Ode to Italia cruise – day 6 (At sea)

Sunday, April 24, 2022

We are cruising the Mediterranean Sea with no port call today.

Every day is a breakfast buffet, and here are some of the stations: (click photos to enlarge)

In addition to the buffet each day, some specials are added to the fare.

We were feeling a little festive today, so I treated myself to a mimosa and a donut for breakfast:

And Bob availed himself of caviar and Eggs Florentine:


This cruise included free valet laundry service described as: Complimentary valet laundry service is available, allowing your clothing to be picked up, safely laundered, carefully pressed, folded, then returned to your suite each day. Onboard self-service laundrettes, including irons and ironing boards, are located on select guest decks. Self-service laundry is free of charge, with detergent provided.

Since we had no port call, Bob did ours today in this cute little “laundrette” close to our suite:


There were 3 Seth activities spread across the day:

Broadway bingo (11:00 – noon)

We called out the names of Broadway plays for each letter of the alphabet, and then agreeing on one, placed it randomly on our blank cards.

Seth then asked trivia questions about each of the plays and when we figured out which one it was, we marked it on our card with the game number. We played a few regular bingos, one letter X game, and one 4 corners game.

We didn’t win any, but we had fun and we thought about Pauline while doing it.

Behind the scenes of Stars in the House (2:00 – 4:00 p.m.)

At the beginning of COVID, when everything shut down, including Broadway, Seth and his husband, producer James Wesley, created Stars in the House, a daily live-streamed series to support The Actors Fund and its services.

They’re still doing it and it had raised over $1.51M as of 04/24/22.

Seth and James talked about the fun of creating the shows and showed clips of various episodes of it that they particularly loved or found especially meaningful.

They also talked about the making of the Seasons of Love / Let the Sunshine In Biden presidential inauguration music video they produced by request in the incredibly short time they were given to do it.

Chatterbox with Jason Graae, Faith Prince, Andréa Burns, and Bonnie Milligan (9:00 – 9:30 p.m.)

This was modeled after a weekly talk show called Seth’s Broadway Chatterbox that he did between 2003-2006. It featured sassy Broadway celebrities and happened every Thursday evening @ 6 PM at Don’t Tell Mama (343 West 46th St. in New York City, between 8th & 9th Avenues). Tickets were $10 (which was donated directly to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights Aids) and required a 2 drink minimum.

Tonight, Seth chatted with Faith, Jason, Bonnie, and Andréa about their many trials, tribulations, and successes in becoming Broadway stars.

2 thoughts on “Ode to Italia cruise – day 6 (At sea)”

    • Yes! “A bevy of Broadway stars united for the inauguration festivities. Stars in the House hosts Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley as well as director Schele Williams created the special video, gathering over 35 performers to belt out two Broadway anthems: “Season of Love” from Rent and “Let The Sunshine In” from Hair. The video features Broadway’s Audra McDonald, Anthony Rapp, Ali Stroker, Andy Karl, Orfeh, Beth Malone, Betty Buckley, Chita Rivera, Christopher Jackson, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Derrick Baskin, Fredi Walker-Browne, James Monroe Iglehart, Javier Muñoz, Jessie Mueller, Keala Settle, Laura Benanti, Leslie Uggams, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Ruthie Ann Miles, Vanessa Williams, Wilson Heredia—and Charlotte d’Amboise strutting her stuff on a picnic table!”

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