really that simple... in my opinion.