Day 114, April 28, Sailing toward Fort Lauderdale

Today was the last day for Good Morning Amsterdam. Event Manager Mark joined Cruise Director Gene and Culinary Arts Center Host Donna for a reflective discussion of the previous 114 days. For future cruisers, I highly recommend putting Good Morning Amsterdam on your must do list. Gene is a wonderful host and you always get a few tid-bits of ‘off the record’ commentary and a chance to listen to the fascinating stories of the guest entertainers. Today we learned that this World Cruise had more, high quality entertainers, lecturers and other enrichment activities than any other world cruise that Gene has been associated with. We can personally vouch for the entertainers as Judy attended every minute of every Queen’s lounge show (except when we were overland) and I only missed 2 of over 100 performances.

We have been told that past world cruises spent money on an expensive celebrity – Desmond Tutu for example – but that on this cruise, the money budgeted for that single event was spent to get more, high quality acts across the board and that Gene had significant input into which acts were booked. While attending live shows is not for everyone, I strongly recommend that you fit it into your schedule and enjoy some entertainment that you would probably never see otherwise.

We had our final Cruise Critic Meet and Greet today, attended by maybe 20 people. Note to future Meet and Greet planners. I would continue to have a M & G monthly, but reduce your expected attendance by 25% each time. Don’t bother inviting officers, they won’t come, plus you will see them and hear them numerous times over your world cruise so you will have enough time to chat with them on other occasions.

Our final opportunity for Grand Dollar Redemption was this afternoon. I accumulated 1500, of which 1000 was due to our attendance at one of the Murder Mystery Dinner where we each received 200 dollars in addition to those donated to us by our tablemates. I traded my 1500 Grand Dollars for 5 8GB Flash Drives which are probably worth about $5-$8 each.

I had to chuckle when I overheard someone commenting on how silly it was to try an accumulate Grand Dollars, all the while this person was in the line to exchange Grand Dollars. Go Figure.

Today was the final day for crafts – which was a discussion of what people would like to see on future cruises and then the instructor presented a small gift to all the craft people in attendance.

The highlight of the day was the Captain’s Farewell Reception in the Queens Lounge. They had two receptions, one for each dinner seating. The Captain spoke briefly and provided a broad overview of the cruise. Location Guide Barbara followed with a 5 minute slide show giving the highlights of our various ports. Gene followed with a brilliant 5 minute video that provided a humorous look at the various departments on the ship. The movie was amazing and will be posted on Gene’s Facebook page – a definite must see. I put together a 3 minute video showing about 30 different acts for 5 seconds each that Gene said he will be putting on his Facebook page as well. I will post a link to my YouTube page once I get to a place where I can upload a large video file.

Gene’s Facebook page is HERE

https://www.facebook.com/gene.m.young?fref=ts

Tonight was the Chef’s Farewell Dinner. The featured entrée was a Filet Mignon, which is always good, but only a few people ordered it as most chose from some of their other favorites – e.g. Fish and Chips or the Chicken Pot Pie. The meals on this Grand Voyage have been so incredibly outstanding that trying to top the daily standard with a special menu is pretty difficult.  We had some fellow passengers as our guests this evening:  Keegan, Deana and Anthony.   They were on the Taj Mahal trip with us.

The Baked Alaska parade appears to be a distant memory, but maybe they will do it tomorrow. One nearby table tried to get a parade started when they collectively started waving their napkins in the familiar circular pattern over their heads. This didn’t work and alas there was no parade – yet.

Tonight show featured the final Guest Entertainer of the cruise – Terry Davies along with Abba Fab. Terry imitated the style of Billy Joel and Elton John and wowed the crowd with an amazing 45 minute show. This may have been the top show of the cruise – don’t miss this talented bunch if they come to your neck of the woods. Tomorrow night will be a special presentation by the HAL orchestra.

• Terry Davies
• The Piano Man