Category: Entertainment

We docked back in Miami on Easter Sunday after a 9 night cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. The ship visited five islands in the Southern Caribbean and had a total of three sea days. This was our third cruise, our first (and probably last) on a Norwegian ship.

When we booked the cruise through Sam’s Club Travel, we received two coupon booklets with $300 in free stuff. Also, we joined the Casinos at Sea club, and we received a coupon book with free stuff for the Casino.

Turns out, my definition of “free” and Norwegian’s definition of “free” seem to differ. In my world, when you tell me you’re going to give me something for free, all I have to do is walk up to you and get it. In the cruise ship world, free means that you have to buy one thing at full price, then you get something else for “free”. For example, to get $10 in slot play for free, you have to buy $10. Or to get a free t-shirt, you have to book a shore excursion.

As I mentioned above, this will probably be our only cruise with Norwegian. We’ve cruised on Royal Caribbean and Carnival, and even though the Jewel is not quite 3 years old, it doesn’t have the on-board activities that the other ships do. Nine nights ended up being too long, at least on this ship.

I took the opportunity to play in three poker tournaments while on board. Poker tournaments on a ship are NOT like those in Las Vegas. First off, they only have one real poker table, so if there’s more than 9 in the tournament, they have to use black jack, pai gau, and other table games’ tables, which can hold at most 7 players. And they’re not in the business of holding 4 or 5 hour tournaments; they want the tournament over in 2 or so hours.

To do that, they start you with 2000 chips and start the blinds at 100/200. You can start the tournament with 4000 chips if you want to “rebuy” at the beginning. After the end of the third level (first two levels are 30 minutes, then the levels are 15 minutes), you can “add on” 5000 chips. Of course, these rebuys and addons cost you money.

Of the money you pay to play in the tournament, only 75% goes into the prize pool, and they only pay the top three. They only paid out the top three, and the best I finished was 17th. I could have continued to rebuy after rebuy, but I didn’t want to waste the money.

The next time we cruise, it’ll probably be with a couple of friends and will probably be on Royal Caribbean. Their ships just seem to have more things to do on board. We’ll more than likely only take a five-night cruise, with one or two days at sea.

If you’re planning on cruising, one thing to keep in mind is that while the fare covers your basic room and board, there are other charges you’ll encounter. I paid almost $65 for a card that would let me get soft drinks with unlimited refills. At $1.75 per can, I probably broke even. I was expecting Norwegian to have free lemonade like Carnival and Royal Caribbean, but they didn’t. Since I don’t drink coffee, tea or milk, I opted for the soft drink card.

You’ll also have to pay for shore excursions. These can range anywhere from $35 up to several hundred dollars (they had a golf outing for over $600). If you want to see the islands, this is your best bet. The tour companies are not the fly-by-night ones you’ll get if you just go ashore and take a “tour” bus.

One thing that irks me is the gratuities. They added a $10 per person per night gratuity to our bill. That was almost $200 on the grand total. Most of that goes to the cabin crew who keep your room clean. I’d rather just pay the extra money up front as part of the fare and not be bothered with it. At least we didn’t have to go through the agony of putting money into little envelopes at the end of the cruise.

Overall, the cruise experience was a good one. I highly recommend taking a cruise.

I admit it. I’ve gotten interested in the NBC TV show Las Vegas. I’ve always liked James Caan as an actor, and the storylines were pretty entertaining.

So I was disappointed with Friday night’s fifth season premier. It resolved the cliff-hangers from season four in about five minutes, then took the viewer on a path leading to Caan’s character’s leaving. As far as Nikki Cox’s character, she was pretty much dealt with in the opening scenes. It just seemed like the writers were left with a “we didn’t know two actors were leaving when we wrote the cliff-hanger” scenario. The cell-phone video seemed a little too contrived for my taste.

The show’s producers would also have you believe that a casino president skips town because he’s wanted for murder (along with one of his employees) and a new guy comes in, pays the back taxes, and takes ownership in a matter of a couple of days. I know this is fiction, but they should have extended the time frame a little bit. Nevada State Gaming authorities aren’t just going to let some guy come in out of the blue as a casino owner without going through some kind of approval process. (I also know that the folks who monitor the cameras aren’t allowed on the casino floor, but I’ve managed to suspend that disbelief to watch the show up till now.)

It’s too early to say whether the show has jumped the shark. It’s still possible that Tom Selleck’s character can breathe some new life into the series.

In the meantime, I’m DVR’ing TBS’s rerunning of season one each weekday morning. I didn’t start watching the show regularly until last season, so it’s giving me a good chance to catch up with the characters. It’s interesting how Mike can go from a valet to a security guy.

The new season of Survivor started last night. This time they’re in the middle of mainland Communist China instead of on an island somewhere. Actually, it appears that they’re on islands in the middle of China’s biggest lake.

I was disappointed in the outcome last night of Survivor: China. They voted off a guy named “Chicken” who’s, strangely enough, a chicken farmer. After arriving at camp, he was rebuffed when he tried to tell the rest of the tribe how to build a shelter. Unlike others who’ve taken a “leadership” role in previous shows, he basically decided to back off and let the others figure out how to make shelter. As a result, after three days, they still didn’t have anything.

So, instead of getting voted off for being the “leader”, he was voted off because did didn’t assume the leadership role.

I don’t get these folks. In every season of Survivor, the “leader” seems to be the one with the target on his back. It’s as if being leader is bad for some reason. And to top it off, of the two folks who assumed leadership roles, one was more bossy than anything, and the other didn’t seem to really want to do it. “P.G.”, the Chinese girl, almost seemed to expect to be the leader just because of her heritage. Your skin color doesn’t make you a leader.

You’d think that when folks arrived at camp, they’d ask who has what experience. So, if you’re an architect,  then you should be deferred to by the folks who don’t know how to build things. Or if you’re a farmer, then you might know a little bit more about being out doors than the blonde from New York.

Chicken was easily the most colorful character on Survivor: China. He was my early favorite, but now I’m not sure I’ll be as interested in the show. However, there is a guy from Nashville, but he was almost invisible last night (maybe by design or by editing). And I’m still interested in seeing how Jean-Robert, the pro-poker player, does. Judging by the previews for next week, he’s going to ruffle some feathers.

Survivor: China has about two more episodes to retain my attention before I delete the series recording from my DVR schedule.

Well, I was wrong in my prediction that Daniele would win Big Brother 8. It pretty much came down to who played the game better, and I’ll have to begrudgingly agree that Dick did. He did what he had to do, when he had to do it to advance. Of course, that wouldn’t have been possible without the unwitting help of America via America’s Player Eric.

When the America’s Player twist was revealed the looks on the faces of the jury and Dick and Daniele were priceless. That twist, probably more so than the “former rival” twist, made the game more interesting to me this year than it has in years past.

I did watch the All Star version, but the year before I pretty much only watched the first few episodes. When Kaysar spouted off his ignorant views of the Iraq invasion, that pretty much turned me off that whole season. And when he got voted out of the All Star version, that pretty much kept me watching it.

So, Dick’s going to take a trip around the world. Wonder if he’s going to share any of the money (after Uncle Sam gets his half) with his daughter? Hopefully he’s learned the lesson that Richard Hatch didn’t seem to get and will pay the income tax on his winnings.

Survivor China’s up next on the reality front. I understand they’ve gone back to the basics and done away with Exile Island and will only have 16 to start with. Interestingly enough, I’m familiar with one of the contestants. That would be the professional poker player, Jean-Robert Bellande. I didn’t think much of his poker playing tactics when I saw him on TV, but those skills could come in handy on the show. I’d have to say he’s an early favorite to advance. Should be an interesting season.

I watched the penultimate episode of Big Brother 8 last night. It’s funny: early on I was rooting for the Donatos, but then Dick started his stuff which totally turned me against them.

I guess I’m rooting for Daniele, but it’s hard not to hold some of Dick’s actions against her. She had every opportunity to denounce his actions, but pretty much chose not to. And the producers should have disqualified Dick anyway. Seems he’d set up a code with a family member so that when he won HOH and got the letter from home, the code would tell him who to trust. Maybe they’ll let him get away with it like they did Johnny Fairplay on Survivor getting his “news” about his grandma’s death. Hopefully they’ll close up that loophole by next season.

Speaking of actions to denounce, the producers weren’t too kind to Amber last night. It’s pretty cruel to set someone up by showing them talking about being a model and then to show her in a bikini. I mean, I know she’s in la la land, but that’s really uncalled for. Although they apparently did give her a break by not airing her anti-Jewish views on network TV. Would have been nice if they’d not aired Dicks anti-Christian views. It’s interesting that Amber’s anti-Jewish views made the news (or at least made some web sites), but Dick’s much worse anti-Christian ravings didn’t seem to get on anyones radar. At least Amber can maybe claim ignorance; not sure what Dick’s excuse could be.

I must say however that Amber and Jameka didn’t come over as being good Christians. It seems like they treated God as their personal wish-granter. Plus they both had potty mouths that should have disappeared when they became Christians. I do agree with Dick though that God has better things to do than help two people on a game show win the thing.

It should be interesting to see the looks on everyone’s faces when Eric is revealed as America’s Player. I think he was my favorite player, and I wish he hadn’t been constrained with playing “America’s game.” Oh well.

So, I’ll predict that Daniele will win, and Dick will obviously be second. From last night’s episode, you could tell that Dick was expecting to get more than the $50,000 that second place pays. I have no doubt that he’d split his money with Daniele if he won, but I don’t see that happening with her winning.

While it looks like their relationship is on the mend, I predict that the money will come between them and they’ll become estranged again. That’s sad.

We finally saw the Simpsons Movie the other day. We’d tried to see it once before, but were way early and decided to see the Harry Potter movie instead.

Overall it was a pretty funny movie. I guess what surprised me was the number of kids in the theater. Since it’s been out for a few weeks, the theater wasn’t crowded, but I’d guess at least a third of the people in there were kids under 17. Some of them were even unaccompanied.

This is not a kids’ movie. There are adult themes and some adult language. I’m not sure what folks were thinking when they brought their kids. The TV version isn’t for kids either. Just because something is animated doesn’t mean it’s for kids. Parents who think that need to have a lesson in parenting.

I admit it: I’m a fan of reality TV. In the game-show sub-genre of reality TV, I like Survivor, Amazing Race, and yes, Big Brother. In the real-life sub-genre, I like Gene Simmons’ Family Jewels, Survivorman and other shows that actually show real life.

Regarding this season’s version of Big Brother… The only decent person in the house is Eric. He’s handling the duties of America’s Player extremely well. If anyone “deserves” to win Big Brother, it’s Eric.

There was some controversy recently about Amber’s remarks about Jews. Actually, those remarks were nothing compared to Dick’s assault on Christians and Christianity. I wonder why that didn’t make “news”?

But the two “Christians” in the house aren’t giving him very good examples. I’ve never seen two more selfish “Christians” than Jameka and Amber. In their world, God is in His Heaven, and he’s watching CBS’s 24/7 feed on the mother of all internet connections, listening to their every word, answering all their prayers. “Please let me win.” “Please let me stay.” They think God has nothing better to do than help them win a stupid game show?

And finally, Jen got the bum’s rush Thursday night. She’s a “nanny” in real life, but I wouldn’t let her watch my fish.

As far as Jessica goes, enough with that stupid hairdo! Combing your hair over the top of your head like that makes you look as dumb as you sound.

Zach makes Jessica look like a genius though. He’s been coasting through the whole game.

Last week Daniele hated the game and hated the house, then suddenly she wins HOH and all is right with the world. I was actually rooting for her and her dad earlier in the season, but some of the stuff he’s done, and her failure to renounce it, makes me sick. Anyone else in that house should hope that they go up against her or Dick in the final two; it’d be a slam dunk for the other person.

I guess I’ll have to actually watch that new Drew Carrey game show next Tuesday, just to see how bad Amber does. She did so bad in the POV competition that was modeled on the show, I’d say it’s a lock that Daniele won some money.

Survivor starts in a few weeks. Hopefully the folks they’ve picked are interesting. I’ve actually seen one of them on TV before, the pro poker player. Didn’t really like the way he bullied the other players in poker, so it should be fun to watch him on Survivor.

Which brings me to my final point… people in these reality game shows make a big deal out of “integrity” and “honesty” and whatnot. Anyone who goes into one of those games thinking they can be 100% honest is either a fool or they’re lying to themselves. In poker, it’s called bluffing: making your opponents think you’ve got a big hand when you have zilch. That’s part of the game. I don’t understand why folks continue to be astonished that someone else in the game “lied” to them. It’s just like poker; if you get bluffed, take it like an adult and move on.