Grandeur of the Seas - Day 11 - Sea Day (Part 2)

Our next stop, big surprise, was the 4PM afternoon trivia. Bitty was running it and once again having a hard time reading the questions. I felt bad for her as I know she was trying very hard and if it wasn't for the fact that I was trying to play the game, I was tempted to go up there and be her designated reader. I've worked with enough struggling readers to know she was guessing at words and skipping ones that were hard for her to figure out. Unfortunately, some trivia players aren't always nice and patient. One of the questions asked "What sport calls its tournament the Waterloo Cup?" and when revealing the answer, Bitty motioned like she was bowling and said the answer was "balls." That thoroughly confused everyone trying to figure out what sport "balls" was. Several players tried to help out in this new mini version of charades guessing that she meant bocce. Another question asked by Bitty was "What is the capital of Uganda?" Her answer was "Montevideo." Trivia players were quick to voice their disapproval and it became obvious she had said Uganda because she couldn't figure out how to say Uruguay. Rather than just saying "oops, my mistake, everyone gets that one correct" she just kept repeating "The capital of Uruguay is Montevideo" and quickly moved on to the next question. When we were finished with the answers and tallying scores, I called Bitty over to ask what to do about that question. She seemed surprised to hear of her own mistake and only then told everyone to give credit for that question.

Back to the cabin for a quick change before heading to the Concierge Lounge. Found seats actually within the lounge this time but had 2 waiters walk right past us to take the orders of other passengers. I stopped the next waitress to walk by and asked about getting a root beer. "Not on the ship" was her answer. I reply "Yes, it is because it was available in the pool bar." "Oh well it's not available here in the Viking Crown Lounge." "Is that the rule then, we can only order from what the Viking Crown Lounge bar has, you're not allowed to go get it from somewhere else?" Emphatic shake of the head no. On Celebrity in their suite lounge known as Michael's, the bartender was gone so long we thought he'd forgotten about us. Just as we decide to leave, he comes rushing back in to deliver Dad's Brandy Alexander because he'd done the legwork to find out that Dad's drink choice was only available in the pool bar and ran up there to get it for him. Guess that doesn't translate to the suite treatment on RCL.

So instead Dad orders a Diet Coke and I went with water as I was feeling a little overloaded on the Diet Coke. The waitress walks away and we wait, and we wait. Same waitress walks past us to deliver the requested wine to another passenger that had come in after us. Then she moves on to taking other passengers drink orders while we continue to sit and wait. Were they waiting on that Diet Coke to get here from the bottling plant in St. Lucia? Dad fills Carlington in on our poor service and the inability to get root beer. Carlington immediately hops on the phone with the bar manager. A minute later, our waitress comes back with our soda and water. A minute after that, the bar manager comes in with a soda and water for us to remedy what his waitress either forgot or ignored only for her to suddenly step up when she saw us reporting her actions. The bar manager told me about how there is no root beer on the ship except in the Freestyle machines because it requires a special syrup that only comes in that form. I told him about the pool bar waiter saying they had it so he stepped away to check with the pool bar. Came back to report that they don't have any either. He first started to back up his claim by saying that even big ships like Oasis only have root beer in the machines and Johnny Rockets. I pointed out how we had it on Oasis everywhere and got the "each ship is different and bigger ships have better things" speech. Yeah that's true but you yourself just used Oasis as an example of a ship not having it available everywhere is what I was thinking. Soon became clear that no matter what I said he planned to just keep repeating himself. He offered to bring me cider instead. I said no thanks, I'll stick with my water and he left. 

Guess they ran out of blankets for those piggies

I recalled to Dad how I spotted a manager in the Windjammer at lunch the other day using some sort of card to make soda dispense into regular cups from the machines and wondering why they couldn't at least suggest doing that in this case. It's obviously not like root beer is my life's blood and I'm going to throw a tantrum on the floor of the Concierge Lounge like a Pinnacle..err I mean toddler if I don't get it but at this point I felt like I was fighting some sort of battle that I needed to see through. Who comes through with the save a moment later but Carlington who took the time after the bar manager left not only to go to the Freestyle machine to get me root beer but he got a brand new soda package chipped cup to do it. I felt silly for having him go to all that trouble when I could have just gone back down to the cabin and got my cup but he said "I want you to have whatever makes you happy." I asked then if he stuffed this cup with a million dollars and he cracked up laughing. 

I took my new cup down to Giovanni's for dinner tonight and drank from it rather than order something. We were only one of three tables in use tonight and had Karl again as our waiter. The manager Deckster had arranged for the dining room lasagna to be specially prepared for Dad to enjoy as his dinner here tonight. I was shocked at how big the portion was! Dad wasn't able to finish it all but loved it!

I went with the gnocchi I'd ordered a few times already and added a request of the lobster from tonight's dining room menu since it was our second and final formal night. I was glad to see that I didn't have to miss out on the few things I would have wanted to have if we'd been eating in the MDR this cruise. 

Two tails with a good amount of meat on them. Much better than I expected for the non upcharge lobster. 

As we wrapped up, we noticed the chef coming out to greet each table - something we'd never seen him do in Giovanni's all cruise. Since we were just about finished with our meal, he hadn't made it to our table before we got up to leave. We stopped to confirm the Giovanni's brunch reservation with Deckster on our way out and he made a big point of introducing us to the chef. Dad thanked them both for the lasagna and shared how much he liked it. As we turned to leave, the chef made a big effort to make sure we knew his name was Moses. I'm guessing that was more for the sake of a tip or post cruise survey praise than his desire to be pen pals. 

We joined in with the guy we helped the other night to play Pub trivia and ended up tying with a couple other teams. Highlighters for everyone! Our cabin countertop is starting to look like a highlighter and keychain support group meeting. We next found an open spot to watch over the railing at Jeff hosting another round of 60 Seconds or Less. He had two young brothers participating in the challenge to keep a blown up balloon in the air only hitting it with their heads. The winner was the one with the most head hits. At one point the older brother was ducking low to get his head under the balloon and got poked in the eye as he got too close to his younger brother. Guess no one is safe from harm while playing one of Jeff's games! Dad of course was quick to point out to me how this one woman lined up to play the next challenge kept helping the younger brother hit his balloon back into the air. At first Jeff counted those hits on his score but then took them off his tally starting back over when he was the only one touching the balloon. 

Without much to interest us for the rest of the evening, we headed back to the cabin to get some extra rest. When we opened the door, Dad thought there was someone in our cabin because he heard voices. It turns out that our steward Moses had set up my towel animal to look like he was watching TV!

Dad had a little piggy on his bed.