January 10, 2013 (Sea Day)

We attended “Good Morning Amsterdam” this morning where the cruise director, Bruce, hosts a morning talk show in the culinary arts center/movie theater every morning. This morning he was discussing the Academy Award nominations and was interviewing one of his staff members, Nikki, who books the entertainment on board. Nikki is also responsible for the daily bulletin, which lists all of the day’s activities, show times, meal times, bar hours and most everything that is happening on board the ship.

The weather today is mostly gray, cloudy and raining, although the temperatures are still near 80 degrees and the humidity is high.

We attended a presentation with Barbara, the Travel Guide, who spoke on what to expect in Lima, Peru. Next is a presentation by the Star Lady Donna Giesler about all of the stars that would be visible from the southern hemisphere. Although astronomy is not something I am particularly interested she was an excellent speaker and made the presentation fun and interesting. After lunch we attended a presentation by Jon Bailey titled Shakespeare on Broadway: “West Side Story” where he took a look at Leonard Bernstein’s musical about gang warfare, family intrigue and young love.

Tonight’s entertainment is a celebrity guest by the name of John Amos with a look back at his life and career. He is probably best known for his acting in television shows like “Good Times”, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”, “The West Wing” and his Emmy award nomination for Best Actor in the mini-series “Roots”. He also was a football player, worked in advertising, wrote copy for television commercials, a comedy writer for the Lohman and Barkley Radio Show and later the Leslie Uggams’ Show. He acted in commercials for Midas Muffler and also acted on stage on “Norman is That You”, “Tough to Get Help” opposite Jack Cassidy as well as his own one man show, “Halley’s Comet”.