At Sea
Trip Start
Apr 01, 2004
1
10
12
Trip End
Apr 11, 2004
At Sea, United States
Friday, April 9, 2004
We met up later and went to Bingo together. We had heard all week about Bingo from one of tablemates who didn't miss a game
Miles and Miles of Hallway
. Apparently there are several different ways to play Bingo and the women on the ship, while really into the game, just couldn't quite figure out what all the different games were. So, they kept calling out BINGO! at wrong times. Our tablemate was having some frustration problems related to this area and I think has gone into bingo therapy now. So, after hearing all about this, we decided to check it out. Apparently, so had most of the ship. There were so many women wanting to play bingo that for the first time in the history of the ship, they ran out of bingo cards and had to run to get more. The jackpot was $6,000, the largest jackpot Holland America had ever had. Our caller was Jennie McNulty, the comedian and it turned out, one of the partiers at Fat Tuesday the night before. She was quite hangover, even at 4pm, which made the game even more fun. The game was blackout, which means every single number in the card has to be filled in order to win. We didn't win, but a very cute couple with two kids and a mortgage won, so the money was going to their kids. It was great to see how excited they were.
Right after bingo, we went to the Dessert Extravaganza. It was a large buffet in the dining room, just of desserts. Serious sugar overload. Nearly everyone on the ship was there, which I think surprised the staff. They seemed a bit disorganized and stressed. However, the desserts were delicious, especially the raspberry mousse cake with a hard chocolate shell. My wife and I took a long walk around the deck after dessert. We were going to go and see the finals of Olivia Idol, but the lounge it was in was way to crowded.
That night was lobster night in the dining room. A couple at our table was late because they were at the Olivia Idol contest, which ran over time. Apparently the winner was fantastic, so much so that one of the professional singers on the ship offered to record some songs with her
Thermal Room in the Spa
. Pretty neat to get a recording career started on a cruise ship!The lobster was great, probably the best meal in the dining room all week. However, we were all sad because our cruise week was coming to an end. The waiting room staff sang a little song to us and then marched around the room with sparklers stuck into baked alaska, while we all cheered and twirled our napkins in the air. It was hokey, but fun after a couple glasses of wine. We had brought a fantastic dessert wine called "Joy" from a local winery we visited, and we shared it with our table and the table next to us. It tastes like golden flowers or ambrosia. Just delicious.
We saw Vicki Shaw again that last night and she was just as funny as she was before. She went on the cave tubing excursion in Belize and had quite a story about her experience. She was funny. She finished up her show reminding us to all go back to our cabins and pack. So, grumbling, we did just that. We ended up having to buy another bag to bring stuff home in, which is a sign of a good vacation. The fluffy HAL bathrobes took up a lot of room, as did the bottles of California wine we brought home with us. Can't seem to escape the California wineries. We sat on the verandah for a long time that night, then set our clocks forward one more time, before reluctantly going to bed.
