Day 7, Grand Gala Party

Day 7

After two consecutive port days, we have a full day sea before our arrival at Devils Island, French Guinea.  

COFFEE CHAT WITH ANDY BUENGER

Coffee Chat with guest entertainer Andy Buenger was my first event.  Hamish did another wonderful job with his interview and Andy explained his background and how he started performing at a young age.  While his parents were both in show business, he was the only child to get into show business as his brother and sister pursued more conventional career paths. 

CASINO UPDATE

While I was in the casino playing Texas Holdem, Judy attended the presentation on the upcoming ports followed by a lecture on the Amazon River.  I had some good luck and won my first tournament when I had pocket Aces, and 2 other players had pocket Kings and Jacks respectively.  Everyone went “All In” and fortunately, my pocket Aces held up winning me a monster pot.  Judy enjoyed the presentations and picked up some useful information about our upcoming ports.  

GRAND GALA PARTY NIGHT

Our second Gala Night is this evening with Purple being announced as the color theme.  Today would be a Grand Gala Party followed by a Chocolate Surprise.  Whenever they call the Gala event a party that means there will be dancing in the Main Stage which is converted into a ballroom.  The band this evening was the Station Band.  The party was scheduled to start at 9:30 pm, which required the showtimes to be adjusted to 6:30 PM and 8 PM.  Since main seating dinner starts at 8 PM, we went to the show at 6:30 PM which was a split bill between Andy Buenger and Jeff McBride. 

After the show, we decided to get our pictures taken at all three of the formal portrait setups.  We joked that we will have a photo contest throughout the cruise and give a prize to the best ship photographer.  But I’m not sure we will be able to remember, who took which picture. 

In the past we would often have our table hosted by one of the ships officers.  Rarely is it one of the deck officers as officers from the Hotel Department usually have the hosting duties.  Alas, there wouldn’t be any host tonight and it would be just the three of us for dinner. 

Dinner service is blazing fast.  I think that because main seating is so lightly attended the kitchen can easily keep up with orders and the waiters can bring the dishes out immediately.  Having only 3 people helps as well, and we were ready to order desert after 45 minutes. 

We arrived outside the Main Stage at 9:15 and waited 15 minutes for the doors to open.  There was a receiving line with the Captain, Hotel Director and Cruise Director but many people rushed by in order to gain the best seats. 

The Station Band was on the stage playing dance music under two large mirrored balls.  Most of the stage was cleared for dancing as well as a large area in the center of the room.  On some occasions, many of the ships officers are available for dancing and mingling with the guests, but we didn’t spot many this evening.  The dance floor and the stage remained full throughout the evening until the final song played, a stirring rendition of the cruise classic “YMCA” by the Village People. 

CHOCOLATE SURPRISE

About the same time as YMCA started, the room was flooded with waiters passing trays of chocolate treats for the “Chocolate Surprise”.  They have enough waiters moving around that everyone soon got as much of the chocolate delights as their hearts desired. 

PARTY ON IN THE CROW’S NEST

After the “Chocolate Surprise” Hamish announced that the party would continue in the Crow’s Nest.  The Station Band moved from the Main Stage and was playing in the Crow’s Nest in less than 15 minutes. 

NOTE:  While they are no longer using plastic toothpicks on the ship, they are now using 3-4 inch sticks of thin spaghetti in lieu of toothpicks.  They worked just fine in keeping the olives in my Martini together. 

I headed up to the Crow’s Nest and stayed for about an hour before heading down to my cabin.  The party was still going strong when I left with the Crow’s Nest full of happy people dancing the night away. 

• Andy Buenger
• gala night
• Jeff McBride