All too soon, the last day of our cruise had arrived. I was utterly miserable. It was an end of an era. I knew that this would be our last time in Alaska and the last time in the USA. I also wondered if I would ever see Ovation again. Graham reminded me that we had been there before and we have always gone back to Ovation. We had a bit of a lie in and then headed downstairs. Ovation has now got a Starbucks. I had intended all along to get a drink there as they have the US menu, but never got round to it. I decided to put this right. We headed to Sound Cellar to find a seat and then I made a coffee run. I got a white chocolate mocha for Graham, and I had a cold brew with sweet vanilla cream. This hit the spot.
We held our own in morning trivia. We got 12 out of 22 and the winning score 15. Morning trivia had slightly overrun that day, and I sent Graham ahead to the Schooner Bar to find us a space for airport code trivia while I found out how we had done for morning trivia. When I got there, airport trivia had started and Graham had made a start on the quiz sheet. I had revised my airport codes that morning. I can rattle down the ones we fly to, but I tend to struggle with the more obscure ones. I felt well prepared. However, they through me a curve ball. Rather than for cities and countries, they asked for airport names and countries. We still scored a very respectable 69 out of 80 . The winning score was 79. I got a can koozie as a runner up prize.
There was one more trivia that I wanted to do a little later. However, there was a music trivia before then. This is hardly our area of expertise, but we had managed to snag a table and figured we may as well stay put. The trivia was Name That Tune American Anthems. We did actually not do too badly. We scored 8 out of 20. The winning score was 18. We did far worse on the trivia that we had actually stayed for, which was science trivia . I have always been interested in science and was pretty good at it in school and sixth form. However, the questions were very obscure, and you probably needed a PHD to do well in this. We scored 2 out of 20. The winning score was a very impressive 18.
Once this was done, it was time for lunch. We had lunch at Chops Grille that day and it was their standard lunch menu. Graham started with the colossal shrimp cocktail with horseradish cocktail sauce, and fresh lemon. I had the wild mushroom soup scented with white truffle oil, and chives. For our main course, we both had the Chops dry-aged steak burger with brioche bun, melted Gruyère, smoked bacon. and French fries. I was going to pass on dessert, but Graham fancied the Key Lime Pie. In the end temptation was too much and I had the Red Velvet Cake.
I figured I should better bite the bullet and pack. When we walked past the photo gallery, they had the green screen up and they were taking photos with huskies. We stopped for photos. Then I dealt with the inevitable, which thankfully did not take very long. After this was out of the way, we headed to the Seaplex. They had a bumper cars session that afternoon. I had a bit of a wait, but it was not too bad. When it was my turn, it worked out much like the previous week. Everybody was on one end not moving a great deal and I was at the opposite end, happily zooming around. This time round, nobody even came close to me. I had a lot of fun.
Once I had my go on the bumper cars, we headed down to the solarium. There were no round loungers available, but we got a sofa near the indoor pool. We had a nice relaxing afternoon. At some stage, I fancied a drink, but I did not fancy anything that they were serving at the pool bars. I headed down to the Pesky Parrot to get a Taste of Tropics to go. This consisted of Bacardi Superior Rum, pineapple, tropical juices, and blood orange sour. This definitely hit the spot. With about 30 minutes to go before dinner, we headed down to the cabin. On the way, I took a photo of the towel animals at the towel window. I also finally got around to taking a photo of our door. I dropped off what I did not need anymore and then I filled out the luggage tags and the customs form before we headed downstairs to dinner.
Dinner was at Giovanni’s Italian Kitchen again. We both had a glass of Moscato Graham started with the Meatball Gigante with sautéed spinach, mozzarella, and marinara sauce, topped with Parmesan cheese and I had the polenta served with Alfredo and marinara sauce. Graham then had the Spaghetti Carbonara with pancetta, eggs, and Parmigiano-Reggiano and I had the Chicken Parmigiana with tomato sauce, mozzarella, spaghetti, and fresh basil. We both had the pistachio panna cotta for dessert. It was not overly busy that evening and we had the chance to chat with Clarice for a while, which was nice.
After dinner, we headed to the Pesky Parrot one last time. Graham had his usual Monkey Business. I had the Queen’s Park Swizzle, which consisted of Angostura 5-Year Rum, lime juice, agave, and fresh mint. It was their take on a Mojito and was delicious. There was one more cocktail on the menu, which was Mai Time of My Life . I had enough though and figured I just have to have this next time we are on a ship that has Pesky Parrot.
They had a backdrop out that evening. Even though I had picked and downloaded my photos earlier, I kept a few back for just that reason. We got some photos and then we headed to the cabin. I put our luggage out and then I got ready for bed. I read while I was waiting for the last photos to turn up on the app. Once I had downloaded my last photos, I got ready for bed and I was soon asleep.
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