Celebrating Fifty Trips Around The Sun With A Transatlantic Cruise – Day 5

This was the day we were supposed to be in Valencia. However, because they suffered devastating flash floods in the surrounding area the week before the cruise, Royal Caribbean made the sensible decision to cancel the port stop in Valencia and replace it with Palma de Mallorca. We had been to Palma de Mallorca on Symphony of the Seas the previous year. It is an interesting enough city, but we did not feel the need to get off their again especially as getting from the port to the city requires quite a long shuttle ride. We decided to call this a sea day.

Even though we were on no timetable, we were awake bright and early at around 07:30. We took our time getting up and ready. Then we headed up to the Windjammer for some breakfast. Graham had oatmeal with dried fruit and sugar followed by fruit. As we were in no rush, I decided to have a made to order omelette with bacon, cheese, tomato and mushroom with a side of hash browns and baked beans. I really enjoyed this.

After breakfast, we headed out to get our port photos. From the dock, we had a great view of the cathedral. We walked towards the edge of the dock as there was no signage that we could not go there. However, before we got very far, we were told that we could not go there. I took a photo from in front of the gangway and then we headed back inside. We decided to head up to deck 15 to check out if we could get some photos from there. in the end, the sweet spot turned to be one of the bridge wings that can be accessed from the solarium. We did get a good view of both the cathedral and Bellver Castle. I took some photos and then we headed down to the Music Hall for morning trivia.

Morning trivia that morning was quite challenging. We only scored 7 out of 20. The winning score was 19, which was seriously impressive. After morning trivia, we headed back to the cabin to get changed into our swimming gear. We were welcomed by a new towel animal. We got changed and then headed up to the pool. We swam for a while and then retired to the hot tub for a bit. When we looked like prunes, we dried off as much as we could. We sat down to dry off a little more. I got a vanilla soft serve ice cream for Graham and a vanilla and chocolate soft serve ice cream to enjoy why we drip-dried.

Once we had dried as much as we were going to, we took the towels back to the towel station and then headed back to the cabin. We got shower and changed. Then we headed back upstairs to get some lunch at the Windjammer. Graham got some steak with cheesy pasta and potato gratin. I got some stir-fried noodles from one of the life cooking stations. I then had a pork schnitzel with potato gratin. For his dessert, Graham had a piece of blueberry streusel pie and white chocolate cookie. Graham really liked the cookie. I decided to try a lemon cookie and white chocolate cookie. I was disappointed. Normally I love the cookies on Royal Caribbean as they are soft and gooey. The cookies this time were more the texture of shortbread.

After lunch, we went down to the Schooner Bar for the next trivia. The starting time came and went, and no host turned up although there were some other people there for this, too. I checked the app and noticed that the venue had changed and was now at the Music Hall. I quickly headed down there. Fortunately, this was done via a trivia sheet rather than the clues being read out and I was just able to slot in. This was Who In The World Am I trivia. I managed to score 12 out of 13, which was the winning score. I got a keyring, which is now on Graham’s keys. I stayed on for monuments of the world trivia, which took place 30 minutes later. This was a visual trivia. I scored 34 out of 40 , which was not quite enough as winning score 38. I did however get a bottle opener keyring because I pointed out that one of the answers was not correct. The answer for the monument that our host had chosen for London was Big Ben, which of course is the bell rather than the building that houses it. The correct answer would have been either Houses of Parliament or Palace of Westminster.

After the second trivia, I went to find Graham. I headed back to the cabin and noticed that the telescope had gone. I figured he would probably be somewhere on deck 15. I took a lap around deck 15 and could not find him. He was not on one of the bridge wings either. I headed back to the cabin as I wanted to hide some ducks. I attached labels to the first 8 and then took them and my iPad. I hid the ducks and then found a seat near the pool to read for a while. At some stage, I figured if I was going to sit outside much longer, I would burn. I headed back to the cabin and read some more. At some stage Graham came back. He had headed out to have a walk on the seawall.

Once we were reunited, we headed down to the Music Hall for trivia @5. We scored 13 out of 20 , which I was quite happy about. However, the winning score was 18. After trivia, we headed back to the cabin for some downtime. I set an alarm, and we had a bit of a nap. Once the alarm went off, we got changed. Then we went downstairs to get some photos before heading for dinner.

Dinner that night was A Taste of the Caribbean, which was a new menu for us. We both had the crispy coconut shrimp with pineapple celeriac slaw and sweet chilli sauce. I also had a second starter, the Asian bao taco, which consisted of roasted pork belly in a sweet-chili sauce topped with sautéed vegetables and pork crackling in a soft, steamed bun. For his main course, Graham had the garlic-herb buttered tiger shrimp served with jasmine rice, sautéed seasonal vegetables and a garlicky herb butter. I had the jerk seasoned pork chop with rice and beans, and Jamaican fried dumplings. For dessert, we both had the pineapple sunshine cake. Dinner was very tasty. We had our usual Chateau St. Michelle Riesling with dinner.