Splendour Day 7: Second Sea Day

It was good to have a sea day and be able to sleep in.  By the time I tumbled out of bed, the congestion and sore throat had gone away (in retrospect, our table near the entrance to the dining room had quite a bit of cigarette smoke blowing by it on the last two nights, as people were lightening up inside before heading out to the smoking area on  the deck just outside--I wonder if the 2 hours of smoke was causing a bit of an allergic reaction?).

Our first activity of the day was attending a Crown and Anchor (past cruisers) loyalty party.  I think this was our second of the cruise (the more you sail, the more parties you get invited to, it seems).  We had a couple dirnks, and chatted with friends we had met onboard, and I ended up being one of four "Magician's Assistants" for the cruise staff member who was putting on a magic show.  Poor guy was really trying, but he is really not very good at it.  It was obvious how the tricks worked (ti felt like watching a kid who is learning and trying but doesn't really have it down yet) and he needed to adjust the flow of the routines too (an example, he handed us all needles, to pop balloons with, BEFORE handing us the balloons and instructions us to inflate them--it is a little hard to hold the needle an inflate the balloon at the same time and there was no reason for this order, other than not thinking things through).  It was an amusing little diversion nonetheless.

Crown and Anchor members also had the chance to attend a meet and greet with some of the production cast.  Having a bit of a theatre background, we always enjoy these.

We had lunch in the dining room.  On sea days the main dining room opens for lunch and has a wonderful salad bar (as well as a normal menu to order from).  We ran into two of our tablemates on the way and were thrilled to sit with them at lunch.  We were also seated with two other ladies--one of whom talked nearly nonstop throughout the meal.  Oh well, you can't win them all (and the food was good).  

After lunch I headed to the Top Hat lounge to work off the calories by learning the "flash mob" dance--as taught by the production team's dance captain, Wesley.  It was a lot of fun--and the idea is a good one.  We learned this dance and then were all told to be on the pool deck at 4:45.  Shortly after that, the dance captian (in normal clothes) would walk through, tie his shoe and the music would start.  He'd start to dance, be joined by other cast members, an then the rest of is were supposed to filter in at a certain point and be a "flash mob" and surprise the people on deck.

Up on deck, they had a newer game (Rio and Dave saw it on the Legend in May; I had never seen it) called "Copy Cat"  It was a fun and interesting twist on the classic demonstrations that cruise lines have nearly always had going on.  

In this case, the chef, or other crew member, would demonstrate how to make something--and then three contestants had to compete to try to make the same thing, in only 90 seconds (this is how long the chef needed!) and were judged on how well they did.  

The first of three categories was fruit carving.  The ladies were all trying to make a duck out of a pineapple, banana and some blueberries:

I got to compete in the next event--cake decorating.  The chef demonstrated assembling a three layer cake, frosting it, putting frosting in the piping bag and piping little mounds on top, putting a cherry in each mound and then getting almonds around the sides and sprinkled on top--all in 90 seconds!  Yikes!  

I had no idea what my neighbors were making, because I was concentrating so hard on mine.

This competitor (recognize our Quest teammate?) skipped the piping altogether and ended up with a smiley face "Wal-Mart Cake"

And she ended up just throwing on handfuls of things at random (also skipping the piping)

  I was surprised that it WAS possible to throw it all together so fast, and I ended up with something that looked pretty close to the chef's!   YES, I am ridiculously proud of my 90 seconds of cake decorating fame!  Here I am with my prize winning cake:

The final contest was bar tending.  The buys were to make a Sex on the Beach, and put some style and flair into throwing around a (plastic) bottle in the process.  That contest got really silly!

It was a fun contest.  I will have to look for it again in the future--I hope they keep doing it.

It was getting pretty chilly up on deck (did you notice all the jackets on people in the backgrounds of the photos?), and people were heading in to warmer things.  I stayed and enjoyed a line dance class, and then it was time for the "flash mob" which was fun, even though with the cool weather I think everyone on deck was IN the flashmob or with someone in it and knew in advance and was taking photos.  

We went to the farewell show with Comedian/Magician Charlie Frye.  He was actaully talented and rather funny.  It was an enjoyable show.  I am always amazed how more or less the same material can be so totally different depending on who is performing it and how they handle it.

We had a nice farewell dinner with our stalemates, wandered a bit and were disappointed that nothing much was happening in the way of dances or parties for the final night, and then turned in ready to drive home and see the kids on the morrow.

--Hadley