We packed Michael, Jess, and Olivia into the Caravan around 7:30am Saturday morning.  By 10:30, we were standing in line at the Delta Riverboat landing in Opryland Hotel.   The hotel is a giant conglomeration of atriums, with gardens, fountains, and riverways that ooh! and aah! the most jaded visitor.  Restaurants and shops dot the walkways that meander through the building and every stop is a drag on your wallet, so beware!  Opting out of the $16 hamburgers, we ate at Stax and filled our little guts full.  After a side-trip to meet Santa and the Mrs., we wandered awhile before walking the couple of blocks to The Opry House for the Rockettes…

I’ve never been to The Opry House before and I was mightily impressed.  The effort to keep the ambiance of the original Ryman is appreciated with the pews and the wonderful lights above the top mezzanine.  The outside porticos look like a great place to party.

Comparisons between the venue and Radio City Music Hall are inevitable, but seriously unfair.  The Music Hall is a huge, unique place with a monster stage that moves into three sections, an orchestra pit the size of my house, and art deco interiors that make you feel like you’ve stepped into the jazz age.

The NYC rockettes number 36, and the Nashville company has 18 on-stage, which illustrates how much smaller the stage area is.  There is no orchestra pit, and the decor is decidedly, plainly, country.  Since there’s no orchestra, the music is what I call karaoke’d into the sound system, and the lip-syncing is a bit obvious.  The voice of Santa is Exactly the same as the Voice in New York, I swear.  I don’t think he was lip-syncing, though, so how did that happen?    The program is actually longer, with a 15-minute intermission, and a much longer Christmas section to please the Bible Belters.  The first half is the same as NYC, in different order, including the same 3D trip into NYC.  The trip to the North Pole is the same, but they added a veryvery boring dance sequence about snow…zZzzZ…before going into the Nativity scene.  They preached some, and when they played the Hallelujah Chorus, nobody stood (except me and a half-dozen others).   Our seats were Great, first row of balcony, and Olivia was mesmerized by the up-front view of the dancing.

The Opry House strictly forbade photography…go figure…

I’ll deliver presents to my sister tomorrow at our annual Christmas luncheon, always good chance for some photo-ops, so I’ll check back in to keep you apprised of the ongoing celebrations.

I hope you’re having a ton of fun, too!