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4ensic

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Everything posted by 4ensic

  1. There is a Broadway revival of Cole Porter's musical Can-Can http://cancanbroadway.com/, so maybe that signalled enough interest for RCI to purchase rights. Granted that's a bit of a stretch, more of a summer stock show than a current hit. It's so old I remember seeing it at the Muny in St. Louis when I was in grade school.
  2. Agreed. After retirement I'm almost a hermit. On the cruise I talk to the theatre Production Manager, members of the RC Singers and Dancers, and every Headline act, giving my elevator pitch of free stills for their books or websites. Hector Ruiz (Hector Is Magic), Solomon Jaye, and ratpack singer Gary Williams are as friendly and outgoing in real life as they are in their acts. Hector's assistant even tried to set me up with her mother in Barcelona (we'll see how that goes). Without a couple of cameras, I'd never think about speaking to a performer or member of the production staff. The good and bad thing about a cruise is that almost nobody knows who you are.
  3. Really challenging to photograph. People skating quickly on a small patch of ice. Kind of like photographing squirrels who found a large Frappucino.
  4. From personal experience - I tore my ACL on the flight to friends' house the day before going to Barcelona for a T/A. They had crutches and an appointment at the Doc-in-the-box waiting for me. The cost of renting a manual wheelchair from one of the usual scooter rental companies for the cruise was about $175. There was a lot of walking in Barcelona and the crutches were tiring to use, so I bought a good wheelchair for about $250 and used it around the city and on the ship. United (and I'm sure all other carriers) flew the chair for free. To me, it was well worth the money spent. Note that if you plan ahead, there can be quite a bit of durable medical equipment at second hand stores for almost nothing. Or you can get a standard wheelchair on Amazon for about $110. The cab drivers in Barcelona were top notch. 5 of us were at a cab stand and a driver stopped, got out, and called the dispatcher for a van that could take all of us and the wheelchair. I've noticed that a lot of places have transport chairs (4 small wheels) for use instead of standard wheelchairs. They require a second person to push you. Best wishes on your cruise, Brad
  5. Rhapsody T/A 11-30-21 Barcelona to Tampa.
  6. "Everybody you watch Got his brains in his crotch.... Ain't nobody got class?" Chicago!!
  7. Odyssey OTS 10-31-22 from Civitavecchia to Ft. Lauderdale. 13 instead of 14 days for the crossing, but still couple of stops in Spain.
  8. Just one - Rhapsody T/A 11-30-21. Lobbying singer Gary Williams the Rat Pack singer to appear on a small ship for a change. With 3 days in the Canary Islands, he won't even have to fly or spend an extended time onboard to perform (He lives on Teneriefe).
  9. I agree, a great place to meet new people is at dinner. People who share almost nothing in common at first, but turn out to be really interesting. I've eaten with: a professional landscape photographer, a blind photographer, a couple who owns a sheep station in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, a guy who'd owned a sporting goods store in Maine (and whose uncle ran United Artists and Orion Pictures), and a kindergarten teacher from Canada whom I'd marry if I was 30 years younger. Everybody has at least one or two good stories to tell or hobbies shared by someone at the table.
  10. Hi Julia, If you're looking for "good", the reserved Key seats are not bad, just behind the Front of House mixer boards (at least on the Independence of the Seas) and you don't have to wait in line for them. If you want the best, prepare to arrive about 45 minutes early and get about row 7-10, dead center. You'll be at eye level with the performers. If you know there will be audience interaction, the aisle seats from rows 2-5 or anywhere in the first row will give you a good chance to greet the performers. Row 1 isn't all that great. You're looking up the performers noses and they're looking straight out (into about row 8). The only reason I sit in the first row is that my camera gear would be next to someone's ear and I don't want to bother anyone sitting in front of me.
  11. Booking cruises reminds me of a quote from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail": “When I first came here, this was all swamp. Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. And that one sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, and then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up. And that’s what you’re going to get, Son, the strongest castle in all of England.” – King of the Swamp Castle So now I'm trying the Rhapsody T/A from Barcelona to Tampa on November 30. Just hope this doesn't burn, fall over, and then sink into the swamp.
  12. Odyssey is ported in Haifa, Israel as of yesterday. Only citizens of Israel are allowed to book cruises on her for the time being.
  13. Well, the Med. cruises out of Civitavecchia didn't last long. So now friends and I are trying the Rhapsody out of Venice as B2B on June 19 and 26. Still not buying air tickets for a while, though.
  14. Odyssey OTS, May 21 and May 30 B2B. My first Med cruises. Does the Two70 show "Oceanides" remind anyone of Houdini's water escape? Maybe Royal won't actually seal the performers in their individual water tanks.
  15. It's Star Clippers and they are actual clipper ships and run out of Barbdos and St. Maarten in the Caribbean, Phuket and Ko Samui (Malaysia) in Asia, and in the Mediterranian.
  16. Too bad there's an intermission, It wakes people up from their Cats nap.
  17. I tried to make sense of the word salad that was on the marquee, but thought The Gift might actually come together and be something good to photograph. Hint: It didn't and wasn't. Only RCI show I won't go back to. (As opposed to Grease and Once Upon a Time, which are fun after 12 shows each).
  18. Almost forgot, our group asked if there was anything Filipino on the menu (including crew menu). So every night we had great dishes like I get in Southern Leyte. Then one night the waiter (also Filipino) brings boiled tripe. I live in the Visayas (The area roughly between Luzon and Mindinao) and never saw tripe anywhere - in the wet markets, cooked by friends or even served in restaurants). We tried to cut it, but a regular knife wouldn't quite do the job without a lot of sawing. It wasn't really tough like gristle, but more like gelatin-coated Aramid fibres. We eat Dinuguan (soup made with pork blood and entrails), but this was a bit much. The waiter said that a lot of the crew was from Luzon and the tripe was on the menu in the Crew Mess. So we literally asked for it, but this was one thing I just couldn't eat. Not Royal's fault.
  19. I'd prefer a pay channel of "Waiting for your tour group number to be called in the theatre".
  20. Or a Maine Coon. Though a Yukon Moose would be a good substitute (though a bit large).
  21. Actually I was unfaithful. My last cruise was on the Sky Princess. The photo is from Rock Opera.
  22. Good news, there was special seating and I always got to sit at the end of the aisle in the theatre. Bad news, it was because I was in a wheelchair (Destroyed ACL on the way to the cruise).
  23. It seemed like there was a parmesan and olive oil crust. Or at least I wanted to believe that. The good news was that they were served in the Diamond lounge during the alcohol buffet, so people could just as easily blame the sickness on the olives as on the drinks. The first night in the lounge I wore a Barong Tagalog (Filipino formalware shirt) and was served by a Filipino bartender. I ordered a Jack and Coke. My legs didn't work well after the drink. The next night I saw him pour me a triple without telling me. I would have probably eaten the whole tray of olives that first night. On the bright side I was able to hand hold 1/20 second still shots with a telephoto lens at the stage show later that night.
  24. I'm used to being a plebe and just getting sawdust and olive oil, so the olives were an upgrade. Just kidding, Royal regularly outdoes itself on snacks so these are just a "Meh" rather than "People thought I was in The Exorcist".
  25. I thought these looked interesting enough to get a camera before the crowd finished the tray off. Word must have passed quickly, 15 minutes later only a few were taken.
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