Neaxan

Day 8 - Part III - The Grand Finale
Evening entertainment was Flight – done by the cast of Hairspray. While Twangster was in this cruise's first show, we went to the late night session. Finally another production show for us! And what a show it was – the pictures really don’t do it justice. Apart from the non-existent storyline this was top notch entertainment with goosebumps at the finale. We could rewatch this show over and over and recommend you do it as soon as you get the chance! Needless to say that the cast got a well-deserved standing ovation for this. And we were quite happy that the 45 minutes in an ever-groing line before the theater opened was time well-spent.

Day 8 - Part III - The Grand Finale
Evening entertainment was Flight – done by the cast of Hairspray. While Twangster was in this cruise's first show, we went to the late night session. Finally another production show for us! And what a show it was – the pictures really don’t do it justice. Apart from the non-existent storyline this was top notch entertainment with goosebumps at the finale. We could rewatch this show over and over and recommend you do it as soon as you get the chance! Needless to say that the cast got a well-deserved standing ovation for this. And we were quite happy that the 45 minutes in an ever-groing line before the theater opened was time well-spent.

Day 8 - Part II
Dinner was at Windjammer – well kind of. We were still quite full from Johnny Rockets, so it was more a litte bit of salad and a few desserts. As this is likely our only evening in Windjammer, we did a bit of recon. A bit more choice than TUI Cruises, but overall we’d say they’re on par as TUI has way better gelato.











 
Side notes:
12.6 k steps
Do Americans ever use spices on fries and the like? I start to understand your penchant for ketchup and other condiments.
No idea what the h*** Aqua Theater is for. If they can’t run a show in the conditions we had today, they’d need perfectly flat seas to do it. Is the Caribbean sea always completely flat or do they just cancel most of the shows?
If you see the Starbucks on board, you'll come to the conclusion that being a Starbucks addict is a requirement to get promoted to officer with Royal.
Towel animal of the day: peacock (at least I'm certain of that one)

More staircase art – I think we’ve got them all now – well, the ones I liked anyway.





Finally, the best piece of art on Symphony of the Seas:

Day 8
Another day that didn’t start as planned. As this venue still wasn’t crossed off our to do list, we wanted to have breakfast at Solarium Bistro. It opens at 7.30 am and we arrived at 8.10 am (we were just slow getting out of bed). The lines were literally around two corners with every seat in the venue taken. Quick change of plans: off to the MDR we went. MDR breakfast for us mere mortals (lower than diamond) is on deck 3 – we’ve never been that far down on the ship. There were a few lines here, but we got in quick as we were willing to share a table. Of course we are – that’s half of the fun! We were seated with couples from the US and Canada. Really enjoyable conversations all around the table – in fact so enjoyable that we nearly missed choir practice ? Breakfast choices were Eggs Benedict (never tried that before) and banana or strawberry pancakes. Guess Eggs Benedict are not our cup of tea, but we’ll return to the MDR for breakfast. Service might not be the fastest, but other than that it’s really enjoyable.


The rest of the morning was spent on Boardwalk at – you’ve guessed it - Playmakers. At 1 pm, when the crowds were thinning out, we went to Johnny Rockets for lunch. Good onion rings, wishy-washy fries, ok Smoke House and Route 66 burgers, very dry BBQ Chicken Bacon Melt – but the shakes were fantastic (and included in the drink package). After my burger I wanted to go the healthy route and ordered a Crispy Chicken Club Salad – as hubby put it: chicken and bacon with a few green spots ? The salad was delicious, just not what I had expected. I had to pass on dessert but hubby got a Strawberry Super Sundae – easily lunch’s highlight apart from the milk shakes. Ice cream at Sugar Beach wasn't that much better - especially considering a price of 3.54$ per scoop (service charge included). 








With that crossed off our list, it was time to meet the Twangster bot at Schooner. He’s the one mostly responsible for us doing this blog and solely responsible for us finally buying an DLSR so thank you for that! Was really interesting to hear the perspective of a seasoned Royal cruiser. No pictures as bots are like vampires in that regard – mirrors and cameras don’t work ?
 
Next stop was the running track – a necessary evil after this lunch. We even checked if Aquanation was still on before changing in the cabin – everything was fine then. But as we got back, the Aqua Theater was closed off – both Aquanation shows were cancelled ? Instead, we went to Playmakers to watch NFL. We met a couple from Mexico, her father is German. She even went to Germany to study the language, but unsurprisingly forgot everything except a few words ? Yes, we know that German is not the easiest language - but try Polish or Hungarian ?

Day 8 - Part II
Dinner was at Windjammer – well kind of. We were still quite full from Johnny Rockets, so it was more a litte bit of salad and a few desserts. As this is likely our only evening in Windjammer, we did a bit of recon. A bit more choice than TUI Cruises, but overall we’d say they’re on par as TUI has way better gelato.











 
Side notes:
12.6 k steps
Do Americans ever use spices on fries and the like? I start to understand your penchant for ketchup and other condiments.
No idea what the h*** Aqua Theater is for. If they can’t run a show in the conditions we had today, they’d need perfectly flat seas to do it. Is the Caribbean sea always completely flat or do they just cancel most of the shows?
If you see the Starbucks on board, you'll come to the conclusion that being a Starbucks addict is a requirement to get promoted to officer with Royal.
Towel animal of the day: peacock (at least I'm certain of that one)

More staircase art – I think we’ve got them all now – well, the ones I liked anyway.





Finally, the best piece of art on Symphony of the Seas:

Sorry Matt, I don't consider them "spoiler photos". What Twangster and Neaxan have posted have convinced me we NEED to cruise this incredible ship. Those Flight photos have definitely piqued my interest. Hopefully I can book it when the 2021 schedule is posted. I don't care about the itinerary so much because we will probably do a B2B and just enjoy the hell out of this cruise ship! 

Skimmed this one too.  No offense @Neaxan ?

So many Flight spoiler photos in one message board! ?

Day 8 - Part III - The Grand Finale
Evening entertainment was Flight – done by the cast of Hairspray. While Twangster was in this cruise's first show, we went to the late night session. Finally another production show for us! And what a show it was – the pictures really don’t do it justice. Apart from the non-existent storyline this was top notch entertainment with goosebumps at the finale. We could rewatch this show over and over and recommend you do it as soon as you get the chance! Needless to say that the cast got a well-deserved standing ovation for this. And we were quite happy that the 45 minutes in an ever-groing line before the theater opened was time well-spent.

Day 8 - Part II
Dinner was at Windjammer – well kind of. We were still quite full from Johnny Rockets, so it was more a litte bit of salad and a few desserts. As this is likely our only evening in Windjammer, we did a bit of recon. A bit more choice than TUI Cruises, but overall we’d say they’re on par as TUI has way better gelato.











 
Side notes:
12.6 k steps
Do Americans ever use spices on fries and the like? I start to understand your penchant for ketchup and other condiments.
No idea what the h*** Aqua Theater is for. If they can’t run a show in the conditions we had today, they’d need perfectly flat seas to do it. Is the Caribbean sea always completely flat or do they just cancel most of the shows?
If you see the Starbucks on board, you'll come to the conclusion that being a Starbucks addict is a requirement to get promoted to officer with Royal.
Towel animal of the day: peacock (at least I'm certain of that one)

More staircase art – I think we’ve got them all now – well, the ones I liked anyway.





Finally, the best piece of art on Symphony of the Seas:

Day 8
Another day that didn’t start as planned. As this venue still wasn’t crossed off our to do list, we wanted to have breakfast at Solarium Bistro. It opens at 7.30 am and we arrived at 8.10 am (we were just slow getting out of bed). The lines were literally around two corners with every seat in the venue taken. Quick change of plans: off to the MDR we went. MDR breakfast for us mere mortals (lower than diamond) is on deck 3 – we’ve never been that far down on the ship. There were a few lines here, but we got in quick as we were willing to share a table. Of course we are – that’s half of the fun! We were seated with couples from the US and Canada. Really enjoyable conversations all around the table – in fact so enjoyable that we nearly missed choir practice ? Breakfast choices were Eggs Benedict (never tried that before) and banana or strawberry pancakes. Guess Eggs Benedict are not our cup of tea, but we’ll return to the MDR for breakfast. Service might not be the fastest, but other than that it’s really enjoyable.


The rest of the morning was spent on Boardwalk at – you’ve guessed it - Playmakers. At 1 pm, when the crowds were thinning out, we went to Johnny Rockets for lunch. Good onion rings, wishy-washy fries, ok Smoke House and Route 66 burgers, very dry BBQ Chicken Bacon Melt – but the shakes were fantastic (and included in the drink package). After my burger I wanted to go the healthy route and ordered a Crispy Chicken Club Salad – as hubby put it: chicken and bacon with a few green spots ? The salad was delicious, just not what I had expected. I had to pass on dessert but hubby got a Strawberry Super Sundae – easily lunch’s highlight apart from the milk shakes. Ice cream at Sugar Beach wasn't that much better - especially considering a price of 3.54$ per scoop (service charge included). 








With that crossed off our list, it was time to meet the Twangster bot at Schooner. He’s the one mostly responsible for us doing this blog and solely responsible for us finally buying an DLSR so thank you for that! Was really interesting to hear the perspective of a seasoned Royal cruiser. No pictures as bots are like vampires in that regard – mirrors and cameras don’t work ?
 
Next stop was the running track – a necessary evil after this lunch. We even checked if Aquanation was still on before changing in the cabin – everything was fine then. But as we got back, the Aqua Theater was closed off – both Aquanation shows were cancelled ? Instead, we went to Playmakers to watch NFL. We met a couple from Mexico, her father is German. She even went to Germany to study the language, but unsurprisingly forgot everything except a few words ? Yes, we know that German is not the easiest language - but try Polish or Hungarian ?

Day 8 - Part III - The Grand Finale
Evening entertainment was Flight – done by the cast of Hairspray. While Twangster was in this cruise's first show, we went to the late night session. Finally another production show for us! And what a show it was – the pictures really don’t do it justice. Apart from the non-existent storyline this was top notch entertainment with goosebumps at the finale. We could rewatch this show over and over and recommend you do it as soon as you get the chance! Needless to say that the cast got a well-deserved standing ovation for this. And we were quite happy that the 45 minutes in an ever-groing line before the theater opened was time well-spent.

Day 8 - Part II
Dinner was at Windjammer – well kind of. We were still quite full from Johnny Rockets, so it was more a litte bit of salad and a few desserts. As this is likely our only evening in Windjammer, we did a bit of recon. A bit more choice than TUI Cruises, but overall we’d say they’re on par as TUI has way better gelato.











 
Side notes:
12.6 k steps
Do Americans ever use spices on fries and the like? I start to understand your penchant for ketchup and other condiments.
No idea what the h*** Aqua Theater is for. If they can’t run a show in the conditions we had today, they’d need perfectly flat seas to do it. Is the Caribbean sea always completely flat or do they just cancel most of the shows?
If you see the Starbucks on board, you'll come to the conclusion that being a Starbucks addict is a requirement to get promoted to officer with Royal.
Towel animal of the day: peacock (at least I'm certain of that one)

More staircase art – I think we’ve got them all now – well, the ones I liked anyway.





Finally, the best piece of art on Symphony of the Seas:

Day 8 - Part III - The Grand Finale
Evening entertainment was Flight – done by the cast of Hairspray. While Twangster was in this cruise's first show, we went to the late night session. Finally another production show for us! And what a show it was – the pictures really don’t do it justice. Apart from the non-existent storyline this was top notch entertainment with goosebumps at the finale. We could rewatch this show over and over and recommend you do it as soon as you get the chance! Needless to say that the cast got a well-deserved standing ovation for this. And we were quite happy that the 45 minutes in an ever-groing line before the theater opened was time well-spent.

Day 8 - Part II
Dinner was at Windjammer – well kind of. We were still quite full from Johnny Rockets, so it was more a litte bit of salad and a few desserts. As this is likely our only evening in Windjammer, we did a bit of recon. A bit more choice than TUI Cruises, but overall we’d say they’re on par as TUI has way better gelato.











 
Side notes:
12.6 k steps
Do Americans ever use spices on fries and the like? I start to understand your penchant for ketchup and other condiments.
No idea what the h*** Aqua Theater is for. If they can’t run a show in the conditions we had today, they’d need perfectly flat seas to do it. Is the Caribbean sea always completely flat or do they just cancel most of the shows?
If you see the Starbucks on board, you'll come to the conclusion that being a Starbucks addict is a requirement to get promoted to officer with Royal.
Towel animal of the day: peacock (at least I'm certain of that one)

More staircase art – I think we’ve got them all now – well, the ones I liked anyway.





Finally, the best piece of art on Symphony of the Seas:

Day 8
Another day that didn’t start as planned. As this venue still wasn’t crossed off our to do list, we wanted to have breakfast at Solarium Bistro. It opens at 7.30 am and we arrived at 8.10 am (we were just slow getting out of bed). The lines were literally around two corners with every seat in the venue taken. Quick change of plans: off to the MDR we went. MDR breakfast for us mere mortals (lower than diamond) is on deck 3 – we’ve never been that far down on the ship. There were a few lines here, but we got in quick as we were willing to share a table. Of course we are – that’s half of the fun! We were seated with couples from the US and Canada. Really enjoyable conversations all around the table – in fact so enjoyable that we nearly missed choir practice ? Breakfast choices were Eggs Benedict (never tried that before) and banana or strawberry pancakes. Guess Eggs Benedict are not our cup of tea, but we’ll return to the MDR for breakfast. Service might not be the fastest, but other than that it’s really enjoyable.


The rest of the morning was spent on Boardwalk at – you’ve guessed it - Playmakers. At 1 pm, when the crowds were thinning out, we went to Johnny Rockets for lunch. Good onion rings, wishy-washy fries, ok Smoke House and Route 66 burgers, very dry BBQ Chicken Bacon Melt – but the shakes were fantastic (and included in the drink package). After my burger I wanted to go the healthy route and ordered a Crispy Chicken Club Salad – as hubby put it: chicken and bacon with a few green spots ? The salad was delicious, just not what I had expected. I had to pass on dessert but hubby got a Strawberry Super Sundae – easily lunch’s highlight apart from the milk shakes. Ice cream at Sugar Beach wasn't that much better - especially considering a price of 3.54$ per scoop (service charge included). 








With that crossed off our list, it was time to meet the Twangster bot at Schooner. He’s the one mostly responsible for us doing this blog and solely responsible for us finally buying an DLSR so thank you for that! Was really interesting to hear the perspective of a seasoned Royal cruiser. No pictures as bots are like vampires in that regard – mirrors and cameras don’t work ?
 
Next stop was the running track – a necessary evil after this lunch. We even checked if Aquanation was still on before changing in the cabin – everything was fine then. But as we got back, the Aqua Theater was closed off – both Aquanation shows were cancelled ? Instead, we went to Playmakers to watch NFL. We met a couple from Mexico, her father is German. She even went to Germany to study the language, but unsurprisingly forgot everything except a few words ? Yes, we know that German is not the easiest language - but try Polish or Hungarian ?

Lifelong Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and Benny Hill fan here, so unless he's way more reserved in his humor I'm guessing I'd appreciate him just fine. ?

Both hubby and me actually like Bobby. We love his Scottish humour and the fact that he's all around the ship and quite approachable. He did get all contestants to play along and was very good at teasing answers out of them. I know Bobby isn't a favourite on this board, I guess you have to be used to British humour - it helps ? Mind you, Bobby is our first CD so we can't compare.

How did you find Bobby Brown as emcee of the Love & Marriage show? I know that he was criticized in the past for not being especially funny or making the show as lively as other CDs, so I'm curious to know if you found him to be entertaining / engaging / funny / etc., and how well he drew out the contestants into playing along.

Post-show walk through Central Park to the sounds of live acoustic guitar.  So peaceful.

Our last stop on this journey back in time brings us to the first machine powered flight.

Our daring pilot prepares to take off for the first time.


Not only does he take flight but he flies out over the audience in the theater.





With that it's time to land

To a hero's greeting


To a standing ovation the show has reached it's conclusion.

Another Royal Caribbean Entertainment hit, Flight should not be missed.

150 Central Park
Here it is, the restaurant we were least looking forward to. In the other restaurants, the challenge was to narrow down our choices – here the challenge was to find enough to not leave hungry. In the name of research, we still couldn’t skip this one. Spoiler alert: even though we planned to, we didn't need a post dinner at Windjammer.
 
For starters, hubby chose the waiter’s recommendation, Braised Short Rib. I got the other recommendation, Seared Honey-Glazed Scallops. We also ordered Crispy Berkshire Pork Belly as I had read much about it on certain boards. What can I say? Our attitude towards this restaurant was way off! I had my doubts about the scallops because I’ve often received overcooked ones (I know they’re tricky to prepare, that’s why I don’t do it myself) – but they were absolutely perfect. Same goes for the short rib. I also had doubts about the pork belly, especially when it arrived and I saw the huge amount of grease – this jelly texture is a pet hate of mine. To our surprise, the pork belly was really crisp and absolutely delicious. We can wholeheartedly recommend all three appetizers.



For entrees I again didn’t really see anything appealing to me, so I went with the most recommended choice on the boards – Roasted Tenderloin of Beef – which they graciously let me order for one person as hubby followed the waiter’s recommendation of Lamb Wellington. Guess who regretted his choice? Although the lamb was positively delicious, the tenderloin was just so much better – a class of its own. Food envy is well and alive on board ?


Usually this part oft he verdict is reserved for the highlight of the dinner – not so much this time. Guess the tenderloin was just too hard an act to follow. For dessert we chose Fried Cheesecake (waiter’s recommendation) and Peanut Butter Chocolate Tart. Hubby prefered the cheesecake, I prefered the chocolate tart. Both desserts were good but just couldn’t measure up to the entree. I might be a bit preoccupied on this one as all this deep frying isn’t really my cup of tea and I hate peanut butter except for homeopathic doses. Good news: the tart really only has a bit of peanut butter so I could cope.


Final verdict: much to our surprise, we really loved 150 Central Park. Food’s taste and presentation was quite perfect and so much better than the menu made us expect. We’d rank it at the same level as some one star Guide Michelin restaurants we’ve tried – I don’t think you can give a higher compliment than that for a restaurant onboard a ship crossing the Atlantic as landbased restaurants have free access to fresh ingridients. Only aspect that was REALLY underwhelming was our waiter, who didn’t care much about us at all – guess he was completely busy with doing everything and anything for the star class couple next to us. At least we couldn’t help but notice that they got a much better service. But that isn’t really a problem – it’s more of what you’d expect from German waiters (he was from India), maybe it’s just that Baptiste, Juan Carlos and Shadiek are a hard act to follow. Funny side note: we’ve met all our favourite waiters when roaming around the ship and they all remembered and greeted us – not so this waiter, he walked right past us a few times in Central Park. Guess you can gather our verdict about him from the fact we can’t even remember his name ?
 
TLDR: If you’re on the fence about this restaurant – please do try it! Believe me, you’ll be amazed!

Day 6
Time for something new was the theme of the day. So we went to Johnny Rockets for breakfast. There was a line to be seated but it moved quickly. Unfortunately, service (or more likely the galley) wasn’t nearly as quick. It took ages to get our food (The Works, Patty ‘n Eggs, Omelet), but at least it was really good! Due to the slow service, we were too late for morning trivia and just went to pop choir practice. We had to change our reservation for Escape the Rubicon as it clashed with the guest show. There weren’t many slots available so we had to compromise – guess we’ll have to be quick for the CC minigolf tournament.
 
The morning was spent with minigolf practice (I’m terrible at it), people watching at the flowrider and some arcade games. We might spend our arcade credit on shooting monsters, but we’ll give mario kart a try first ☺️ Lunch was in El Loco Fresh as thankfully it was operational today. I’d stick to the nachos and tacos if I were you. Quesadillas and burritos are prepared by staff and not the greatest taste. You can build your own tacos and nachos. With the superb weather today hubby finally went on the zipline and even on the Ultimate Abyss. Funny enough, he went down really fast – guess I’m doing it wrong. Today’s visit to Playmakers was during Ultimate Abyss opening hours. No idea how Twangster copes with the sound effects, they’re really annoying.
 
At 4 pm we had our final round of progressive trivia. Guess it was also our last trivia alltogether, hubby is pretty taken aback that it has nothing to do with knowledge, many people just remember the questions and answers from other vacations. Not convinced? Well, final question was in what country you can find the Caledonian Canal. The answer sheet said Portugal and quite a few of the groups put down that answer. Unfortunately, there’s absolutely no connection between Portugal and the Caledonian Canal – it’s in Scotland. Caledonian should be a hint, as it’s Latin for Scotland. Funny enough, even after showing proof of this, the Portugal answer got 2 points, 0 for Scotland. We’re fine losing because we didn’t know enough, but that’s a bit too much stubborn stupidity for us. Guess it’s true, us Germans are very pedantic. On the plus side: more time freed up for using the drink package ?
 
After that debacle, we went rock climbing, a first time for hubby. We didn’t do very well but it was much fun. Guess I lost all my grip in the last 10 years ? With that, it was time for dinner at 150 Central Park. This was the restaurant we were looking forward to the least because the menu didn’t really appeal to us. But the lenghts you go to in the name of research… as always, this speciality restaurant will get ist own post. Entertainment of the evening was another headliner show – Gary Williams – a rat pack style singer. While he has a great voice, the songs got old about halfway through. Mo5aic was our favourite guest artist so far, we’re looking forward to more production shows.


Post-entertainment was something we should’ve done ages ago! Having some cocktails at Wonderland Bar – how could we have missed that place? The „Down the Rabbit Hole“ is my new go-to cocktail and hubby was also quite impressed. Not so much with his first choice, the Smoke Rings – great in presentation but not really his cup of tea. To make things even better, we love the bartender, Sorin from Romania. He’s as much car crazy as we are so you always have something to talk about.


Before bed we headed up to the pool deck to check the pools – Beach and Sports were filled so I finally see some laps in my future. On our way to the cabin we made a quick detour to Sorrento’s (see, the pizza really isn’t that bad) and the 50s/60s party. There weren’t that many people out and about, but we liked the music. Sadly, we were just too tired to stay. Came home to a towel animal, we’d hazard a guess that it’s a swan, but we wouldn’t bet on it ?






Side notes:
11k steps
The app is annoying me again. The last few days hubby couldn’t see the menus in it, no I can’t either.
We had no idea how busy you can be on a TA. I haven’t had any time to prepare for my next exam in December – this is completely unintentional of course ?
The amount of maintenance going on is quite surprising for a ship that hasn’t been in operation for even a year. The perfect storm is still closed for maintenance (rumored to be operend from Nov 6th onwards), one entrance to Central Park has been closed for days, pools also needed maintenance…
Royal needs to improve on icecream. Tried soft ice today – not worth the calories to us. That was the only time I really missed being on TUI Cruises – they offer real icecream with no surcharge.
We’re still staying true to the no-elevator-rule – here’s some of my favourite „stairs art“ as proof.

Chops Grille
The steak house is a classic on a cruise ship – at least I’ve never been on a cruise ship that didn’t have one. With all your positive reviews about this restaurant in mind, we were quite excited to get to try this one, especially with all the drama around it. Story in short: a lot of people started to see their Chops lunch fees credited back without any notice. Their lunch was cancelled due to a pinnacle take over of Chops for lunch.
 
So let’s move on to the food: We started on Tuna Tartare for me and Charred Beef Carpaccio for hubby. Hubby was so gracious to additionally ordert he Jumbo Lump Crab Cake as he knew I was torn between it and the tartare. All three appetizers were exceptionally delicious, our favourite was the crab cake. You might remember that I already had crab cake in Hooked and the MDR – Chops‘ crab cake is by far the best one!



As a second course, we both chose soup. I went with the Wild Mushroom Soup (very good, just nothing special), hubby went with the Lobster Bisque. Unfortunately this wasn’t his cup of tea at all (tasted too much like fish) – he should have stuck with his first idea, the Crispy Goat Cheese Salad.


For entrees, hubby chose the Prime NY Strip Steak and I got the Petite Angus Filet Mignon. It’s a compromise for me as I’m not that much of a meat eater but I thought I shouldn’t go with fish in a steak house. Good choice, both meats were absolutely delicious! As sides we share Gruyère Cheese Tater Tots, Sauteée Mushrooms, Truffled French Fries and Salted Baked Potato – all very good and reasonably sized portions at last ☺️



Highlight of the evening (as always?) was dessert. Hubby chose the New York Cheesecake – verdict: best Cheesecake on board so far. I got the Warm Chocolate Cake, this was again a dessert to die for!


Overall verdict: our favourite restaurant up to now! On par with TUI’s steak house, maybe even a bit better. On our next cruise we’d likely do Chops twice – it just was that good! We were also very happy with our waiter Shadiek – Juan’s service was more personable, but his service fitted better in the more upscale atmosphere of Chops.

Day 5
Today we again took it upon ourselves to climb the stairs to Windjammer for breakfast. We found seats quite easily – only thing missing was the English Bacon ? Fortunately a staff member overheard hubby telling me that were was turkey bacon instead of English bacon – so he just got some English bacon fixed for us! Wow, that’s dedication and a service level we really don’t have in Germany. Robert, our cabin steward, was also exceptional this morning. As we kept the cabin on don’t disturb after the mayhem we left when preparing for Halloween, we didn’t get a towel animal. So instead of yesterday evening, we got our elephant this morning.

The rest of the morning was filled with our usual programme – morning trivia (didn’t win) and pop choir practice. Then it was up the stairs again, this time for some table tennis. We planned to have lunch in El Loco Fresh, but for whatever reason it was closed. So we decided to get some Hot Dogs. I went down the fast (well not really that fast) route – Ultimate Abyss – hubby had to take the stairs because he had the camera with him. We skipped 1pm trivia – let’s face it, we would’ve been quite useless at Game of Thrones trivia. Instead, we did the Royal Heist Puzzle Break in a multinational team (Brits, Belgians, Dutchmen and us). Fortunately, everyone was fluent in English so no language barriers here. I can proudly report that we managed to name the guilty party with about 4.5 minutes to spare. That meant 3rd place for us, although there were no prizes anyway. At least it was good practice for Escape the Rubicon and so much fun! Quite the contrary to progressive trivia, which really isn’t much fun. Riddles, tribands and dingbats are especially difficult when English isn’t your mothertongue and the theme of US-based questions did continue a bit. Pity we had to skip the pub crawl to attend this, but we couldn’t let down our team members. At least it was already part 2 of 3 – we won’t do the second progressive trivia.

After trivia we managed to get in some laps on the running track. It’s much warmer now and less wet as the waves really improved over night. Dinner was at Chops Grille – this will be its own post. Had some interesting discussions with hubby while at dinner. When Oasis 5 comes out, we want to do the TA on her (if she moves to the US) – Matt, shouldn’t that be the 2021 group cruise ?? Post-cruise plan is Orlando with Disney and Universal (and whatever else we can manage there) – in 3 years we should easily be thin enough to do all the attractions. The other topic we discussed: we thought about skipping our reservation for the headliner show (Hector is Magic) and try to see 1977 again as we were SO impressed. Unfortunately, we kept our reservation and went there. The magician wasn’t really bad or anything, we just didn’t enjoy it too much. Not our cup of tea – we’ll know next time. We had some drinks at Schooner but called it an early night as Symphony was like a ghost town – probably the Halloween aftermath ?





Side notes:
11k steps
Pools still drained in the morning – rumor has it they were filled in the afternoon – will check tomorrow