Goldring Travel Blog – Making Waves

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Seabourn Inaugural and Maiden Voyage – Part VIII

Seabourn, Seabourn Sojourn

I took the time yesterday to speak with John Barron, the cruise director. I knew John and his wife from another cruise line, but he now makes Seabourn his ‘home”. John has a wonderful dry sense of humor that I truly enjoy along with an upbeat persona that is fun…rather than the prototypical cruise director of “always happy”.

For example, the other day during the middle of a Scottish folkloric dance Captain Buer came on with his scheduled 4:30 pm pre-departure announcements. The dancers were literally in midair when the music stopped and the typically slow Norwegian talk began. They didn’t know what to do, everyone was laughing (with them, of course)…and then John came racing through the Grand Salon towards them – with a plate of cookies. It was perfect.

John can and does, on occasion, sing. And he can sing. Seabourn, at least on the bigger ships, has the cruise directors do more directing and less entertaining. John may do a few weeks on one of the little sisters and it will be interesting to see how he likes doing double duty.

The venue entertainment has been really good. The woman who plays piano and sings has been so good that my wife, who tends to be a bit shy, actually stopped the singer to let her know how wonderful she was and that it was a pleasure to sit and listen to her. The female singer in The Club is a real talent as well. It seems that on cruise ships there is an affinity for singing ABBA songs; something this aging rock-n-roller doesn’t care for. Last evening the singer put a personal spin on an ABBA son g that (heaven forbid) was such that I actually enjoyed it. The “house band” is also good and is able to play a wide variety of music for all tastes…with taste.

It is great that the old days on Seabourn where there was really not very good entertainment are near gone. At least this is one man’s opinion.

With the internet access quite poor in this part of the world due to weather (which, by the way, has been quite good – relatively speaking) and location, it can be a bit of a frustration. With our shipboard adventure almost coming to a close (we disembark on Heimay Island, Iceland tomorrow) I will try to post at least one more time. Why? Because today we are supposed to go riding on Icelandic horses…and I don’t know how to ride! Wish me luck.