As Lee and I reflect on our Crystal Cruise, we had a great time.  The Symphony was lovely, the food and entertainment great, and the bridge players were abundant.

We both taught bridge on the two cruises.  Lee taught beginning bridge, doing a terrific job, averaging 24+ students.  At the end of his course I offered a supervised play for the beginners.  I averaged about 40+ students in my intermediate class; they loved the Doubles course material and the “hands on” approach.  We had a card room full of enthusiastic players on all seadays on both cruises, averaging 11+ tables of bridge.  It was very satisfying to us to have such great participation.

The ship was fully booked so we floated in the dining room and reservations at the speciality restaurants were difficult.  Most Crystal cruisers are repeat passengers (60%+) so they have certain expectations that need to be filled.  Lee and I worked very hard to make certain things were great for them.  We both returned a little tired!

We are very very glad to be home among our friends, students, and competitors here at NCBC.  While interacting with  Gail Greenberg and Jeff Hand (world champions) on the 1^st cruise and Roberta and Arnold Salob (well-known teachers) on the 2^nd cruise, we learned that New Yorkers pay $20 to $25+ to play in their daily club games, and they do not get extra points like we do.  Lessons in NY are about $40 per class and private lessons start at $65 per class.  I was able to visit both teacher’s classes, which was educational and enlightening.

I came away with only one thought: There’s a lot of truth in the saying--There’s no place like home!

Comments

Search

Michael K. Miller   |2010-03-01 19:46:44 The Cavendish Bridge Club (New York City, East 87th Street) has game fees as your describe. If you play five times in a week, you get a free entry. Wahoo! That comes out to be "only" $16.67 per game! Greenberg's club, Honors Bridge Center (New York CITY, East 58th Street) has game fees as your describe; however, for multiple days and more than one play per day, fees descrease. At Honors, all boards are pre-duplicated with hand records and analysis by "Deep Finesse." Sidebar: In the 2009 Mini-McKinney finals, 40 players of 1,300 were from 'New York, NY' - the most (9 in top 100) were in the 7500 - 10000 MP category. Of those 40 from New York, NY, 3 were in the Top Ten of his/her respective MP category (9th Kevin Bathurst 907.28 mp: 5000 - 7500 MP; 4th John Hurd 1,313.80 and 9th Sam Lev 1,115.41: 7500 to 10000 MP). The numbers for Florida, distributed across the state, are too numerous to report here. The surest way to terminate the revival of Bridge is to change game fees to $20. (P.S. We're glad you're back... )

Only registered users can write comments.

Powered by !JoomlaComment 3.26

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."