Bonus Time!! The Trivia Awards Ceremony

Hope this works!

The end of the journey and a few pictures!

We made it home safe and sound on the 8th of November.  We disembarked at 7:15 and I heard from my trivia buddies that their disembarkation was a nightmare and they were two hours past their slated time to get off the ship.  Fortunately their flights were in the afternoon so they didn't miss flights.  We had an early flight and had we not opted to walk our luggage off we would have missed our flight for sure.  Lucky!  There were six ships in port and one of them was the Oasis of the Seas which offloaded 6,000 passengers!  Yikes!
We were in our house by 3:45 pm and I got all the laundry done and put away and went and got groceries before passing out about 8:30!  Whew!
Thanks for following along!
XOXOXOX
M
Here you go!! Here's the "troll"!! Below you'll see the back of Morticia.  Sorry, it was the best I could do since I couldn't be too obvious!

Above is a picture of one of the trees in downtown Hamilton, Bermuda and you can see what the hurricane 2 weeks earlier did to this tree. Below is the Atlantic at dusk between Bermuda and Florida

At Sea – November 7, 2014

The last sea day and the last day of a really cool trip!  We are all happy to be going home tomorrow and catch up with our families.  It really has been an incredible 40 days and I’m happy I kept this blog because I can’t remember what we did 3 days ago!  I haven’t gone back to read all the entries but will soon so I can relive this amazing time. 

We are lucky to have such complementary traveling companions in Betty and Don and earlier with Michele and Tom.  Lots of laughter and fun always with no BIG hissy fits.  All my hissy fits were small, I hope!  I want to thank them for being such great friends and ask them to forgive me my bad moods since I think I was the only one who had them!!  We look forward to many more trips in the future once we get a chance to miss each other J

Today was the award ceremony for the “Shipkickers”!  It was held at 1:30 in the Piazza and there was a surprisingly large crowd!  The Commodore and Betty and Don took pictures and video so when I get some “real” internet I will show you what happened.  The prizes were lame but we knew that going in.  As winners, we did get “A” bottle of  Champagne for the six of us.  Water bottles all around and, of course, a Princess magnet!!  The big prize was the certificate that says we are the Champions!  Priceless!  I now have written proof that I am a “know it all”!  Sorry, couldn’t resist!  My teammates, Edna, Karen, Leslie, Nancy and Vince are “know it all’s” par excellance!!  It was a true team effort and we look forward to sailing together again sometime.

The rest of the day just flew by!  I tried my luck at bingo but no go L.  We did a couple of trivia’s and tied for first on one but lost the tie breaker.  What year did Elvis film his first movie “Love Me Tender”?  1956  I thought it was after the Army.

Lots of suitcases in the hallways tonight but not ours!  We are going to do an early “walkoff” with our own luggage.  Then we’ll grab a cab to the airport which is only 6 miles from the pier.  Our flight is at 10:50 and we land in SF at 2:00pm.  Ahhh…Home!!

That’s all folks!  I will update in a day or so with some pictures to close this blog.  Thanks for reading….at least I think someone is reading.  Only a few people have made remarks and I love those!  The stats tell me there have been 1000+ viewings!  Wow!

XOXOXOXO

M

At Sea – November 6, 2014

I hope you are all sitting down for this fabulous news.

It appears, from our score today, that your favorite trivia team “The Shipkickers” has won first place in the Cruise Long Trivia!!!  We were tied for first place with the “Awesome Possums” (???) but had one riddle up on them.  We did not miss one answer today AND solved the riddle!  We rock!!  Thanks to all the brains on our team, Edna, Nancy, Vince, Karen and Leslie!!!  What does a dentologist study? Where was Audrey Hepburn born?  What does a horologist do?  What was Grace Kelly’s last movie before she married?

Alright, I’ll save you Googling time.  Dentologist studies trees.  Brussels.  Horology deals with clocks and watches.  “High Society”

There will be an “award” ceremony tomorrow so I’ll have the Commodore take some pictures because I know you will all demand some proof!

It’s been a cloudy and humid day so it’s obvious that Florida is close! 

It’s been confirmed by one of the cruise staff that we are the “cruise-long” winners!  Whoop, whoop!  There will be an “awards ceremony” in the Atrium tomorrow at 1:30.  The Commodore will be stationed nearby to snap away!

We must have emptied our arsenals today since this afternoon’s trivia was not our finest effort.  Prince started out in gospel….not jazz.  Punjab means “the five rivers”….who knew?  The closest island nation to Mexico is Cuba.  Now we know!!

Just before dinner we looked out the balcony door and spotted a sailboat!!  We are 500 miles from Ft. Lauderdale and about the same distance from Bermuda!  That boat was a long way from anywhere!!!  Hope they had plenty of Bonine since the swells were really bumping that little boat around!!

Dinner was in the buffet this evening since it was the last formal night of the cruise.  We also had just a 24 hour day!  One more sea day and then we dock bright and early Saturday morning in Ft Lauderdale.  Everyone is looking forward to getting home!

We have figured out why Michele and Tom moved to Oregon!  The state just legalized recreational pot! HAHAHA!! 

Next to last blog entry coming tomorrow night and then I’ll update with some photos when I get home.

XOXOXOXO

M

Bermuda – November 5, 2014

We had another night of mild rocking and rolling which made for good sleep!  I woke up this morning early when the engines slowed as we approached Bermuda.  It was a little overcast when we docked but soon cleared up to gorgeous sunshine and the temperatures were in the mid 70’s with a stiff breeze.

We waited till the rush was over before we disembarked and then bought round-trip tickets to Hamilton (the biggest city and capitol).  We decided to do one way on the ferry and return by bus to see more of the island.  The ferry ride was about 20 minutes and we went past “millionaire’s row” which is where Catherine Zeta-Jones gets depressed :-O

I know, snarky!  It’s such a beautiful place and you can still see a lot of damage from the hurricane that hit here about two weeks ago.  Surprisingly, it looks like everything is up and running but the landscaping has taken a real beating and we saw many, very big trees uprooted.

We did a walkabout in downtown Hamilton and then headed for the bus stop for the return trip that took about 45 minutes and gave us the opportunity to see some of the lovely beaches and communities.  Well worth the $8 per person fare.

We were back at the ship early enough to have lunch onboard and now for some “down” time before the evening’s events.  I am taking this time to get one last load of washing done before we pack up on Friday for our trip home.

It was quite nice to hear the news this morning!  The “morning after” elections has been depressing for the last six years and finally there is some glimmer of hope that many voters have “caught on”. 

We had fun attending the “Pub Evening” earlier.  Nice show with the cruise staff and some of the singers and dancers.  There was a silly song sing-a-long and the Commodore performed quite well when a microphone was thrust in front of him!!  Following that show we had our last trivia of the day and ……..we won!!  A bottle of crappy Champagne that we will choke down tomorrow after our last “cruise long” trivia.

We have two more sea days ahead of us before we disembark in Ft Lauderdale on Saturday morning.  You know it’s over when your “getting off the ship” papers arrive! 

No plans for tomorrow except to enjoy the sea.  My favorite thing to do!

All for now.  We are now just 4 hours ahead of CA. We’ll get one more 25 hour day before FL.

XOXOXOXO

M

At Sea – November 4, 2014

Happy Birthday to our sweet Cally!!!

You’d think with all the 25 hour days we are having that we would accomplish something..right?  Wrong.  We have lazed away the last four sea days and I don’t feel one bit guilty…only very relaxed.  We eat too much and drink too much and enjoy every second and bite!  We’ll be back to reality on Saturday when the work starts to repair the “damage” but we have a lifetime of very good memories to keep us company while we are walking our heinie’s off!! C’est la vie!!

We had a rocky night last night and a rocky day all day.  Many didn’t sleep very well last night and poor Don was one of them L.  The Commodore has a nasty cough so he was up most of the night dealing with that.  We are all calling it a day fairly early tonight to make up for some lost sleep and we have to be bright and shiny for Bermuda tomorrow.

Nine years and about 6 months ago we were right near this spot in the Atlantic when we got the news that Cally was going to be born in November of 2005!  Now we are in the same spot on her 9^th birthday!  Coincidence?  Very cool memory! 

We had an amazing experience at dinner this evening when the dining room captain came by and announced that the Head Chef would be preparing a special meal for the four of us!  How exciting!  Except that it was going to be sea bass which is my least favorite fish L.  Nevermind, I’ll soldier on I thought and then our waitress said she would bring another dish for me in case I couldn’t eat the fish.  Very nice of her.  Well, this huge platter arrived with two whole fish that had been cooked and fileted.  The fish were “posed” on the platter along with the biggest tiger prawns I’d ever seen.  There were assorted vegetables arrayed over the platter along with a couple of apples that had been carved into ducks!  The dining room captain let us take a picture with his phone so when he sends the picture I will post it here.  We were amazed at the care and showmanship displayed for our meal!  I still don’t like sea bass but the shrimp and veggies were delish!  I did get some nice veal as a consolation prize!

I am sad to report that our trivia outings today ended in losses.  We tied for first this morning but lost the tie-breaker.  How long is the Suez Canal?  No googling!  We had no idea so put down 25 miles.  The winning team put down 50 and won because they were closer to the 100 or so miles that make up the Suez.  Darn!  The cruise-long trivia was another tough one and we might have lost our grip on 1^st place but we did manage the riddle:  What letter comes next in this series: w l c n i t ?   Good luck!

My news on the Troll and Morticia is that they came to dinner tonight in matching tye-dyed long sleeved t-shirts.  Why?  I have no idea.  Such fun to see what will happen next!

All for now….goodnight!

XOXOXO

M

At Sea – November 3, 2014

Happy Birthday to Brady! 

Tomorrow is Cally Ann Christiansen’s 9^th Birthday!! Big doings in November!!

We had a warm sea day today with a couple of scattered showers.  The weather has truly been friendly to us during the entire trip.  My umbrella was never opened and our rain parkas are still in their packing sleeves! 

Not much to report except that we competed in trivia three times today and didn’t win a darn thing!  We are in first place for the “Cruise Long” trivia but today’s questions were hard so I hope we can hang on. My dear friend, Edna, surprises me every day with the amazing knowledge she has! Only she would know that the dormant volcano that overlooks Edinburgh is called “Arthur’s Seat”!  Results will be posted tomorrow.

Betty played Bingo today and WON!!  Hooray!! Unfortunately, she had to share the jackpot but a win is a win!! 

We are headed out soon for the “Crab Shack” dinner they hold a few times each cruise.  It’s held up in an area of the Horizon Court and is fabulous.  They serve buckets of seafood like King crab, shrimp, mussels etc. along with chowder.  More food…..just what we need L

Dinner was awesome and I think we paced ourselves a little better and were not so stuffed!  Food was delicious.

From there we headed for the casino where I won a $68 jackpot!  Still playing on their money and that is a double jackpot in my book!  Then it was time for the last trivia of the day billed as a “music” trivia.  I had no hopes that we could do anything but hold our own but, to my delight, we were able to win, yes win!  Thanks to the brilliance of Edna and Karen we managed a perfect score 42/42!

Sorry there’s not more to amuse you!  Tomorrow night we’ll be back in the dining room with our favorite fellow diners so I might have an update!

Cally, I hope your Birthday is terrific!  Make everyone spoil you rotten!  Oh, I forgot…that already happens! J  Remember, I’m watching “like a hawk”!!!  I miss you and will see you in a few days! XOXOX

XOXOXOXO

M