Leaderboard

Some odds and ends: Travel: We will be flying from Palm Springs, California to Miami on American Airlines with a change of planes in Dallas. We’ll leave out here at 630am and arrive in Miami at 630pm. Flying in on the day before the cruise. Staying in a two bedroom suite somewhere in Miami. Nurse Ratchet made all of the travel plans so I’ll just follow her there. Ill let you know when I get there! No plans yet for the night in Miami that I know of. I’m fairly certain it will include food and cocktails! Genie Requests: He is working on ideas to celebrate the twins December birthday and the Doctor’s recent graduation. I think this year we will enjoy the sail away for our deck so I think we will ask for some food and a drink or two for that. If we follow our cruising habits we will have a few breakfasts and afternoon snacks, also on the balcony. We enjoy the front row seating at the shows, morning Starbucks, laundry and the escort off the ship. Not requesting a cabana at Labadee. We’ll request time in the Escape Room. Hopefully the helipad sail away from Labadee. We’re pretty laid back. Food: We’re waiting for Allan’s suggested schedule but I’m certain we’ll do Chops, Giovanni’s, 150, Izumi, CK on filet night and then go back to whatever was best. Lunches are pretty much played by ear. I think most breakfast’s will be either on the balcony or in CK. We definitely hit Portside BBQ and El Loco Fresh. I have said on each of the last three cruises that I was going to try the Dog House and didn’t. I’m going to do it this time! I’m sure there will be sushi and pizza in the mix somewhere! Side Note. I’m seeing that Mario Salcedo, or Super Mario is now onboard the Oasis. It would be fun to chat with him I think. But then again, I’m pretty impressed I know the manger of our local hardware store. The meme is for @teddy to keep that song playing in your head! More to come….

Heading out of Miami now! After some clouds this morning, it’s turned into a very pretty evening! We had a reservation at Chops for lunch today that was delicious. Probably our best Chops visit yet. (No food photos, sorry.) We checked out Riptide which was very fun and going to try the aqua coaster probably tomorrow. It was closed for some sort of maintenance but is now up and running. After a boring muster drill, we are now hanging out in the Suite lounge before dinner. Dad continues to be amazed at the suite life. I’m officially a snob but I think I’m turning him too. ? Overall, our fellow passengers seem to skew 40+ generally. Some kids but relatively few. I was curious myself because it abuts MLK day. ? Off to Jamie’s for dinner tonight for Steve’s birthday! ?

Day One - Evening Activities & MDR Dinner I had the later, 8:30pm seating time for dinner in the main dining room, so while I waited, I decided to catch the night's movie being shown on the pool deck, Crazy Rich Asians. Loved the movie, though viewing angles were a little awkward. I appreciated that the movie had captioning as well. It definitely got colder up on the pool deck now that the sun had gone down, so I grabbed a towel at the towel station as a stand in for a blanket while I watched the movie. Once the movie finished, I popped back down to my cabin to do a quick change into some nicer clothes for my dinner in the MDR. I went with a blouse and a nicer pair of dark jeans. I had been worried about what exactly the dress code entailed, but there didn't really appear to be anything enforced. At my table, I was joined by another solo traveler, and a family of three. There were other seats available, but no one else came the two days I had dinner there. My tablemates were nice, but not very interested in talking. Dinner menu in the MDR for the first night. I ended up ordering the Baked French Onion Soup, the Roasted Chicken Breast, and the Warm Hazelnut Chocolate Cake. No complaints on any of the food. I was surprised to see how large the French Onion Soup was, so tasty! I skipped taking photos of this meal, I was feeling a little self-conscious around my tablemates. After dinner, I took a seat in the lower level of the Royal Theater, to the right side, to watch the Welcome Aboard Showtime, which started at 9:45pm. There was an area reserved for Key guests at the back of the lower level, but it didn't seem particularly full. The show consisted of little bits of entertainment from the orchestra, featured dancers, and a comedy set. Our cruise director, Elvis, was so funny and friendly during his pieces, I almost wish he had his own comedy set! During the show, I felt myself swaying with the ship a little bit more than I liked, so I headed back to my stateroom once it was finished, took some motion sickness medication, and headed to bed.

Day One - Ship Tour After my lunch at Chops, I began to walk through the Shooner Bar, intending to go right to my stateroom, but found that a ship tour was starting, so decided to do that instead. Our tour was led by Bonita, who did a great job and was very funny too. Since the Empress is not too big of a ship, the tour didn't take very long, maybe about a half hour. We went through a lot of the places I had already seen on my own, but Bonita gave us interesting facts as well. She let us know that the Empress may be the smallest ship in the fleet, but "it's got the biggest heart," which I think echoes what @twangster has said in his many reviews. I also found out that the Empress's godmother is Gloria Estefan. I didn't know that ships even had godparents, I'm curious to know what the job entails. ? Day One - The Stateroom At 1:00pm, the staterooms were announced to be ready, though I didn't make it to mine until after 2:45pm. After I the ship tour, I made my way to my stateroom, 4535. I spent a good long while roaming around trying to find my cabin. The numbering system and various hallways confused me, but I did finally find my way to the right place. It was not nearly as difficult to find after the first time, but throughout the rest of the trip I did frequently go to the wrong side of the ship when getting off the elevators/coming from the stairs. My stateroom was a regular interior cabin, which was plenty spacious for me, especially since I was traveling solo. When I entered, I noticed the TV was set to the cruise info channel, which still had Christmas music playing in the background. I unpacked my bag and then took some time to look through the Royal App to see what activities were going on around the ship. Interior stateroom 4535 The cozy bathroom Day One - Sail Away & Sunset Having had a brief rest, I went up to the Viking Crown Lounge, where they were holding a raffle for $500 (Two $100 prizes, Two $150 prizes) in credits to the Vitality Spa. It was very simple, just filling out a card and dropping it into their raffle container. Wasn't lucky enough to win this time. With the raffle finished, I went back towards the pool area for the sail away party. Finally the clouds had started to give way! Lots of dancing to be had at the Sail Away party. And feel good dog videos on the big screen. After a little bit of dancing and taking in the views on the sun deck, I found a recliner to relax and listen to the live Caribbean music provided by the Mass Effect band. They've got a great sound and presence, I enjoyed them the whole trip. As the sun set, more of the clouds dispersed to allow for some beautiful sunset views and photos.

Nothing wrong with hating raisins. They ruin bread pudding too. Do appreciate your respect for them though, how you capitalize their name. ?

Hopefully you don’t possess my irrational hatred of Raisins. Nothing ruins a piece of Apple pie faster than those.

Barbecue? That’s food, right?? I should have put more info in the introduction to this thing! The short answer to your question is yes, we will be trying the barbecue. The expanded answer is that there are two distinct types of people in our family: One that lives to eat and the other that eats to live! ALL food on the ship will be sampled by some! Although I’m not considered a “foodie” in this crew, I did tell the Genie I can easily be bought with the mushroom soup and apple pie. Cheap date.

Let's be clear, no cruise ship specialty is going to exceed a land based regional delicacy. Chops isn't the best steak dinner ever and Giovanni's isn't the best Italian ever. Having eaten at Portside BBQ with more than one Texan and folks from Tennessee they were pleased on the basis it was on a cruise ship. No one should expect it to be better than what they can do at home if they know how to do BBQ. In fairness not every BBQ place I've tried in Texas has been "the best ever" either.

Day 3 - George Town, Grand Cayman We’d only been to Grand Cayman once, on a Disney cruise, and we used that time to have a beach day. This time around, we decided to do something we’d never tried before - swimming with Stingrays. After a lot of research, I signed up with Stingray Sailing and their sister company, Cayman Eco Adventures. They have a very good reputation and do excursions with small groups, so I was willing to go with them despite their tour not being the least expensive. Unfortunately, fate had other things in mind for us. Because of the diversion back to Key West we arrived to Georgetown around 8:00. At this point we’d already eaten breakfast in the MDR but were unable to finagle our way onto one of the first tenders (which went out around 8:30) out to the terminal. Which if things proceeded apace would not have been a huge issue, but after the first two tenders winds and waves caused a temporary stop to the boats. And since it was looking like we wouldn’t be off before 10, I emailed Stingray Sailing (I’d been in contact with them throughout the morning) notifying them that we would have to cancel our tour. To the credit of the company, they refunded our deposit even though they did not have to based on the contract language. So while I cannot comment on the tour itself, I have to commend the customer service and will more than likely give them another go if and when we come back. So with the tour cancelled, we went with our backup plan – Calico Jack’s and Public Beach. Public Beach is one of the well known locations along the Seven Mile Beach, and Calico Jack’s has been an institution there… but apparently they’re leaving. Don’t know what this means for the area, but I’m sure they’ll be missed. Seven Mile is also where my brother once went into the water with a cellphone in his pocket. Oops. But thanks to that incident, I now bring those airtight cellphone pouches (several variations can be found on Amazon) with me, just in case. Cab/Minibus fare over to Public Beach was $6 per person, and once there, we rented chairs and an umbrella for $20. And with that, we hit the water. What I love about Grand Cayman is that the beaches have some incredibly clear water, and it’s beautiful. We also had some lunch. Kept it simple and had chicken tenders and pan-fried grouper. I’m fairly certain the grouper was previously frozen, but whatever spices they use on it make up for that – very tasty! After a few hours at the beach we headed back to the ship. An interesting note was that on the way back our minibus had members of the Grease cast. Interesting because it seemed like they were mostly from the British Isles or Australia – I have to say that their onstage accents really fooled me, so kudos to them! Once back on the ship we headed to Sorrento’s to grab a couple of slices. Didn’t feel right to overeat at Windjammer when a slice or two would do the trick. And after the snack it we had just enough time to see the Texans win, shower, change and head down for dinner. Dinner on this day was probably the slowest that I’ve seen on a ship. Ryan had mentioned that this was a new menu combination so it’s possible that the kitchen staff were working the kinks out. It does make me wonder if this was why the dinner was my least favourite of the cruise. I had the sole and everyone else, the short rib, and both seemed heavily reliant on underwhelming sauces to carry them. So I’ll say that if you were on Independence and saw this menu, I’d recommend taking this day to do a specialty restaurant. The show tonight was the ice show, Freeze Frame. Based on our experience with Grease, Hannah and I got there early, and managed to nab some decent seats. As always, the performers worked hard and generally did a good job with a few tumbles here and there. The highlight was when one of the women did a spin that featured something similar to this: This is what I call a crazy trick. The plot of the show was a trip through the various dance and music styles from the 40’s to the 70’s. I don’t know that it entirely worked for me. There were some fun moments (for example skating around with handlebars during “Bicycle Race”) but I wasn’t really feeling it. After the show Hannah went off to sleep while I went down to Playmakers to catch the end of the Patriots-Titans football game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the crowd was firmly anti-Patriots (I’m sure there were some Titans fans, but people REALLY wanted the Patriots to lose). Not having a horse in this race (I’m a Texans fan, and while I expected us to get smushed, last weekend was a step beyond smushed.), it was fun to watch. Overall, we didn’t get to do what we’d planned, but the pivot to the beach still made for a nice day.

Wow, maybe I AM a Star Class spoiled snob, I share your hatred of the raisins - Araceli had them made without them??. Thank you I need a no raisin email to Allan!

Cococay was so much fun. We just got back onboard for the day. We took lexi to the waterpark and got a cabana there, she loved it we stayed a little over 3 hours. The wave pool was her favorite but I really enjoyed the dueling demons slide and the sling shot. Then when we got back Luciano had a surprise waiting on us! He is so great. Now we are going to hang out at the pools and wait for a nice dinner at 150 Central Park.

Just wanted to share! 17 days until we sail! So excited!

I’ve always found being kicked off the ship at the end of the cruise more depressing than be told I can’t enter the lounge anymore. ?

An interior cabin works fine for me. Motivates me to be out and about. Saves money for excursions and Portside BBQ and Playmakers and...

Limited data set ... still it tells the story that: 1) A few get a very, very early assignment. 2) If you are under 100 days out with no assignment, you are in for a wait. 3) Getting assigned with less than 10 days out is rare. I will add to the data as more rolls in. Curt from Canada

May 16, 2020. Majesty - believe it or not

....it's working.... ?

This is great news! When we book suites we like the benefit of the Concierge Lounge. There is nothing worse then having it over run by Diamond + members who go in early and save seats. We pay a lot of money for this perk! On cruises we book in a non suite cabin we are happy to huddle with the unwashed masses in the Diamond lounge!

I've heard a number of people express confusion about "The Gift", an original Royal Caribbean production that runs on Anthem of the Seas. On board Anthem on channel 14 they run a series of short clips about various things Royal Caribbean. One of those short clips talks to The Gift and explains the story line. The Gift is about a family. The father is a simple man who runs a tug boat. He and his wife created a beautiful little life with their two children. The mother passes away leaving the family lost and torn apart. The father has lost his way and becomes detached from life and his children. The daughter is an adventure seeker. A young lady looking to live her life but with her father having become disengaged from his children she is left to only dream of her adventures through books and in her mind, detached from her family. The son is a tinkerer who loves mechanical things and taking things apart. In the face of losing his mother who gave him direction but now with only his father who is vacant he too is detached from life and from his the family. The Gift is a story about this family, alive but not living, stuck in their way having lost their matriarch and their journey on stage starting at this point in the story. The mother in the spirit world sees her family struggling, torn and detached. She sends her family a gift in the material world. There is nothing in the gift but it turns the family's life upside down and leads to a series of events that play out on stage in the spirit world. The rest of the cast of The Gift live in the spirit world. Looking closely you will see their makeup is pale and ghost like compared to the father and his children. They are storytellers in the spirit world helping each member of the family through a series of journeys to find themselves, playing out their dreams, waking them up and re-engaging them with life and back into a family. Once you understand the plot of the story it makes a lot of sense watching The Gift as it is presented on stage. It's actually a pretty interesting production with good music and strong production talent.

I like to keep them in my golf bag, they make much more interesting ball markers than boring old quarters ?

Yes..sometimes folks have half clothing and half not ?

Nice, but now that my wife has done a 4 day with me just last month she says that it is to short and now all she wants is 7 days. Doh!!

I set an alarm with a note to turn phone on airplane mode before ship sailed. (that way I was able to still take pictures and make calls 1 last time before we sailed off) Bring water shoes they were a game changer for me. They're fairly affordable, I went with a brand called aleader on amazon. Take note of the time of when the casino closes daily. They always close when heading closer to land due to the laws. Example: I was playing roulette and was betting strictly on colors, it hit 7 consecutive black colors and I was going to bet red the next spin but they ended up closing the casino and I lost the chase for hitting a red. Put on the cruise luggage tags after you've arrived at the cruise terminal to avoid confusion with airport luggage tags.

$2.99 beer refills at Funsport America caught my eye!..lol Says for 2019 but I am assuming you were there in 2020...something they have continued on I wonder.?...hmmm...might have to visit there for "research" purposes in April before my Navigator cruise..lol

Yes, same timing on the initial email for us. We are pretty self sufficient and the two things out of the ordinary that I requested were pretzel m&ms (hubster)and Fresca (daughter). The answer was there is a candy store on board and Royal only carries Coke products. So it surprises me that other people are asking for unusual boozes, etc., and their requests are being granted. Apparently there are a lot of variations between in Genies and ships.

I knew it! lol

I would still get a notarized statement from the parents stating the child can get off or on the ship with you. It is always good to have a backup (plan B)

Yes. Would never have tried Majesty otherwise.

I can't find the post, but I recall Michael Bayley saying one ship would tender, and the other 2 dock.

Good plan. Adding “a no raisin apple pie” to my request list.

And I have a bridge for sale for $50.00, if you're interested !! ??

I think a $165m amplification of all lounges across the fleet is long past due.

‘We talked about it more over dinner and decided we might as well try it since our 8yo son isn’t coming with us on this cruise. He for sure wouldn’t like it. So I sent in our reservation requests with 1 night at Wonderland

If you have the package you should try it! Our experience is that I didnt love it but my husband did. Happy I tried it tho!

We’re on Adventure and this is the second day which is formal night. I found this in our door and notice it was in all the doors in the hall that I could see. Guess this is there shuttle way of letting you know.

@rjac I dress my best...flip flops, wife beater shirt and short shorts, what else could you expect? Hey..stop trying to visualize this, that’s making me feel uncomfortable...like your trying to undress me. ?

Parents are needed again. My niece couldn’t board the ship without my sil or bil. She was 17 staying at adjacent cabin with her sister.

Perfect example of why to just use a GOOD travel agent and let them deal with this sort of thing.

Interesting, wonder if this is specific to the Adventure OTS or if the Captain is just cranky? I've read other "formal night" posts in which the OP has mentioned "wear your best" on formal night. Or, do you suppose they heard YOU were going to be on board Mike and are just screwing with you?

You might as well try it if you have the UDP. It can be quite the food adventure if you're into that. Make a super early reservation for Wonderland and a super late reservation somewhere else..then you have a backup if the food isn't to your liking and you need something more to eat ?

YESSSS!! Just booked Harmony for 2/28/21 My first time ever having two pending cruises

They just bring the food on an oversized tray.

Welcome to the message boards. With growing numbers this really should come as no surprise as the current venues are simply not big enough to contain the numbers involved. On my current cruise I have been restricted from the Concierge Lounge. I understand all too well what you mean however of 272 Emerald, 86 are moving to Diamond for their next cruise and of 598 Diamond, 35 are moving to Diamond Plus. The CL only seats ~50 guests yet now there would be 35 new D+ competing for CL seats on their next cruise absent of any restrictions. This is one ship graduating 35 people to D+. Across the fleet there are hundreds that will be graduating to D+ this month and hundreds next month. They simply can't continue in this fashion without changing some rules which is well within their rights to do so. It's printed in the CAS terms and conditions that they can make changes without notice any time they need to. I've been facing this since first earning D+ thirty two cruises ago. What Royal has done on all of my cruises is expand or overflow the Diamond Lounge to include more room. To be honest and fair this has worked quite well on all thirty two D+ cruises. On a recent cruise through the Panama Canal the CL was off limits to D+ but they used the entire Some Enchanted Evening Lounge on Vision for the nightly happy hour. This worked out really well and even many of the 86 Pinnacles ended up coming to happy hour there instead of the CL. Pinnacle numbers are also growing, 5 guests on this sailing graduated to Pinnacle. The simple truth is that the numbers have grown to the point they need to make changes. So while I have been impacted by this change many times I also understand it is a needed change given the numbers of guests ascending up the CAS top tier levels.

I just booked Allure for 1/23/2022!! 741 days to go, lol. At some point I’ll even tell Mr. SpeedNoodles that I booked it. That day is not today.

I hope everyone enjoyed my blog and learned something about Celebrity and Equinox. I will continue to consider Celebrity cruises when cruising without my kids especially if they offer promotions that give free perks. I hope to see you onboard my next RC cruise which is the blog group cruise on Brilliance of the Seas in October. If you have any further questions please post them in this thread. Jason Peterson

After watching the sail away from the balcony, we did some unpacking, and then it was time for dinner. We did get the early seating (5:30 on Independence), and our servers were Ryan and Mutsam (I may have his name wrong). Mutsam was fairly new, and this was in fact his first contract. I thought they did a good job over the course of the cruise. Nothing spectacular, but everything was done competently. My first night main was the Caribbean Jerk Pork Chop. Cooked very nicely, although perhaps not enough jerk flavour. We also asked for extra vegetables for our table. Seems weird, but we do eat a lot of veg, so this worked out for us. After dinner, we wandered around the promenade a bit. They had singers and musicians doing some standards – it was nice. (So much better than two singers and an iPad) We then went to register Olivia in Adventure Ocean. Hannah (my older one) was 12 so she went to look in on the Teen club meet and greet, but the kids there were mostly older teens, so she didn’t want to join in. She’s actually quite sociable, but I could definitely understand her apprehension. After this, I think that we experienced a first day adrenaline dump, as we all felt quite tired. I’d planned on doing some more first night exploring, but, well, sleep beckoned, and tomorrow would be a new day.

Hello everyone! We are Matt and Lisa (or MO and LO)! Matt is the main typer and poster with input from Lisa. We are now down to double digits for this cruise after booking it with more than 400+ days until we boarded. We don't remember the exact number of days because it was so painful to see such a high number so we did not pay attention until recently ?. We booked it at Next Cruise on a previous cruise and got a $100 OBC! Next Cruise is our preferred booking location for obvious reasons! Only 98 days until we board, 97 until we fly out! We are flying from Minneapolis to Miami so you can imagine how excited we are to leave Minnesota in February from the cold and snow! We initially had this booked on the itinerary right before this one but changed it after we figured out that the Super Bowl was in Miami in 2020. We would have been flying in to Miami on the Saturday before the big game so we decided that it would have been EXTREMELY expensive, busy, and not relaxing or enjoyable for us so changed it to the week later. Very glad we did this. Why this cruise?: We have never been to the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao) and REALLY wanted to get there. We really enjoy longer cruises since we feel like we really get to experience it and settle in. For us, anything under 7 nights seems too short. We also like the Voyager Class of ships so it was perfect. From that class we have been on Adventure (March 2017) and Mariner (May 2019) in the past. We recently did our first 9 night cruise which was on Serenade (Jan 2019) and learned that the boat was a bit small for us for such a long cruise. This will be our 10th cruise together and give us a total of 100 points! Our first together was our honeymoon in 1997 on Monarch out of Puerto Rico. All our cruises together have been on RCCL. I (Matt) have been on 1 extra cruise that I took as a kid with my parents on the Big Red Boat (if anyone remembers that one). Flights: We are flying on Delta from MSP to MIA on February 6th. We always go atleast one day early because the weather is unpredictable in Minnesota that time of year and also because the stress of flying and boarding is just miserable......especially if something doesn't go quite right and we get delayed. We will not land until late at night so that day is purely a travel day. Unfortunately we learned something about companion fares........they only have so many allowed per flight so you need to book very early. We did not realize they only allow so many per flight and got burned on this. Normally we fly out a day or two ahead and hang out but they did not have that option available with the companion fares. So with the companion fare issues in mind, we had to stay TWO extra days after the cruise to get the first flight available home. We normally fly out as soon as we can on disembarkation day but now we will have 2 extra days in Miami. We have never stayed more than a few extra hours after the cruise is over so this will be interesting to try. We fly back on February 18th. Room: 9th floor balcony Excursions: So far we haven't booked anything but will update on that as we continue the planning Dining & Drink Package: We will be having every meal in the dining room because we love main dining. We enjoy the personal connection and attention we get from getting to know the dining staff. By the end of the cruise they have "learned" us and our needs/wants and we love that! We will be doing early dining (6pm on this cruise) so that we aren't eating so late at night! That is always our preferred choice. We will be getting the Refreshment Package since we aren't heavy alcohol drinkers. We WILL be taking part in the Diamond Lounge drinks every night though! ? Full Itinerary: Travel Day from MSP to MIA Day 1 - Miami Day 2 - Sea Day Day 3 - Labadee, Haiti (8am-5pm) Day 4 - Sea Day Day 5 - Kralendijk, Bonaire (9am-6pm) Day 6 - Oranjestad, Aruba (8am-9pm) Day 7 - Willemstad, Curacao (8am-5pm) Day 8 & 9 - Sea Days Day 10 - Miami Post cruise day - Miami Travel day from MIA to MSP Hotels: We are staying at the airport and downtown Holiday Inns. Holiday Inn is our preferred chain because of quality and price along with consistency. This Live (or mostly) Blog: We will be doing our best to give live updates as we are doing them but obviously not everything can be live so some things will get posted when we have a chance. Vlog/Recording/Youtube/Twitter: We will be recording/vlogging as much as we can. We have recorded numerous excursions for our personal collection and friends. We recently thought that people, like us, would be interested in seeing some of these excursions so they know what they are like and what to expect. It has helped us in our research of traveling/cruising. This turned out to be very popular on our YouTube channel so we wanted to expand on that. This will be our first attempt at that. Our YouTube channel can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-JW4jgv_suiK-NCHyhQIVA/ . We will be posting these after they are edited and ready, which will probably be after we are home, but will try to get smaller/shorter things here. Please subscribe to our channel so you will know when they are posted. The videos will not just be excursions. They will include lots of other stuff and we hope to have fun with them. We will also post to our Twitter account with updates (https://twitter.com/MOLOonthego1). We just bought the brand new GoPro Hero 8 Black to upgrade from our Hero 4 Silver to get some better quality videos (and not have them shake and bounce all over). Final Thoughts On First Post: We are excited to bring everyone along and showcase how we travel and what we do!!! We look forward to everyone's comments and reactions to our first trip to the ABC islands! If you have any questions, suggestions, thoughts please feel free to post on here or reach out to us privately.

Great review so far. I'm sailing Empress for the first time to Bermuda solo in May. Can't wait!

We are booked August 2021. I love empress.

Yeah, even after paying attention at the start and getting the gist of the plot, I still left less than halfway through. For me, even understanding that key plot point, I just found the show too disjointed. The song transitions were jarring since it's just a mish-mash of popular songs from the time the show was created, and there's no discernible progression in terms of theme, rhythm, emotion, etc. For me, it felt like the music was picked solely for its use to support the choreography, with no consideration of how it also affects the show. And for me at least, the music is probably one of the biggest factors in how much I like or dislike a show. I'm probably an outlier with that, though. I spent a lot of my time between grade school and early college learning and studying music (tried to double major in music and biology; music lost); Music just matters a lot to me in a show. I totally get other people's argument when they say that Spectra feels disjointed to them, since the acts don't have any real connection to each other and there isn't even the hint of a plot that The Gift has. But for me, Spectra is a much better show because the music very clearly "fits" into and augments each of the performances, and there's a spoken intro to each that lays out what the idea of each bit is and establishes, "OK, we're making another change now."