Today we spent the entire day at sea.  We arrive at Port Everglades early tomorrow morning and disembark.

There’s a lot to do on a cruise ship.  On the last cruise we took (a 10-day cruise in February 1998 to see the Solar Eclipse), we didn’t take advantage of many shipboard activities.  This week, we took advantage of the evening entertainment and some of the other activities.  Quickly:

Saturday:  “Welcome Aboard” show featuring the Sea Princess Dancers, and comedian Dave Heenan.
Sunday:  Multi-instrumentalist Mark Donoghue, who plays piano, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, and sings.
Monday:  Comedian Dave Heenan.
Tuesday:  Magician and Illusionist Gaetano.
Wednesday:  A musical show called “C’est Magnifique”
Friday: A variety show featuring Mark Donoghue and Dave Heenan.

Those are just the shows we saw, and they were all good.  There were other, similar entertainments that we didn’t see.  In addition, there was a deck party with live music every afternoon, a tropical deck party one evening, dancing in some of the on-board bars, karaoke, movies, bingo, a golf simulator, and dozens of other activities.  There’s an onboard health club with treadmills, stationary bikes, and weights, aerobics classes, scheduled “walk a mile,” pool volleyball, table tennis, and (of course) shuffleboard.

A cruise ship is a 5 star resort hotel that just happens to move from place to place.  Throughout the week, we met several couples who say they stay on board for the entire cruise.  To them, the activities aboard the ship are much preferable to the activities on shore.  Maybe I’ll feel that way after a few more cruises.