2024 Apr 05 | WPT Virgin Voyage cruise - Gunbae Korean BBQ, Miss Behave show

Friday evening we ate at Gunbae, the Korea BBQ restaurant.

Walking in.

Their menu was cool; multiple long rectangles.

It also included some drinking games.

We could play using sake.

Cheers!

First the side dishes.

Then some appetizers.

And some more.

Now onto the meat.

Cooking.

It cooks very quickly.

All done.

Shrimp.

More meat.

Our server cooked for us, so we didn't have to.

The women in red.

Getting close on the puzzle.

Last night to play, and the poker room is packed.

With a huge wait list. I put my name down for the 1/3, 2/5, ant 5/T games. We were going to the Miss Behave show for an hour, so I'll see if the wait list moves fast and I'm' no longer on it as they've passed me, or if it moves slow and I'm still waiting for a seat after the show.

The four of us.

We got front-row seats and got some candy from one of the hosts.

Ogii and I with the other host.

All kinds of signs.

It was a very interactive show.

And then the hosts had a little talent display.

She used hula hoops.

It was very high energy.

Matching.

Chugging.

At the end they tossed out a ton of balloons and everyone threw them at each other. It was very fun!

There's still three players left in the last poker tournament.

I'm still on the waitlist for all three cash games I put my name down for, and getting close to being called.

I got called for 1/3, an hour and a half after I put my name on the list. Pretty good timing with going to the show.

A woman at our table had written this book.

She had cool nails.

While I was playing poker, Ogii went to listen to poker stories by Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour, and Steve Lipscomb, founder of the World Poker Tour. We had run into both of them previously on the ship; Adam in an elevator, and Steve at Test Kitchen.

And Mom finished off the jigsaw puzzle.

All done.

The were shutting poker down at midnight, so there was a fairly long line to cash out starting at 11pm.

I cashed out, got halfway to our cabin, and realized I still had a $100 poker chip. If it was only $1 or $5, I'd keep it, but for $100, it's worth going back to cash it out. Except now it was almost midnight, so the line was even longer. People were saying if you had a lot of cash, you could buy poker chips from people, say give them $80 for their $100 chip, so they wouldn't have to stand in line. Smart business idea, but nobody was doing it; maybe nobody had a lot of cash on them?

Vince Van Patten was sitting on a couch near the cashiers, talking with some of his friends, but if people waiting in line came by him, he'd chat with them and take a picture with them if they asked. He was really out and about on the ship and awesome with talking and taking pictures with people; he was a great ambassador for WPT. Whereas I almost never saw any of the other sponsored pros or ambassadors around the ship or on the islands.

A few people dancing on the last night in The Manor.

Up at 6am the next morning to find out we're back in the port of Miamia with a ton of other cruise ships.

Another one coming in.

And another.

Skyline.

Sunrise.

Reflections on the skyscrapers.

And on the water.

One last time in the hammock.

Overall, Virgin was a really good cruise line. No kids, very fun and funky vibe, great music playing all the time, excellent food. All of the staff and even all of the other cruisers were always in a great mood, too, even when playing poker. You normally get a fair number of grumpy people on cruises and poker, but on this sailing, there were almost none.