Our Cruise Critic group on this cruise is huge – close to
300 people. And two of those people,
Andrew and Lisa, have organized an amazing (no pun intended) amount of
activities. In addition to the typical cabin crawl, poker run and slot pool,
they have actually created a version of the Amazing Race for our sailing. We signed up online, along with 34 other race
enthusiasts ( some who aren’t even familiar with the TV show!). I’m totally excited!! Our first Amazing Race Eclipse (ARE) briefing
brings all 36 of us together – along with our route marshals to talk about the
game and choose teams.
The basics are this:
6 teams of 6 people, 5 days of challenges plus bonus challenges in which
we can choose to participate. Each day
of the 5 days will have 3 challenges each.
We will get route clues – riddles – that tell us where to go for our
challenges, once we figure them out. Then we need to figure out the challenges
and complete each according to the rules the Marshalls tell us. We’re timed for each challenge and the
cumulative time is then tallied each day.
The team who completes the challenges in the least amount of time at the
end of the game wins. There are
roadblocks and detours and fast forwards and speed bumps all built in. Totally, totally awesome!
Today we are picking teams (ack! We don’t really know
anyone….so this could be an issue) and then we’ll get our first clue to open
tomorrow at 12:45. As it turns out –
team choosing is easy – we all introduce ourselves around the room (go around
the room and tell us your names and where you are from, yada yada). The couple next to us (Randy and Bev) is
chatty, from Canada, and we start to talk.
A couple behind us (Ron and Primrose) is from Australia and when he
makes his introduction, he says he’s going to win! Oh yeah – we want you on our team! So – there
you go – an international team (which is always the best in trivia contests –
maybe in ARE too!) ready to go in minutes!
We end being the blue team – with really nice lanyards
and our team blue first route marker clue in hand - we are raring to go! Randy, Bev, Ed and I are show fans. Ron and Prim haven’t seen it and aren’t
familiar, so we’re teaching them about it along the way. We all agree to meet tomorrow morning at
12:30 outside Bistro on 5 – the most mid-point of the ship – to open our
clue. Off we go!
And, while I won’t forget to continue to remind you
faithful bleaders throughout this blog, we all give huge kudos to Andrew and
Lisa who have coordinated all this from their home in Orlando (they both
previously worked for Celebrity and so they do have an “in” so to speak, and
they’ve coordinated with the ship staff and Sue, the CD aboard, to make sure
all is organized and not interfering with shipboard activities). Of course on the first day – we’re just
amazed at their organization skills and what they’ve done to get this off the
ground. As we go on through the game, we are ever more in awe of the time,
effort and funds they’ve put into this game.
Really, really, really incredible!
But – more on that later!
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