Day 4
We were awake bright and early again. Graham wanted to get some breakfast, but I did not really feel like it. I suggested that we could get a muffin and a coffee at the Cafe Promenade. Graham wanted a proper breakfast so we headed up to the Windjammer. This time we had no issue finding a table. Graham started with a plate of scrambled eggs, pork link sausages, mushrooms and tomatoes. He then went back for a bowl of oatmeal and some peaches and pears. At some stage, a server came around to ask if we wanted something to drink. Graham had a coffee and an apple juice and I had a coffee. I had a look around. For some reason there were no muffins that morning and there was nothing else I fancied so I just stuck with the coffee.
After breakfast, I said goodbye to Graham and headed down to the Star Lounge for the progressive trivia. There was one issue though. Neither of us had a clue who we were looking for. I had hoped that as we were meeting quite early, there would not be many people around. However, the Star Lounge was already very busy. I stood near the entrance and had no idea how I was ever going to find the team. I did not have to wonder for long. I heard that somebody asked for me and I went over to introduce myself. We went back to where the rest of the team was already sitting. Five of us came from Greater Manchester with the sixth person coming from Texas. We had a little time left for me to get to know the rest of the team a little before the quiz started. It turned out that we were quite well matched with different people having different areas of expertise. We managed to score 15 out of a possible 20 points that day. Once the quiz was over, I said goodbye to the team and headed out.
By then I was hungry and decided to pick up a snack at the Windjammer. On the way, I passed one of the sales on the Royal Promenade. Normally to say that I am not too keen on those would be the understatement of the year. There is not much that takes my fancy and this creates a real bottleneck. It also tends to bring out the worst in people while they hunt for so called bargains. However, the theme for that day was costume jewellery and I figured this was worth a look. I found two beautiful Murano glass pendants that were 75% off. So instead of $18 per pendant, I paid $4.50. That definitely was a bargain.
With my treasures in hand, I headed up to the Windjammer. When I got on the lift, I spotted somebody who looked familiar. This was one of those situations that you get completely thrown if you meet somebody out of context. At some point I had eye contact with the person and there was no sign of recognition from his side. I was however surer than ever that I knew this person. This was a neighbour of ours that I had not seen for a while. I know that he and his partner were avid cruisers so I should not have been surprised to see him. I also seemed to remember that Royal Caribbean was their cruise line of choice. So in the end I decided there was only one thing to do. I called out his name and sure enough, he reacted. Once he heard my voice, there was a definite spark of recognition. We exchanged a couple of words and then we reached his deck and he got off.
I carried on towards the Windjammer and made myself a sandwich with a toasted English muffin, salsa and pork link sausages. This went down a treat. When I walked through the solarium, I found Graham. I asked him if he was planning on hanging around for a bit. When he confirmed this, I headed back to our cabin to drop off my jewellery and pick up my iPad before heading back upstairs to join him.
We relaxed up there for about an hour and then Graham suggested that we should get some lunch. When we got to the Windjammer, they were still serving breakfast, but had started to set up for lunch. Graham had a bacon sandwich and a couple of mini Danish pastries for a second breakfast. I had a pear and then decided to wait until they were up and running for lunch. I then had a slice of Jerk pork, a pork chop, some steak fries with Bolognese sauce and Parmesan cheese and some beef and olive casserole. Graham had an ice tea and I had a Coke. For dessert, Graham had some apple crumble with custard and I had a piece of flourless chocolate and pear cake.
After lunch, we headed back to the cabin briefly to pick up the invitation for the art auction. We had spoken with the gallery manager the previous evening and she gave us a VIP invitation that entitled us to extra raffle tickets. We had never been to an art action before, but there was free champagne on offer, we had no other plans and it sounded like a bit of fun. We went for registration and the area in front of the Star Lounge was packed. We did not have long to wait to get registered, but we still had to wait for a while until they were letting people in. Once we got to go inside, the auctioneer explained the terms and conditions and also how the auction would work. We were then encouraged to have a look at the artwork displayed around the edges of the venue and there was free champagne, too. This was actually my favourite part of the auction. The art that they had on display was quite diverse. Some of it I loved, some of it caught my interest and some of it just left me bewildered. After about 30 minutes, the auction started. For every artwork up for auction, the auctioneer told us a bit about the artwork and the artist. So it was quite an educational experience as well. I really enjoyed the experience and on the way out, we were given another print.
I had not anticipated that this would take so long. When the auction was over, it was nearly time for the next activity. This was the photo scavenger hunt. As this was cancelled due to lack of participation on the Ovation, I was keen to do it this time. I talked Graham into joining me. I quickly went back to the cabin to drop off our print and pick up my camera and then met Graham in front of the venue. We bumped into our neighbour again and this time round we had some time for a chat. The reason that we had not seen him for a while was that they had moved away. It was nice to catch up.
I did not really know what to expect. We ended up getting a list of 10 photos we had to take. I can’t remember all of them. The easiest was getting a name tag from a Romanian crew member. One of the photographers we had become friendly with was from Romania. So we went to see him in the photo gallery. I also had no issue with a photo of somebody working out. One was surprisingly difficult and that was a photo of somebody eating an ice cream. We did get lucky though in the Windjammer after striking out at Ben and Jerry’s. So I did not need to sacrifice myself in the name of the competition. Others needed a little bit of creativity and staging; like somebody sleeping in an inappropriate location, somebody fishing and the recreation of that famous Titanic scene. Two defeated us and those were a human pyramid and a cancan line by the theatre. There was actually a team that got all 10 and some bonus points for being back first. It was a bit silly, but harmless fun. I think I have this out of my system though.
We had a wander around for a bit and then decided to find somewhere to sit where there were comfortable chairs and we could indulge in some people watching. We ended up in the Bolero Lounge, which on the Navigator of the seas is an open plan space near the dining room on deck 4. We found some nice seats. I had a look at the drinks menu in case that somebody came to ask what we wanted to drink. It seemed only fair enough that we should order a drink if we are taking up seats in one of the bars. Nobody ever came and for periods of time, the actual bar was unsupervised. I was quite surprised by this. I was happy enough reading my book and Graham watched the world go by. At some point, they started to set up for a musician near where we were sitting. We decided to retreat back to our cabin.