20240508 Wednesday, May 8, 2024; At Sea

Not having to turn the clocks forward should have helped with sleeping, but Janet had insomnia, perhaps due to chocolates that have snuck into our diets.  The Wake show said the Duckie would be somewhere toasty like a fireplace.  Well, there is only one fake fireplace on the ship and it is in the Crown Grill, so our first stop was to inspect that specialty restaurant.  The door had been propped open, so that was a clue that we were on the right trail, but there was no duck anywhere near the fireplace, so the duck had probably been snatched up by an early riser who watches the Wake show.  

We grabbed a quick bite for breakfast at the International Cafe, and then checked out other venues for fake fireplaces, but found none.  

We got warmed up with morning Trivia, missing a win by 3 points, but learning some good new trivia including which country is the only one in the world with a two sided flag (each side is distinct) and how long a jiffy really is (one-trillionth of a second).  There were multiple teams tied for first place so they had a run off question of how long can a Blue Whale remain submerged on a dive?  While sperm whales can submerge for 90 minutes, blue whales are good for 20 minutes.

We missed winning the Famous Faces trivia by 2 points, but had at least entertained the correct answers before settling on a wrong guess for at least 2 questions.  

Ben got his steps in on the promenade deck where the temperature has dropped a little into the mid 60’s, but it is still comfortable to walk without a coat even with more wind.  The mid-Atlantic looks slightly green, which is a distinct contrast with the Caribbean’s blue color.  We have white caps and a bit more chop today, but it’s still predominantly sunny overhead.  

We did a sit down lunch today.  The food and service are good, but it does take a long time to get through your meals there. But if you’re not in a hurry to go anywhere, it’s just a chance to relax, or do some French Duo-Lingo lessons.  

We had a very good day at our Progressive Trivia, achieving a perfect score.  This should go a long way to keeping ahead of the pack in the Progressive score.  

We wrapped up the afternoon with the 4PM general trivia.  Janet and Ben teamed up with Mike, as well as a couple from Ontario Canada Gary and Debbie and a Linda from Long Beach California.  We won after breaking a tie with one other team with the same score and got more coasters for prizes.  We donated some of the coasters to the team we tied with as consolation prizes. The tie breaker was how many colors are in the flag of Columbia. Fortunately, we are pretty strong on flags.  There was a dispute between a husband and wife on their answer, so they said our consolation prize had saved their marriage.

Dinner was casual but they had lobster tails on the complimentary menu, so we indulged on lobster tail and duck.  The lobster tail was perfectly prepared.  Sometimes they get overcooked, but this was not the case.  The duck was also moist, but it wasn’t quite Peking duck.  

We had to choose between either doing a TV Themes or Motown trivia in conjunction with catching one of the Princess Theater Showtime performances.  Since there always seems to be more Motown savants than TV themes savants, we chose the TV Themes.  We teamed up with Mike and a young woman from Indiana named Emily who was looking for a team to join.  We chose wisely as we achieved a perfect score and won that trivia for the little Princess blue notebooks.

Crystal Cimaglia, who had done the Celine Dion tribute earlier, was back on stage doing show tunes from the 50’s to the present.  She was in her own natural brown hair instead of the blond Celine Dion wig so that was a change.  She put on another energetic and very profession show, and was able to showcase her versatility and talent.

After the show, we made soup and dessert run.  As they closed down the buffet, we saw them come through with huge bins into which they unceremoniously dumped whole trays of perfectly delicious desserts.  Nothing gets saved overnight and put back out.  It now goes into a waste food processor which turns it into animal feed, which is exported back off the ship in port.  Boy, those pigs are going to eat well.  Not too long ago, they used to just macerate and dump it, so this is more environmentally friendly.  We imagine it ultimately gets recycled back onto the buffet as poultry, bacon and sausages.

Our clocks move forward another hour tonight.  We managed to receive excursion tickets for both La Havre France (Mont St. Michel) and Ponta Delgada in the Azores (Crater Lakes, Sete Cidades & Wine tasting) for which we had been wait listed.  Janet is especially happy that we will be able to make it to Mont St Michel which is a landmark castle fortress on a tidal island.