Got up this morning at our usual eight o’clock, marvelling that it was a fortnight ago that we’d left home. How the time had winged by. Today was our last sea day before reaching terra firma, and once again we got into our routine and did all the ‘usual’ things.
After breakfast, therefore, it was just a case of convening in the Sky Lounge with the rest of our team mates for the morning trivia. Maybe we weren’t quite awake yet but we didn’t win (we thought we’d give another team the chance). 😊
We had to be out of the Sky Lounge quickly to go down to the Eclipse Theatre where music historian Bill Powell was doing another very fascinating presentation and slide show; this time about the rise and fall of the Beatles. As ever, it was most interesting.
After the talk we decided to venture out on deck and, although it was dry, there was still that annoyingly-brisk sea breeze which made it just that bit too uncomfortable to sit outside. This was a shame really; with so many sea days in this cruise we had hoped we’d see better weather. However, there was always plenty going on below decks on the Eclipse to keep us entertained.
Around 11.30am we went to the Casino bar and enjoyed a pre-luncheon drink each, while sitting doing one of our favourite cruise ship activities – people watching. Then we went back up to the Ocean Café for our lunch; I had a big plate of fresh salad and cold cuts, washed down with a glass of prosecco.
We didn’t really do much after lunch; just relaxed and pottered around, reading, watching TV and (in my case) doing some of this blog or playing Plants vs Zombies 2 on my phone.
Soon the time came to make our way for the last time to the Sky Lounge to meet with Kendal, Janet, Norm and Frank for the Progressive Trivia. There was no quiz today, however, because it was the Results and Awards. As far as we knew, “It’s Only A Game” had achieved second place, so that was the best we were hoping for.
In the meantime, we brought our 24 wrist bands (I wore 12 on each wrist, going up my arms) so we could trade them in for whatever prizes would be on offer. We could see a table with lots of goodies and certificates on it, and Shirley was standing with the microphone ready to make the big announcement. 😊
She then announced the third-placed team, and their members went up and received a Celebrity Cruises t-shirt each, as well as a certificate. Then we listened out for our team being named as the runners-up, but another team’s name was called instead! We looked at each other in surprise – surely we couldn’t have dropped to 4th place, and out of the prizes?!
Then – drumroll – Shirley announced the winners. She said that the competition had ended in a tie for first place between “The Internationals” and “It’s Only A Game” – we were therefore joint winners! It had transpired, when she was checking all the papers, that someone had marked one of our papers incorrectly and not awarded us a point when we should have had one. 😊
We all went up to get our prizes; the inevitable Celebrity Cruises t-shirt and a certificate. We’d really enjoyed doing all these quizzes and had had a really great team; without doubt the best we’d had on a cruise ship! We were so pleased Kendal had asked us to join their team and we’d had a lot of fun with really nice people. 😊
Afterwards I went up to redeem all the wrist bands and ended up with two Celebrity Cruises towels (quite large and quite good quality) and two Celebrity Cruises coffee mugs – not a bad haul at all. We then stayed in the Sky Lounge for a while afterwards, because Kendal had brought a bottle of fizz up with him and he dispensed it into six glasses for us all to have a victorious drink.
The rest of the afternoon winged by as usual, and soon it was time to start getting ready for the final ‘evening chic’ night. I dressed in a blue floral maxi dress with a silver beaded crochet shawl and my inevitable IC shoes (the Fruity Bowl ones). I was somewhat dismayed to see/feel that the dress was considerably more snug on me now than it was last time I wore it! ☹
In the Moonlight Sonata restaurant we were pleased to note that lobster was on the menu, so we enjoyed the usual extravagant meal (hence the reason for the snug dress!) washed down with rosé wine and followed with liqueurs.
Afterwards we passed some time in the Casino bar then went along to the theatre as usual for tonight’s entertainment, which featured violinist David Klinkenberg. He was very good; he put a modern twist on some of the old classics and, accompanied by Big Mike and his orchestra, it was an excellent performance.
Then we went along to the Quasar Lounge where the karaoke was taking place once again; the usual suspects were there but I didn’t put my name down to sing anything as I’d probably exhausted my repertoire by now. In any case, we wanted to be out in good time to see comedian Al Ducharme’s “adults only” show at 10.15pm.
Once again, the show was great; it was side-splittingly hilarious and all of Al’s sound effects were spot-on.
Back in the Quasar Lounge the karaoke was still going strong, but we just sat on bar stools, enjoying the prosecco and cocktails, chatting with Eka the barman and with some of the other karaoke singers, who we recognised. Some of them (even the blokes!) came over to have a look at my shoes and asked what the brand was. One of the guys, who was a very sharp dresser with long, blond dreadlocks, asked if Irregular Choice did men’s shoes, and when I said they did he went straight onto the web site and had a look, ordering himself a pair! 😊
It was probably about midnight when we left the Quasar and returned to 8166. We were not due to arrive in Ensenada until 11.00am tomorrow, so we could still enjoy a lie-in.