Matthew is one of two magicians on the SAGA Ruby

Magician Matthew J Dowden has just returned from performing on the SAGA Ruby Cruise ship where he wasn't the only magician on board...guess who the other one was.

For 11 nights I was the magician aboard the SAGA Ruby from Honolulu to Acapulco and it was a fantastic experience.

It turned out though that I wasn't the only one.  Legendary British Magician Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee were on board and had been entertaining the passengers for a week and were still on for a few days when I joined the ship in Honolulu which meant they came to see my first show.  It was great spending time with Paul and Debbie who are both very nice people. 

Having joined in Honolulu, within an hour I was surfing at the famous Waikiki Beach; not a bad start....and before you ask YES, that is me in the picture.

I performed my main show a couple of nights later to a wonderful audience who were very appreciative.  Everyone was very kind and were nice enough to tell me they enjoyed the show.  My second show was the night before we docked in LA and again the audience was great, especially now that I had built up quite a few friendships among the passengers.  Below is a picture of the Captain and me.

LA involved a trip to Hollywood where we saw Penelope Cruz, accompanied by Johnny Depp, receiving a star on the Hollywood walk of fame.  The photo below was taken by a member of the crew who was sitting on my shoulders to get the shot.

During my time on the ship I also performed two easy to do magic lectures for the passengers which were well received and a show for the crew which was a lot of fun.

We finally docked in Acapulco where we went along to see the famous cliff divers in action which was quite a sight.  

All in all this was, as I said in the beginning, a fantastic experience and I can only hope that all my cruises are as enjoyable, and that I get to make as many friends as I did on this one.