February 11, 2020 – At Sea – Caribbean – Sunny – 80s

Beautiful day at sea.
 
Tough sleeping night – up several times – decaf/not decaf – who knows.  As usual, getting up early gets you a nice picture of the sunrise.


Arrived at the Oceanview Café for breakfast at 7:00 AM – put my magazine down to save my table and got some waffles, cottage cheese, sour cream, and strawberry compote.  Also a scoop of scrambled eggs (really good), and a biscuit (first time on the buffet but really crumbly and not biscuit-like).  When I got back to my table, my EW was gone and there were people sitting there.  I checked with one of the waitresses and she found it – she had tossed it into a drawer, not knowing that the drawer was full of water (?).  She offered to buy me a new one but, instead, I ripped off the last third of the magazine (the wet part) so I would have something to read.  The next time, I will put a cup of coffee next to the magazine so it doesn't get tossed.

The breakfast was good but the "screaming lady" is on this cruise and in good form.

When I left for breakfast, I noticed that Ellen room service order was still on the door so I spoke to Guest Services, who told me that room service folks cannot go into crew areas to pick up orders.  I would need to call for service.  I left the order on the door.

When I got back from breakfast, the order form was gone and it was not inside.  In the meantime, I brought Ellen breakfast (lox, fruit, herring, French toast).  At 8:30 AM, Room Service arrived with Ellen’s second breakfast.  I can only conclude that my call to Guest Services resulted in a call to Room Service and the pickup.  I think Room Service is now aware of us.

The morning was spent in both the Aqua Spa Café and Solarium – checking out the waves and going over the talk for today.  Because the specialty coffees are so pricey on this cruise, I am drinking the Lavazza coffee from the dispensers.  That's also pretty good coffee. And there is a bonus being in this venue - the screaming lady is not allowed in here.

We had lunch in the Aqua Spa Café – Caprese Salad, Asian noodles, tuna salad, veggie wraps, and spinach salad – like OD’ing on healthy foods.  They were all pretty good.

After giving it much too much thought, I decided to go Smart Casual for my lectures – hey, we are in the Caribbean.  My lecture partner, Thom Duryea, was in a suit and tie for his talk, so the opposite ends of the spectrum.

I got to the Theater a little early for the 2:15 PM start time for “Forensics and History: The Mystery of the Romanovs”.  


I am using my own laptop for this presentation, the first time my new HP laptop has been used on a ship.  Reflection uses a VGA cable so I used my adapter and the picture looked great, color and clarity.  The only issue was that the screen is so big that I have to look up to see the top of the slides.  The headset mic was a bit uncomfortable with my glasses so next time, I will probably go with contacts.  That will also make it easier to see the screen.

I spent a little time talking to a few passengers and then Rich introduced me.  The talk went well with the one exception being a little tickle in my throat that need some iced tea to vanquish.  That doesn't happen often and the audience was patient.  The talk ran about 52 minutes, a little long but OK – it covers a lot of stuff.  The Reflection Theater has a capacity of 1232 people (according to the Celebrity website) so I would estimate that the theater was about 40 percent full – so the crowd was somewhere between 400 and 500 attendees.  The turnout was good - and would have overwhelmed Celebrity Central -  considering there was a very popular shopping event going on and the weather outside was perfect.  From my perspective on stage, the theater just doesn’t seem as big as I remember it. 

We went to the Solarium for the afternoon.  I tried to read but I kept nodding off (really tired) so I made little progress of “The Fix”.

Tonight is Evening Chic Night 1 – we checked the menu and there was nothing good enough for us to get dressed up.  Instead we went directly to the Oceanview Café, where I had a salad and pesto pasta with garlic (made fresh for me) along with garlic rolls (absolutely yummy).  The desserts featured “Crumbles” so I tried spoonsful of the various fruits with some cherry vanilla ice cream.  The food was probably better than downstairs plus quieter and with a view to boot.  One of those views was a magnificent sunset.


We changed into casual clothes and went to the theater to see “Lance Lipinsky and the Lovers” do their 50s and 60s cover tribute. 

 



We’ve never see them before and they were good but a tad loud.  It’s ironic but no one in this group was even around as a child in that era.  Lance was interesting with his Ace Ventura hair and Jerry Lee Lewis piano style.  I left a little early to see Mario in App IT to figure out why the Celebrity App won’t load on my phone.  He could not solve the problem but not from a lack of trying.

I met up with Ellen in the Embassy Lounge where we listened once again to the Velvet Duo.  The set focused on popular ballads tonight and the volume was a bit lower.  It was a good set.

The Grand Foyer of the ship is still a very loud venue – tonight, “Long Play” was the featured band.  I took their picture but could not take the decibel level.


We were in our room around 9:00 PM.

Seas are smooth.

February 10, 2010 – Ft Lauderdale FL – Mostly Cloudy – 80F

The room turned out to be quiet, after all – even barflies have to sleep. 

I went down to the restaurant for the breakfast buffet at 7:00 AM.  On my way, I took some early morning pictures of the pool area (no one there).



The breakfast area is large and there is a lot of seating; I got a nice seat away from the crowd.  I had some oatmeal with brown sugar (not so good), self-made waffles with jam (a little underdone but OK), and some scrambled eggs (seemed like real eggs and OK), and a mini-sugar donut.  The coffee was a fair distance from the food but the drink itself was OK.  When I got back up to the room, Ellen went down to get her breakfast.

We scheduled a shuttle (gratis) to the Reflection (the hotel does it ship by ship) at 11:30 AM.  We were in the lobby a little after 11 AM and departed for the port a little late at 11:40 AM.  The ride, in spite of the traffic, took only 10 minutes and dropped us off right at the Celebrity Terminal.  We tagged our bags and went up the stairs and through security (very fast) and to the check-in agent (most of the folks must have already checked in as there were no lines).  After some discussion about entertainers, we did get our SeaPass cards, had our picture taken, and boarded the ship.

Our first stop was the tremendously crowded Oceanview Café.  Ellen scouted around and found us a table.  I had a salad from the salad bar, a spoonful of both tuna and egg salad, and a slice of tomato pizza (kind of Margherita) (good).

We checked in with Shorex about escorting – the agent took our contact info and said she would call us (we knew how this would turn out).  In a few minutes, we went down to check out our cabin – 3521 – the first one behind the door on the port side (one in which we’ve been before).  The cabin was clean and stocked (amenities and hangers).


I dropped off my computer bag and we headed upstairs to the Solarium, 



where it is quiet and we can read.  We will most likely spend most of our time up here until the chlorine fumes become an issue.  Cracking the windows will help.  The Solarium's large windows provide great views.


I have started “The Fix”, the third book in the “Memory Man” series by David Baldacci.  The Amos Decker novels always have a good hook and this one did, as well.

The safety drill took place at 3:30 PM and we got another dose of “Agent Blair”.  Newbies on board thought it was great.

At 4:30 PM, I met with William Cabiaux (from Belgium), the Entertainment Manager, to go over the lecture schedule for this cruise.  His list and mine (supposedly generated by the same folks) had the same titles but in a different order.  I said I would modify the presentations to match his list.  My first talk would be in the theater at 2:15 PM tomorrow.  He also gave me the Wi-Fi code that will give me internet and texting on one device - at a time - for the duration of the cruise.  The Cruise Director for this voyage is Rich Clesen, whom I’ve not work with previously.  The destination speaker is Bill Cashell, whom I’ve not worked with before.

Although we have departed from Port Everglades numerous times, we still went out on Deck 4 to watch the sail away.  This time, we were on the starboard side away from the condos and beaches.




When we got back to the cabin, our bags were there – we unpacked and changed for dinner.  We also met Leon, who would be our room steward for this trip.  Based on our conversation, he is going to take real good care of us on these voyages.

At 5:30 PM, we went to the Opus Dining Room (Select Dining option) and asked for a got a table for two - #505 (we won’t get this one again as there is too much traffic passing by and the table density is high).  We set up a recurring reservation at 5:30 PM with the hostess (from Mexico and very personable and helpful).

For dinner, I had the Cesar Salad (not good, surprisingly), the mushroom soup (good but thin), the seared salmon (good), and cheese ravioli with tomato and alfredo sauce (OK – just tried one).  Ellen had the same thing but no salad.  We shared a real tasty slice of apple pie and had decaf and chamomile tea.

The headliner tonight is comedian, Louis Ramey, a new act for us.  


Louis was funny and cutting, even throwing in some political jokes that got equal cheers and boos.  Nevertheless, he was the funniest comic we have seen in some time.  A great show.

After the show, we went to hear the “Velvet Duo” (guitar and vocal) in the Ensemble Lounge.  


They were really good but a bit loud so we had to find a seat that toned down their decibel level (which was 62 on my phone app).  Ellen even spoke to the singer about the volume and she said something about the sound system.  We’ll see if the volume is lower going forward.  Also, we liked the vocals but the instrumentals on the electric guitar were a bit much in such a small venue.

The next stop was the room with a stop for water and some sweets at Café Baccio.

Celebrity does leave chocolates on the pillows at night – it might seem like a small perk but I missed that on our last cruise on another line.

Note about Cabin 3521 – this cabin is home to a veritable zoo of noises – little clicks, buzzes, and mini-whines.  We have come fully prepared with a full box of earplugs.  That should do the job.

Seas are smooth.

Celebrity Reflection – Back to Back – Caribbean / Mardi Gras / Mexico Cruises – February 10 – March 2, 2020 – Roundtrip Ft. Lauderdale

February 9, 2020 – Travel Day

The forecast for Chicagoland today is heavy snow starting at around 10:00 AM – it is already snowing lightly when our taxi arrived at 7:15 AM.  We are hoping to beat the snow for our flight this morning.  The cab that picked us up was atypical – it must have been one of those American Taxi Black cabs, the more fancy ones.  This one was a brand new black car that had ATD on its door instead of sporting the red, white, and blue livery.  The driver, however, looked just liked the standard driver instead of the two fancy women we have seen in previous Black Cabs.  I could tell it was a special car because the posted fare was $12 more than the standard fare of $32 (we still paid the $32 since I did not specifically request this car).  There was no credit card slider in this car and, like I said, it still had that new car smell.

We got to the United Terminal by 7:45 AM and went straight to TSA Pre-Check using our printed boarding passes.  We are not checking bags because United wanted to charge for our bags since the fares were not ticketed using my United Credit Card.  This time out, we had to spend a little more time organizing our liquids and gels.  I did not take out the zip lock bags for separate screening and did not encounter any issues with TSA.  We went through quickly and headed for our gate in the C Concourse, C9.

Boarding for UA2335 was at 8:15 AM for an 8:55 AM departure.  


By this time, the snow had tapered off a bit but the big storm was still on its way.  We boarded our B737-900 right on time with Priority Group 2 (I did use my card for some charges). Our carryon bags (which in the past have weighed between 30 and 40 pounds) don’t have side handles so it was a little more difficult to get them into the bins but the flight attendant gave me a hand and they were both tucked away.  We are in the exit row – 20C and 20D aisle across – and my little computer bag wouldn’t go under the seat (the aisles have very narrow under seat spaces) so I just popped it into an overhead.  

The plane was not totally full – I was the only one in my exit row.  I moved over to the window and Ellen moved to the aisle – bonus.  I have started to really like the window seat (only if there is no one in the middle seat and Ellen is on the aisle) - I like watching the takeoff and landing.  Even before departure, I was able to get some nice views and shots of the gates and planes.


The plane showed some wear and tear, especially in the washrooms.  The washroom near the bulkhead, however, looked like it was a new one (blue lighting and better wash basis) but it also looked a little beat up. 

We had an on time departure and the chop the captain warned us about on takeoff never happened.  



It took about a half hour to emerge from the gloomy gray high clouds and into the blue sky.  The flight took us straight down over Georgia and the Florida Gulf Coast.  The plane tend turned East toward South Florida, passed over the Everglades and into FLL.  The flight was smooth, the flight attendants were great, and having a window was another bonus.







We landed in FLL about 20 minutes early – the captain told us that the plane would need to brake a little harder (maybe to get off the active runway fast).  That was no big deal.  I got my bags down with no problem and no help.

I called our hotel – Ramada by Wyndham Ft Lauderdale Airport and Cruise Port – and was told that the shuttle would be at the Hotel Pickup Point in about 15 minutes.  That turned out to be accurate and we were at the hotel in 10 minutes. 

The hotel, this is our first time in this place – is similar to the one we stayed at several time on Sterling Avenue:  Outdoor locks, rooms circling the pool, a small bar by the pool.  



It is also pretty pricey and run down (mostly the exterior – lots of deferred maintenance).  Our room – 266 – became available in a few minutes and we dropped our stuff.  The room looked freshly painted but the mirror needed to be replaced and some other stuff needed fixing.  It is a big room with a huge king sized bed and nice vanity.  There is also a tub shower combo.  As I said, this all came at a big price, a large chunk of which were mysterious taxes and charges.  When I was comparing prices, the charges were not shown – that has got to change as it is deceptive.  I probably should have continued looking but all the hotels in the area were much more expensive, even the ones we have stayed at in the past.  This must be high season and pre-Spring Break.  This hotel was the bargain and it was no bargain.

The check in area was essentially a table set up with computers and I wouldn’t call the check in agent friendly. 

We need some things from the store so we took the free hotel shuttle to the Southland Shopping Center (there are no stores in walking distance) at 3:30 PM.  We checked out the restaurants (a Thai place, a falafel place, a pizza place, a bar and grille) in the hopes of getting an early dinner. Instead, we bought cokes at the Winn-Dixie and a tuna sub at Subway and for dessert, some hamentaschen (yes) at Winn-D.  Instead of waiting for the shuttle to take us back (another 90 minutes), I called an Uber to take us back to the hotel ($6.29 including tip).  We ate our feast in the seating area near the hotel restaurant (no one hassled us). 

After dinner, we sat out by the pool – the weather turned weird with a strong wind that made it feel cold.  Eventually, the wind got to be too much and we retreated to our room.  The room was noisy as people in the Tiki Bar drank and talked.  We watched the entire Academy Awards (commercials and all – muted those) on our fancy TV (which also had the streaming channels). 

The folks in the Tiki Bar finally went to their rooms and the place was relatively quiet. Earplugs did the final silencing.

Lights out at 11 PM.

January 22, 2020 – San Francisco, CA – Foggy and Cool – 55F

Although the ride was seriously bumpy, Captain PJ got us to San Francisco on time.


I was up at 6 AM when the ship arrived (the thrusters always wake me up).  

San Francisco was still dark when our ship arrived.




It was actually warm enough to eat in the Solarium annex, a good thing because Horizon Court was slammed.  I had a little bigger breakfast, oatmeal, waffle plus fixings, and a biscuit.  The breakfasts have been good the entire cruise.  I brought Ellen breakfast – no lox today so French Toast, some scrambled eggs, and fruit.  I dropped off the tray and went to New Grounds to get the last remaining coffee.  I waited about 30 minutes to get the Chai Latte for Ellen - everyone was zeroing out their coffee cards - even though they had four people working the machines, it was still slow.

We dragged our suitcases to the Explorer’s Lounge and didn’t stay long as Rojo 2 was called.  We walked off and whizzed right through immigration and then off to our bus to SFO.  The busses were leaving as soon as they filled up and that was not long.  It took a long time to get out of the wharf area and on to the freeway.

We got off at the American Terminal – used the kiosk to check in and waltzed through TSA Pre-Check in a few minutes.  Our gate is D12 and our plane won’t be here until 1:17 PM.  Our flight on AA2634 doesn’t depart until 2:38 PM and that is about four hours from now.  We found these great seats near the sundries store – multiple power plugs, nearby bathrooms, and super comfy seats.  We would not leave our seats until time to board.

Ellen put together a gourmet lunch from food from the ship – it’s OK, all of the stuff was processed and no fruit or veggies so it's kosher to bring them off the ship per USDA rules.  She made me a great tuna sandwich and made some lox and cream cheese sandwiches for herself.  We bought a diet coke for $3.49 and some Cool Ranch Doritos for $3.29 and had a terrific lunch.

While we were waiting in the couch area, I noticed a higher than usual number of face masks worn by people walking by.  I texted the kids back home and they told me that China was dealing with some kind of virus outbreak and maybe that was the reason for the masks.  San Franciso does get a lot of people visiting from China.  This is what happens when you don't watch any news on TV on the ship and have limited internet only at the ports.

We went to the Gate at the scheduled boarding time of 2:18 PM – our first class requests didn’t work out – we were number 40 on the list.  

SFO has windows with sun scattering mesh - you can see through it but you can't take any pictures through it - hence, no shots of our jet at the gate.

Just as we were getting ready to board, the desk announced that a mechanical issue had popped up on the inbound flight and maintenance was working on it.  They expected a delay of at least 20 minutes.  Well, just about five minutes later, we were boarding.  This was, by far, the slowest, boarding process we have witnessed in hundreds of flights.  We were standing in the jet way for at least 20 minutes and even on the plane, people lumbered down the aisle in slow motion.  I remarked to one of the flight attendants that this was so slow and she had no explanation. People simply seemed in no hurry to put their bags up or sit down.  Our 737-800 seemed new but many of the features had been taken away – no screen (and the American App did not work well) and the bathrooms were the smallest I have ever seen (the flight attendant said I would be lucky to survive the bathroom).  We are aisle across in Exit Rows 16C /16D.  Roomy enough.  I did find a bin for my carry on but people boarding in the last groups got their bags gate checked – doesn’t seem fair does it - $30 bucks at the kiosk and/or with an agent and free at the gate.

In spite of all of this, we took off about a half hour late – we were first in line, which helped.  The flight was smooth – I got my comp Bailey’s (two of them) – really good.  And played some games on my phone and Kindle – no movies.  Other people loaded movies on their screens and that was their entertainment.  I should load some Netflix movies on my Kindle the next time I fly American.

A few minutes of light chop and a couple of encounters with the mini bathrooms and we got to Chicago 15 minutes early.

Our bags came out right away.

I called a cab and he arrived quickly – our cabbie was almost unintelligible but he was the safest driver we have ever had – never went over the speed limit.  He may not have spoken English well but he did get us home.

The condo was cold and the smoke alarm kept chirping (it needed a new battery backup).  I tried to change the batteries without success so I cut the power to the alarm for the night.

A long time on Grand Princess but, in spite of the terrible sea conditions, Hawaii and Mexico were great.

January 21, 2020 – At Sea – Pacific Ocean – Sunny – Cool – 69F

A smooth night and some sleep – still got up early.

I did walk the 1000 or so steps from the cabin to Horizon Court even though it was a bit chilly this early in the morning on Deck 7.  I did it for the pictures.



I was in Horizon Court by 6:45 AM.  This morning, our last day, I had pancakes with cottage cheese and sour cream topped with strawberry jam and orange marmalade – also some scrambled eggs and a biscuit.  Coffee service wasn’t so good this morning and I got three cups of coffee myself. My coffee has to be continuous and hot.  All in all, the breakfasts on this cruise have been consistently good.

I went to New Grounds to get my iced decaf mocha skinny and found a nice window seat in Alfredo’s Pizza.  I went through my talk for this afternoon and added some stuff on Mitochondrial Eve (a passenger request) and separated some slides dealing with the “Princes in the Tower”.

We checked out the lunch menu in the restaurant and found nothing so we went to Horizon Court for lunch – a salad and cheddar cheese wraps (I only nibbled at them) along with a handful of fries.  Not much lunch today.

I got a second iced coffee before my talk and headed for the Vista Lounge for “Forensic Detectives:  Identifying the Famous and Infamous”.  I got there around 1:00 PM and the lounge already had quite a few folks.  I didn’t see the AV techs – they were actually behind the curtain.  We set up using another of their laptops – so much easier and no freeze ups.  By the time I started the talk, the venue was full – the only seats not taken were at the extreme sides where you cannot see anything.  

Side screens helped out and people were standing in the back. It was a good crowd considering I was at the same time as the Book Club and the final Art Auction. I got a very nice round of applause and the end. I also had my picture taken with a passengers and had a lot of people thanked me for the presentations.  Also, I found out that about 90 percent of the people there today had perfect attendance.  Overall, a very successful lecture series.

We found out earlier that a second passenger required a medevac – this time a chopper was going to meet the ship as we passed San Diego.  The Grand ePrincess changed course to put herself in range of the helicopter.  The medevac took place during my talk and the captain came on a couple of time to issue instructions and warnings.  At one point, he got very angry with a couple of passengers who disobeyed orders and tried to snap some pictures from their balcony.  They should have been made to walk the plank.  The passenger was evacuated successfully and the ship continued to San Francisco.  There is time to be made up and fast speeds mean more chop.

Because it is cold outside (and cold in a lot of places inside), we wound in the Deck 7 walk through, an area with ideal temperature.

We had dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room – I asked my waiter for the spaghetti and tomato sauce that I had had earlier in the cruise and he was able to get it done for me.  The dish was once again excellent and, combined with the always tasty Baked Potato Soup, made for a nice dinner.  We have had good service in the restaurant throughout this cruise.   

Even though it is packing day, it is a busy day for shows.  At 7:30 PM, we went to the Theater to see “Born to Dance”, one of their newest and best shows.  This would be the third time, we have seen this show and I could detect some subtle changes in the shows (for example, “You Can’t Skip the Beat” was shorter).  There were some numbers I have never liked (some from “West Side Story” for example).  The narration by current and past Broadway Dancers is always interesting.  It’s an entertaining show overall and the only time, you get to know the names of the eight dancers in the troupe.

Ellen finished packing after the show and we were going to leave our bags out.  However, we are in the crew area and I wasn’t sure where to leave them – Guest Services told me not to leave them out but rather to do “walk off”.  We went round and round with that and we finally decided to walk off after joining our group in the Explorer’s Lounge at 8:45 AM.

Two more things to complicate our final night on board – the clocks move backward tonight (to put us on PST) and the seas are rough.

January 20, 2020 – A Sea – Pacific Ocean – Cloudy – 84F and dropping

Grand Princess is sailing NW off the coast of Baja Mexico at 21 Knots.  But the seas are smooth – perhaps a trailing sea.  Did not have to use any earplugs last night as there was no wave noise or booms.  Again, I was up early enough to see the sunrise from both sides of the ship.



It was too cold to eat in the Solarium Dining area so I am having to endure the “screaming woman” and “screaming man” and they are now screaming in Spanish.  Breakfast was so much more peaceful when it was warmer and I was out in the Solarium.  Ellen did not want me to bring her breakfast this morning.  She will fend for herself later in Horizon Court.

I went with her to breakfast where she had some pancakes and a fried egg.  I had some oatmeal.  She is going to go the “clearance sale” at 10:00 AM and I am going to get ready for my fourth lecture at the same time.

I was just about to leave the cabin for the Theater when I got a phone call.  It was EM Lee, who indicated that he found a venue for tomorrow so I could do another lecture.  This would be in the Vista Lounge at 1:30 PM.  I said OK and he made the change to the schedule while I was still on the phone.  Because of this, I had to made some changes to today’s lecture indicating that there would be another one – I did this in a few minutes and still made it to the theater around 9:45 AM. 

“Forensic Detectives: The Search for Jack the Ripper” drew the biggest audience of the cruise – I would estimate that the theater was about 70 plus percent full or about 500 people.  




The audience was thrilled that there would another talk (otherwise, it is a long day).  The talk ran 48 minutes and I walked 145 steps during the talk (we have always wondered about that).

Lunch was in Horizon Court – I grabbed two tuna sandwiches from the International Café and brought them up and had them alongside a salad and about five French Fries.  We finished our Coke Lites that we bought in Cabo.  Makes such a difference.  We need to buy some sodas on cruises where they aren’t free and bring them on board.

After lunch, we looked for a warm place to read – we tried the couches on Deck 15 for a little while but it was too cold (stayed just long enough to get a picture). 



We wound at a window seat at Vines sipping a warm decaf mocha latte and Chai Latte (both skinny) and reading and watching the water go by.  The music in Vines had gotten to annoying levels so Ellen asked somebody to turn it down and they did. Ellen once again used the Force to get that done.

We went to the room to decide about dinner – tonight is the second and last Formal Night and I was not thrilled about getting dressed up.  While we were in the room reading and just “meditating” (what I do when I have a headache), the phone rang.  It was Guest Services telling us that our Princess Transfers were ready to pick up.  We were on a wait list for comp transfers and my expectations were low that there would be two cancellations.  Well, something did happen (the Force, again) and Ellen came back a few minutes later with our new luggage tags and two transfer to SFO (meeting time 8:45 AM). Perfect.

We went to Horizon Court to check out the “Mongolian Barbecue” (basically a stir fry station) and after checking out the offerings, decided to go to Alfredo’s Pizzeria for dinner (the only other option since we were not in formal gear). We shared a Margherita Pizza – mushrooms on half and onions and tomatoes on the other.  The pizza came out super hot and was the best of the cruise.  I had a little Greek Salad from the International Café with the pizza and that did the trick.  For dessert, we went to Horizon Court.  I picked away at my Coffee "something or other" dessert and Ellen had Pecan Pie (good) – the coffee was hot and good.

On our way to the theater, we listened briefly to our neighbors, Los Brilliantes, in the Grand Piazza



James Charles Kilduff, Jr. was the headliner tonight at 7:30 PM in the theater.  He is a 37 year old crooner from the US (we have never seen him before), whose song list included “Vintage Vegas” selections from Frank Sinatra, Tom Jones, and Tony Bennett.  He was more entertainer than singer and moved around the stage constantly.  He was also clearly directing the orchestra so that the music pace matched his.  He was pleasant and entertaining.



I was still jousting with my headache so we went to the Cabin.

Seas are smooth.