Friday, October 23, 2015 – At Sea – St. Lawrence Seaway – Cloudy – 45F

A cold and dreary day on the St. Lawrence Seaway…

We are on a river so the ride is really smooth – also, there is no ship noise (engines or otherwise in our room).  I do know that the bow thrusters will be annoying before this cruise is over.

Even though I made it to the Horizon Court pretty early for breakfast, everyone was already there.  I was lucky to get a table so I could get in some reading.  Before I was finished, a couple asked to share my table.  This is very strange.  The breakfast was good except that the scrambled eggs had lost their magic.

My first of five presentations - “The CSI Phenomenon” - is scheduled this morning at 10:00AM in the Princess Theater.  I arrived early (9:20 AM) so I could check out the AV system.  The theater holds 650 people but when I got there there were four people in the seats.  The AV Tech showed up at 9:30 AM and the system took only a minute or two to set up.  The projector is not high resolution but it will be OK.

I spent some time chatting with passengers in the audience and by the time I was ready to go, the theater was approximately 70 full – approximately 450 people.  Not a bad start. 

I was introduced by a voice off stage – maybe the AV guy.  The talk went really well – lots of interactive stuff with the audience – one passenger was actually from Blue Island IL, and a passenger yelled out that UCLA had won its football game the other night.  The talk ran just about an hour.  Ellen told me that Paul, the Cruise Director, popped in to see what was going on. 

“The CSI Phenomenon”

The ship was holding its free “Pub Lunch” but when we got there the line snaked for a hundred feet.  We gave up on that and went to the Horizon Court – also crowded.

Tonight is Formal Night and I was able to make reservations in the Island Dining Room.

I had the Salmon, which I rarely get, along with a baked potato.  For some reason, the salmon I have had so far has been really good.  Hope that continues.

Tonight’s Showtime is the first Production Show - “Born to be Wild”.  We’ve not seen this one before.  We attended the 7:15 show instead of going to the Captain Welcome Aboard Champagne Fest. 

The show is about a road trip in a pink Cadillac in the Fifties.  The dancers were high energy but the song list was odd.  The special effects were pretty good.  The best number was “Don’t Stop Believing” – Glee’s anthem.

“Don’t Stop Believing”

Finale

We listened to some more music after the show.  We went into the huge Club Fusion – far aft and the usual place for the second theater.  Now it is the DJ lounge – it’s a relatively quiet and deserted place.  The only problem is that is a cold (temperature) venue.  We did listen to DJ Alex for a while and watched a couple of people dancing.  A good place to read.