Nancy’s Summer Cruise – Day 8

Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas
9 Night Cruise to Bermuda, St. Martin, St. Thomas, and San Juan

Missed the previous installments? Here they are: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7.

You would think that, after having so many relaxing days on this cruise, we wouldn’t want to sleep late this time. Perish the thought! We slept until 11 am. Besides, the curtains make it so dark in our cabin that it’s easy to lose all concept of time.

I missed morning trivia (again) and early afternoon trivia (again). We did make a second afternoon trivia game but, as usual, did horribly. Repeat after me: There are ten Canadian provinces, three US territories, and the Atlantic Ocean has the highest salinity of all the oceans. (You’d THINK we knew all that already, but nooooo! C’mon, give us more logos.)

For lunch, we did something special. We went to Johnny Rockets way up on Deck 12. There is a small charge of about $5 that covers everything but drinks. This was Johnny Rockets right down to the five cent jukeboxes, the decor, and the dancing and singing staff. When customers walked in or out, they were greeted by the other diners with “hello” or “good bye” in a huge chorus. (Joe opted to greet folks with a low-voice, disaffected teen “’sup” after waiting a beat. Sort of like when they yell “Charge!” at the ballpark, and he calls out a random credit card vendor.) It was extremely amusing to hear Love Shack sung with about five different accents.

The food was traditional Johnny Rockets, including the fries, which are different than those served in the main dining room and buffet. Even the burgers were Johnny Rockets-sized vs. the normal (smaller) ones offered elsewhere on the ship.

In the afternoon we met up with Lisa and Mary and played Bingo. Now, if a parent pays for a bingo card, they give a FREE card to the child, if in tow. If the child gets bingo, they honor the card, giving the prize money to the parent, and another prize to the child. Well, Lex heard this, turned to me, and said with all seriousness: “If I win, you can give me half.” That’s right, Royal Caribbean is slowly creating a new generation of gamblers by using Bingo. Nice.

With one Bingo session over, and Lex now hooked, we proceeded to Adventure Ocean and played “Family Prize Bingo.” I kid you not, this was bingo for kids … and we won! Lex received a lovely stuffed octopus named “Inky” – the Royal Caribbean mascot. Lex was thrilled and wants to play bingo again and again and again! Oh boy.

Tonight being formal night, we went to dinner at the buffet to keep things casual. I would like to point out that, with all respect to the executive chef, the overall food has been merely OK. However, three things have been GREAT: The sushi at Windjammer buffet, the “Make your own pizza” station (also at Windjammer), and the Seattle’s Best coffee throughout – good and strong, no dishwater business.

In the evening, with Lex at Adventure Ocean, the four of us went to the “Liars Club Game Show”. Perhaps you’ve seen this before on 70’s game show reruns, where they give the audience a word that you have likely never heard of before. Four of the cruise staff proceed to explain, in detail, their “definition” of each word, and you guess which answer is correct. The words, of course, are ridiculous, for example: “clinchpoop”.

Since this was an adult-only show, I cannot even begin to recap the ridiculous answers we heard tonight. On top of that, each staff member was in-character. One was a farmer from LA. (Lower Arkansas, to be exact.) Another was a tall, female witch doctor from some mysterious, exotic island. The third was a cross dressing, yoga loving, life living man – no, woman – wait, man – um … OK, I don’t know. Whatever, it was hysterical. Last, but not least, this elite panel featured a hyper hypoglycemic young man who could not sit still, complete with crash helmet and chair harness (so he couldn’t go running off in all directions … though he tried to often). The show was very funny and we all had a good time. The cruise staff has put a lot of work into their activities and made them quite enjoyable.

Finally, we got to see Lisa and Mary’s balcony cabin. How very nice!! It was larger than our little ocean view cabin. And – get this – their cabin steward name? Brown. Their running tag line of the cruise: “What can Brown do for you?” Ha!

Tomorrow is another day at sea, then lots and lots of packing!