Day 15, Selfies at Sea

Day 15,

COFFEE CHAT

Tim Abel hails from Sherwood Forest in England.  He started playing piano seriously when he was about 13.  His father was interested in Ragtime and that style was his favorite and he enjoyed playing in hotels and bars.  He eventually received formal education under a Russian instructor who remarked he played like a “10-year-old boy”.  She proceeded to break all his bad habits and teach him better basic technique which helped him improve tremendously. 

EXCURSION PRESENTATION

The EXC Host and Excursion Manager gave a presentation on upcoming shore excursions and provided an explanation of how to read an excursion ticket and the purpose of the multi-colored tour dots.  I suppose there are always a few people who can get confused about the meeting time vs. the departure time and the fact that while most tours leave from the Main Stage, occasionally they meet in a different location. 

CASINO UPDATE

We had our first full table for the 11 AM Hold’em Tournament today.  The games can take up to two hours with the larger starting stakes and slower Blind escalation.  When we had a live dealer, the tournaments usually lasted 45 minutes.  I had good luck today and finished as the chip leader before we decided to chop the pot.  The first blackjack tournament of the cruise was held this afternoon – I didn’t make the final table. 

We have more people who want to play the Hold’em cash game at 2PM so people are getting to the Casino earlier and earlier – It will soon be the 1:30PM cash game.  The games typically last until 4 pm when everyone decides to move on.  The games are friendly and most of the time we rarely win or lose more than $50.  

PHOTO CONTEST

The categories for the photo contest were announced and are shown here.  There will be two competitions, one for each half of the cruise with the winners selected by a panel of ship’s officers.  I find this preferable to competitions where the winners were decided by passenger voting.  This too often turns into a vote lobbying contest rather than a photo contest. 

MAIN DINING ROOM

Dinner service is blazing fast.  We sat down at 7:45PM today and were served desert by 8:30PM.  There are very few people eating after 7:45PM so things can move quickly when choosing to eat later. 

THE MAIN STAGE

Lindsay Hamilton, female vocalist, was on the Main Stage this evening.  With a voice made for musical theater, she performed a variety of hits such as Skyfall, Diamonds are Forever, Make You Feel My Love and a beautiful rendition of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserable.  She humorously referred to the band as Holland America’s version of the boy band One Dimension.  Toward the end of her show, she turned up the house lights, went into the audience and took selfies with the guests while she sang.  

• Lindsay Hamilton