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Serenade of the Seas 3/27/10 – 4/3/10
By Milt Abel | April 8, 2010
| April 8, 2010Is it pronounced CaRIBbean or CaribBEan?
Recently returning from that area, and on a Royal Caribbean ship, I heard the first pronunciation, with the second syllable stressed and the third and forth slopped together, far more than I hear the Disney film pronunciation of stressing the third syllable. If you say ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ with the the first pronunciation it sounds more seedy, not as Hollywood, and infers gun-totting Rastafarians approaching cruise ships in Zodiacs, while the second pronunciation infers something almost as ominous: a two-hour wait in line for a four-minute ride.
Royal Caribbean International has got the cruise experience down like Disney has the amusement park’s. Very organized, very clean, and guaranteed to please. Their new ship, the Oasis of the Seas, is almost as big as an amusement park itself. The ship’s got enough berths for 6200 guests and over 2000 crew -at the end of the cruise after all the buffets, the passenger capacity drops to upper 5900’s despite the large gym. Here’s a link if you want to learn more.
Oasis Of The Seas | Allure of the Seas
I haven’t been on the ship yet, in fact I haven’t been on the second largest class ship, the Freedom class of which Royal Caribbean has three. I’m pretty certain of that number because they’re not the type of thing you misplace. I have cruised many times on the Voyager class (their 3rd largest ships), and there’s five of those and their big enough to joke about on stage: after we’ve been out to sea a few hours I’ll inform my audience that the back end of the ship is still at the dock. Or I mention the street people you find in the ship’s open central boulevard, the cabin-less with cardboard signs that read, ‘will work for directions to my cabin.’
The Serenade of the Seas is big enough to get lost in. I doubt it’s being utilized by the Witness Protection program, but still large enough to see someone once, then never see them again. Good place to borrow money if you’re the sleazy type. I spent a lot of my time on board hanging out with a very personable and very talented juggler, Rick Novell. He may be one of RCCL’s strongest variety acts, every time I’ve seen him perform he kills. We had to do a split show together midweek on this cruise out of San Juan, Puerto Rico and I was told I’d be following him. When I was informed of the show’s order I thought about having pyrotechnics helicoptered on board so I could keep the level of entertainment up to where Rick would leave it after his short 15 minute set. As luck would have it, the stars aligned, and I pulled of a 25 minute set after him that had people staying and applauding throughout my show.
A thought about luck: I have come up with the perfect wish to wish for, when breaking a wishbone. A wish that will come true 100% of the time if you get the bigger half, and not come true 100% of the time if you end up with the smaller part. Just wish for the bigger half of the wishbone. It may not be as wondrously grand a wish as most would in the occasion, but it’s nice to know it will be granted.
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