A night out

If you can call it that - we really didn’t have to go very far!

Our evenings are mostly taken up with drinks, dinner and chatter with friends.  Sharing stories of the day and making plans for tomorrow.  With a choice of bars in which to meet and restaurants to move on to, all of which serve a different but equally delicious menu every day, we are spoiled for choice.  Most of the bars have musical entertainment of some kind and we enjoy visiting them all – perhaps not on the same evening, however!

There’s also a large theatre with a show every evening at 9.30pm.  Usually, we’ll give it a try, see what’s what, though it’s not always “our kind of thing” and we slip out again.

Last night, however, was great fun.  So much fun, in fact, that I forgot to take many photos!

One of the restaurants was offering “Dinner and a Show with the East Coast Boys” and thinking this sounded fun, we booked a table and joined friends for drinks beforehand.  Finding ourselves met at the door of the restaurant with another cocktail, it would really have been churlish to refuse, wouldn’t it?!

With Mango Bellini in hand, we perused the seven course menu and hoped that the portions were going to be small!  Actually, the restaurants serve “realistically” sized portions here on the principle that it’s always possible to ask for more – but we never do!

For example, our starter here was a single, delicious scallop with a small spoonful of mushroom ragout, a few strands of noodles and a couple of rocket leaves.  We can do this!

(We can also manage the accompanying wines, which are generously poured!)

With some of our favourite people taking care of us, we got off to a great start and the atmosphere was one of fun and lighthearted banter.

Two hours and six more yummy courses later, we moved next door, to the “show lounge”.  More usually, we' find ourselves in here for the Team Trivia but tonight, it was set up as a theatre for the “East Coast Boys” who were going to perform a show based on Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. 

Right up our street!  Maybe not quite as slick as the West End, as polished as a Broadway show, it was fun nevertheless and once we’d got over the fact that one of the (three) Seasons appeared to have forgotten his patent leather shoes (!) we enjoyed the show!

Looking at our watches, the night was young and another show was about to begin in the large theatre – a Cirque de Soleil-type show, which we’d heard was worth seeing.  So, we gathered ourselves together and hurried to the other end of the ship, just in time for it to begin.

One of the fun aspects of taking a cruise like this is that the “staff” performers accompany tours, run the Trivia and are generally around during the day.  As a result, we get to know one another and chat from time to time.  In particular, we’d spent some time with Hana, the feature dancer when we took the elephant ride, and looked forward to this show, where she and Alex,  her partner would take the starring role.

There was one word: breathtaking.  This petite young woman must have muscles of steel!  The show was terrific and the way the theatre was set up with ropes and a central hook/hoist/whatever on which they performed incredible moves of strength with balletic grace.  We sat in the balcony for once, regretting that we’d been too lazy to take the stairs and sit where we’d have had a better view.  But no matter.  We’d enjoyed a first-class evening and returned to our suite happy and content!