After dinner in the buffet (once again, we built our meal primarily around the wonderful made-to-order pasta bar with garlic! lots of garlic! for me), we were feeling perky. A day essentially at sea will do that to you. We started our evening's entertainment by going to the Crows Nest to listen to solo guitarist Johnny Champagne for an hour (out of the four hours he plays each evening). We then moved to the Vista Theater for the 8pm performance by Tony Pace, billed as a comedic vocalist from Las Vegas. We didn't know what to expect, and so sat up high in the back by the Deck 3 exit doors (which Tony himself referred to during his show as the "just in case" seats, as in just in case we don't like this guy and want to sneak out the back).
We didn't want to sneak out the back at all. In fact, I suspect that apart from the Beatle Maniacs, this may have been the best show we'll see all winter. He sang in different impressionist voices songs by several artists over several decades while doing funny stunts (switching hats and voices to do the Willie Nelson/ Julio Iglesias duet "To all the girls..."). His Michael Jackson moonwalk was unbelievably good. And, it was a 55 minute show (watch and learn Princess!).
Thoroughly entertained, that alone would have made for a wonderful evening. But we moved on to the Ocean Bar to listen to the three-piece group Neptune, and, finally, went to the Explorers Lounge to listen to Adagio, the string quartet. (We could also have stopped by the piano bar to listen to pianist Lee). But back to the string quartet...
Why has Princess done away with a string quartet on the Emerald? Oh, I'm certain it's a money thing. Four people require more cabin space, money and travel expenses than the solo steel drum artist the Emerald now strongly features (and which, BTW, the Noordam also has). But I can't tell you how much we miss it on the Emerald. Tonight we stood (as it was standing room only by then) for over 30 minutes to listen to wonderful classical music. (I am so lucky to have a husband who enjoys it as much as I do!!) And this quartet is playing for four hours every evening! We could do nothing but listen to them and be thoroughly entertained. Instead, they're just one of many available options.
We love to be entertained by talented professionals, and not by our fellow passengers, which seems to be the route Princess is increasingly taking. The entertainment variety and quantity on the Noordam (1900 passengers) frankly puts the Emerald (3100 passengers) to shame.
Days like today, with lousy dining room service, the necessity to do hand laundry as there aren't self serve laundries on board, and then sensational evening entertainment options are the reason we simply can't reply in a straight forward manner when we're asked which is our favorite cruise line. We love elements of all of them. We dislike elements of all of them. Just hours after dinner, where G said he couldn't recommend Holland America for most people our age and would never feel as comfortable on this cruise line as we do on Princess, we were discussing with regret the fact that we cannot look forward to a similarly entertaining evening during the remainder of our winter on the Emerald Princess.
It's such a quandary.
;-)