Chapter 11
Useless Knowledge Put to Use

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We found Diversions right as Theme Park Trivia was about to get underway. As we entered the lounge and looked around, there weren’t really any completely open tables, but there were a few tables that were only half occupied. We took seats at a table with a mother and daughter (the younger of whom was about our age). As the trivia host began passing out answer sheets, we decided to team up and play as a table rather than competing individually.

Our introductions had to be relatively truncated because the game was about to start—so much so that we forgot to actually find out each other’s names. We did cover the important bases, however. Both our teammates were Disney Parks fans from British Columbia. The daughter had actually done the International College Program at WDW a few years earlier and worked in the Canada Pavilion at Epcot. On the whole, we felt like we had a good amount of knowledge to be pretty competitive when it came to trivia about the theme parks.

Steven, the cruise staff member who was also our host, quieted the room and explained to us how the game was going to work. He had 25 sound clips queued up on his iPod and would be playing them one at a time. We were to answer what attraction, show, parade, fireworks spectacular, etc. the clip came from for one point. Next, we had to identify what park (or parks) the attraction could be found in for another point. And then he would ask a bonus question about the answer for a possible third point.

While I would love to list out all the questions, I actually don’t want to spoil the game for any of you who are thinking about playing along on your next cruise (I’m 99% sure the questions stay the same every time). It sounded like Steven came up with this particular trivia game on his own, so I think it’s only offered on cruises where he is part of the staff (which likely means it’s only offered on the Wonder), but if you ever see it listed in your Personal Navigator, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

We had a blast and ended up getting 74 out of 75 possible points. Without giving away the question, I’ll reveal that the only answer we missed was “Dip.” Amazingly, I’m not sure if our group even placed in the top three among all the teams. There was a bonus question about one of the foreign parks (which we got wrong), and Steven also gave teams a bonus point if they had someone who attended the 1964 New York World’s Fair (which at least two teams did). In the end, the winners got 77 out of 75 and won DCL hats.

Our first trivia experience had been so fun. We really doubted whether it would be possible to top this game because theme parks are certainly our favorite niche. We’d also really enjoyed playing with our teammates and felt like we’d made another set of new friends on board. We still parted, however, without ever finding out each other’s names.

We’d actually had quite the busy afternoon at sea, so we decided to head back to the stateroom to relax for a while. Part of me had always wondered what exactly there is to do when you’re on the ship all day during a cruise, but now that we were actually experiencing all the activities, the mystery was solved.

Back on our own verandah, we realized that the ship was suddenly much closer to land than we’d been for a while.

The weather was dreary and a little gross, but it wasn’t too cold, so we spent some time outside.

Tracy and I had opened our champagne the previous evening, but we hadn’t finished it off, so now I ran up and grabbed some orange juice from the machines on Deck 9 so that we could make mimosas while we sat out and enjoyed the ambience.

After hanging out in our stateroom for a while, we brought our blanket up to Deck 9 to enjoy the views from the covered area as well (a good option because it had started to rain).

After we were still a little too chilly up there, we abandoned the idea of sitting outside for the moment and just hung out in the doorway of our stateroom so that we could watch all the interesting islands that we were starting to pass.

These mist-shrouded lands just look like something out of a movie.

I even took a few videos to show how interesting it all looked from our point of view.

While we’re at it, here’s a short video I took that essentially shows a tour of our room. You can see a few of the highlights and get a feel for how it was to actually be in the space.

We got dressed for dinner next. Now, we are CERTAINLY not the type of people who are willing to dress up for every nighttime meal, but since tonight was formal night, we played along.

Tracy looked particularly lovely, in my completely unbiased opinion.

And I put on a tie for the first time in months.

Formal selfie! (This was the third time I’d taken it, and I finally got us both into the frame)

Once we were dressed and ready, I took another picture out the window, as the scenery was getting interesting.

Now we headed down to Deck 3 and made our way through the Route 66 lounge area, en route back to Triton’s for the second time today. On the way, I took a picture of this sign that probably wasn’t too far off in estimating our distance to Disneyland.