Even though there was no element of jetlag this time, we were wide awake just before 7. We got up and ready and then headed upstairs for the Windjammer for some breakfast. It was surprisingly busy that early in the morning. We did however have no problem finding a seat. Graham had fruit followed by oatmeal. To my utter delight, there was congee on offer although the toppings were a bit limited. Still my chicken congee with bacon bits and fried onions hit the spot.
After breakfast, we quickly headed back to the cabin to put on our swimming gear. There was an aqua aerobics class that I wanted to do at 09:00 and Graham fancied a swim. There was still some time until the class was due to start, and I joined Graham at the middle pool for a swim. It was quite cold to get in, but once you were in, the temperature was lovely. At some stage, I asked the lifeguard if this was the main pool. He advised me that the main pool was the pool further aft. With about 10 minutes to go, I got out of the middle pool and headed for the main pool.
To my utter delight, that pool was heated. It felt like a bathtub. The turnout for the class was pretty good. It was also a lot of fun. It was however a challenge as none of us could really touch the ground. I had been advised by my physiotherapist that exercising in water was beneficial if you have arthritis as you are not weightbearing, but the water provides resistance. She was not wrong. I got a good workout without my knee complaining.
When I went back to the middle pool, Graham had retired to one of the hot tubs. He was just getting out as I approached, but I convinced him to stay for a bit longer. He had one cycle of bubbles and then we got out and got tried off as much as we could. We took the towels back to the towel station and then we headed down to the cabin. We completed the drying off process and got changed. Then we headed down to the Music Hall for the first morning trivia of the cruise.
We tend to do quite a lot of trivia on our cruises. The difficulty level seems range from quite straightforward via challenging and fiendishly difficult to downright surreal. On this cruise we seemed to get everything from challenging to downright surreal. The morning trivia that morning was challenging, but OK with a wide range of topics. We scored 12 out of 20 and the winning score was 20.
There was something on Cruise Compass that intrigued me. It was listed as music trivia animated movies and fairytales. I had never seen this before and wondered what this was all about. We had no other plans and decided to head up to the Schooner Bar to check it out. We found a table. Graham mentioned that he fancied a coffee, but was not sure if he could be asked to go and get one. I fancied a cold drink and offered to head down to Cafe Promenade. I was out of luck. I was pondering a coffee as well when I overheard someone ordering a pistachio pound cake from the cake counter. Normally the pistachio pound cake on Royal Caribbean is glow in the dark green and this was just the colour of a sponge cake. I decided that a fancied a piece of pistachio pound cake more than a cup of coffee. I took a slice for Graham, too.
We were having our snack while we were waiting for the trivia to start. It turned out that animated movies and fairytales was Disney movies. We were played snippets of 15 songs. One point was awarded for the song title, one point for the film and two points for the year the film was released. We scored a measly 17 out of 60. The winning score was 40.
When this trivia was finished, I sent Graham ahead to the Two70 to get some seats for the final trivia of the morning. I quickly went down to the dining room to request our dining team from the previous night for the rest of the cruise. I also needed to change our reservation. I had spotted in the Cruise Compass that there would we photos with the Captain at 19:15. This had not happened since the restart. We had a dinner reservation for 19:00. It was no issue to change this, and I joined Graham at the Two70 5 minutes after I left him.
The final trivia of the morning was Next Cruise visual trivia. This was all about destinations that Royal Caribbean sails to. This was easy for us as we had actually been to most of the places featured. The only one we got wrong was that we went with the wrong Norwegian fjord. We scored 23 out of 24, but the winning score was 24.
After this trivia marathon, we headed up to the Windjammer for some lunch. Graham made himself a DIY salad and then had a cheeseburger and fries. He had some iced tea with his lunch. I also started with a DIY salad and then had a pork chop and mashed potatoes. I love the mashed potatoes that they serve in the Windjammer. I then had some fries with nacho cheese sauce, a piece of knackwurst, a piece of bratwurst, some Spätzle and a couple of chicken fingers. The Spätzle were surprisingly good as they are a dish that does not keep well. Ideally it needs to go out of the saucepan onto a plate and get eaten straightaway. I had some lemonade with my lunch. I was hoping for some fruit punch, but the options that day were iced tea, lemonade or strawberry and kiwi water. I have never liked the strawberry and kiwi water. The lemonade hit the spot.
We still had some time before the next event. We decided to take a lap around deck 15 to get some fresh air. In the process, I took a photo of the Seaplex animal. When we had completed our lap, we headed back down to the Two70. On the way, we stopped at the Cafe Two70 for our free speciality coffee. We had an email just before the cruise that we would get a coffee voucher per day on top of our normal drinks’ vouchers. They were only valid for espresso, cappuccino, latte or Americano, but it was still a nice thing to have. Graham had an Americano, and I had a latte.
I had spotted something on the Daily Compass that intrigued me. It was called the Ultimate Trivia Battle Game Show. Graham was not convinced, but agreed to check it out. It was a strange concept. The Two70 was divided in two teams. Each team had a team captain who acted as a runner. They were not allowed the questions themselves, but had to get the answers from the team and take them to the host. The first person back to the host would get the point if they answered correctly. If the answer was wrong, the other team could get the point by answering correctly. It was a strange concept, but it was made entertaining by the complete ineptitude of our team captain. At one point I thought the person in the front row that passed the answers on to him would swing for him. Quite often, once he had been given the answers, he just stood there staring holes in the air before he got moving. Other times, he obviously had not understood what he had been told and his answer was some gobbledygook. It was entertaining, but it was definitely a case of once and done.
After the Ultimate Trivia Battle Game Show, we headed back upstairs for some more fresh air. After another lap around deck 15, we ended up at the Roy bar. The drink of the day was Sangria and Graham had two of those. I had a Lime and Coconut and then decided to try the Watermelon Rita. I do like a good margarita. The gold standard for me are the margaritas that were served at a restaurant in Orlando called Salt Island. This restaurant closed many years ago, but I still have very fond memories of the restaurant in general and especially their margaritas. This one was nearly as good. It was also very potent, and the bartender had mixed too much. He put the rest in another glass for me. Let‘s just say, the world had gone into soft focus.
When it was time to head down to the Music Hall, I stopped at the ice cream machine on the way to get a vanilla and chocolate swirl ice cream as an antidote. Then we headed downstairs for trivia @ 5. The questions that evening were firmly in the surreal category. We scored 5 out of 15 and the winning score was 11. I would love to blame this on having overindulged in cocktails, but I don’t think we would have done any better if I had just had water all afternoon.
After trivia @ 5, we decided to have some downtime. We headed back to the cabin. I set the alarm, and we had a bit of a nap. Once the alarm went off, I got up and got ready for formal night. This was a bit of a challenge. The gown I was wearing that day was new and the zipper was very stiff. It would not budge at all when Graham tried to zip it up. I finally managed to put it on with the zipper done up. I put on my jewellery and make up and then I left Graham to get changed and went downstairs.
I figured I would have time to get some solo photos before getting in line for the captain’s photo. However, the lines for the backdrops were huge. I was just about to give up when I noticed that the red backdrop had a bit of a lull. I got some photos there and then I headed to the Royal Esplanade to join the line for the photo with the captain. They were taking photos on the staircase in that spot and at one stage I was worried I would get to the front of the line before either Graham, or the captain got there. When Graham got there, I was sixth in line. The captain got there shortly afterwards, and we were the third party to get our photos taken with him. This worked out really well. Once we had our photos, we went downstairs for dinner.
When we got to the dining room, there was no line. We were able to go straight up to the podium. We were at a different table, but we were still in Andrian’s and Rehan’s section. Dinner that night was A Taste of France. Graham started with the escargot, and I had the iceberg wedge salad. Graham had the beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes, asparagus and peppercorn sauce for his main course. I normally have the beef bourguignon on that menu, but this had been taken of. Instead, I had the chicken cordon bleu with mashed potatoes, vegetables and Parmesan Gruyère sauce. This was very nice. For dessert, we both had creme brûlée. We both had a couple of glasses of Chateau St. Michelle Riesling with dinner. Dinner was very nice.
After dinner, we did the rounds of the photo opportunities. This time there were no lines at all. Then we headed back to the cabin. I had a quick shower and then got ready for bed. I read for a bit and then went to sleep.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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