Grandeur of the Seas Photo Review 6/9-18

[RRFPresident]

Day 4 - 2nd day in Bermuda

 

Today was the only day we had booked a full guided tour for this trip. We booked a private tour with the highly recommended on CC, Winsome Tours company. The ease of a private tour is that you can go where you want, stay as long as you want at each place, and there is no having to spend the day on a crowded bus or fighting 30 other people also trying to ask questions and take pictures. On the advice of the tour company's co-owner Ralph Richardson, we arranged for the longer 6.5 hour offered package tour and scheduled it for 7:30AM this morning rather than for the Saturday afternoon when we first arrived.

 

Our balcony views of the morning:

 

As we stepped back off the ship this morning, the pier was like a ghost town. At the end of the pier, we were met by Ralph himself who explained that his co-owner and wife Julie has Sundays off and since he was available, he wanted to take us on the tour himself. It was also nice that they didn't have a bigger group tour scheduled that day so Ralph had brought the multi-passenger van. Our first stop was a small chapel that Ralph described as one of the oldest buildings on the island. He walked us around back to show the tanks that collect the rain water and the trees that were affected by the Bermuda Cedar Scale epidemic.

 

[RRFPresident]

Bermuda Cedar:

 

Ralph showing us a tree left petrified by disease

 

A few minutes into the tour, Ralph asked if it was okay to stop at a store because he'd forgotten some leftover bread at his house that he wanted to use later in the tour. We assured him that was fine only for him to forget about stopping because we were so busy taking in all the sites and his narrations. Instead, he just drove us to his house directly and we took in the scenery of his water front backyard while he ran inside to get the bread.

 

How would you like to have this as your backyard?

 

He had this bucket of golf balls nestled behind his house, some painted to look like eyeballs:

 

Dad waiting in the driveway, showing off his new Bermuda t-shirt:

[RRFPresident]

Our next stop was at Somerset Bridge, known as the smallest drawbridge in the world because it literally looks like just a walkway across a small stream.

 

This was where the bread came into play. Ralph tossed the first chunk of bread into the water and the fish rose up to the surface en mass to get it. Ralph then handed out the bread to Dad and I and together all three of us whipped the fish into a frenzy going after the food.

 

Soon birds came along asking for their share.

 

This poor guy was getting left out so I gave him some extra bread when his buddies flew off:

 

I like how this photo turned out too (minus the unintentional photo bomb by my Dad):

 

You learn to be quite the multitasker when you're tossing bread and snapping a picture of the animals' reactions at the same time. As we were standing there, a tour group of jet skiers had slowed down to float through the arched opening under the bridge and made their way past us. The guy leading the group jokingly held open his mouth as he passed taunting us to throw some bread his way too.

[RRFPresident]

Peek-a-boo Grandeur:

 

After a short drive pointing out sites along the way, and a quick visit to a gas station to grab some cold water, we stopped at the Francis Patton school where Ralph's wife Julie used to work.

 

Followed up with a drive by viewing of the big yellow house on the hill of New York Mayer Bloomberg. (darker yellow rooftop in far center)

 

We stopped by this square in front of the Town Hall in St. George's that featured a monument to someone tried for witchcraft and the old colonial style stocks for public punishment.

[RRFPresident]

Church services were starting at St. Peter's around the corner but they allowed us a peek inside the open doors. Ralph led us to the graveyard in the back where the former governor of Bermuda is buried. Ralph seemed to know everyone on the island as everyone from townsfolk to clergymen to the rich land/business owners stopped to say hello as we moved through our tour.

 

 

Died while delivering the mail:

 

Not sure where this one is from but it looks cool:

[RRFPresident]

Next stop was the sea glass beach which was surprisingly anticlimactic. Dad stayed up by the road while Ralph led me down to the very paltry line of sea glass. Ralph helped me pick through the pile and showed how many people choose the bigger white pieces and then glue the smaller colored ones on top to make jewelry. While he cautioned to only take a couple pieces, Ralph said that “since you guys have been so nice and haven't been complaining, here take some more” and kept adding pieces to the pile in my hand. All in all, it was only about 5 or 6 pieces, not the bucketfuls you hear about people taking.

 

Rocky coastline on the other side of sea glass beach:

 

Ralph told us as we were leaving the sea glass beach of stories of cruise passengers that put the collected sea glass in their purses or bags and then are made to leave it behind when the glass is spotted in the bag scanner once they return on board. He gave us the tip of putting the pieces in my pocket and just not drawing any attention to it. Sent my camera bag through the scanner and walked through the metal detector without any issue. Not sure if that would have ever really been an issue but I wouldn't have had too much regret if we'd been made to leave it behind.

 

Pink sand washes up with the tide:

 

After a quick drive by view of a couple other beaches like Horseshoe Bay, we arrived at the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse. This lighthouse was the main must see site on my list when we'd scheduled this tour so we incorporated the time to go inside and climb the 185 steps.

[RRFPresident]

This was the main event I'd trained for months carrying groceries and laundry up the stairs in our house for. Dad turned down the chance to climb it with me so it only cost $2.50 for my single entrance fee. Dad walked the grounds chatting with Ralph while they waited for me to finish climbing. In between sets of curved steps, there are landings featuring little windows to see the view thus far and little displays explaining the history of the lighthouse. At least one or two landings had benches to sit for those who needed a rest. The stairs themselves were certainly narrow so I'd have a hard time imagining trying to pass anyone coming up as they are going back down. The walk up the lighthouse isn't guided so you can go at your own pace. The landings themselves are maybe 10-15 feet across so if you plan to do this climb with a large group, you may want to stagger the amount of people going in at one time. I did find myself winded about halfway up but I think that might have been from hitting those first steps with too much gusto. The last set of steps becomes extra narrow like they were simply just carved out rather than built intentionally so I had to climb with my feet turned sideways and one on each step.

 

 

Great views from the little window boxes along the way up:

 

 

Narrower top steps:

[RRFPresident]

By the time I reached the top that led out to the viewing platform, I was surprised that there wasn't more to go. There was a small black ladder leading up inside from the mechanics of the light to viewing the actual light itself but I didn't realize that was part of the climb at the time plus that ladder looked super small and tight fitting. As it is, I had to turn to the side to squeeze between the center mechanics and the ladder to get to the doorway.

 

On the left was the mechanics on a platform that was ankle high, the ladder leading to the actual light on the right:

 

The cut out doorway to get onto the outside viewing platform was literally toddler sized. It was cut out about 6 inches off the floor and was only about 2-3 feet high. To get out, I had to send a couple limbs out at a time and then drag the rest of the body through once out on the landing. The landing goes all the way around and offers great views.

 

 

The landing was big enough to walk normally around but not big enough for two people to walk side by side:

 

I saw for miles out into the water and noted just how many Bermudians have grand swimming pools in their backyards.

 

You get a pool, and you get a pool:

[RRFPresident]

 

A better shot of the narrowest top steps:

 

Hope no one is claustrophobic:

 

I could see the Grandeur off in the distance and it was wild to think about now being on the other side when we'd been watching the lighthouse's pulsing light the night before on our balcony.

[RRFPresident]

Hmm, what an interesting target:

 

It's a good thing I was the one behind the camera when I was ready to come back inside to climb down because I literally had to get on my hands and knees and crawl back in until I could stand up again. When I returned to the bottom and joined Dad and Ralph, they were surprised at how quick I took to climb up and back down. I thought for sure I'd have a real struggle when I saw that it was 185 steps during my pre-cruise research but it seemed so less daunting while you're actually climbing it. While these days, I have taken to turning down bothering to get a t-shirt from each port stop we visit like we used to, I took Ralph up on his suggestion of looking for a t shirt at the gift shop that says “I survived the lighthouse.” Unfortunately, the nicer one that just showed the lighthouse itself was out of stock and I mistakenly grabbed the first “I survived” t-shirt I saw. Realized after trying it on the next day in our cabin, that it really said “I survived the Bermuda Triangle,” which I guess in a way is still true.

 

One of our last stops was to Fort Scaur where we saw the famous weather stone and the “find a match” plant that supposedly has no two leaves the same.

[RRFPresident]

I like to get a picture of a flag representing each country we visit. Trouble with flags is that they blow in the wind so this is the best pic I could get:

 

Hmm, that one ship in the harbor looks familiar:

 

By now, despite not having really fulfilled the 6.5 hour allotment our energy level was fading fast especially having skipped breakfast to make this tour on time. Ralph drove us along some more scenic views showing a dive spot that he frequents and refers to as poodle rock.

 

Very pretty flora lines the roads. There were so many twists and turns on Bermuda's roads, they have bus size mirrors hidden amongst the foliage every few feet.

 

We drove along the back road lining someone's farmland that he knew where we ended up passing Ralph's wife Julie on the road so we stopped to say hello. We then asked to head back to the ship and Ralph dropped us off right by the dock where we settled the bill and said our goodbyes.

 

Made it back on the ship just in time for a 2nd round of Tribond challenge. Earlier in the cruise, our frequent trivia buddy Rick asked me what I'm studying in college and was shocked to hear that I've been out of college since 2002. So when I walked over to the group to play Tribond with a fresh glass of Sprite, Rick joked that he'd have to see my ID to be sure I'm old enough to drink. I told him that in fact Ralph had asked me the very same thing during our tour and was nearly falling over himself thinking he'd offended me. Tony from Croatia started reading the same first few questions from the 1st Tribond round until someone spoke up. Tony switched to a new set of questions and it came down to a tiebreaker between two other teams. By now, our stomachs were growling so we skipped Sports trivia to seek out lunch in the Windjammer. A packed buffet led us to seeking out a table in the Solarium. A stop at Cafe Lattitudes for Dad's cookie fix and my discovery of a fried dough ball treat before returning to the cabin to relax. Dad soon fell asleep and I got too chilly lying out on the balcony so I wandered down to Schooners and listened to everyone else playing 50s/60s music trivia already in progress.

 

Tried to get into an elevator to head back up but instead it went down. I tried to push the button to go back up and the elevator never moved. I pushed the open door button and stepped back out on the floor. I know some of the elevators won't let you push certain floor numbers if they've already been called to go up or vice versa. I pushed the up call button and the same elevator is the one that dinged its arrival. I stepped back inside and pushed the floor number I wanted figuring this had reset things. Nothing happened, the elevator never moved. I hit the open door button again and just walked up a flight or two. Stopped to try another bank of elevators where this guy was also waiting. He had called for the down elevator while I had pressed up. The up elevator came first and he hopped inside with me anyway. I saw him reaching for a lower floor button and kept my hands to myself. The elevator still went up and he looks at me and says annoyingly “Okay, you win!” to which I revealed that I never pushed any buttons. I'm pretty sure I got off that possessed elevator wherever it next stopped and walked the rest of the way.

[RRFPresident]

Rejoined Dad afterwards and we headed up to happy hour in the Concierge Lounge. Today's drink was Chardonnay, also disappointing. My goal for this happy hour free beer/wine/cocktail nightly offer was to try a bunch of wines in hopes that I'd find one I liked. If they'd allowed for things like pina coladas and daiquiris I'd have been all over that. When you get to the point where you'd rather just have the cranberry out of the vodka cranberry you ordered, I think it's time to give up trying. I'd been drinking so much fountain soda thanks to the package throughout the day that it never occurred to me that I could have just asked for a can during the lounge times. After our drinks were done, we headed down to see the comedy hypnotist Matthew Fallon. His show was pretty funny and featured a good mix of people who were really susceptible and some that took some time to respond. One of my favorites was the woman on the end who didn't really react at first but was so clueless at the end when she woke up and realized she'd followed Matthew's instructions to use her shoe as a phone. The star of the show was this over the top young man who did everything suggested to him to the 10th degree it seemed. Matthew had him pretend to be Usher performing a concert and at another suggestion fall to the stage exhausted. I'm pretty sure I heard the thump all the way in the back when he dropped. As Matthew was dismissing the group, he gave some of the men the suggestion that they would get one foot stuck on the last step and others the suggestion that their hand would be stuck on the stage. The over the top Usher guy ended up with his hand stuck to the stage and was getting really frustrated at not being able to remove his hand. The other guys around him all stopped on the bottom step with their stuck feet creating a traffic jam for the poor woman who had been trying to walk off the stage.

 

Determined to be more of a participant in the games this trip and not just the trivias, I volunteered to be part of the women's team on the 1st Battle of the Sexes this night run by Makiva and Brandon. Makiva ran a chant for the women's side by using the song example “Who run the world? Girls!” but it took us a bit to catch on. Brandon elected to lead the guys in “Who let the dogs out” barking chant. We both participated when they had a small group of each gender form a circle and then had everyone else rush to fit inside their circle. Then I joined the small lineup who had to pass an orange up and down the line from underneath our chins without using our hands. If it dropped, we would have to start all over. One of the comics joked later in the cruise that he's jealous of women because two women can share a hotel bed and not care. Games like this orange pass really throw out the rules of sexuality because you've never been so up close and personal in the platonic sense as when you're using your cleavage to hoist an orange onto a strange woman's neck via their cleavage.

 

Having fun, I decided to stick around for the next game which I then found out was the balloon popping relay. As a kid, I despised the sound of a balloon popping and this night my mind was already going to how tough it was going to be to have to blow up a balloon under pressure. As the rules were explained that someone needed to be the “target” I got drafted by Makiva. It was obvious as I saw who got drafted on the guy's side that they'd just picked the two heaviest people in the group but honestly, I'm not sure I'd have rather been on the blowing up the balloon side either. The chosen guy and I had to sit in chairs across the stage while the rest of our team lined up single file. The first person in line's job was to blow up their balloon, tie it, and then run over to us and pop the balloon between our bodies facing each other. Then the next person in line had to do the same and run over popping their balloon back to back. The next two people had to pop their balloons on each side of me one at a time. The lady who came to do the side pop second sprung a hole in her balloon so it wasn't popping. Makiva considered that close enough and let us move on. Then the next person's task was to sit on my lap to pop the balloon between us. Finally, the last lady with way too much gusto was required to pop the balloon between my backside and her front while I was leaning over the chair. She came at me so intensely, I and the chair moved about 3 feet from the initial impact. She proceeded to grab my upper arms from behind and continuously pull me back against her desperate to pop the balloon. She was very apologetic and we hugged after the competition was over but my arm was quite colorful by the next day.

 

The final battle was that we were given a time limit and anything we could find to use in order to make the longest line of ourselves as possible. The men, through a combination of laying on the floor and stretching their bodies out like a windmill, took the straight line approach to form a line that went from the South Pacific lounge stage to the piano in the neighboring Schooner bar. Wouldn't that have been a sight if we'd been doing this game in a venue closer to the centrum. Would have loved to see people's reactions who just happened to walk by and saw a trail of bodies lined up. The ladies though took use of several purses and the velvet ropes left in the lounge to mark off the space for other events and made ourselves a curved line throughout the lounge. Brandon stepped away to go find the end of the men's line at the piano and we took the opportunity to finish stretching out of those ladies who had made it into the line before time ran out. He came back in and noticed we looked “longer” but Makiva stuck up for us as being the longer line once you account for being looped around. The ladies won the competition 5-2.

[RRFPresident]

We then decided to go cash in our $5 free play vouchers for the casino that had been left in our cabin this morning. Each person who came up to the cashier to cash it in, she called for a casino employee to come show them how to use it in the slot machine. Dad elected to use his on a table game so the employee went with him after setting me up on a slot machine. I turned that $5 into nearly $50 before losing nearly all of it again so I gave up and went to sit by the entrance with the glass floor to wait for Dad to finish playing. There was a small group of people playing the game nearby where you line up the key to unlock a handful of cash but otherwise the only traffic was people coming and going from the casino. As I sat there, I heard this clunk and I look over to find that the quarter pushing out arcade machine had randomly dumped about a dollar's worth of quarters without anyone playing it. I confirmed no one else had noticed and swiped the quarters out of the bin. Sat there still waiting for Dad and after several minutes, a fresh handful of quarters dropped again with no one playing it. Swiped them as well and deposited one quarter back into the machine in thanks.

 

Once Dad was done in the casino, we headed to Park Cafe for a late dinner and saw the Solarium tables filled with families playing games or eating snacks with their kids.

 

Just after returning to the cabin to call it a night around 10:30PM, I heard lots of screaming, running, and laughing children that sounded like they were running the halls. I opened our door and looked up and down the direct hallway ready to read the riot act but saw no one. A moment later, I discovered where the noise was coming from as a group of kids ran back up the stairs either racing each other to the corresponding elevator banks or playing tag. They soon noticed me standing there and I put on my best “don't make me come over there” teacher stare which sent them all running back down the stairs. I once had a student tap his fellow misbehaving friend and say “we'd better stop because she's looking at us like my momma does when I'm about to get a whooping.” Never heard them again.

 

Our towel elephant had disappeared and in its place was a towel bunny reminding us to turn our clocks back one hour before bed tonight:

[flowers44]

Really enjoying your review. We are headed on the same cruise on August 18th. Have been in Bermuda 8 times but truly love that island. Looking forward to the rest of your trip.

[RRFPresident]

Wow, just noticed this review has had 4,688 views! Thank you all for taking such an interest in my crazy random musings!

 

Day 5 being edited now so stay tuned. In the meantime contemplate the meaning of this notice about the art auction framed to look like art:

[mad-dog74]

By far the grandest Grander review I have seen. We are going in about a month to Bermuda on Grandeur... this review has been MOST helpful!

 

Thanks so much!!

[RRFPresident]

You know passengers are getting frustrated with the elevators when they start leaving offerings of dirty dishes and leftover food to try and appease the elevator gods:

 

 

I don't know if the elevator gods were happy but the Coke Freestyle machines in the Windjammer got jealous:

[RRFPresident]

By far the grandest Grander review I have seen. We are going in about a month to Bermuda on Grandeur... this review has been MOST helpful!

 

Thanks so much!!

 

Thank you for your kind words. I'm sure you'll have a great trip! Tony from Croatia said he was leaving for time off after our trip but if you see Amy from Canada please tell her that Danielle and Al miss her trivia games!

[John Reid]

Thank you for your kind words. I'm sure you'll have a great trip! Tony from Croatia said he was leaving for time off after our trip but if you see Amy from Canada please tell her that Danielle and Al miss her trivia games!

 

Is this the "Tony from Croatia." We had him on our last Grandeur cruise (last January) and hope to see him again late September.

[RRFPresident]

Today was another suite breakfast visit to Giovanni's. The service seemed super slow but we discovered that the bagels are available if we request one while ordering. Dad still misses the presentation level Princess goes to when presenting their bagel and lox but he enjoyed making his own from the buffet for the rest of the cruise. I ate light this morning with just an omelet so I left Dad to finish his breakfast while I went next door to the Schooner Bar to play Magazine Title Challenge.

 

Yay for chocolate frosted donuts today!

 

I guess they were short on plates because they gave Dad tinier waffles to fit everything on one plate:

 

My Omelet (plus the weird potato chunks in gravy and the stuffed tomato garnish. I'd hate to be the guy whose job day in and day out is to stuff those tiny tomatoes for every plate):

 

Guess not a lot of people this cruise were into early morning brain usage as the only two players in this challenge were me and our new buddy from CC, Sue. We worked together to unscramble the magazine titles and found several that were tough because they were regional or ones we'd never heard of and only figured out because the letter combinations made sense.

 

Once again, only ones who show up to play = automatic win! In fact, Brandon was hosting this game and just gave us the pens when he handed out the papers. We missed only one magazine title that turned out to be Redbook. Once Dad was finished with his breakfast, he went over to the South Pacific Lounge to catch the Enrichment Lecture on the pirates of Nassau. He was impressed with the speaker, Dr. Tom Ryan.

 

At 10:00AM, we came back together for the third round of Progressive Trivia where we first got to join up with Wayne and Denise as well as Sue with her dear mother Norma serving as our good luck charm. Unfortunately, Bob showed up after the round was over thanks to his voyage long watch issues.

[RRFPresident]

Two of the very nice young ladies who were sailing with their families that we'd gotten to know on our roll call, Kendall and Amelia, offered to team up with us for the Photo Scavenger Hunt. Dad declined in favor of checking out the next session of Majority Rules in the Centrum. I agreed to join the girls and we soon recruited two of their other new teenage friends. After a slight change to our lists from Amy because they called for getting a picture of someone playing the piano and passengers weren't allowed to play the piano, she set all the groups loose with a time limit to meet back at the Schooner Bar. With the exception of having to take a picture of a Park Cafe waiter, one of someone eating ice cream, one of someone using a slot machine (I made sure to be the model for that one moms and dads), and a picture of a wedding ceremony where we drafted 3 kids to re-enact one on the pool deck stage, we were able to do the rest of the pictures in my suite cabin. Got a good laugh out of Kendall asking if my cabin had a phone so we could take a picture of someone talking on it. Had to point out that the task could be easily accomplished using the very thing she was using to take our pictures for this hunt. In my suite, we covered the tasks of taking a group selfie, someone reading the Compass, someone with a napkin on their head, someone wearing a life jacket, making a funny face, someone doing yoga, someone getting a piggy back ride, and someone eating a cookie. The latter helped by Dad leaving one behind on the table from his bedtime snack the night before. Lastly, we had to get a picture of two people in a shower and all the young ladies were thoroughly impressed that we all could fit in my cabin's bathroom. That's probably the last time I can legally say that I had 4 teenage girls taking pictures in my bathroom. We made it back to the Schooner bar as the third team to return. Amy, ever the positive cruise staff member, joked that while we didn't win the prize, we get to keep the pictures to enjoy and look back on.

 

Since I don't have any pictures to post for this activity, enjoy these random shots from the same area:

 

My most used Freestyle machine which sadly was out of root beer all but one time I went to fill my cup:

 

Centrum: (You can still get a good view of the show/music based activities without fighting the crowds for limited seating on the Centrum floor.)

 

I liked how these statues in the stairwell between decks 5 and 6 were musically creative - got the brain juices flowing as we walked to trivia:

 

The Community Bulletin Board just outside of guest services - only ever saw notices for Friends of Bill meetings posted though:

 

People who got a panoramic elevator to work - don't quite understand why there's a light on the bottom:

[RRFPresident]

The Grandeur wall of fame - it was interesting reading all the plaques the ship was given for the first time it ever called on a specific port:

 

Dad and I reunited then to have lunch in the main dining room. We shared a table with a large group. Two of us ordered the cream of chicken version of the soup of the day and when it arrived, they gave us both the chicken broth version instead. While the wait staff had no clue it was wrong until we spoke up, they quickly switched to the right order for us.

 

Not quite as dramatic as my other food pics but tasty - cream of chicken soup:

 

I had the Royal Caesar salad with chicken and Dad had the Royal Beef Burger that was listed as being topped with mushroom confit and cajun fries. What he was served was a simple cheeseburger and the same plain fries from the Windjammer.

 

Royal Caesar salad with chicken:

 

Dad's Royal Beef Burger with (out) mushroom confit and Cajun fries - Dad was happy enough though because he would have picked off the mushrooms:

 

Thank you to the young lady who offered to have me take a picture of her lunch too - the chicken sliders served with steak fries. She didn't like how it was made of ground chicken instead of chicken patties or fillets. Why there is a difference in fries based on what "burger" you get baffles me.

 

Dad finished off with the Caramelized Banana Mille-Feuille and I enjoyed the Warm Cherry Custard Crepes.

 

Caramelized Banana:

[RRFPresident]

Warm cherry custard crepes:

 

Not entirely sure what the name of this dessert was but thank you again to my tablemate this day:

 

Perhaps in an effort to set a record, I got asked once again during this lunch about my age. I love getting people to guess because of how shocked they are when I reveal the truth. This time the guess was 21/22 so I guess now at least I look old enough to drink.

 

Randomness moment - inside the elevators the top panel shows what is on each floor and each section lights up as you rise up to that deck:

 

Each centrum area elevator bank has these ship model maps to help you find your way. Wasn't until midweek that I realized they also point in the same direction as the ship so you can tell which way is forward and which is aft.

 

For Bob and anyone else who forgets what the day/date/or time currently is while on a cruise, Grandeur had these digital tallies displayed on their electronic screens advertising the upcoming shows outside the theater:

 

Close up view of the one thing we saw confusing many a passenger. Izumi is listed as on Deck 12 but alas, the elevators (and only those 2 I mentioned before) only go up to Deck 11. They simply call it Deck 12 because you have to climb about 3-4 steps up from the Viking Crown Lounge area on Deck 11 to get there.

 

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming...

[RRFPresident]

After lunch, we elected to split up again because Dad wanted to go watch the Star Wars movie in the theater. I went back to the South Pacific Lounge to participate in the Elimination Game which turned out to be like the old game show, The Weakest Link. Kendall and Amelia also joined the game and altogether we had about 6-8 people playing. Amy moved along the line asking us trivia questions during timed rounds. At the end of the round, everyone playing was tasked with pointing at someone else to vote out so unlike the regular trivia games, it didn't matter how many questions you got right. Thanks to some help from the proverbial peanut gallery known as Kendall's parents in the audience, the girls were being coached on who to vote off and soon the three of us were hinting to each other about who to gang up on and all vote to leave. At one point, I missed a trivia question that was apparently asked during a previous trivia session because I got scolded by Miss Kendall for not having remembered it from the other trivia. Finally, it came down to just the three of us left and when it came time to vote I might as well have just pointed to myself as I knew these new buddies would stick together. For reaching third place I earned a bronze Royal Caribbean emblem shaped medal and a highlighter.

 

Kendall and Amelia then faced off against each other answering questions until Kendall won with getting 5 questions right. Silver and gold medals were handed out to the girls and they each won a RCL shopping bag. Given that we all returned to the Schooner bar to reunite with our families, where the latest arts and crafts session was finishing up, the girls had the great idea to turn their newly won shopping bags into shirts using the supplies. Kendall's mom Lisa joked that I missed out on not getting 1st or 2nd place but I think I would have had to win 6 more shopping bags to make a shirt that would have fit me. I didn't have my camera with me at this time so if any of our fellow members has a pic of these two creative ladies in their new shirts, please share so we can show off such a cute idea.

 

Next we teamed up as one big group with Rick, Barbara, their new friend Mary, Lisa, and Dave to play Entertainment Trivia and won another pen! Stuck around with the same team for General Trivia. Kendall, her dad Dave, Sue, Dad, and I then teamed up for Country Name That Tune. Tougher than I expected despite having two big country music fans on our team.

 

Our snacks delivered to the suite this afternoon - note the salmon, shrimp, and hard boiled egg components all left sitting on the counter:

 

We booked Chops for tonight as our 2nd specialty restaurant of the trip and our 1st to count toward the Buy3 nights dining package. When we arrived and told the manager (I'm guessing since he was one of a couple guys in a dark suit and no apron like the waiters) our cabin number, I watched him draw a line under our entry in the reservation list and then drew the line out to the side ending with a little bow tie shape. Other reservations listed had underlines and little asterisk type designs next to their entries. I don't know what it was that made our arrival so special but when it came time to take our order, the man in the suit literally pushed the approaching waiter out of the way insisting on waiting on us himself. During the meal, it seemed that only him or the other suit dressed guy was allowed to wait on us. Dad, not finding very much enticing on the appetizer list, ordered the Grilled Black Peppercorn Bacon. When it arrived, he cut away the small sliver of meat that was part of this slab of fat and only ate the meat.

 

This is the picture I found online showing what the Bacon appetizer is supposed to look like:

 

This is what Dad was served:

 

It reminded me of the old rack of meat Fred Flintstone picks up on his way home during the opening credits. Hope you guys aren't tired of my TV references. Had to resist a Big Bang Theory reference earlier about having Fun with Flags. The manager waiting on us even came over to inquire whether something was wrong because Dad had left 90% of it still on the plate.

 

I had the Three Cheese Roasted Onion Soup and well, it was onion soup but it seemed more like they just melted a disc of cheese and dumped it into the bowl. I had the Cheesy French Onion Soup on Princess in their steak house last year and it was 20 times better. And that's from someone who is not usually into soup unless it's freezing outside.

 

Off the appetizer list I had the Dungeness Crab and Shrimp Cake and it was okay.

[RRFPresident]

Is this the "Tony from Croatia." We had him on our last Grandeur cruise (last January) and hope to see him again late September.

 

Yes that is Tony! I believe he said after his time off he was heading to Harmony though.