Fall Foliage Cruise: At Sea

October 9

After sleeping for over nine hours, I got up at 9:05 to get ready for the Cruise Critic Meet & Greet. On Royal Caribbean, the ship arranges the time and place instead of a member of the roll call. The good part of this is that the cruise line gives everyone a little gift and has a drawing for prizes (they gave away four bottles of wine, two baseball caps and a logo water bottle), as well as providing some pastries and tea, coffee and orange water (actually labeled orange juice but didn't taste like it). The bad part is there is no roll call member in charge and, from my perspective, not a lot of mingling. I did not get to know any of my roll call members. Part of this might be that it was a huge roll call, not really sure. Dru, the Cruise Director, and Gio, the Activities Director, were the ones who welcomed us and gave away the prizes.

After that I wanted some real orange juice so headed for the Windjammer. The bacon looked good so I got a few strips to go with my juice. As I was leaving I met Tommy and Barbara and we made plans to meet for lunch at noon.

I went looking for a quiet place to read. Finally found the library. It is not very large, has maybe 300 books, about 20 seats and a view of the Promenade (therefore no sea view). A couple sat down next to me and talked constantly (not to mention he smelled funky) - I was getting ready to go when he left, so I sat and read until time to go to lunch.

The three of us had a nice lunch (not hectic like yesterday's) and then started walking through the Promenade (the center, open area of the ship that is kind of like a shopping mall). We bumped into Carolyn and Gary and started walking to the ice skating rink for the show called "Encore". The show was excellent!

Afterwards there was a scrapbooking meeting scheduled. Not much to it but they did have a package of paper with RCI-themed stickers. I bought a package and then waited for the "Cities and Countries" trivia. I played alone (people don't seem to ask others to join their groups) and was able to get 12 out of 15 (the winning group had 13). They gave you three cities and you had to give the country. Here are the three I missed.

Q1. Maputo, Beira, Narala
Q2. Koror, Airai, Melekeok
Q3. Bishkek, Osh, Tash-Komur

It was then time to switch venues and go to general trivia. Again, I played alone. I got 12 correct but the winning team had all 15. Again the three I missed.

Q4. What do the J and K stand for in J.K. Rowling?
Q5. What is the oldest alcoholic beverage?
Q6. What is the name of the whale that swallowed Pinocchio?

Quick rush to the cabin to get ready for the first formal night since we had reserved 5:45 after last night's fiasco. We were taken right on time. Most of us had the beef tenderloin, which was very good. Tommy opted for a fish (that I had never heard of) dish and Carolyn had seafood ravioli. Four Lemon Meringue pies (actually more like tarts) and one strawberry cheesecake for dessert.

I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people who had actually dressed up for dinner. Cruise Critic members had made it sound like very few went formal on RCI but many men had on suits and even a few tuxes. Nothing like on Cunard but still more than what I was expecting.

We watched the singers in the Promenade for the Captain's Welcome but did not wait for the Captain as we wanted to get seats for the magician, Scott Alexander. He put on a good show.

Since it will be an early morning (four days in a row), we called it a day.

Having four port days in a row and the very slow internet (good thing I purchased an unlimited package), I am likely to fall behind. Promise I will catch up by our next sea day.

Trivia Answers....
Q1. Mozambique
Q2. Palau
Q3. Kyrgyzstan
Q4. Joanne Kathleen
Q5. beer
Q6. Monstro

Once again my photos are not uploading (I don't get a very good signal in my cabin), so check back.