FAT TUESDAY

March 5, 2019

There is a Fat Tuesday, alias Mardi Gras, parade coming up in an hour or so and an accompanying party, but your favorite cruisers will miss the excitement, aiming to be checking the backs of our eye lids for holes.

We did, however, celebrate this morning by winning a trivia contest!  We played in three and did fairly well in the other two, but in “All About Nothing,” we smoked ‘em!  We had 10, the closest competitor had 3, out of 20.  In the first one, “Decades,” we had 11 and the winner had 14, and in the last one “Genius,” we had 13 and the winner had a perfect 20 out of 20.  And for our efforts in All About Nothing we won a ship on a stick.  If you want to see our trophy, go to eBay and put in “ship on a stick” or “Carnival ship on a stick.” They are being offered for $15 and up.  We are keeping ours.

And we celebrated after supper because we got an email from Holland America, telling us that we have been assigned to the Veendam, sailing from Fort Lauderdale to Rome, leaving on April 14.  I had put our hats in the ring for two sailings and got one.  If the Pirates could hit every one out of two they’d win the World Series for sure.  Start the parade!

Okay, before I turn it over to Bonnie, here are some of the questions from the Genius Trivia.

7 = D of the W (answer: 7 = Days of the Week)
Now you know how to do it.

1001 = AN
12 = S of the Z
54 = C in a D with J
57 = HV

We got those correct.  We missed:

18 = H on a G C
3 = B M S H T R
1000 = W that a P is W
64 = S on a CB

There were 20 in all, but that’s enough for tonight.

And now it’s Bonnie’s turn!

TTFN

Well, I  woke about 5 and knew it would be at least an hour before the ship got to the port and I was right. At 6:30 the azsupods starting making sounds as the ship was docking. No sleeping then. We got up and got ready. As we were getting ready they announced at 7 you could get off. About 30 minutes later they said they were closing the gangway because another ship was docking. Now that was strange. I have never known a ship to stop their gangway because another ship docked. They opened it back up in about 20 minutes. By then we were headed up for breakfast, about 8. The dance couple was headed up at the same time so we had breakfast together. Really nice couple, they are not retired. They are Christian counselors and cruise on their vacations. We shared stories of our adventures cruising.

After breakfast we went up to deck 14 to look at the town. Not much to see. We got off the ship and headed to an area just off the dock set up with many vendors!!  When we were up top we saw the ship that had docked. It was HUGE! A ship from Germany we think. It was Aida and the ships name was Diva. 

Well, we made our way into the huge area with sellers of all the typical touristy stuff. But there were quite a few vendors who had hand made stuff that was very nice besides all the made in China stuff. There was one person who had a leather stall and it smelled heavenly. It reminded me of the tannery where my Dad worked. I talked to the vendor and he was very nice and we swapped stories about making leather. He had some beautiful purses, no I didn’t buy any.

We bought a few things. Surprises for some of you. We spent about an hour wandering in and out of the booths. It was very HOT!!  I was glad when we got back on the ship. We deposited our goodies in the room and headed for the Atrium where the trivia was going on. I crocheted and your Dad wrote answers. It was fun. I can’t believe we won. The ship on a stick is a coveted prize on the ship. I am keeping ours. It will go on the mantel piece.

Supper was fair. I had fried green tomatoes, they weren’t much, and chicken fried steak, it was okay. Then, we left and went to the early show. It was a country western show by the Carnival cast. IT WAS LOUD!! And it was very hard to understand what the words were. It was not as good as the last show.

We are back in the room and in our pj’s. Soon to brush teeth and go to bed.  Sea day tomorrow so I will get more crocheting done.

Love you all, Mom, Granny and Bonnie