Arrived in Honolulu

We have not seen all the entertainment offered on this sailing but what we have seen has been quite good. With a little effort I might be able to identify them by name but since it is doubtful you would know any of them anyway I won’t make the effort. We saw a brief performance from the on board dance troupe but last night’s performance was cancelled because we were bouncing like a cork. A comedian who has been on since San Francisco did a full show rather than sharing with the dancers and had most of us laughing  uproariously. We also had a guest entertainer who played piano rather well. For his closing number he took about 20 song titles from the audience then sat down and played a medley of all the tunes. There are also staff musicians including a harpist, a string quartet, at least two more pianists, a Caribbean band, the Queens Court orchestra that accompanies guest performers and the Queens Room orchestra that plays dance sets. 

There is a large dance floor on the Queen Elizabeth and we have enjoyed dancing several evenings. More than half of the time the dance floor is open recorded dance music is played, this is when we dance the most. The orchestra that plays exclusively in the Queens Room tends to attract more of an audience and the dance floor becomes uncomfortably crowded. We dance only occasionally with the orchestra. I fear I made myself a little unpopular with the orchestra Wednesday evening. Several members of the orchestra sat behind the stage curtain playing warm up exercises on their instruments while the pre-recorded music was playing for the dancers and it was quite distracting. I kind of went behind the curtain and told them to be quiet. I guess I’ll be on their naughty list.

The entertainment provided by the artist Philip Gray has been quite fascinating. We have been privileged to watch him develop three canvases. I assume it is common practice for artists to cover their canvas initially and develop the image over the base coat. Philip has been using members of his audience to apply paint randomly to these three canvases after which he creates an image as if by magic. Here are some side-by-side photos showing his work.

 

 It was amazing to watch Philip turn random splotches of paint into spectacular scenes. The images here cannot display the beauty of his work. However, you won’t be seeing any of it coming home with us either. If you need to ask the price you can’t afford it.

The last two days before making port in Honolulu were very rough. We didn’t even try to get on the dance floor, by Friday evening Gail was not feeling well and the seas were even starting to bother me. Overnight the sky cleared and we have a beautifully sunny day here in Honolulu.

We got off the ship as early as we could and walked the 10 minutes to a nearby Wal Mart where we picked up some supplies. We had planned to do this before leaving, It meant we didn’t have to pack a few things, like coffee. We planned to buy coffee in Australia and brought filters with us. The coffee on the ship is so pathetic we moved the plan forward.

There are quite a few photos on the photo site that I don’t show here. Check the previous post if you need to refresh your memory on how to get to them. This may be the last day with really good internet access before Auckland. I will get a few posts done I’m sure but unless I find good WiFi in French Polynesia I’ll be limited to ship’s Internet which is rather sad. 

So, here you have it.

[quotcoll orderby=”random” limit=1]