Bermuda Cruise - Day 6
Friday, May 11
I let Shelley sleep in until about 11:30 to help compensate for her near-sleepless experience the night before. By the time she was awake and dressed, the sun had disappeared, and it was pouring rain - we would've been caught in it if we had got going any earlier. So we decided to forgo our Bermuda plans for the day, which was just to go see the remainder of the Dockyard, including the Clocktower Mall. No great loss, once we talked afterwards to people who had been there, complaining of the high prices. But then again, everything in Bermuda is expensive, since virtually everything has to be imported from at least 1,000 km away, and the cost of living is high.
After lunch, we headed down to the Rendez-Vous lounge for music trivia. Again, there were lots of participants, unlike the poorly attended events on the last cruise. In this case, the bad weather probably had a lot to do with it. The girl running the contest couldn't get the computer system to work, so she ended up playing songs off of her iPod. Given that we were in a room of predominantly oldsters, we figured this would give us a great advantage - and it did! We ended up with 18/26, but we were beaten out by someone with 21. The girl did a pretty good job of getting some older songs in there - about 6 of the 15 songs were ABBA, which is close to 40 years old. Those ones were easy layups for us. Nevertheless, there were some disgruntled oldsters there.
After walking around for a bit and spectating during the line dancing class (Shelley's knees weren't up to participating), Shelley went back to the hot pool/tub, and I stuck around for general trivia. I ended up with 11/15, which was pretty good for a solo team. The winners had 13.
At 4:30 the ship left port, and we started the voyage home. I was in the main theatre, watching a presentation on the Bermuda Triangle. It was something different from the norm - a good way to pass an hour.
We killed some time in Rendez-Vous watching the usual 2 musical groups, and headed up to Qsine for 8:30. It bills itself as "uniquely unordinary", and that's a good description. The first unusual thing is that the menu is presented electronically on an iPad. Diners can browse the cocktails, wines, and 16 different entrees. Some of them even had quirky little videos to accompany. It's an all-you-can eat format for a fixed price of $40 - quite reasonable given the dining experience.
Food is ordered tapas-style in a series of small servings that are shared among the group. There were 7 of us (me, Shelley, Shauna, Dave, Carolyn, Connie & Peter), which meant we got to see a good variety of the selections available. Some of the more interesting were spring rolls (served individually on big metal springs) and disco shrimp (served in a glass container with pulsing blue lights). There was another one where various foods and condiments were served in an upright container with cubbyholes - can't recall the name. Another one featured 3 large meatballs of various types. I remember lava crab, where the crab was covered in a thatch of angel hair noodles. The dessert menu is presented as a cube that unfolds into various positions such that you can read the items available.
Shauna had taken advantage of a free Captain's Club cocktail reception just before dinner, so she was in fine form. Connie remarked that she had never seen a woman speak as raunchily as Shauna did that night. We just smiled.
After dinner, we went down to Rendez-Vous for another round of karaoke, which was already in progress. I sang It's the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine) by R.E.M. Shelley got her Friends in Low Places in. Shelley and I capped off the night with a spirited rendition of Love Shack by the B-52's. This time, they let the session run until 1:00, and we went to bed shortly thereafter due to our early start to the tournament the next morning.