Yay! Today we are all at sea...so Brandi and I slept in then we had our normal breakfast at the Windjammer.
Then it was 10am...You now what that means? TRIVIA! Brandi went to the spa and did something and I went to the Schooner Bar. 3rd place today...I didn’t do that well...but the questions were uber hard!
After earning a Official Royal Caribbean passport holder thingy as a participation reward, I went up to the room and started packing. Brandi shoed up around 11:30 and helped me finish.
Now it was time to do some things that we needed to do. We stopped by the future cruise desk and put $200 ($100 per person) deposit down on a future cruise. By reserving a spot on a future cruise, we will get a $100 shipboard credit on our next cruise! Yay!
We then went up to one of the two hot tubs that hang off of the ship, which is a feature exclisive to Freedom class ships. The hot tubs are located on deck 11 and hang 14 ft. away from the ship. Very cool. We hung out there, talking with various cruisers, and then wegot out and returned our towels. Royal Caribbean has a new towel policy. You check out a towel for free, can exchange it at anhy time for a dry one, then you return the towel when you’re done with it at the end of the cruise to avoid a $20 charge to your seapass account. It seems to be a pretty good system.
We went back to the room, washed up a bit and then I went to 3:15 trivia...but I was late. It actually started at 3. Oh well.
Brandi played the “Win a crapload of cash because the jackpot must go” bingo. We didn’t win. They have this new system where you don’t even have to do ANYTHING to play bingo anymore. For a premium price, that plays more cards, you can get a machine that plays for you. It has an LCD screen and talks wirelessly to the ball taker-outer guy so when he calls a number, your machine does everything. Out of all the winners, most had the machine. Oh....the jackpot was over $6000.
After bingo we hustled up 1 level to the Schooner Bar for...TRIVIA! This go ‘round it was TV Show themes. I thought I would have this one in the bag, but I was wrong. I didn’t know the theme to many of the shows...Brandi and I got 12 points and 3rd place...If only I watched JAG and Veronica Mars and Deadwood and Entourage and NCIS and 24 then I coulda cleaned up! Who ever heard of TV Trivia with no MASH or Cheers or Brady Bunch or...the list goes on...
It was now 5:45 and we went back to our room to rest a little and preview the “Cruise in Review” DVD. It doesn’t look like we’re in this one...Bummer.
At 7pm we went to the farewell show! There was a great and funny juggler thereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Ok...I had to leave that in there. I am writing this section on my flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Denver and I nodded off for a second...Looks like I may have to catch up on some sleep.
Ok...so...the juggler...I think his name was Mike Price. Not only was he very entertaining, he made us laugh pretty good.
After the farewell show, Brandi and I hurried to...where? Of course! The Schooner Bar for the last round of Progressive Trivia. I learned when I arrived, that there were 5 teams in the running and only 1 point separated them from each other for 1st place. I was pretty sure that I was one of the teams.
This was the 4th and final session of Progressive Trivia, if I could pull it off, big treasures were awaiting me. Let me take this time to officailly thank the “Jesse, Just Jesse” supporting cast. These people came in every now and then and helped me out, but didn’t want any of the spoils of winning...they just wanted to help me out. They are, in no particular order: Pete, Alyson, Mike and Brandi. Here’s the cast of each session...
Session 1: Jesse, Just Jesse
Session 2: Jesse, Pete and Alyson
Session 3, Jesse, Pete and Brandi
Session 4: Jesse, Mike and Brandi
Thanks guys! (I gave them all some keychains since I had a stash.)
So...anyway...Final session of Trivia...There were 20 questions. 10 about the ship. 5 about Karen on the cruise director staff from Sydney who likes Tigers who has been at sea for 6 years and whose favorite food is Chinese food, and 5 logos we had to identify.
We got +18 points...Then we waited. She tallied the scores... Third Place had 52 points. Second Place had 55 points and the winner had 57 points. And WE WON! YEAH BABY! Here’s a list of the Royal Caribbean swag we accumulated for winning: 2 Gold Medals, 2 Winner’s Certificates, 2 little coolers, 2 caps, 2 passport holdy thingys, 2 pens...and...wait for it...2 Royal Caribbean KEYCHAINS!
At 8:30 we ate our last dinner with group. I’m gonna miss some of those people. We really did have a great bunch of people in our group. The staff from Park West was wonderfully organized and friendly. It was one of the best trip’s ever!
Ok...so...that night, we had an appointment on the Flowrider. The Flowrider is a surfing/boogie boarding machine located aft of the sports deck. We weren’t able to go to any of the public times so we booked a semi-private lesson. There were only 8 of us and we shared the Flowrider for 1 hour. It was AWESOME! There were only a couple of drawbacks. #1 It was cold and windy that day at sea. There was a 50 kmph crosswind that shook the ship a little. And #2. Because it was windy, it was cold. Even being out in the sun was no consolation. It was cold...and we’re talking cold in the DAYTIME and we had a 10pm appointment!
To make a long story short (Too Late!) It was still windy when we went up to the Flowrider and now the sun was down. It’s a darm good thing we rented wetsuits earlier for only $10 each!
The Flowrider had trouble starting up. There was a 20 minute delay. Brandi was quick to find a nook out of the wind and huddle there. I followed. Along with 3 other Flowriders that evening. We sat behind a little wall and waited for them to start it up...which it finally did right about 10:15.
Element #3. In addation to cold, and wind, now we had water. The plus side is...the water was heated and felt good. The down side was that when we got OUT of the water...we were in the wind, wet and cold. As we waited for other people to do their run, we sat down behind another little wall and shivered togther.
Brandi had a little trouble at first, but then got a hold of it. You’ll see in the pictures that she was having a good time. But that good time came at a price. That price was pain. Wiping out on the Flowrider can hurt.
Brandi accident #1: When she first got on the boogie board, she didn’t lean forward enough. She shot back up the flow rider and a pretty fast speed and smacked both of her ankles against the back wall. Brandi siad it hurt pretty bad but there was no swelling and she was able to walk on them fine.
Brandi accident #2: Somehow she hurt her butt. don’t know how, but she did. In fact, I am writing this right now on the pland back to Denver and she says her butt still hurts.
Jesse accident #1: It was the very first run. I didn’t have my balance right and shot up Flowrider. Since I was in a ball, I rolled a lot, but a scraped my knees on the grippy part of the top of the Flowrider. Ouch!
Jesse accident #2: This one was a doozie. I was surfing....YAY! and I caught a back edge. The water pulled the board out from under me and I flew backwards and hit my head on the Flowrider surface. I hit it pretty hard. I can tell you that my head is still sore. My knees from accident #1? They’re fine now.
I would do the flowrider again. When Brandi was asked if she would go again. She said, “Not so much.”
Anyway...we played around on the Flowrider in the freezing cold for 45 minutes and then decided that we had enough and changed, turned in our wetsuits and went back to the toom.
It was now about 11:30 and we did some last minute packing because you have to have your big suitcases in the hall by midnight for them to get all of the luggage wherever it goes. Next morning, we’ll only have our carry offs...
At midnight, we turned off the lights and went sleepy time.
-J&B
Then it was 10am...You now what that means? TRIVIA! Brandi went to the spa and did something and I went to the Schooner Bar. 3rd place today...I didn’t do that well...but the questions were uber hard!
After earning a Official Royal Caribbean passport holder thingy as a participation reward, I went up to the room and started packing. Brandi shoed up around 11:30 and helped me finish.
Now it was time to do some things that we needed to do. We stopped by the future cruise desk and put $200 ($100 per person) deposit down on a future cruise. By reserving a spot on a future cruise, we will get a $100 shipboard credit on our next cruise! Yay!
We then went up to one of the two hot tubs that hang off of the ship, which is a feature exclisive to Freedom class ships. The hot tubs are located on deck 11 and hang 14 ft. away from the ship. Very cool. We hung out there, talking with various cruisers, and then wegot out and returned our towels. Royal Caribbean has a new towel policy. You check out a towel for free, can exchange it at anhy time for a dry one, then you return the towel when you’re done with it at the end of the cruise to avoid a $20 charge to your seapass account. It seems to be a pretty good system.
We went back to the room, washed up a bit and then I went to 3:15 trivia...but I was late. It actually started at 3. Oh well.
Brandi played the “Win a crapload of cash because the jackpot must go” bingo. We didn’t win. They have this new system where you don’t even have to do ANYTHING to play bingo anymore. For a premium price, that plays more cards, you can get a machine that plays for you. It has an LCD screen and talks wirelessly to the ball taker-outer guy so when he calls a number, your machine does everything. Out of all the winners, most had the machine. Oh....the jackpot was over $6000.
After bingo we hustled up 1 level to the Schooner Bar for...TRIVIA! This go ‘round it was TV Show themes. I thought I would have this one in the bag, but I was wrong. I didn’t know the theme to many of the shows...Brandi and I got 12 points and 3rd place...If only I watched JAG and Veronica Mars and Deadwood and Entourage and NCIS and 24 then I coulda cleaned up! Who ever heard of TV Trivia with no MASH or Cheers or Brady Bunch or...the list goes on...
It was now 5:45 and we went back to our room to rest a little and preview the “Cruise in Review” DVD. It doesn’t look like we’re in this one...Bummer.
At 7pm we went to the farewell show! There was a great and funny juggler thereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Ok...I had to leave that in there. I am writing this section on my flight from Ft. Lauderdale to Denver and I nodded off for a second...Looks like I may have to catch up on some sleep.
Ok...so...the juggler...I think his name was Mike Price. Not only was he very entertaining, he made us laugh pretty good.
After the farewell show, Brandi and I hurried to...where? Of course! The Schooner Bar for the last round of Progressive Trivia. I learned when I arrived, that there were 5 teams in the running and only 1 point separated them from each other for 1st place. I was pretty sure that I was one of the teams.
This was the 4th and final session of Progressive Trivia, if I could pull it off, big treasures were awaiting me. Let me take this time to officailly thank the “Jesse, Just Jesse” supporting cast. These people came in every now and then and helped me out, but didn’t want any of the spoils of winning...they just wanted to help me out. They are, in no particular order: Pete, Alyson, Mike and Brandi. Here’s the cast of each session...
Session 1: Jesse, Just Jesse
Session 2: Jesse, Pete and Alyson
Session 3, Jesse, Pete and Brandi
Session 4: Jesse, Mike and Brandi
Thanks guys! (I gave them all some keychains since I had a stash.)
So...anyway...Final session of Trivia...There were 20 questions. 10 about the ship. 5 about Karen on the cruise director staff from Sydney who likes Tigers who has been at sea for 6 years and whose favorite food is Chinese food, and 5 logos we had to identify.
We got +18 points...Then we waited. She tallied the scores... Third Place had 52 points. Second Place had 55 points and the winner had 57 points. And WE WON! YEAH BABY! Here’s a list of the Royal Caribbean swag we accumulated for winning: 2 Gold Medals, 2 Winner’s Certificates, 2 little coolers, 2 caps, 2 passport holdy thingys, 2 pens...and...wait for it...2 Royal Caribbean KEYCHAINS!
At 8:30 we ate our last dinner with group. I’m gonna miss some of those people. We really did have a great bunch of people in our group. The staff from Park West was wonderfully organized and friendly. It was one of the best trip’s ever!
Ok...so...that night, we had an appointment on the Flowrider. The Flowrider is a surfing/boogie boarding machine located aft of the sports deck. We weren’t able to go to any of the public times so we booked a semi-private lesson. There were only 8 of us and we shared the Flowrider for 1 hour. It was AWESOME! There were only a couple of drawbacks. #1 It was cold and windy that day at sea. There was a 50 kmph crosswind that shook the ship a little. And #2. Because it was windy, it was cold. Even being out in the sun was no consolation. It was cold...and we’re talking cold in the DAYTIME and we had a 10pm appointment!
To make a long story short (Too Late!) It was still windy when we went up to the Flowrider and now the sun was down. It’s a darm good thing we rented wetsuits earlier for only $10 each!
The Flowrider had trouble starting up. There was a 20 minute delay. Brandi was quick to find a nook out of the wind and huddle there. I followed. Along with 3 other Flowriders that evening. We sat behind a little wall and waited for them to start it up...which it finally did right about 10:15.
Element #3. In addation to cold, and wind, now we had water. The plus side is...the water was heated and felt good. The down side was that when we got OUT of the water...we were in the wind, wet and cold. As we waited for other people to do their run, we sat down behind another little wall and shivered togther.
Brandi had a little trouble at first, but then got a hold of it. You’ll see in the pictures that she was having a good time. But that good time came at a price. That price was pain. Wiping out on the Flowrider can hurt.
Brandi accident #1: When she first got on the boogie board, she didn’t lean forward enough. She shot back up the flow rider and a pretty fast speed and smacked both of her ankles against the back wall. Brandi siad it hurt pretty bad but there was no swelling and she was able to walk on them fine.
Brandi accident #2: Somehow she hurt her butt. don’t know how, but she did. In fact, I am writing this right now on the pland back to Denver and she says her butt still hurts.
Jesse accident #1: It was the very first run. I didn’t have my balance right and shot up Flowrider. Since I was in a ball, I rolled a lot, but a scraped my knees on the grippy part of the top of the Flowrider. Ouch!
Jesse accident #2: This one was a doozie. I was surfing....YAY! and I caught a back edge. The water pulled the board out from under me and I flew backwards and hit my head on the Flowrider surface. I hit it pretty hard. I can tell you that my head is still sore. My knees from accident #1? They’re fine now.
I would do the flowrider again. When Brandi was asked if she would go again. She said, “Not so much.”
Anyway...we played around on the Flowrider in the freezing cold for 45 minutes and then decided that we had enough and changed, turned in our wetsuits and went back to the toom.
It was now about 11:30 and we did some last minute packing because you have to have your big suitcases in the hall by midnight for them to get all of the luggage wherever it goes. Next morning, we’ll only have our carry offs...
At midnight, we turned off the lights and went sleepy time.
-J&B