Victory in Victoria

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Sailing into Victoria we could see the approaching barren mountains of the coast looming closer, barren of any snow (okay, so it is summer isn’t it, and to paraphrase the Wizard of Oz, we’re not in Alaska any more)! Sharon headed to mass and then we headed up to the Lido for Breakfast. I got myself a serving of Swiss muesli in the Lido and some French toast to go with it. I had to wait because there wasn’t any premade ready to serve. Sharon got her scrambled eggs and they’ve reverted to the really soggy, chew, jerky-like turkey bacon.

We went back to the cabin to don our “We don’t need Google” T-Shirts to commemorate this final day of Team Trivia at 10:00 AM in the Crow’s Nest. We stopped at the Explorer’s Lounge to pick up the Sudoku Challenge. Sharon had wanted to retrieve some tape from her luggage to tape over the “Don’t” on our shirts just in case. We were getting lots of looks and chuckles from people as we walked by the pool on the Lido deck, and once on the Sports Deck by the Crow’s Nest, other trivia participants had to know that we were the competition. We did our Sudoku and I prevailed barely on the Easy puzzle, and by a slightly larger margin on the second; but, Sharon did finish both puzzles.

The final team challenge had arrived and all of our team members showed up, despite some disappointments in recent days. What country has the largest dessert in the Western Hemisphere? At first I thought Australia; but, it misses by the date-line being east of New Zealand. All we could come up with was US; although, Sharon and I had been very close to it just a couple years back. It is Argentina. Next came “How long was Nelson Mandela in jail?” Ross limited the answers to 24 years; 27 years; or 30 years. We chose 30 years, but Irene on our team were pushing for 27 years so as usual we should have listened to her. They may make me walk that plank yet. In 2000 people magazine put this 60 year old woman on their list of most glamorous people. We did manage to come up with Sophia Loren (and Sharon and I know that she definitely was the answer to a previous trivia question, but we just can’t remember what that question was!) The correct answer was Tina Turner. I hate it when they ask tennis questions that I should know but don’t come up with the answer. Who was the first American male to win Wimbledon three times in a row. I suggested Pete Samprass but the other John asserted that John McEnroe had done it. I knew that he played three times in a row, losing first to Jimmy Connors, then beating Jimmy Connors and then winning the repeat. I just didn’t know what happened the next year. And of course I knew that Samprass had done it; but, we went with a fellow “John”. Question #5 was “What word means ‘Sea in the middle of land’?” Sharon at least came up with “Lake”; but, nobody really felt good about that. When we heard the actual answer “Mediterranean” we knew that we’d better remember this for the fall cruise. Five questions into the challenge and we were zero-for-five. Our hopes were fading fast. What is the shape of the head on an Allen wrench? We wrote down “Hexagon”, and just to be safe wrote down in parenthesis “(Hexagram) Br.”. Then came the real stumper. “What is the stick called that you push discs in deck shuffleboard? Shuffler, Pusher, and a slew of other ideas were thrown out. Then Irene asked, what do they call the stick in pool, and just like that it came to us, it must be a “cue”! What is the gap called in the Zambezi River. Going back to the Zambia/Zimbabwe question a few days back Leah suggested Victoria Falls which we all knew must be right. What country makes the most maple syrup? From our New England cruises we knew it must be Canada; although, some in the room were thinking that Vermont and Maine might surpass them (still 75%!i(MISSING)s a big gap, and Canada is a lot bigger than Vermont and Maine). How many instruments are the minimum required to have a “Big Band”. Leah knew that this was 10 from one of their pub challenges. The team’s other John wrote down who the gang was headed by Rizzo in the movie Grease. What year did Lady Di (Diana) die? Irene knew this since she was in Paris when it happened so we wrote down 1997, so we had no argument there. What was the first Beatles tune to hit the charts in Great Britain? Evidently, it was different than in the States. Leah knew this to be “Love Me Do” and her John confirmed this. What is the technical name for laughing gas, and we all knew nitrous oxide. What chemical builds up in fatigued muscles? We all knew that this was lactic acid. And the bonus question was to come up with the last name of the only couple tried, convicted and executed as spies in US? That name of course was Rosenberg, which Leah wrote down instantly. We had salvaged twelve points; but, would that be enough to hold onto our tenuous lead. The Sun Devils and the Honeymooners who had done quite well in previous challenges came in with 10 points or less. A few other teams, in third place, had 11 points (or so Ross said). And tied in first place, were in fact three teams, including us, despite missing the first five questions. We had to know “How high is Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world (as far as a vertical drop of water)?” We were out of the running at 450 feet. One team chose about 1,650 feet. The winners today chose something over 3,000 feet; which, was indeed the answer. Imagine, over one-half mile down! The challenge was over, the numbers tallied and Ross announced the results for the top four teams, whom he said were very, very close. The Would-Be’s came in fourth with 162 points. The WAV came in third with 163 points, and were the winners in today’s challenge. The Sun Devils came in third with 167 points. Which left our team, We Don’t Need Google, with 173 points. So it’s a good thing that we submitted our low score of 8 points that one challenge that Sharon didn’t want to take the sheet up. Thank-you Katrina. Without those points we would have come in second. All of the top teams played every day and only 2 of them were ever below 10 (which we were once). Our prize for the overall victory was a bottle, as Ross called it, of cheap champagne. When he did come by to deliver it, Leah asked if we could exchange it for a bottle of red wine, and Irene let it be known that she doesn’t drink champagne, or at least not after the “very cheap” champagne served during the Mariner’s Luncheon. Ross was very gracious, came back with a bottle of red wine, and even consented to be in a picture taken of our group (Sharon and I both wearing our “We Don’t Need Google” shirts). Katrina had asked Sharon where she had gotten hers, and Sharon told her “eBay”. She also said, “You’ll have to see if they have one that says ‘I don’t need Google, My Grandmother Knows Everything!’” Our team agreed to get together again at 7PM and share the bottle of wine.

We opted for the Dive-In for lunch and showed up about 11:00 AM. Unfortunately the Dive-In doesn’t open until 11:30 AM for lunch. We noticed something markedly different from our past visits to the Dive-In, eating on the deck by the pool. Today there was nobody in either of the two hot tubs. On all previous days, there had been two or more people reclining in the hot tubs, not today, or not after last night’s Marriage Game anyway. I ordered Sharon a Coke and I had a Mai Tai. When the Dive-In did open I ordered a Cannonball hamburger again, and Sharon her plain burger. I came back with a couple of slices of pizza, and started eating those. When ordering right when they open you can expect to wait about 15 minutes (I guess until the oil or grill gets hot enough). Once they are turning out burgers, we’ve waited as little as 5 minutes; and, usually get the food before any drinks that we order arrive.

We arrived in Victoria about 1:30 but we decided not to get off here and spend the afternoon packing and just relaxing. There was a movie at 3:00 PM so we decided to go to the Wajang Theatre to watch “While We’re Young.” About ten minutes of that was about all that I could take, and told Sharon I was going back to the room to pack. Sharon already had most of her stuff packed away for tomorrow’s disembarkation. Sharon showed up about fifteen minutes later. I finished most of my packing, and then checked the weight on our larger bags, which will be checked in by Holland America so after leaving them in the hall, we won’t see them again until baggage claim in Cincinnati. Holland America charges a $25 fee for this Luggage Direct Service, but we got our tags, and boarding passes, and were even TSA-pre-checked so, flying tomorrow from Seattle should be a breeze.

We went to dinner at 5 PM so that we would be able to meet up with the team at 7 PM for a drink of wine in the Crow’s Nest. We were again offered a private table for two; and, I think if we had chosen to eat with others that we would just have wound up at a private table for six. There was nobody in the Dining Room as many were still ashore. The appetizer was a puff pastry cream cheese filled delight with grilled onions that was feathery light and absolutely delicious. I also had the mushroom soup that was quite good. Sharon was alarmed that there wasn’t anything that she wanted on this special curtailed “Last Day” menu; but, we confirmed with the waiter that all of the “everyday meal” choices were still available. She chose the chicken. I opted for the coconut and chocolate Napoleon. Sharon again went to the “everyday dessert” choices and ordered a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was either going to be that or a quick side-trip to the Lido.

We got a seat and a couple of small tables in the front of the Crow’s Nest. We were first joined by Katrina and her grandmother Irene. I ordered Katrina a virgin strawberry margarita with whipped cream and a cherry on top; and, I ordered Sharon a NA Frosty Chocolate Mint Buzz (basically a milk shake with mint chocolate chip ice cream and chocolate syrup instead of crème de cacao). John and Leah showed up with the wine and she got four wine glasses and I poured four glasses. Then the six of us toasted our victory, to good times, and the camaraderie that we’d shared on this cruise. It was a chance to get to know all of them that much better. Leah and Irene were outstanding in coming up with obscure facts that Sharon and I would never have known. Leah’s John was quick to push for answers that he knew, and very good at getting close to the tiebreak answers; well, except for the Angel Falls height that we both missed by half a mile… yikes! Our other teammates had to leave to have dinner, and they took the remainder of the Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile that Ross had graciously exchanged for the “bottle of cheap champagne.” We exchanged contact information already and promised to send the picture taken with Ross and for Sharon to provide the link to our blog. We said goodbye, and it was a bittersweet way for the cruise to end, having made new friends, and now realizing that this cruise is almost over.

We went back to the room for me to finish packing, and to finish the second glass of wine that I had poured. Sharon decided to go see the Dancing with the Stars at Sea finale, and I chose to finish my wine, then my San Pellegrino with ice from the ice bucket that our cabin boy keeps full. Kholik and Eko have been great. It was about 9:30 PM; so, I decided to go join Sharon and watch the finale of Dancing With The Stars at Sea. All of the dancers had greatly improved from their initial dancing that got them into the final. Even though the scores were quite close, and the results are billed as being determined by the level of noise generated by the audience in support of their favorite dancer, in this case, clearly the judges had the final say. Two of the women dancers were beaming with personality and big bright smiles and created a great rapport with the audience through shear charisma; and, two of the gentlemen dancers were clearly not in the same league as the others. The last gentleman danced flawlessly, nailing each step and gesture, he just didn’t do it with the flair and pizzazz that you might like to see. The first of the charming ladies took full advantage of the advice “If you don’t know the steps, keep moving and fake it.” And she brought her own cheering section including a small girl who nearly busted Ross’s eardrum with her shrill screams that had to peg the judge’s dB meter. The other woman and the flawless man both got good audience support, but there were no brass lungs in their cheering sections; still, after considerable discussions the judges award first place to the woman who faked it less, and the flawless dancing Mr. non-Congeniality got second place. So, maybe you need something more than just a loud cheering section to win. Maybe, you also need to know how to dance!

Holland America picked up our bags outside our stateroom, and that’s the last that we will see of them until we take them off the baggage claim in Cincinnati.



We had one last breakfast in the Lido, and our trip home was mostly uneventful. We were stranded on the tarmac in Minneapolis-St. Paul until a thunderstorm warning passed (the control tower was evacuated). Consequently we were about one hour late getting to Cincinnati. We almost missed our limousine because the driver hadn’t been given the flight number to check by the agency. As we landed, I turned my phone on and as soon as I did I got a phone call, and confirmed with the limo company that we had landed and would soon be at the baggage claim. It was almost midnight, and they were about to send the driver home.



All in all a great trip but after 5+ weeks it’s always nice to get home with more wonderful memories of one of our favorite places Alaska. That’s it for this blog till our trip this fall. Thanks for joining us.

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