Grandeur of the Seas - Day 9 - St. Maarten (Part 2)

Today we joined up with our new group for the afternoon trivia. Bitty came rushing in announcing that she was here and ready for the Elvis trivia. Only problem was that the Elvis trivia was scheduled for 4:45PM and we were all here for the 4PM trivia. Bitty explained that she had thought it was actually 5PM, not 4PM and cursed herself for rushing back early from the beach when she didn't have to. Not sure who was then supposed to be doing 4PM trivia but she ran it now. We ended up with second place and they were so happy to be getting better scores with our help that one of the ladies, Diane, tried to bribe me with getting me into the Diamond lounge for coffee if I continued to play trivia with them. I of course politely laughed it off since I don't drink coffee and my suite cruise card also opened the Diamond lounge door. Not that we ever bothered to try and get free drinks during the Diamond happy hour there but we have on occasion popped in while in the nearby South Pacific Lounge to get a cup of water or juice.

After a quick visit to the cabin to change, we popped up to the Concierge Lounge where we said hello to Carlington and told him about the "special suite line" for room service being published in the Compass. He was totally surprised and offered to get us a different number but we assured him it wasn't necessary. It was advertised in today's Compass that at 5:30PM there would be a "up to 75% blowout clearance sale" in the shops so we headed down to see if that was the sale that would include the one shirt I wanted. They had several shirts discounted but they were only the generic ones that sit out in the shop all the time. Once again we were told, my shirt will only be available on day 11.

Tonight's dinner was in Giovanni's and unfortunately, despite only one other table in use for the bulk of our meal, our waiter tonight Karl wasn't as great in service as Johannes or Prashant. 

Mozzarella di Bufalo appetizer - loved the flavors themselves but I'd much rather see it in the form of cherry tomatoes and mozzarella balls so it can be picked at and shared.

Rather than an entrée, I opted for ordering two pasta dishes and Karl mocked me for it. When I found both pastas to be a little tougher than they were the other nights and offered the real reason as to why I finished neither plate, Karl defended the food by pointing out how it's all homemade. I told him I knew that to be true because I took the pasta making class they offered on my first Grandeur sailing and he seemed impressed by that. 

Top - Tagliatelle Alla Carbonara, Bottom - Pasta Del Giorno (Pasta of the Day) Linguine with pesto and olive oil

When nothing else sounded enticing for dessert I chose the Panna Cotta and didn't like it either. Karl thought he'd help me like it better by telling me how it is made up of strawberries and Greek yogurt. Not sure how knowing what's in it would make me think it tastes better plus while it does have a cream base, I seriously doubt it's Greek yogurt.

Then they dedicated the other half of the restaurant to the dinner for all Pinnacle guests and several officers. We learned this was only something they do if they get enough Pinnacle members onboard. Once everyone arrived for that dinner, the noise level went up tenfold with toasts, speeches, and applause and of course a lot of the waitstaff was pulled to tend to them leaving their regular tables waiting. It felt like it took us about half as long to get someone to swipe our card so we could leave as it did to eat our entire meal. On our way out, we stopped to make a reservation for the Giovanni brunch which we now learned was only to be on the last sea day, not every sea day for the rest of the cruise like Carlington had thought. Deckster didn't show any reservation for us yet even though Carlington had said he'd made one. Dad asked if the brunch would include Giovanni's famous lasagna and Deckster said it would but also offered to have it made for Dad whenever he wanted as long as they had 24 hours notice. We had Deckster make our final dinner reservations for the rest of the cruise. 

We were planning to step right out of Giovanni's and sit in on Pub Night trivia but Bitty had started super early for some reason. I had hoped to use our unexpected free time to drop in on John & Katrina taping the morning show since they were open about doing it each night before at 8PM and encouraged people to stop by and say hi. Dad wanted to check out the return of Friendly Family Feud in the Centrum so his choice won out only for him to choose to bail a few minutes later. We next headed into the theater to see Alfred & Seymour as we both enjoy comedy performers and I especially enjoy improv comedy. The place was already getting crowded and I hope the powers that be see it as a sign of what types of entertainers cruisers want to see. Production shows and musical acts can be great too but it's nice to have a mix of everything. Alfred & Seymour had some pretty funny moments, especially when they messed with the people who came in late. Would have liked to see more improv and inclusion of the audience though.

One of the things I've always enjoyed doing, especially in the evenings is to take a moment and walk around the promenade deck outside. Sometimes when you're running around you can forget that you're on a ship out in the majestic ocean and it's nice to step outside and feel the natural elements around you. It turns out that it's also a great way to circumvent the snail pace of a large crowd exiting the theater after a show. We stepped outside from the doors right by the theater, walked along the outside deck in the super high winds until we came across our next door to go back inside. We came back inside just ahead of the crowd still shuffling their way through the casino.

We decided a snack was in order and popped up to the Park Cafe. Dad went with a hamburger while I tried the nachos again. Unfortunately, the nachos weren't as good today so I didn't eat much. 

As we sat in the solarium, the semi peace and quiet was interrupted by maintenance work being done on the pool. They had drained the pool and were first working in and around the far pool wall but then disappeared out of sight to work on the pool from underneath. It was so weird to hear the power tools and see the sparks emitted but you couldn't see the person working. Not sure what they did but the pool was back open and in full use the next morning.

Our 5 straight port days are now behind us and I was looking forward to three straight sea days.

Grandeur of the Seas - Day 9 - St. Maarten (Part 1)

Today was our earliest scheduled port arrival of 7AM into St. Maarten so we were already docked by the time I woke up this morning. This was our third visit to St. Maarten, the first was on the same Celebrity Solstice cruise as St. Kitts. We had the rare treat of being in port until 10PM so we were able to do a daytime excursion (Dad and I split up - he went to ATVs and I did the glass bottom boat ship excursion) and then in the evening we took a sunset catamaran ride. Except for our itineraries that featured an overnight and our visit to Dublin where we couldn't leave when we intended because of winds, I don't think we've ever had a port stay that long. It's such a nice change of pace to do an evening tour. The second visit to St. Maarten was last year's Oasis of the Seas where we chose to just get off and walk around the port area. That visit was while the port was just starting to rebuild after the hurricanes and many of the shops were little stands and pop up huts. This time, I found an RCL tour that was right up my alley, the Royal Fun Family Food Tour. I reserved this tour during a sale for $94 which was also covered under our OBC. Dad wasn't interested so I got to fly solo on today's excursion. I've done ship excursions solo before and felt perfectly safe, not sure I'd book a private tour just for myself however.

Minor rant about the placements of outlets in this cabin - I really wish they had a US outlet on the floor level or at least on the wall by the door as Norwegian did so that I could have a secure place to charge my electronics with bulkier plugs. I had to channel my Dad and MacGyver my own solution for fitting the camera battery charger plug into the outlet on my bedroom vanity since it was higher than the start of the mirror.

To keep the camera battery charger pressed into the outlet, that's my tablet charger propping up my hairbrush enough to push against the middle of the battery charger.

There were two time options for this tour, 10AM and 11AM so I went with the 11AM knowing that we'd be sampling plenty of food and timing it with lunchtime would work out great. This left me plenty of time in the morning to head to Chops with Dad for breakfast.

Over medium eggs - toast was hit or miss. If they remembered to bring it, it was rock hard. Asked for only lightly toasted and it was at least edible. I think next time I'll just ask for a slice of untoasted bread.

After breakfast, we were curious to see what the 9:15AM trivia really was because the inside of the Compass said it was "Popular Brands" Picture Challenge whereas the back schedule read "Name the Mammal" Picture Challenge. Turned out to be Name the Mammal run by Mark so we sat there staring at a handout of several black and white thumbnails trying to place the animal. You'd be surprised how many animals look like anteaters! One of them ended up being a picture of a shrew and somehow that became an inside joke in several situations for the rest of the cruise. I wanted to get through the 10AM morning trivia before heading on the pier to meet my tour so I used the brief break in between to run upstairs and get everything I needed. "The Troublemakers" won again but passed on their prize so we ended up with more highlighters. Dad headed up to the Solarium pool while I headed directly out onto the pier for my tour.

What I didn't realize was that the family standing under an awning right by the ship was my tour so I walked all the way down to the shops and back when I didn't see anyone else. We were soon joined by a few other couples for a total of 8. Our guide, Annalise was relieved that the family wasn't part of the 10AM tour because that session was packed and there would have been no room for their adult son's wheelchair. Their son was able to climb a couple steps with their help but I don't think this shuttle bus could have accommodated someone who needed a full wheelchair lift. Everyone but me opted to make a restroom stop before we got started so it was nice to hang back and chat with Annalise and the RCL shore excursion rep that was waiting with us. We were supposed to be a group of 9 but #9 never showed up.

The shuttle bus was the perfect size for our small group with 2 seats along one side and one seat along the other side. Only downside was the addition of spare fold down seats that could fit in between if needed but when folded up, they made the space to climb in and out of the two seater side very narrow. I should have just sat on the single seat side as it was more often the best side for pictures too. We also had Anke tagging along who was Annalise's mentor so she was helpful with information and cracking jokes. Anke had come up to the Baltimore/DC area in the past to see the historic sites so she had tons of questions for us cruisers from Baltimore as well.

I appreciated that not only did Annalise check with each participant as we first met if they had any allergies or dietary restrictions but she also asked before our first stop at the Amsterdam Cheese Shop whether anyone didn't drink alcohol. This first stop offered sparkling wine to enjoy with the cheese samples. A handful of us raised our hands about not drinking and were provided with plenty of free flowing Fanta orange soda and water bottles. During the ride over, Annalise gave us a lesson on how gouda cheese is not pronounced "good-ahh" but really "Howda." It was funny when the shop employees still said "good-ahh."

Our small group sat around a table in the back corner of the shop and got a private lesson on several different types of cheese which we all got to sample. I was quite surprised to even see a pesto cheese. This was meant to be our appetizer course of cheese and wine. While we snacked, tour member Kay got picked to be the sous chef and helped take shredded piles of three of the same cheeses and add them to a pan of noodles. Our cheese teacher layered each cheese over a third of the noodles so that we could later taste each noodle and cheese combination after the shop owner took it in the back to melt the cheese (or did the magic TV swap out).

We did get to try each cheese and noodle combo individually but my spoonful of pesto cheese was one giant clump that I couldn't get apart to eat the rest of before she was dishing out the third choice.

Just as we were at the tail end of our tasting the finished product, a large tour group came into the small shop and Annalise did a great job keeping the crowd at bay when they tried to come infringe on our sampling. She also gave us time to shop and pulled each tour member aside to a separate register so that we didn't have to wait in the long line with that other tour group. We were assured by the shop employees that any cheese we bought here would be okay until we got back to the ship and then would keep in our cabin fridges safely so I bought Dad a small wheel of his favorite "howda" for $14. Several of our tour mates bought bags of souvenirs as well and I was super tempted to get some of the Dutch treats. Anke was quick to help stow everyone's shopping bags on the racks above our seats when we returned to the bus joking that everyone should feel free to forget their purchases at the end so they can have snacks later.

We ended up in a long traffic standstill delay traveling between our first and second stops due to some police activity up ahead. Annalise and Anke traded off commentary and jokes while pointing out our great opportunity to see the multiple neighboring smaller islands in the distance. A little further up the road before we got stopped again led to a small empty roadside stand that had a whole group of lizards wandering around it.

 Gives new meaning to encountering a roadside gang

Our next stop was to Sky's The Limit, part of an open air food market that reminded me of a mall's food court. Tons of seating all around but you just walked up to the counter of whatever restaurant stand you wanted and place your order. The whole place was super busy but our guides had taken care of reserving two booths for our group. The two sets of couples took the back booth while I joined Kay, her husband, and their son Scotty in the other booth. Normally the provided "main meal" here also included plantains but this time the plantains were replace with potato salad since they didn't have the plantains available.

Above is Annalise and Anke helping retrieve our plates as soon as the johnnycakes came out of the fryer. Below - the back of the venue looks hazy because of the wafting smoke coming out of each stall.

Everyone got a tray consisting of two pork ribs, a chicken breast, a little bit of salsa, a cup of coleslaw, a cup of potato salad, and a johnnycake. Everything was tasty, cooked through, and the meat was nice and tender. Only downside was being in the open air and the heat and the smoke wafting from each restaurant's grills brought around tons of flies so we'd be swatting away flies every few bites.

Our last stop for dessert was to the Carousel Gelateria. The place was owned by a gentleman from Italy and he had designed the entire venue to look like a carousel. We were first led into the back where all the machines are stored and got a lesson from the owner himself on what each machine does and how much it costs. Then I got picked to be the helper this time. The owner poured a mix for chocolate gelato into the machine and had me scraping it off as the machine pushed it out the front into the bin he was holding underneath. It was such a fun experience! I felt like I was one of those people on Chopped who always end up putting their random ingredients into the ice cream maker and then they're crazily trying to scoop it out like Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory. Unfortunately in my rush I didn't bother to show the kind lady who I passed my camera to how to use it so no pictures of me in the act. On the bright side, it kept me from getting a chocolate covered camera. I got so caught up in the moment I started talking in Italian to the owner and he was cracking up laughing. Once the machine had finished dispensing, he smoothed out the contents and gave everyone a tiny spoon to taste. I'm not normally a straight chocolate girl believe it or not but this was so delicious and creamy. You don't normally get to taste test gelato you just made though walking into your local Baskin Robbins.

We were told to keep hold of our tasting spoons because we were then invited to go into the main shop area and pick 2 scoops of whatever flavors we wanted. I went with straight cookies and cream as I couldn't find 2 different flavors that sounded good together.

Once we had our gelato bowls to enjoy, we were invited to head out back through an open walkway where there was a real working carousel inside a small room. We were encouraged to hop on for a carousel ride while eating our gelato and everyone went for it but me. All I could imagine was landing gelato on myself and getting dizzy while we were spinning around so instead I stayed on solid ground taking pictures of everyone else enjoying the ride.

I just hope the carousel is in better shape than this boat we saw docked behind the building:

Everyone had full bellies so our ride back to the ship was more subdued. The views on the way back to the ship was just as beautiful.

I didn't even notice the guy swimming when I took this picture of the sailboats. Does it make anyone else want to play Whack a Mole?

And the prettiest ship we spotted on the way back

We did have to hold up our cruise cards as security checked in our bus before letting us back into the port. I was tempted to check out the shops, now almost all back in regular buildings again, but I didn't want to keep the cheese out too long. 

Above is the sign we saw driving back into port and below is the sign you see within the port shopping area. 3 trips to St. Maarten and I'd never spotted the exit sign. It also took 3 trips and being in the shopping area in the middle of the afternoon to finally get a picture of the welcome sign without people posing in front of it.

And for comparison sake - I took the same photo of the Grandeur docked here that I took of Oasis last year.

When we came back to the ship last year in this port, they had barricades set up halfway forcing people to snake through this little yellow building full of x-ray machines.

We went through the building as directed but noticed that several passengers were simply ignoring the queue and instead heading around the barricades and slipping in via the opening to use the same gangway we used when we came out of the building. There was another gangway all the way up at the end of the pier which had the ship's x-ray machines to pass through but if you went in this gangway and had skipped the building, you would have gotten away with never scanning your bags. We asked the next cruise activities staff member we saw that afternoon and he first said if they didn't go through the yellow building, then their only option was to go all the way to the end and go through the ship's x-rays. We told him that some people weren't doing that, choosing instead to walk in through the opening and he was concerned enough to tell us that he'd be reporting such a flaw. Today, I noticed that the little yellow building remained closed and everyone had to walk to the end and go through the ship's x-rays.

Once back in the cabin and the pleasure of air conditioning, I told Dad how nice a tour it was and how he would have had no problem eating the food provided. He now regretted not joining me. He had enjoyed his pool time except for forgetting to take off his shirt before getting in. Ahh well, that's when the shower clothesline comes in handy.

Today's suite treat plate of the day was a cheese plate repeat

When our two original trivia teammates didn't show for several sessions, we befriended a group of ladies and one of the ladies' husbands that were traveling together. It turns out that one of the ladies even recognized Dad from when they both worked for the government. They told us a story of how they were walking around the shops and one of the shop owners had called out enticing them to come in and bring their bodyguard as poor Don was the only guy with them. Dad had shared his bruise story with them and they urged him to make an official report regardless so that if something should be needed down the road, it was on record. While I was gone on tour today, Dad went down to guest services to make such a report. Guest services had no idea how to do such a thing and had to call in a manager who had to figure it out himself. Dad asked that the report also be shown to John and Katrina as it happened during their department run activity and the lack of response from Jeff didn't sit well. Dad was assured that it would be brought to their attention.

Oasis of the Seas - Day 5 - St. Maarten (Part 2)

Once back on board, we went straight to Tri-Bond Trivia in the Schooner Bar run by Dominic. Tri-Bond Trivia is a fun logic based game where you are given 3 items and you have to find the one thing they have in common. Slightly different than your average answer and question style trivia. A good amount of passengers had come back from port so we had a decent sized group of teams. Several times when going over the answers, Dominic granted 1/2 points to other teams for having an answer that was close and fit the criteria. He was one of the few entertainment staff willing to let you argue a trivia answer. We also enjoyed that he'd take time to chat before and after and we gave him a few logic puzzles to use when he next needed a tie breaker. This round, Dominic feared that he'd given out so many 1/2 points that he'd end up having to do a tie breaker but breathed a sigh of relief when we revealed that our team had gotten 20/20 - a perfect score! Highlighters for everyone!

We had decided earlier in the day to give Johnny Rockets a try for lunch but on this port day, they didn't open until 2:30PM. They were only open until 6:00PM this evening which to me sounds a little off to end right before most people's dinnertime. To kill time waiting for them to open, we parked ourselves in the back row of aquatheater seats that weren't blocked off like the ones you have to go down the stairs to get to. We watched the loop of viral videos portrayed during the day on the big screens and was soon joined by another couple. It was almost as funny watching the videos as it was hearing "ooo" and "ohhh" reactions from the couple that had joined us. 

Right at 2:30PM we headed over to Johnny Rockets and appreciated that they insisted you sanitize at the Purell dispenser before entering. There is a cover charge for this restaurant albeit significantly cheaper than the other specialty restaurants. And just like the other specialty restaurants, the cover charge was waived for us. We opted for eating inside since we'd been feeling the mist sitting outside and feared it was close to raining. We were seated quickly and automatically had a plate of onion rings and fries. Our waiter, Bhim, took the time to outline a smiley face in ketchup on another plate for us but then left us for the longest time.

 

Mushroom burger

Finally he comes back to take our order. Dad ordered a Rocket Double as he didn't like the chili sauce or pickles that came with a #12. He also went for a grilled cheese; an item he seems obsessed with finding on a ship. "I finally found a grilled cheese on a ship!" Umm, you know Dad, you could have made one at any time at home? I ordered the Route 66; once again being the sole guinea pig on this trip that would try any dish that had mushrooms. I'd heard the sandwiches are on the smaller side plus, you can order as much as you want so I also went with the BBQ Chicken Bacon Melt so I could have a variety of one burger and one chicken sandwich. The random moments I get fast food at home, I usually have to at least have some water too if I order a shake so I ordered a diet coke in addition to a vanilla milkshake.

Dad simply ordered a chocolate malt to drink. Bhim cautioned that the shakes would cost extra but I replied that they are included with Star Class. He looked slightly confused but said okay and walked away. He came back a short while later with my soda and to question which cheese Dad wanted on his grilled cheese. 

BBQ chicken

It seemed to take a long time for our food to show up and extraordinarily too long for our shakes which didn't come for a while after our food. Were they trying to make the ice cream from scratch back there? Dad was stuck without any drink whatsoever until they finally brought them. There were a few other tables in use but it seemed our waiter was in the mood to do anything but actually tend to our table. We had to stop other waiters passing by a couple times to go get our waiter. My mushroom burger was okay but the chicken sandwich was pretty bad. I had to pick it apart just to eat some of the chicken and left the rest. We saw a waiter walk by with a fresh ice cream sundae and I suggested Dad ask for that for his late night snack.

Rocket Double

When it came time to have our card scanned, we had to have someone fetch our waiter again. I watched him take my card over to the machine to scan it and then get completely confused about how to change the setting for Star Class. He eventually called over another waitress and she showed him how to do it. When we saw our receipt it shows our four sandwiches each costing $0 and a $0 total. I guess their answer to how to avoid charging for our shakes is to not put them on our order at all? While we were dining, we watched not only one passenger come in and just get a couple shakes to go (which clued us in to where the room service shakes were coming from), but an actual room service waitress wheeled her cart in to order two shakes to go and took the time to scoop out a bowl of cheese sauce normally meant for the chilli cheese fries to add to her cart as well. I feel like having that glimpse into where our "queso" came from was like how you never want to find out how the sausage is made! 

Dad and I split up so he could enjoy some relaxing time in the cabin reading while I went to Famous Actors and Movies Visual Trivia. Dominic was once again hosting and he spent the entire time running through the movie stills via the projector touting how he had a cooler prize we were all playing for. He wouldn't share what it was until the end but admitted that he had only one so the winning team would have to decide who was their MVP to get the prize. It was sweet that my teammates started right away insisting that I would be their MVP and everyone seemed pretty confident that we had a strong chance to win. We ended up losing again by one point and the winning team had that ringer Sydney helping them. :) The special prize turned out to be a tiny trophy shaped like a star at the top. Dominic thought it would be cute for a movie themed trivia. I guess Sydney cared more about balloons than trophies because they let a different lady on their team get the prize. Dad came back down to join our group at 5PM for regular afternoon trivia.

Tonight's original evening plan was to go to Giovanni's Table at 6:30PM for dinner and then Smitha had reserved the Headliner Show at 8:15PM. Once we found out the headliner was a vocal group called Uptown, we opted out of attending that show at all. Instead, we asked Smitha to change our reservations to the 10:30PM adult comedy show with Joe Yanetty and Jim Colliton. No problem doing that. 

Headed to Giovanni's Table for our reservation and were seated quickly. We soon had a visit by Giovanni's manager who wanted to introduce himself and assure us that our waiter Piyus would treat us well. Guess someone forgot to pass along the kiss up memo to Johnny Rockets' staff. Piyus was the first crew member we encountered on this trip that took the time to give us the "please give me a good report on your survey" speech. I was also surprised when the end of the cruise survey specifically asked if any crew member had pushed for you to rate them well on the survey. Guess they are trying to crack down on crew members doing that. 

Dad ordered the Italian Cheese and Cured Meat Plank and got a half portion of the Pasta Del Giorno or "pasta of the day." I don't remember exactly what it was but it looks like it was ribbon pasta with chicken strips.

I opted out of an actual appetizer and instead ordered Tagliatelle Alla Carbonara (bacon and egg pasta - a favorite of mine) and Gnocchi Al Gorgonzola. This one looked closer to the one I'd enjoyed on Celebrity and was certainly tastier than the gnocchi we got at 150 Central Park. I was a little surprised to see that this carbonara actually had a poached egg sitting on top that you broke open to spill over your pasta. Usually it's just the rich egg and cream sauce that gets poured over the pasta. 

Gnocchi

Carbonara

For an entrée I went with Gamberetti Alla Ligure (aka shrimp on top of mashed potato) and Dad got the Filetto Di Manzo Rustico (aka filet mignon). He once again had them butterfly it to cook quicker.

For dessert, our old friend "allergies" came back but this time they actually got it right as to who had what restriction. Piyus came back with the dessert menu and cautioned me that even the cannoli shells are made from nuts plus one of the pies or cakes had a hazelnut crust. I had already ruled out a lot of the other choices because they were either coated or topped with nuts so I ended up with an overflowing cup of vanilla ice cream. Dad went with a chocolate cake sounding option and was quite pleased with his choice. 

After dinner we headed to Music Trivia because it was TV themes, - a favorite topic of mine. I may not be able to tell you which King George ruled when but I can tell you all the words to the Three's Company theme song. Priorities right? This was a very popular trivia as most teams ended up sitting amongst each other anyway. We spotted our new friends Braidyn and Jafet had come to play but they opted to be their own team when the only seats left were ones at the piano behind us. Kudos to the guy playing as a team of him and his wife next to us. Once we switched papers with him and I saw that he'd come up with so many of the answers I missed I was kicking myself. The answer is so obvious after you hear it, right? 

We decided after the trivia to join Braidyn and Jafet at the Battle of the Sexes Game Show. They'd never seen it before so we were telling them about the different versions we'd seen on other cruises as we walked to Studio B. We've seen them do straight trivia questions and comparing scores over multiple sessions to having one session and we're asked to do physical tasks mostly in a relay race fashion. This time was the latter and I had flashbacks to the bruises I received on the Grandeur being that woman who had to get every other woman to pop balloons against my body. None of us participated but enjoyed laughing at everyone who did. The last task had the guys enlisting every other guy they could to form the longest conga line possible. They did fairly well but when it was the ladies turn Braidyn encouraged me to come up with her to help and the ladies' line wrapped around the ice rink a couple times. 

Thankfully Studio B was next to the comedy club so we didn't have to travel far for our 10:30PM comedy show. The ice rink turned into an 80's Dance Party next so we sat at the top watching the host beg people to come down and dance with her. A small line had formed outside the comedy club of people waiting to get in. We soon spotted Smitha and she led us to the side door so that we wouldn't have to walk past the people in line. She had heeded our request of sitting near the back and we ended up with seats to the side of the stage and in the 3rd of 4 rows. I heard the couple who were already in the seats behind us make some derogatory comments about our Star Class treatment but pretended that I didn't. We had a bar waiter standing by ready to take our order so I got my first and only official Lava Flow of the trip. The trend of strong drinks continued and by the time I got to the middle of the small glass it tasted like I was downing 5 straight shots. Is that the new description of a Lava Flow? Extra liquor flows right out of the bottle to the bottom of your glass?

Joe Yannetty's set was first and he barely got a couple sentences out before a woman in the front row started yelling out her objections to his references. She talked back so much during his set that he just gave up his planned storyline and started asking her questions. We learned all about how the guy next to her was her boyfriend but she didn't like him right now because they'd had a fight. Joe turned his entire set into trying to be their comedic therapist enlisting advice from other audience members who were older and he figured would have been married for a while. Turns out they had their own sordid tables about multiple relationships and having only just gotten married to each other. The entertainment staff member hosting the comedy shows was Eric and when he walked up to end Joe's set, Joe exclaimed "What? My time is up? But I haven't fixed their problem yet!" Jim Colliton had been hanging out in the back listening to Joe's set so when he came up he finally got to see the woman in the front who had been giving Joe such a hard time. Jim started out his set mocking the woman but she didn't seem to care and still had her own comments to share. He tried to continue with his planned jokes and every so often she'd chime in. By the time he finally got through his story about the steward always putting his cabin trash can back under the desk where it got in his way, he added that he'd like to bury that trash can with a certain woman.

Back to the cabin where we found that the trouble with not returning to your cabin until 90 minutes after your standing room service evening delivery is that Dad's first chance to try the ice cream sundae had long since melted. Oddly enough, the whipped topping was so thick, it just deflated and sunk down onto the top of the glass. We were also concerned about the cartons of milk being left sitting out. Instead we devoured the chocolate cake slices and washed it down with one of our mini bar's large Evian water bottles. 

While we enjoyed the comedy show, our new towel friends Mr. Stingray and Droid Penguin decided to invite the Playboy bunny and it looks like things got a little weird on our couch: