We woke up around 07:00 again and things felt a lot calmer. We got ready and then headed up to the Windjammer for some breakfast. Graham had fried egg on toast and scrambled egg with shrimp on toast. He also had some oatmeal with dried fruit and some coffee. I had a bagel with cream cheese and roast turkey followed by chicken congee with fried onions. I also had some coffee. Although the coffee was far from gourmet, it was actually drinkable that day.


It was a dreary day with intermittent showers. The advantage of that was that there were a lot of rainbows around. I don’t think I have ever seen as many rainbows in a whole year than we saw that morning. Throughout breakfast, rainbows were appearing and fading again. After breakfast, we went for a wander on the pool deck to see if I could get some photos. I was in luck. This was an amazing spectacle.



When it was nearly time for morning trivia, we headed down to the Music Hall. We did really well with a score 18 out of 20. I think pretty much on any other cruise, this would have been a winning score. However, there was somebody who scored 20. After this, we went upstairs to the Two70 for progressive trivia. Our trivia host told us that this would be the last round of general knowledge trivia as part of progressive trivia and the following day, it will all be about useless facts. This sounded intriguing. We did OK that day and scored 11 out of 20.
After progressive trivia, we went to get some fresh air on deck 5. There were still plenty of rainbows around and I even got a photo of a double rainbow. I felt incredibly blessed. Once the rainbows had disappeared, we went up to the Windjammer for some lunch. Graham had grilled pork chop, prime rib, mashed potato, green beans, grilled peppers, and carrots. He had some rice pudding for dessert. I had a dish called pork menudo with mashed potato. I had never come across this before, but it was a kind of stew, and I do tend to like those. This was no exception, and it was very tasty. It turned out that it is actually a Filipino dish. Apparently, this normally consists of diced pork, vegetables, and liver. I am pretty sure that if this version had contained liver, I would have noticed as this is something I detest.





After lunch, we headed down to the theatre. The Love and Marriage show was scheduled for this afternoon. This was the second time that we had come across this being done in the afternoon. They also did it in the afternoon on Navigator of the Seas. I found this very odd as this is not really family entertainment. For us this however works as we are normally in bed straight after dinner and this is something we enjoy watching. This was definitely entertaining. It was done slightly different from the normal format where one half of each couple is sent backstage while the other half answers three questions. The people who were backstage are then brought back and asked the same questions before the other half of the couples is sent backstage. In this version the couples were seated back-to-back, but both remained on stage at all times. They all answered six questions by writing them down. After each question, our cruise director asked everybody for their answers. It was very entertaining and the couple that had been married the longest in particular was hilarious.
After Love and Marriage, we had some down time. We decided to head to the Two70. There was another lecture about an explorer. This time it was about Ernest Shackleton. The subject was not as captivating and that combined that the speaker was so dry, it was a bit of a snoozefest. In the end, I kind of blended out what was happening at the front and read. Graham did the same, but rather than reading, he appreciated the view.
Next up where two things at the same time that I would have loved to do. The first one was A Royal Mystery, which is kind of a pop-up escape room game. I do like a good escape room. This took place at the Two70. At the same time, it was nautical trivia in the Schooner Bar. Teams of a minimum of 6 people were needed for A Royal Mystery. I decided to take a loop around the Two70 to see if I could find a team that needed extra team members. I did not have to look very hard to find a team. I went to join them. This was fiendishly difficult. Initially this had us completely stumped, but eventually we got the hang of it. In the end, we got 50% of the answer correct. If we had another 10 minutes or so, I think we had got this completely right. Still, this is definitely the kind of thing where it is the participation and not the winning that counts and it was a lot of fun.
Escape rooms are not really Graham’s thing, but he has occasionally joined in if this meant that I could do it. However, when he realised that I had found a team, he headed across to the Schooner Bar for nautical trivia. He scored 14 out of 20, which would have been the winning score. However, he chose to keep quiet about this. The actual winning score was 10. We never managed to win a trivia together on this cruise, but at least we each got a winning score on our own.
A Royal Mystery had overrun. Once this was finished, I rushed down to the Music Hall to see if Graham was down there to do trivia @ 5. He was there and figured that I would join him if I could. They were about halfway through, but Graham had written down some questions that he was not entirely sure about thinking that I would join him if I could. I filled the gaps as much as I could. We ended up scoring 10 out of 20. The winning score was 19.
After trivia @ 5, we headed up to the Roy bar. Poor Roy from Goa had been up there all day by himself. He did not see many customers either and was glad to see us. We had a really nice chat with him. Graham had the drink of the day, which was the Bellini. I was tempted by this as well but decided to stick to the Watermelon Rita. We had a second drink each making the same choices.
Once we had finished our drinks, we headed back to cabin to get changed. This was our final formal night of the cruise. I decided to give my Five Decades necklace another outing. We did the round of the photo opportunities and then we headed to the dining room for dinner.






The menu that evening was Welcome to the Royal Night, which is more commonly known as lobster night. However, neither of us was tempted by this. Graham had the baked French onion soup for his starter, and I had one of my favourite starters of the current menus, the vegan melon and avocado salad. This consists of sweet cantaloupe, ripe avocados, orange segments and figs in a maple-lime dressing, topped with toasted pine nut. For his main course, Graham had the lemon butter baked cod served with sautéed spinach, fluffy citrus rice, and a lemon-butter sauce. I had the Chicken Marsala, which was chicken breast in a mushroom-Marsala wine sauce with garlicky mashed potatoes, sautéed asparagus, and tomatoes. Graham passed on dessert, but I had the baked Alaska. We both had a glass of the Chateau St. Michelle Riesling with dinner.





After dinner, we headed back to the cabin. I had to set my gadgets forward by one hour a final time. Then we got ready for bed. I read for a while, but Graham went straight to sleep.


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