Between dinner and returning to your stateroom your room service crew would leave a different animal towel each night. Here is a towel monkey wearing Anna's sunglasses.
And below is the towel elephant.
Many people have asked me, "How small was your room?" Well, I didn't take any pictures of my room, which was bigger than this one and had a window, but here is the room that my niece and nephews shared. The bed on the right is also a twin.
Below are some performers from the show on the 6th night. It was a husband and wife team, he was originally from Argentina and she was a New York dancer. They now do dance routines, drumming and some cool Argentinian gaucho rope tricks.
The ship's performers were phenomenal. Every night they presented a different show with music and dancing. These photos are from the last night's performance, but the ones at the end of the week were even better. One was selected songs from several popular Broadway musicals and the other was devoted to popular music from the 50's through the 90's.
During dinner there were a few nights were our wait staff would serenade us. Our table was directly below the triangular light at the bottom right corner. Frankie loved watching a violinist play on the landing every night and told me he wants to learn to play the violin.
Me and Frankie at the last night's show - the only one he could stay awake for.
My nephew Mike with a handful of pennies - his gambling coin of choice in the ship's casino. His philosophy - the smaller the value, the longer you can play.
On the 2nd to the last night, Mary won the jackpot! Unfortunately, it wasn't the whole $20,000.
On the 2nd to the last night, Mary won the jackpot! Unfortunately, it wasn't the whole $20,000.
The casino was a good place to spend some time and have a drink brought right to you between dinner and a show. To be honest, I didn't think the night life was all that great.
Filippo, Nonno and
Giovanni soak in the only functioning hot tub of the two by the pool.
It was Christmastime, so in front of the Schooner Lounge where Anna and I often competed in "Name That Tune" type competitions, there was this huge gingerbread house display. It was really a gingerbread village.
Also, in front of the Schooner Lounge, Frankie and Mario took turns behind the wheel.
Some of the most fun I had was competing in some hysterically funny games. This one was called "The Quest". Me, Mike, Anna, Mary, Giovanni and Louis and Kim from Baltimore were a team and we competed against about 15 other teams. Each team was given a card with our team number and Luke, the activities director (an absolutely adorable British lad, seen in the referee uniform) would request and item and each team had to bring it up as quickly as possible. The first team up got 4 points, the 2nd got 3 points, the 3rd got 2 points and all teams thereafter got just one point. Another referee kept score. Luke would ask for things like a woman's purse, empty of all contents. A man with a hairy back. A woman with a moustache. A form of birth control, etc. A woman with two unworn bras and one must be her own. Funny stuff. We were sitting in the front row and Anna and Mike were insane about jumping out of their seats and getting to Luke first. You should have seen Anna slither out of her bra! The last competition required a man (Louis) to go to the front of the stage dressed in women's shoes (mine), lipstick (Anna's), and a purse (Anna's camera case). Since Anna's bra was already off, we strapped that on to Louis, as well. He's the one that Luke is interviewing in the picture. Luke kept the men on stage and then had them do a runway walk and blow a kiss while being videotaped by the ship's videographer for posterity. The end result was hysterical but in the end our team came in 2nd place by only TWO POINTS! We thought we'd had it and were really quite devasted. Oh well.
On an earlier night, either the first or second, Anna, Mary and I and Giovanni and Beni played the Men vs. Women game. It was sort of a Family Fued type game. I volunteered to go up second and rather than ring a bell, I had to bark like a dog while the guy had to make an elephant sound. Our question, "What are the most popular places to make whoopi?" I barked first, so we took the question, but we only got two out of three before getting three strikes and the guys stole it from us. In the end, the guys stole from us every time on the last one and ended up winning the game. But we all know girls can kick the guys butts!
Cousin Filippo gave Frankie a lift back to the ship after returning from a taxi ride from the beach.
Anna and I hanging out after dinner and taking a "Facebook" picture.
Here is a picture of a picture we had taken of the entire family on the "grand" staircase. We didn't like how some of us turned out, so we didn't buy it. Frankie looks like a rag doll.
Here's an informal one of the boys on the same stairs.
The Biondo family looking very bronze.
My in-laws in the "Anniversary Suite" decorated by my sister-in-law Fran who didn't join us.
Frankie and Anna in the ship's theater before one of the shows, taking silly pictures to pass the time.
The photo below is of the main lobby filled with dancing guests for 70's night. The activities crew dressed as go-go girls and The Village People. Our hot friend Luke was the indian, wearing nothing more than a loincloth and headress! Too bad we didn't get a good shot of him!
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