February 25, 2024 – At Sea – Gulf of Mexico – Sunny – Warm – 70s

The usual crazy sleep story.  On the plus side, I got a nice early morning picture of a very calm sea.

Started my breakfast in the Oceanview Café with Pancakes and Eggs.  This morning, the piped in music was so annoying and repetitious that I had to get out of there.  My next breakfast stop was the Spa Café, where I got a nice window seat and watched the Sun come up. 

I brought Ellen a banana apple topped peanut butter coated bagel and an egg and avocado bruschetta from the Spa Café.

The second lecture, in my mind, is always the most important. Will the people come back – especially this time round because, I did not feel that I did such a great job on the “TV Lecture”.  To my surprise, they did come back to hear “Forensic Detectives: The Search for the Baton Rouge Serial Killer”.  Before the talk, I spoke to some passengers and they LIKED the first talk.  I guess I didn’t read the room correctly.  At 10 AM, the Celebrity Theater was about 70 percent full and there were folks up in both balconies. 

The talk, which had some minor revisions implemented between these two cruises, ended on time. I spent some time with passengers out in the theater lobby after the talk.  

So, the program seems to have legs on this cruise as well.

We had lunch on the back deck – a really nice salad from the aft grill in the Oceanview Café plus some pizza (always decent).  We stayed out there for some time – warm and sunny. Why not?

We spotted an oil rig in the Gulf - the Gulf is littered with them.

We also had dinner on the Back Deck – we both had the Pasta Guy make us Spaghetti with Pesto (the pesto sauce is out of sight and must be requested).  The pasta was good but it needed more pesto.  Pasta Guy is not big on special requests.

At dinner, we caught today's "Magic Moment".

Tonight’s show is arguably the best show that Celebrity puts on – “Broadway Cabaret” with the six cast singers.  Four are from the United States (Cincinnati, New York plus two I can’t remember) and two are from the UK).  Everyone of them is a vocal marvel – if I had to pick the best female singer, it would be American Danielle Mouch, who had volume and range.  They are all great.  The song list was essentially identical to what they did last cruise – 

“On Broadway”,

 “Don’t Rain on my Parade”, 

“Can’t Help Falling in Love”,

 “I don’t Want to Show Off”, “Beautiful Medley”, “Luck Be a Lady Tonight”, 

“On My Own”, 

"One Day More",

"Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"

“What I Did for Love”, and 

“You Can’t Stop the Beat”.

An EXCELLENT SHOW.

Sue gave me a nice post show plug and explained how her grandmother was due to sail on the Titanic but became ill and didn’t board.  Wow.

After the show, we got great seats in Cellar Masters to watch the new Acoustic Duo, “Bright Avenue”, do their set.  

They are different from their predecessor, which was very mellow. This duo is more animated but the girl singer is great and the guitar guy is pretty muted – that all makes for a great sound.  I spoke to them after the show and found out that they are from Mexico and we started to chat when another passenger took over the conversation.  The Duo are instantly likeable and provide a relaxing alternative to the Lucky Band and Waves.   

Our cabin is a little noisier than it used to be – maybe the engines are revving louder than before. The earplugs still are able to deal with the new noise and I have been tuning it out.  Seas continue to be remarkably smooth.