Live (NOT) From the Carnival Valor

[golfadj]

Keep it coming please, will be on the Valor in two weeks.

[Kokomo_Man]

LIVE!!!!! From The Carnival Valor

 

 

Last Day

 

 

--- Late Afternoon ---

First I’ll answer the question about who’s in the Piano Bar. They guy’s name is Doug Ross. I had him in the piano bar exactly 1 year ago on my New Year’s cruise on the Carnival Freedom. If you follow the link below my signature you can see my opinion of him then.

 

I really like spending time in the piano bar. I book some cruises just because of who is performing there. And if someone really good is there I’ll spend a lot of time there every night… and spend far too much on frozen concoctions to help me hang on. My favorites are (in order) Ron Pass, Laurie Gardner, and Roger Conception. (I’m told others are very good also, but I haven’t been fortunate enough to cruise with them.)

 

This year Doug Ross is about the same as he was last year. He is very good for a night or two. On the second evening he had standing room only for a bit of time. But his stuff is the same stuff night after night. My favorite “piano man”, Ron Pass, does some of the same stuff each night, but only because he has everyone really “jazzed up” and they request some of his best stuff over and over. With Doug Ross, although it’s entertaining the first time or so, the repeats start to “wear thin” by the end of the cruise.

 

I certainly wouldn’t book a cruise just because Doug Ross is on it, but I also wouldn’t avoid a cruise because he is on. I have booked two cruises I would not have otherwise booked solely because Ron Pass was the piano bar entertainer.

 

--- Art Auction ---

Every cruise ship has some kind of art auction on every cruise. This was no different. Until now I had never been to any of these auctions. I usually just walk around and see what they have to offer and move on. This time I decided that I would go to the auction just out of curiosity… just to see how things worked. There were two auctions… one on the first sea day and today, the last sea day. I went to both.

 

Overall, I thought it was interesting and had some fun. They try to make it entertaining and at that they succeeded. They also try to make give you a bit of education about the art they have and they succeeded at that too. And of course, they are trying to sell you stuff. They didn’t succeed at that.

 

They didn’t succeed at selling me something for two reasons. First, I was a bit interested in some autographed sports memorabilia posters that they have. Thanks to the internet I was able to check it out, and the same stuff they were selling is available through reputable memorabilia distributors for less than half of their price… and in the case of a shadow box with a signed Pete Rose baseball, they wanted about 4x what I found the value to be. They had some other neat sports memorabilia stuff… particularly some Mohamed Ali stuff, but all was very overpriced. Thank you internet.

 

The other reason they didn’t sell me anything is that frankly, they didn’t have anything I liked. The auctioneer was the first one to tell you to “buy what you like”. So for now my “Dogs Playing Poker” will remain hung between my velvet “Tijuana Bull Fight” and my coveted “Elvis on velvet”.

 

The rest of the afternoon was a combination of just a laid back day… and dreading getting off the boat tomorrow morning. Like it or not, I have to think about getting back to reality. OK… since I don’t like it, I’m going to ignore reality for a few more hours.

 

I’ll wrap up with another post or two tomorrow. But for now it’s time for another “boat drink”.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[JXR]

First I’ll answer the question about who’s in the Piano Bar. They guy’s name is Doug Ross. I had him in the piano bar exactly 1 year ago on my New Year’s cruise on the Carnival Freedom. If you follow the link below my signature you can see my opinion of him then.

 

I really like spending time in the piano bar. I book some cruises just because of who is performing there. And if someone really good is there I’ll spend a lot of time there every night… and spend far too much on frozen concoctions to help me hang on. My favorites are (in order) Ron Pass, Laurie Gardner, and Roger Conception. (I’m told others are very good also, but I haven’t been fortunate enough to cruise with them.)

 

This year Doug Ross is about the same as he was last year. He is very good for a night or two. On the second evening he had standing room only for a bit of time. But his stuff is the same stuff night after night. My favorite “piano man”, Ron Pass, does some of the same stuff each night, but only because he has everyone really “jazzed up” and they request some of his best stuff over and over. With Doug Ross, although it’s entertaining the first time or so, the repeats start to “wear thin” by the end of the cruise.

 

I certainly wouldn’t book a cruise just because Doug Ross is on it, but I also wouldn’t avoid a cruise because he is on. I have booked two cruises I would not have otherwise booked solely because Ron Pass was the piano bar entertainer.

 

I remember you from BC4! I now solely book my cruise based on who is in the Piano Bar! Ron is my favorite as well. I will be going on BC5 in March and I can't wait!

 

Joanne

[Kokomo_Man]

LIVE!!!!! From The Carnival Valor

 

 

I’m waiting on the Lido deck (out by the pool) to get off the boat. It’s not that I really want to get off… it’s just that I have no choice. So I thought I would take the time to add a couple of thoughts.

 

Balcony Bound… thank you very much for the kind words. I thrive on stuff like that. When I first started writing my goal was to tell stuff like I was talking to friends around the coffee table… or perhaps over a frozen concoction. So you have made me very happy that you feel like we are old friends.

 

Earlier on Mary (Mississauga) asked about how good the Go Pro camera is. I’m going to answer that two ways. First, I’ll be posting that video on YouTube when I get a little bit of time, so you can judge for yourself. I’ll let everyone know here on this thread when I get it ready. The other part of the answer is that for it’s purpose it’s GREAT! I use it for everything from SCUBA diving to driving my race car. It is just a “point and shoot” camera (no zoom, etc) so it doesn’t have all the features of a regular video camera. But for a rugged camera that will take a lot of abuse it is very good.

 

Also, Mary mentioned the competing groups that there will be on BC5. Yea… she is right. I’m not going to join a group that I would not otherwise join merely to get some of “the rotund one’s” time. While I like him and what he tries to do for Carnival cruisers, if I don’t get in on any of the bloggers activities, then that won’t bother me. The other stuff that goes along with being on BC5 will be just fine with me. In particular… Ron Pass in the piano bar.

 

JXR mentioned that she now books cruises solely based on who is in the Piano bar. I’m almost that way and in particular, I booked BC5 because Ron will be there. So, JXR (Joanne) I’ll see you in the piano bar in March. You won’t be able to miss me… I’ll be the guy in the outrageous “parrot shirts”.

 

Gotta go… they’ve called my number. I’ll post a wrap up soon.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Kokomo_Man]

Definitely Not Live From The Carnival Valor

 

 

I’m writing this to you this morning as I’m winging my way back to reality. Hummmmm… back to reality. Maybe that’s why a lot of people cruise… to escape reality that is. I think as I pull up to all the exotic islands I half expect to be pulling up to “Fantasy Island”… complete with Ricardo Montalban dressed in an all Corinthian leather white suit… and his faithful side-kick Tattoo saying, “Da Boat!... Da Boat!

 

Instead we get some eight foot tall black pirate named Richard LeNore exhorting us to buy some of his finest rum. (So of course I buy some of his rum.) Or there’s some Mayan Indian selling us a Mexican Sombrero… the Mayans wore sombreros didn’t they? Or we get Pirates of the Caribbean inviting us to get on their “rum party boat”. Or a “mellow” Jamaican who wants to sell us the main crop of his country… “G”.

 

Of course we do all get phenomenal clear turquoise blue water… water we could only imagine in our dreams… until we saw it with our own eyes. And there are the white sand beaches complete with the phenomenal beach bunnies. There are thrilling ziplines… wave runners… and parasailing. There’s too much good food to maintain our svelte bodies… way too much chocolate melting cake. And of course there are all the frozen concoctions to help us hang on.

 

I know that I’ve made it sound like I’m some kind of lush, but I’m not really not. Sure on a cruise I do have a “boat drink” or two… or three. But that’s about the only time I ever have any booze. The bottle of “Richard’s finest” is just a souvenir that I bring home as a conversation piece… and for others to take a sip of.

 

For a week or so we can forget what we do during our mundane weeks. We are an adventurers to far off places… we are pirates of the Caribbean… we are world explorers. We eat, drink, and make merry like kings and queens. (Hummmm… you have to be careful with the word “queen” these days, so maybe I should just say “travel like Royalty”.) We are able for at least a short time to be anything we like. So maybe it is Fantasy Island that we’re going to.

 

But alas, I must always come back to reality. This morning after I get off the airplane I’ve got to go to work… to pay for my next trip to Fantasy Island. It has been a nice cruise. Even though there were some challenges, we still had a glorious time. Now it will be a cold and nasty winter… at least until BC5 in March.

 

So until that time, I bid all of you:

Fair winds and following seas… long may your big jib draw.

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[mickiemac]

As usual, a very entertaining virtual trip you give us. Glad you all had a good time. I am waiting on our next cruise together. Jim and I will let you know when our plans begin. Hoping you can join us.

[Kokomo_Man]

Hi Everyone,

 

I just posted Amy's Zip-line video on YouTube. She used my Go-Pro camera to video her zip-line adventure in Belize. Co-staring Wendy who talked Amy into doing this. Here's the link:

 

 

Bob

Memories of Naked Fanny

[Donna - dsw]

Love the zip line - now I want to go there!