Explorer of the Seas, Pool Deck

We were very firmly in the latter part of the Star Trek convention which is also a cruise and so far had stuck almost entirely to convention-type activities, so we decided drag ourselves out of the stateroom and spend some time on the pool deck. Dan tried the ‘flow rider’ surf experience for a few minutes before it closed, then onto the pool (which we were surprised to find was salt water). Finally we spent some time in the hot tub (although sadly the bubbles weren’t working) where we chatted with a frequent cruiser, until we had to excuse ourselves for a 18:15 dinner appointment with Kimberly.

Dan had two mains at dinner, so we arrived slightly late for the 20:00 “Name that tune, ask Siri edition” in the schooner bar - which was a little frustrating because our 3 person team (the Transatlantic Alliance) scored 100% on all the questions we were present for. When it came to mark the quizzes we swapped our answer sheet with a couple of borg (a sentence I never thought I would say) - Dan was super pleased with himself when he successfully set the whole bar beating out the rhythm of ‘we will Rock you’ when it was time to mark that one. Our efforts put us in the top 5 but missing out on the win to a team that got 100% including the two songs we missed.

We stopped by our cabin and found another gift from the organises: luggage tags shaped like the EMH’s autonomous emitter, before heading to the night’s show: a live reading of the script for Devil in the Dark. The classic episode starred Gates McFadden as Captain Kirk, Ethan Peck as Mr. Spock and Denise Crosby as Doctor McCoy; it was directed and narrated by Roxanne Dawson. Dan was quite excited to see an actress portray Kirk… the production was a bit more light hearted than expected, Gates did a terrific version of William Shatner’s trademark pause, Robert Picardo did some great 4th wall breaking Improv and Ethan Phillips was delightful as the Horta.Read more