Monday, December 27, 2021; At Sea

 Monday, December 27, 2021; At Sea

John got up with Ben and Janet to do a sit down breakfast, then Ben and Janet joined up with the Internationals for trivia.  Peggy was attending a meeting for cruisers who are continuing onto the next cruise on the same ship. Apparently many people have stayed on the ship from prior cruises including Phyllis and Lindsay who say that the ship has to disembark all continuing passengers for Covid testing before being allowed to reboard and continue on the ship.  We managed a win for the first time in a while, which was gratifying, even if the Regal Princess Coasters we got as prizes are not needed.  We’ll probably give them to John for his apartment.  We only missed one question, which nobody got right.  Did you know that E. C. Segar, who created the Popeye series had created another Popeye character 10 years earlier?  Olive Oyl starred in her own comic Thimble Theatre 10 years before her sailor boyfriend Popeye arrived on the scene and stole the show.  

The kids and Zhangs spent much of the day on the pool deck and sports deck taking advantage of beautiful sunny skies and 80 degree weather with a pleasant breeze from the ship’s progress.  We saw another pod of porpoises from our balcony and fortunately all of our kids were on the balcony at that moment so everyone got a chance to see them this time.  Back at home on Whidbey Island, it was 22˚F, with an overnight low of 10˚F and high of 25˚F.  It was also blizzard conditions with snow and 30 mph winds.  Fortunately the 10 day forecast shows it will warm back above freezing on January 2 when the kids have to fly home.  

We gathered up John and Price and had afternoon tea.  This time, there was clotted cream to go with the scones.  After tea, we had some time to relax and then get changed into formal clothing for the last formal night.  We took some pictures with a tripod to use for next year’s season’s greetings letter, and then down to dinner.  This was lobster night, but they also had beef Wellington.  So, of course, that meant surf and turf again.  The lobster was well prepared but seasoned with a little too much salt.  The beef Wellington was excellent.  And there was a Chocolate Journey Pistachio dome dessert.   

The Showtime was a production Motown Tribute called Sweet Soul Music, featuring songs from the Motown Era.  The singers and dancers put on an energetic and entertaining show, although the cut down troupe size was evident when one of the dancers had to try to fill in for one of the male dancers had to fill in a vocal role and wasn’t quite up to the task.  We have been on many cruises where the normal compliment is two each male and female vocal leads and at least 4 pairs of dancers.  The sets were also static aside from the video back drop, so there was no moving stage sections or set changes during any of the shows.  They probably don’t have enough production staff to run those features, but at least we got a show.  It may be a while before the ships get back to full production values.  But we’re happy that they are still solvent after nearly 2 years without revenue.  

The kids watched the Yes/No gameshow, but didn’t get up on the stage.  We finished our night with a Queen Music Trivia.  Price has a surprisingly broad knowledge of the songs of Queen despite being a couple generations past when Queen was a big hit.  We managed to score just one point below the winners, of which there were 3 teams tied.  Each got a bottle of champagne for their efforts.  

Tomorrow is another day at sea, and our last day of the cruise.  We will have to set aside part of the day or evening to start repacking our things into suitcases.  This is always the saddest part of a cruise.