Seeking Venice by Sea

---

We rose again not worrying about any early tours. Sharon went to mass and I worked some on the blog. Later we had breakfast in the Lido: eggs over medium for me with some sausage and far too little potatoes… Sharon had hers scrambled and again was unable to get a lone single piece of crispy bacon.



We had to rush off to make our 10AM collector cruise meeting for those 250 or so of us who were continuing on to Barcelona. We received a tag-team presentation from the Destination Specialist Tom and the Excursion Specialist for our upcoming ports of call. Dave gave us the three pieces of information of what we would need to get off the vessel in Venice: 1-Nieuw Amsterdam Room Key Card, 2-Passport and 3-In-Transit Pass Card (that lets us skip the lines and process for those getting on in Venice). I had picked up the Daily Sudoku on the way to the Showroom for this talk; so, when it was over we sought out a lounge with some tables to do our challenge by the casino. We caught the interest of one of the beverage stewards, amused at us competing so seriously against each other. The second time he came over Sharon conceded that she’d lost the first game, and we were now playing the Hard game. The steward noticed our third copy of the game, and inquired if he could have it. We nodded, still trying not to lose time in our contest to the other. We use that extra sheet because the Nieuw Amsterdam (as most DAM ships seem to do), prints two games on a single side sheet of paper. They used to print two puzzles on a full sheet of paper, one above the other. Now they’re two tiny ones side by side on the half-sheet in an effort to become greener and conserve paper. Due to the cells being so tiny, it’s difficult or impossible to annotate some of the tougher puzzles. This virtually requires a backup sheet in the likely event a mistake is made… which sort of defeats the paper-saving purpose.



At 11 AM I went to the cooking show to learn about tiramisu and pesto gnocchi; meanwhile, Sharon went to learn about Venice. We met back in the cabin, and Sharon suggested that we go to see the Murano and Burano Tour and then the tour of Verona (The City of Romeo & Juliet). We went to the Excursion Desk on the Main Deck, and were informed that the Verona tour had been cancelled for Wednesday (which was when we were thinking of taking that tour). So they switched the two, and all was good. Sharon tried to print out her bill to date on this cruise at the kiosk where you can scan your room key to get a printout of your bill; but, it evidently was out of paper.



We went up to the Lido for lunch and I enjoyed another mushroom, tomato, basil, white sauce and olive oil pizza with arugula. Sharon had the roast pork with some veggies, and we both had a soda.



We went up early to stake out a spot for Team Trivia. I did find a place, but we still needed to scrounge a chair. Once Jeremy arrived we did come up with an extra chair, and another British couple joined us, sitting on the bench outside the bar (which Sharon and Audrey were also sitting on by our tiny round table). Nine of the first fifteen questions were repeats from our recent Alaskan cruises. They even repeated the erroneous question of what is the only land mammal that can’t jump. The answer we learned in (and we may have even gotten this one right back then) is the mammal. Some research I’ve done since then discovered that this falls in the “urban myth” category, and that there are actually three other land mammals that can’t “jump”. They are the hippopotamus (duh), the rhinoceros and the lowly sloth (who would have thunk?). Perhaps the myth arises from the fact that this later group can in fact get all of their feet off of the ground at the same time by running, which in the strict sense of the word is not jumping. Dave asked us to complete the following: “Don’t blame it on the sunshine, don’t blame it on the moonlight, don’t blame it on the good times, blame it on (what?).” Sharon is convincing me that her answer is correct, from the song, “Blame it on the bosanova.” But our British partners, especially our two newbies for today, are saying that the answer is “Boogie”. We go with that, because they seem so sure, and I just shake my head and think “It must be a British thing.” And they were right! In eastern philosophy the ying and yang are opposing forces: Which of these is the female part? Fifty-fifty questions and we got it wrong! Oh well, now we know it is the ying. Jeremy knew which country is the farthest west of Uganda or Kenya (another fifty-fifty question). It was indeed Uganda. Shame on us for not knowing what country has the most active volcanoes. And it was a two-point bonus question! We chose Iceland, and the answer does start with the letter “I”. Our new British partners proposed Nepal as the country with the highest golf course (Who would have thought there were any golf courses in Nepal!) The answer is in South America… another geography question that we missed! Then came, “In the Twilight Series (or Saga), what is the (first) name of the three main characters. I had never heard of this vampire series, so we went with Tom, Dick and Harry. The team whose paper we graded went with Manny, Moe and Jack. Not quite Belle, Edward and another male name I don’t remember now. Dave likes to threaten us with Boy Band questions, and when we booed when he offered to ask another one now, he came up with a Girl Band question: “Name the (first) names of each of the five Spice Girls”. Our British teammates (and even Sharon came up with the first one) were able to come up with Posh, Baby, Sporty, Ginger and Scary. Then came the question (for 7 points) that was in my wheelhouse: Name the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We got an impressive 26 out of 35 points. The winner had an even more impressive 31 points.



After Trivia we went to the Showroom for the 2pm cast chat. A small group of people showed up and we learned about these talented performers. They work for a company that provides shows for the Eurodam, the Nieuw Amsterdam and two other ships. The shows that this troupe is performing are new; but, will be seen on other vessels in the future. Because they are new shows, the costumes have been tailored to them. Later performers will in part be selected by their ability to fit into these costumes. Typically a group will be chosen for six to nine month contracts. The troupe will rehearse the show for three months in New York before getting onboard; then, they will rehearse for another two weeks before performing for live audiences.



We went to play Bingo at 4PM. Game one is the straight bingo (one line any which way). Game two was the 4-corner game (calling only the B’s and O’s). Show host Joel is full of energy, but I’m getting the vibe that Bingo is just an annoyance that he wants to get through as quickly as possible. I actually got to stand for more than a few calls; although I wasn’t the first to stand. For the third game, he again had the Small-X game (calling just the I’s and the G’s and again needing just 4 numbers to win). Sharon bought her card and got four bonus plays for the final blackout game (one for each of her 4-star Mariner status). So I bought my own card and got three bonus plays for my 3-star status (the lady said that she could have charged mine to Sharon’s room (and then I would have gotten 4 instead of 3 bonus plays). Sharon got to stand for the blackout; and, even had two cards that needed just one number each! And she stood for some time with several calls of “B”, just not the one that she needed. The bingo crowd was smaller than in Alaska, the prizes were smaller and most of them were being split (including the blackout).



It was formal night with surf and turf. I had the jumbo shrimp cocktail but they made it with some mango salsa rather than real cocktail sauce, which was nothing to get excited about. I had Sharon order me the apple-pear salad because I wanted to have some greens. I really enjoyed the sweet potato and ginger soup (add a little crushed pepper, yum). I had the pan grilled sea bass and the turf part of Sharon’s meal. I’m not eating as much beef as I once did, and I’m not a big fan of the steak in HAL’s surf and turf entry (unless you get a chance to have it at the captain’s table, and that is another story). On our Antarctica cruise after Sharon had earned her 4^th star on the previous cruise, we were invited to the captain’s table to dine. And that steak was exceptional, thick (not like the one on Sharon’s plate) and perfectly cooked, as if it came out of the Pinnacle (which it well may have). The No-sugar Added Chocolate “Lava-Like” cake was wonderful; and, more so for me with the added scoop of vanilla ice cream!



Cast show gave their Marquee performance of song and dance, showcasing the casts individual talents. We’d learned from the cast show that one da cer was out sick, and so the show had to adjust to accommodate that. It was full of energy. One of the things that came out of the cast show is how the cast feeds off of the energy in the audience.



After the show we made our way to see the Marriage Game. This show is always different, and I’m sure we won’t forget this one soon, nor will Cruise Director Dave or Show Host Joel. Dave found a young newlywed couple that had just been married two weeks who agreed to play. I wonder if they know what they’re in for. Dave had had a running dialog with one Aussie and encouraged him and his wife to play (Dave seemed somewhat surprised that this Aussie had a wife); but, he did know that this guy was a character. We’d seen him playing trivia this past week. Then Dave sought the longest married couple to join us. I’m thinking in the future he needs to either vet people coming on stage better, or at least listening to them when they say they don’t want to play. First the women went backstage and the men answered four questions such as what would they make bigger and smaller on their wives (it doesn’t need to be something physical), or what family member would you not want to be stuck on a desert island with. The elderly guy just scratched his head and said, “We got no family, just us.” So they changed it to friends. He reluctantly answered one of his wives friend’s named Cindy. The women then came on stage with their husbands and had a chance to answer the same questions. The older woman at first said, “Oh, I don’t answer questions like that… why you ask?” I think she was confused as to what was happening, kept saying “I dunno.” Dave struggled to get an answer out of her, saying several times (Bartender, get us a couple of wang-wang’s). Dave had told us at trivia that a wang-wang is the strongest drink served on the Nieuw Amsterdam composed of seven different kinds of liquor. Perhaps it’s a mythical drink, and the drinks didn’t come, and the bartenders realized he was just kidding. It took him over ten minutes to coax one answer out of her for “What her husband said that she would change about him.” She just whispered it to Dave, who then jumped up and announced it to the room “He’s messy.” Show announcer Joel serving as the emcee was at the podium, with his laptop, which he also uses to call Bingo, evidently had a pre-canned sound bite prepared should she ever answer: Hallelujah. It was appropriate. After that though, pretty much all that she would say was “I dunno.” Dave would try a couple times and then he started asking the bartender for some wine. The bartender must have recognizing that Dave was no longer kidding and brought Dave and Joel both a glass of red wine, which they both downed in one gulp. The bartender came back almost right away with two more glasses. The funny thing was, when it was the gentlemen’s turns to answer what their wife had said, his answer for her first answer was “I dunno”, but Dave had eked a response of her husband being too nice out of her. And one the question, “What movie would you compare your husband’s performance in bed too: Superman, Gone in 60 Seconds, Free Willy, or you could provide your own move. The woman married to the Aussie jokester chose instead “The Long Weekend”, and of course the elderly woman chose “I dunno”. Despite her husband knowing that she says “I Dunno” a lot, he missed this one when Dave read off the possible answers for them, and “ I Dunno” was among them! For those in the audience that were perhaps worried about missing the 10 PM performance in the Showroom that evening, Dave told them not to worry, “The Show wasn’t going to start without him!” This show ran over fifteen minutes, and while it was a little funny at first, it became an ordeal for the audience as well.



That volcanic country is Indonesia. And that country with a high golf course is Bolivia. And those wonders are The Great Pyramid of Giza, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, The Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse at Alexandria.

---