December 17, 2008 – At Sea

This was our final day of the cruise and it was a full sea day with the main activity being packing our stuff to debark the next morning in Ft. Lauderdale. Throughout the day the ship was being decorated for Christmas and the holiday cruises. Our trivia team, with spouses, had a special lunch in the Compass Rose with the main course being Dover sole. We finished the majority of our packing before trivia and one of our team members brought a bottle of champagne to trivia to celebrate our overall successes. The final trivia was quite a battle with 5 teams tying for the win. On the 1st tie breaker 3 teams answered wrong and dropped out and on the 2nd tie breaker the other team answered wrong and dropped out leaving us the final winner. Before dinner we watched the finale of the Navigator Idol with 3 singers competing for the prize. Before the contest began last year’s winner sang his winning song and a new headline singer who had boarded for the next cruise sang “Oh Holy Night” to put us all in a festive mood. All 3 contestants sang beautifully however Seth, a waiter in Compass Rose, was far superior. While the votes were counted we saw the Krew Kapers which has changed for the better with more singing from the cast members and less canned music. When Seth was announced as the winner we were told thar Mandhi & Reynoldo had tied for 2nd which we all appreciated because they were equal. We were invited to General Manager Giuseppe’s table for dinner and we had a very lively time. There was no show but there was an English Pub evening in the Stars Lounge. We went back to our suite to put out our luggage and also had some boxes we agreed to ship to California for friends which doubled the number of pieces outside our door. We also received donations of 3 bottles of champagne and 2 of wine from friends who had to fly home.