Thursday, August 05, 2021

Chapter 4-Cold Seas

Day 2 was spent entirely at sea. Still raining outside, I headed to the fitness center for a run. It was up one floor, but I had to walk across the pool deck and up the slippery spiral steps. I started a treadmill run at 7.5 mph, and after a few minutes, it seemed pretty easy. I realized the treadmill was on kilometers per hour. So I was running about 4.7 mph. Kilograms instead of pounds, thankfully metric minutes are the same as American minutes. After 30 minutes, I had enough. There was no water in the gym, it was ridiculous. At the least, they should have a touchless bottle filling station. 

Then we went to breakfast in Concerto. I ordered four eggs, over medium. What I got were two soft firm yolks, and two others were running so hard they would've given Usain Bolt a run for his money. They replaced my order, including the bacon, but next time, I'm going for the omelet.

We checked out the shops on board, nothing too exciting. We walked to the 7th floor, where they have a small library right near the Crown Grill steakhouse and Princess Live theater. We played Skip Bo for about an hour, which we'd never played before. They had 4 of the games and after getting into the groove, we enjoyed it and we knew we'd probably play it again. 

Lunch time at Alfredos, the pizza restaurant which was kind of a classier place. We each got an antipasto, one with meat, one with veggies, we split those. Then we got two pizzas, one with shellfish, one with Parma ham and shaved parm, the latter was definitely better. 

After some time at the Internet Cafe and trying to get my WiFi to work properly,  I played movie trivia. Lauren was hosting  again and over a hundred people showed up to play. Of course must people were in teams of three or four. Not me, I flew solo. I finished tied for first with 20 right out of 25, so I had nothing to feel bad about. It was still very windy, around 65 degrees or so. I knew my bathing suit was definitely not needed and probably wouldn't be needed much at all during the trip. 

At dinner, there was a gorgeous girl at dinner with her mom, I'm assuming. Of course there was a ring on the left hand. She was from Indiana, and I'd see her two or three more times, including the final morning of the trip, when I accidentally walked right into her as she came around the corner and I let out a scream. That sums it up right there. 

Perhaps nothing on the ship was as memorable as the Yes or No game. The idea is to carry on a conversation for three minutes without using the words yes or no, or any derivatives of those words. It may sound easy but Dan, the cruise director, has the gift of gab, he knows how to push buttons. Every time a contestant would play, the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" strobe lights would shine and the zone-in music would play. TV cameras were set up, this was actually being showed in the state rooms on TV. One person was done in one second, one made it all the way to 2:59. One damn second away. The game went on for 45 minutes and my heart was pounding for these folks.

I went back for another round of Yes or No at 10:15, the first was at 8:15. Dan was ready and I was the third one called. Considering Lauren and Rachel apologized to me about not making it on in the first round, I knew what was going down. Oh by the way, Rachel was one of the most beautiful women I'd seen in a long time. Long brown hair, sweet demeanor, evening gowns, former Miss Universe contestant from Canada. Oh and she was full of dad jokes. She was actually approachable despite being totally out of my league. 

Oh anyway...I lasted about 90 seconds, I think. I was really doing well, but I decided to try to stretch my answers out. But...I ended an answer with "yes sir." Dan said I could've won if I wasn't so damn polite. I was so upset, I took off once the lights went down again. I cursed, I screamed once I was in the elevator. I couldn't get over it, and yes I know it was supposed to be fun, but damn it, I wanted it. And even all the way until the last day, people were recognizing me from the show. At least by the end of the trip, I could talk about it. 

In between the game shows, I also saw the Sweet Soul Music show in the theater. This was the only performance of the singers and dancers during the entire week after Day 1. So I have no idea what the deal was with them and what they were doing the other 5 days. 

And at the Crown Bar, they're serving the Pina En Fuego, a Rob Floyd cocktail with pineapple, premium tequila, jalapeno, and one or two other ingredients. It definitely was spicy enough, while being balanced, and that is what made it a great nighttime cocktail. 


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