Saturday, April 30, 2011

I will try to pick up each day where I left off the day before. 

We went to the High Royal Tea yesterday afternoon and got a snack before dinner.  When you go to these things they always seat you with someone else.  This time we were all going around the table introducing ourselves.  I said I was Mary from Texas and then Mary P said she was Mary from Texas.  The woman sitting next to Mary P looked puzzled and asked her if we were traveling together.  She said yes we were.  She then said well did you plan that?  Mary P said no we didn't plan to each have the name Mary.  That got a good laugh.  I don't know if the woman knew what a dumb question that was.  I told Mary P we should make up a story and tell them that our Mothers were sisters and their mother's name was Mary so they each named us after their mother and to make things even more complicated, our mother's had married brothers so we each had to the same name.  Of course you all know that is not true but it could be a good comeback to questions like that.  We have had people ask us before if we were sisters.  Now really, sisters named the same thing.  I don't think so.

Last night was formal night so we all got dressed up in our finest and we sat down at our table 16.  The curtains were closed along that window but the people behind us opened theirs so we opened ours and everyone else along that side followed and opened theirs as well.  It wasn't long until our waiter came and asked us to close our curtains because the sun was shining in their eyes.  Terry told him to tell them to put their sunglasses on.  Before thinking about what we were doing, Pat and I closed the curtains then to be mad we were sitting there at our table by the window but we couldn't look out.  We were going to request they move us to the opposite side of the dining room but instead when the Dining Room Manager came by to speak to us, Mary P told him what had happened and he promptly went over and opened the curtains up for us.  Somehow I don't think that will happen again.

At the end of dinner they brought everyone a glass of champagne.  Yesterday Carnival Corporation (Holland America is owned by Carnival) launched it's 100th ship -- Carnival Magic.  They were having a champagne toast on all 100 of their ships throughout the world which would be 227,000 guests doing this.  After we finished with the toast and dessert -- Strawberry Cheesecake -- yum, we went to the Captain's Welcome Toast in the Vista showroom.  After that, we got to see the show with Clint Holmes.  I didn't know what to expect, but I must say, this has to be one of the best shows I have ever seen.  In fact it was so good, we went back to his 10:00 show and it was even better than the 8:00 show.  If any of you ever get a chance to see him, I highly recommend it.

We also went to see the Marriage Game Show which is always funny.

They had the Royal Ball in the Crow's Nest so we went to check it out.  Everyone was dancing and having a good time.  We sat and watched for a while and then around 11:30 pm decide to retire for the night. I don't ever stay up this late!

This morning we ate breakfast at the Pinnacle Grill again.  Mary P and I went by ourselves and they tried to seat us in a small booth away from the world.  I asked them to give us a table by the window.  I don't think they liked it, but they did.

At 9:30 am they had a coffee chat with the Cruise Director and Clint Holmes.  This was very good also.  We learned a little bit more about Clint.  He said his mother was a white British opera singer and his dad was  a black American jazz singer and then went on to say that made him "confused" and then laughed.  His father was in the service during World War II and met his mother when he saw her perform for the troops.  His father passed away 10 years ago but his mother is 95 years old and lives in Las Vegas.

We didn't lose any time last night, but they changed the clocks at 2:00pm to 3:00 pm.  I like this much better than doing it during the night.

Dinner was good tonight, especially the desserts.  They had key lime pie and I asked for a big piece so they brought me 2 pieces.  I figured that was ok since I just had a Blackened Chicken Caesar Salad for dinner.

The show tonight was the singers and dancers.  This was another new show that I had not seen and I enjoyed it. 

The casino was not as friendly today as it was the first day.  I ran into Dan Scrivner tonight and he said he got a Royal Flush the first night and won $1100.  Some people have all the luck!