Friday, December 13, 2019; At Sea Phuket to Bali Day 3
We slept in again this morning, getting up just in time to grab a latte and danish at the International Cafe and then meet our trivia partners for the morning trivia. We were happy to have an all new trivia, even though we didn’t win. We missed by 3 points, but were glad to have been challenged to dredge up new bits of useless knowledge from the dusty drawers of our memories. Some of what we didn’t know: In what country are Bertie Beatles manufactured? What was Kings Cross, Sidney, called between 1897 and 1905? Who was the queen of the fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream? What is “Singe” in French?
Janet watched “All Is True”- about the last days of Shakespeare’s career, while Ben burned off some guilt in the fitness center. We then had lunch in the dining room before heading off to our afternoon activities. We teamed up with a new couple and the Australians from our morning trivia team to play the Princess version of Jeopardy. We were again happy to find this to be an all new game with new categories and questions. We racked up a win and donated our prizes to the team that graded our quiz.
Next was our Grapevine tasting, which featured two selections from Chateau St. Michelle- a Washington State winery, in addition to wines from France and Germany. Of course we were partial to our local wines, including the Indian Wells Merlot by Chateau St. Michelle. We usually pick that up at our local Costco. It is gratifying to see our local Washington wines on an international stage.
From the wine tasting, we stumbled our way to the Explorer’s lounge to join our regular trivia team for afternoon trivia. We were pleasantly surprised to have another all new trivia. Even though our brains were buzzed on wine, we were able to nab our second win for the day, winning notebooks, which we donated to people on nearby teams who haven’t been able to win prizes yet.
We grabbed a quick dinner in the buffet to prepare for our Captain’s Circle reception. We had met a nice couple from Australia at lunch and were able to coach them into making the most of their cocktail orders during the reception. The wife was pretty happy with our strategies. They are Platinum, and are looking forward to stepping up to Elite soon. This time, we did not get more than 2 drinks, because that’s about all we can handle anyway. The most travelled passengers on this cruise were from Australia, with 1200 days at sea, including the last 108 days on the Sapphire Princess. They will be disembarking with us in Singapore. They had drawings to give away champagne and some Effy Jewelry, but our card wasn’t drawn. We haven’t had any luck with drawings on this cruise so far.
We took our second drinks (007 Martini and Moscow Mule) to the Princess theater where we watched Brandon and James (Cellist and Tenor) a second time. Their show was just as enjoyable the second time. Their arrangements are brilliant, and the music they do really resonates with our generation.
We arrive at Benoa, Bali tomorrow, so we’ll hit the sack early. The tender ride to shore will be nearly 45 minutes, so we can look forward to long lines as part of our day tomorrow. Hopefully the seas will be calm so the tenders can run at flank speed. We will be riding elephants as part of our tour so this trip will be one of riding exotic animals.
