The seas have calmed considerably this morning. There is still some deck motion, but no longer enough to noticeably impact any activities. The net has been removed from the Lido pool and with the sun shining, the sunbathers have returned to their normal spots around the Lido and Seaview pools.

Yoomia on GMA

Good Morning Amsterdam welcomed Yoomia, the violinist we had dinner with a few nights back.   She was originally from Korea but found her way to New Zealand where she lives today.   Yoomia will be leaving the ship in Melbourne.

Lee Bayless

Following Good Morning Amsterdam, Lee Bayless spoke about the mechanics of comedy and what makes jokes funny.   He also elaborated on his background and how he got his start working in the dunking booth at the Oklahoma State Fair.   He had such a natural comedic talent that he was asked to join a traveling carnival when he was 14 with his parents blessings.

Every Sunday at sea they present the Sunday Brunch in the lower main dining room. I wandered thru the lines and while the food all looked very scrumptious it was too early for us to eat again. One of these Sundays we will have skip breakfast and take in the buffet.

Dhinawan

Judy Playing

Pete playing

Dhinawan was feeling better today and held his class on playing the Digeridoo up in the Crow’s Nest. He explained the history of the instrument and how it was intended to be played only by men because it was thought that the vibrations it creates were too much for women to bear. Judy took a chance and decided to give it a go anyway. I didn’t realize that the Digeridoo is nothing more than a hollow tube. You play it by making a raspberry noise into one opening and then modulating that to create different notes.   You quickly run out of breath and it was difficult for me to make the appropriate sounds for any length of time. I think I will stick with the Ukulele.

Boat with most detail but was painted – against rules

Boats ready for hot tub

Boat in Hot Tub

The Boat Building competition was today. I decided not to make any entry as it was going to take more time than I originally thought back when they announced the contest. They only had 3 entries and people near the pool told me that they were not aware there was a boat building contest going on at all.   The contest announcement only appeared once in the On Location with no further advertising that I saw. As it turns the entry that was the most detailed and realistic was not allowed to go in the hot tub since he broke the rules by painting his boat. This resulted in his boat finishing 3^rd.   The two other boats successfully floated and carried the requisite 12 pack of soft drinks.   The winner received a bottle of Champagne and bragging rights for the rest of the day.

Grand Dollar Sale Items

Prices

As we are closing in on the end of our first segment, they had a redemption opportunity for the Grand Dollars.   The prices ranged from $25 to $5000. Two people managed to accumulate 5000 Grand Dollars – but they must have pooled their dollars from several people because it would be difficult for one person to get even 1000 dollars by themselves based on what I observed.

The Superbowl will be shown live tomorrow morning at 10 AM in the Queens Lounge and rebroadcast at 5PM, also in the Queens Lounge. We have heard that they will cut out all the breaks for the rebroadcast as the commercials seen in the USA are not available with the ships satellite feed. Here is a copy of the flyer with the Superbowl beverage specials.

There was a special show at 7:30 pm “Call My Bluff” with Event Manager Mark, Cruise Director Gene and Piano player Ash Carruthers. They would display words no one ever heard of, and in some cases, probably don’t exist and then invent definitions. The audience would then try and decide which person was telling the truth. This is the second time they have done this on this cruise and the audience is yet to win a round.

Table 52 with Lee Bayless

We were joined for dinner by Lee Bayless, the clean comedian who performed a few nights back. He lives in Choctaw, Oklahoma near Oklahoma City. We used to live in Tulsa so we enjoyed sharing stories about Oklahoma living. He opened for Don Rickles in Las Vegas when just starting out and also appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.   We enjoyed listening to his insight about comedy and his experiences performing on various cruise ship lines.

Australian Sunset

We also enjoyed a beautiful sunset over a nearby island.

Jamie Allen

Jamie Allen and Guest

Jamie Allen, the iMagician provided the entertainment tonight. He combined old fashioned sleight of hand with modern technology to create some amazing magic. For example, he would display an Ipad showing a moving ball on the screen but with a snap of his fingers, the ball would magically appear in his hand after disappearing from the screen.   He ended the show with an amazing sleight of hand performance that made entire decks of cards appear and disappear while wearing a short sleeve shirt.