Day 10: (at sea) Entertainment

Royal Caribbean sent me a detailed, very long survey the other day about my recent experience with them.  I'll say it over and over: I had an excellent experience.  I would recommend cruising to anyone and I'd recommend cruising with them.  That said...I would not rate the entire trip a 10...there were a few areas where they could use some improvement, and I made sure to let them know those in that survey, alongside my extremely high satisfaction.  One are where they did not meet my expectations was in the area of entertainment.

They promised Broadway shows on their website, and instead, we got one night with a collection of very random Broadway songs.  They promised quality entertainment and the opening night's signature act was of a juggler.  There was more than one night that I got up and left.  

There were more nights that I stayed and watched.  The entertainment was fun--it just wasn't what I expected.  For example:  this comedian/magician tied himself up in a straight jacket, and while balancing on a simulated surfboard (and while on a moving boat), got himself out of the straight jacket without falling off the board.  I can't make this stuff up, people.  Check out the terrible-quality photo for proof:

The surfing magician was actually pretty funny.  Funnier than the Music Impressionist.  He would do musical impersonations of famous singers.  It wasn't even good enough for a photo.  In complete contrast to him, were the band The Legend Continues: The Platters, who sang songs by, you guessed it, The Platters.  I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I hadn't really heard of The Platters, nor did I know many of their songs...but this cruiseship audience sure did!  They loved this act.  And with good reason: they were truly excellent.

The ballroom dancers were lots of fun.  You can't really go wrong with that, no can you?

Also entertaining?  Our dining room staff.  Our main waiter, Ashwin (on the right), had a super dry sense of humor that was awesome, and Christian (on the left) was the sweetest, most gentle man.  They were awesome as our wait staff...but if you haven't cruised before you may not know: The wait staff sings for you!  Ours only did it twice, but it was fun to watch Ashwin be funny about it.

When the wait staff sing, it's some kind of tradition to wave your napkins in the air.  The crowd might have been even more entertaining about this than the wait staff!

Also, being greeted by a towel monkey is pretty entertaining, I'm not going to lie.

One of our favorite performances was the Ice Dancing Show.  Yep, an ice skating rink on the moving ocean.  Talk about hard!  They had all kinds of fun costumes and routines to fun music.  That would have been entertaining enough.

But each time they lifted a girl in the air, or did a spinning jump and landed it...I was impressed.  How do you spin, jump, and land on ice when the ground wasn't where it was when you took off?

Then they brought out the Human Hamster.  This guy put himself into the hamster wheel, and rolled around on it...again, on ice...on a moving boat.  How he didn't get seasick is beyond me.

My favorite show, though, hands down, was El Gaucho.  (thecamelridingcowgirl says he came in second for her, and that a singer who I didn't go hear was her favorite.)  El Gaucho did this multi-faceted show with comedy (he had me in stitches), music (he played the drums, piano, and guitar), dancing (he did a sort of tap dance), theatrics, and well...I can't even explain the other stuff.  It involved whips and spinny thingys.  You just have to watch the clip to really get the full impression.

So...that's what I did pretty much every other evening after Music Trivia.  I didn't get a Broadway show, but I did at least get to sing along to Momma Mia and Dreamgirls.