Nancy’s Summer Cruise – Day 9

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, Day 8.

Today was Bingo Day Extraordinaire. The jackpot was over $9,500 and someone was going home with it. It’s probably no surprise that, because of the high number of passengers, Royal Caribbean has some of the biggest jackpots on the seas.

I got up early to play morning bingo, and decided to splurge on one of those fabulous electronic bingo devices where you get 30 “cards” and everything is more or less done for you. These handhelds were great! They alerted you to which cards were closest to winning, how many numbers you needed – just watching the display was entertainment enough! During one of the games, I was one number away and the only one standing in the theater. (You stand when you’re one number away from winning.) I was booed loudly for being on the verge of winning. Ah, the love. Four numbers later, someone else stood up and she ultimately won. However, no one won the Jackpot, so that amount was rolled over to the afternoon session.

After lunch, Lex asked to go to Adventure Ocean as it was “Star Wars” day, complete with lightsaber duels. He had a blast! When Joe picked him up around 5 pm, he asked to head back after dinner since they were throwing a going away party for the kids tonight. Alright!

Throughout the afternoon, the ship staff pushed the Final Jackpot Bingo. People that never played bingo were buying packages, the jackpot was so high. About 1,500 people played the final round. Lisa, Mary, and I bought the fancy bingo devices. We were sure that, between the 90 cards across the three of us, one would win (and share). Alas, it was not to be. Lisa came closest with only two numbers to go in the final cover-all game, but there was only one winner. She was ecstatic and her family was jumping for joy. It was fun to watch someone be so happy. Sure, it would have been better if I was the one being so happy, but that’s OK – it was all good fun.

At night, we had our last dinner in the main dining room. Strangely enough, Royal Caribbean decided to serve the lobster and prime rib on the last night of the cruise. (Usually these are served on formal nights or the Captain’s dinner. Perhaps that explains why we saw folks in tuxedos eating at the buffet on Thursday evening.)

Before dessert was served, the entire wait staff, head waiters, maitr’d, and beverage waiters all sang songs and entertained us. Our table was next to the third level balcony of the dining room, and we all had a nice view of the main stairs. Just as the show was about to begin, this BIG man walks up and asks, “Can I get in there?” I said “Sure!”, thinking he was just going to get a quick glimpse or a picture. What does he do? He stays there in front on me and Lisa, turns on his camcorder, and then, HE BENDS OVER! Well, we all started laughing nonstop. I even exclaimed loud enough for his camcorder mic: “Oh, he did NOT just do that?!?” and Mary answered “Yes he did!” Joe realized what happened and calmly walked up behind the guy, standing one inch away. He proceeded to contribute a subtle potpourri of effects, rejoinders, and other sounds to his video masterpiece, a one man foley team. By this point, the three of us ladies were crying, we were laughing so hard.

After dinner, we attended our final round of Ultimate Trivia. We had 32 points and the leading team had 39. Well, at last, we totally rocked the final round with 16 points out of 23, bringing our total to 48 points. We just missed third place! The winning team scored 54 points, but we were very proud of ourselves for sprinting ahead as well as we did.

While Lex was up in Adventure Ocean, I packed … and packed … and packed. All luggage had to be out between 7 pm and midnight. Now for a quick piece of advice (which we already know, but not everyone thinks of this): If you are packing your luggage the night before, please remember to leave out your clothes for the next day. Do not pack them! There have been many times I have watched people come off a cruise wearing their evening clothes from the night before. Gives me a good chuckle every time.

Overall, we had a wonderful, fun time on our trip. I truly wish I could stay on longer, but life goes on. I have a lots of work to take care of, family to visit and, of course, fireworks for the 4th of July.

Thanks for reading!