Tuesday, March 13, 2018- Cruise Day 49; At Sea

Tuesday, March 13, 2018- Cruise Day 49; At Sea

We slept in late and awoke to sunny blue sky and outside temperatures in the mid 70’s.  The sea and winds have been calm. 

After breakfast in the buffet, we joined our Santa’s Helpers progressive trivia team for our 3rd installment.  We ended up having to guess on a fair number of questions and managed to score 8 points out of 12 possible.  When the scores were posted in the afternoon, we had gained on Motley Crew, and at 27 points now, we are just one point off the lead of 28.  There are also many teams nipping at our heels with 25 and 26 points, so no room for slacking.

We hit the fitness center for some guilt reductions, and watched the destination expert lecture on TV.  This works out for us because the lectures are right before trivia, and if we try to watch in person, we frequently doze off a bit.  When we watch it in our room from our bed, it’s more comfortable to nod off, and the lecture plays in a continuous loop, so over time, you get the whole thing.  

We had a quick lunch and it was already time for the afternoon trivia.  We had most of our team except for Bob, so Janet invited a woman who was sitting by herself.  She was very hard of hearing and nearly blind as well, so she wasn’t really able to contribute much, but if we had won, she would have shared a prize.  Well, we didn’t end up winning and finished 3 points off the winners.  There was a 2 way tie with a tie breaker of how many pumpkins were carved by a single individual in an hour to set the world’s record?  It was 109 jack-o-lanterns.  

We had an early dinner and saw Broadway Vocalist Michelle Murlin, who had played Fontaine in Les Miserables and sang Memory in Cats.  She did a variety show and did a duet with her husband Mark Preston, who had done a show just two nights ago.  She also did a few fun impressions of female celebrity stars, including an entertaining Tina Turner and Cher.  

We then saw the Mentalist Wayne Hoffman doing unbelievable tricks of mind reading and also did the same interlocking wedding ring trick that a magician had done earlier in the cruise.  You just have to say “How does he do it?”  

An evening Music Trivia followed.  This one had music spanning the 1950’s to early 2000’s.  There was some Tom Jones, Elton John, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Billy Joel and even David Bowie thrown in.  We thought we put on a decent showing with 31/40.  The two winning teams had 34/40, and they each got a bottle of champagne and aluminum water bottles. 

Tomorrow, we pull into Manta, Ecuador a day early.  The shore excursions were all moved up a day, so we have an excursion early in the morning.  Better set an alarm.