Making our way past port security after the duty free mall, they barely bothered to even look up as we passed, much less question whether I was holding a correct cruise card or the latest frozen yogurt punch card. Thankfully, RCL's own security at the gangway was more thorough before letting us onboard. We stopped at the towel return table after sending our bag through the x-ray machine and dropped off all 4 towels we had accumulated. The crew member only cared about our cabin number, promising to mark us both as having returned towels scanned out on our separate cards.
A quick stop at the cabin to dump our bag and change out of our bathing suits before heading back down to play the 4PM trivia. Our latest suite treat plate had been delivered and unfortunately was our first one to feature items that shouldn't have been left out. There was a noticeable smell when we first lifted the lid. I took a picture and tossed the plate's contents.
Our usual team members for trivia weren't there so we played by ourselves and came in second to "The Troublemakers." They gave their keychain prize to us. So happy to see a country music themed trivia, we stuck around for the Dolly Parton themed trivia coming up next. I overheard The Troublemakers talking about how this is a new series they've been trying out with the first one last week featuring trivia about Tammy Wynette. Wish I could have stuck around for extra sailings as this trivia would be the highlight of my onboard activities. Only three teams stuck around to play this trivia (The Troublemakers opting out entirely) and I won thanks to having just as much knowledge about musical artists' personal lives and career history as I do about their songs. I was a little surprised that the few I missed were ones where we had to name the song title from a spoken version of the lyric. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have guessed the song title from the first few notes being played either except for a select few songs. Something about how it clicks in my brain because if I heard the song playing somewhere, I'd be singing along to every word! My prize was a keychain and a highlighter prompting me to use the open clip top of the highlighter to start corralling all our keychain wins back in the cabin. Melissa was so impressed that she came over to see which ones I'd gotten wrong. Dad took the opportunity to show off his new tattoo sleeves and Melissa gave the right response of concern and suggestions to go to medical. Dad pointed out how it was after hours to go that night but Melissa assured him that there would have been at least a nurse on duty.
We returned to our cabin to change for dinner tonight back at Chops. Once seated at the restaurant, we noticed 3 different couples be led to their tables without issue where the gentleman was wearing shorts and the lady was dressed for dinner. I've stated in the past how neither Dad or I would consider wearing shorts to dinner, we also aren't into dressing to the nines either. I also took note of how it was only the guys who felt comfortable doing that, am I right ladies? Now saying that, did it make my food taste any different or my service go any slower because of how the guys a few tables over were dressed? No, of course not! To each their own, I didn't pay for your cruise and I'm not those guys' mamas so I'm not going to claim my cruise was ruined because of how someone else was dressed. Now if they'd shown up still in bathing suits and no top/coverup, I'm sure the restaurant staff would have asked them to change first. I share what I've witnessed as a preface to the reaction I got instead from a neighboring table who saw me taking photos of my food for this blog. A woman at a nearby table copped an attitude, stuck her nose in the air, and rolled her eyes so much I wondered if we should warn the waiter not to slip as he walked past their table. Really lady? My food picture taking is the bane of your high and mighty existence but you didn't notice the three shorts clad men who paraded past your table? I was so tempted to walk over and point out how many glasses of champagne she was knocking back and ask if she was now seeing two of me taking pictures?
Tonight waiting on us was the delightful Alberto. He had joked earlier at breakfast that if only we'd had him waiting on us at dinner the previous times in Chops, we'd have had a much better dinner experience. Alberto kept apologizing for it being so busy and causing a delay but he had things moving so well we never even noticed there was a delay. He asked about where we planned to dine tomorrow and was open about his not so pleasant opinions of Izumi. He did recommend we try the ice cream dessert on their menu. We shared the huge difference between the two nights we'd already dined there and Alberto asked for each waiter's name. He recognized Prashant's name and agreed that he was good. He also recognized Leo's name and wasn't the least bit surprised to hear he was the bad waiter. I was a little taken aback when Alberto added that Leo was a bad waiter because he was Chinese. Tonight, the chef came out to chat with a few tables and Dad was so happy with how his steaks had been cooked that he shook the chef's hand and thanked him profusely.
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Charred Beef Carpaccio - even though it's meant to be this rare, it was still tasty.
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Spicy Jumbo Shrimp - had this on Oasis as well but don't think they were this jumbo! I had asked about making it less spicy on Oasis but neither dish tasted all that spicy. I do think Oasis's version had something more like polenta or mash on the bottom, not just this pile of melted butter.
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This is the picture of how the same dish looked on Oasis of the Seas last year. Honestly I'm glad Grandeur spent their budget on the bigger shrimp than the little Gruyere Cheese Tater Tots that were large on Oasis.
Another plus for the Grandeur was how they prepared the side of Mac & Cheese. Oasis' looked like spiral noodles that ran away in fright when you went to add the cheese. This is what proper Mac & Cheese comfort food should look like - so cheesy that it lifted up out of the dish as large stuck together clumps.
Once dinner was over, we headed to the Schooner Bar to wait for the 8PM Tribond Trivia and found it packed for tonight's Pub Quiz session. This was a new thing to us so we sat in to listen. This type of trivia they have a set group of categories and then they ask you a handful of questions within each category. Much more like Jeopardy where you can use the category title to help guide your answer but all the questions were worth the same point value. We noticed that one team sitting nearby was having a hard time with an answer so we shared the answer with them. They were happily receptive to us sharing any further answers we knew and we ended up playing as a team from the start with them a time or two later in the cruise.
The lounge majorly cleared out after Pub Trivia was over so we moved over to more comfortable seats for Tribond. Our new friends had elected to leave for the show. Though not many people stuck around, there was a few of us who were there waiting to play. When 8PM comes and goes and no one shows, I walked over to the South Pacific Lounge just to be sure there wasn't a location misprint in the Compass (had that a time or two, especially between the paper schedule and the onboard app's schedule on other cruises) but no one was in there either. Dad used the bar's phone to call down and ask Guest Services who promised to call someone. We sat there waiting another 10-15 minutes before Bitty came running in out of breath explaining that she had been helping with the "Rock-a-Rokie" version of Live Band Karaoke in the Centrum. Unlike Mark's previous Tribond Trivia, Bitty elected to read the three items and have us put answers on the usual lined trivia sheets. By the end of the game we were all having laughing fits with Bitty at her attempts to read the words. Who knew the one non American cruise activities staff member who still had English as her native language (she's from Manchester, England) would be so hard to understand? Bless her heart though, this was her first ever cruise line job and she was trying her best. I could tell she was so nervous and possibly also had a learning disability (at one point she commented on how her evening trivia would be "short words so it would even be easy for dyslexics to read) making it even harder that I almost went up and gave her a hug a few times. She had to dart off immediately after the game was over to her next scheduled activity so we didn't get the chance to talk.
Part 3 to come featuring the sad tale of what happens on cruises probably more often than you'd ever realize.
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