4/27 – ARE challenge day four

Today was another day off from the Race, so we are all rested and refreshed and ready to roll.  We must make up time today to even try to begin to come up in the rankings.  Although at this point it may be a losing battle.  Red and Green are battling it out. They are only 3 minutes apart.  We are behind Green by 21 minutes (that damn gym is coming back to haunt us) and then the Orange team is hot on our heels, only 19 minutes behind.  Yellow and Purple are bringing up the rear – but they are 1 hour out of the lead, so unless something drastic happens, they aren’t really in the running.  We must be on our game today.

Since we were 4^th into the Pit stop previously, we leave at the back of the pack.  But the clue sends us to Team Earth – which I predicted – and we get there in no time.  The Challenge is to take team pictures with 6 different officers of 2 stripes or more.  Fast Forward?  This might take forever.  But no – wait – Bev and I both remember that they are doing “Are you smarter than an officer” up in the Sky lounge – we can do this in no time.  Now we are RUNNING – we haul down the length of the ship to get to the Sky lounge (deck 14 forward  - elevators and the whole ship!).  We come running into the lounge – which is packed, btw – find Chris the housekeeping manager and his assistant (who are both the greatest guys – always fun and sweet and smiling).  We get them to take pictures with us – 2 down.  We search the lounge and darn it – all the officers are on one team huddled around Sue our CD up at the front of the lounge. What to do, what to do.  Well – in for a penny, in for a pound! Randy runs up there and asks if we can bother them for pictures – and well – I can’t wait to get them from Randy when he gets home – we all run up there – totally disturbing the trivia – apologizing profusely – but having Chris take pictures as we rotate behind each officer.  Germaine – the activities guy is getting a little irritated – but hey – it’s a Race, buddy – deal!  We make hay back to Team Earth, almost running some poor woman over in the hall – and we’re done in no time at all!

Next clue – it sounds like ping pong. We know where that is! We head to the entertainment court – but the ping pong tables aren’t there.  Plus the clue says something about green tables, and Ron has been playing ping pong and says the tables are blue.  Hmmmmm…..maybe the casino….no…maybe the lawn club/activities area?  So, from deck 4 we run to deck 15 – elevate – not run – as we are going up in the elevator I see one of the marshals waving at me from the card room – so I’m convinced that’s where we need to be.  But, we continue on up to 15 and there is nothing up there – we run the length of the ship, asking everyone we can what they think the clue means. They all say ping pong, but we can’t find the darn tables.  In the meantime we run into 3 teams all looking for some bar. They are running around to every bar on the ship – and can’t find where they are supposed to be.  This would be totally hysterical if it weren’t totally frustrating.  So, back downstairs we go to the card room.  There is a challenge there – but it isn’t ours!  OMG – where are the ping pong tables??  But at least we know where our next challenge will be – if we can ever find those dang tables!  On the way back down to the Entertainment Center, we see Lisa and I just ask her where they are – she says in Quasar – oh for God’s Sakes!  This is what we get for rushing – we were RIGHT THERE – but didn’t look inside.  Sheesh. But in the meantime she’s asking if we’ve see the Purple, Green and I think Orange team- who were all upstairs by the Mast Bar looking for their bar. I tell her and she says to send them to her if we see them.  Apparently they got the Pit stop clue instead of a challenge clue – so when they went there (the Martini bar) there was no one there – and that sent them off in a frenzy.  As I said – funny – if it weren’t so frustrating!

Finally we get to the darn ping pong tables where we have to be in pairs- one of us bounces the ball 5 times on the paddle then we have to volley 3 times.  Easy – we all get through it in no time- under 2 minutes I think. Finally – a fast challenge.  Next we have to go back to the card room for our last challenge – which proves to be the worst of the day!  We have to build a 3 tier house of cards – each member has to put at least 1 card on it and it has to stand for 10 seconds.  Totally frustrating. We spent entirely too long trying to figure out the traditional way of making a card house – the marshals kept telling us to “think outside the box” – and finally after a couple of weird mis-starts – we figure out that all we need to do is stack the darn things in 3 alternating piles.  Oh come on? Really?  Too frustrating.

We make it to the pit stop – the Martini bar – 4^th maybe.  (Below is just an example of the Pit Stop clue)

And then we hang out waiting for the cume times because we need to use our speed bump now – it’s just a matter of who to give it to – Green – who is now in the #1 slot or Orange who is right on our heels.  The standings are Green at :46, Red at :47, Blue (us) at 1:12, Orange at 1:23, Yellow at 1:27 and Purple at 1:47.  Hmmmmm…..what to do?  We talk and talk and talk and talk – and finally we decide to give it to Green. We hate to do it – they are the nicest team – but it’s a game – not a popularity contest!  So with hugs and apologies all around – we hand it off.  They tell us they have a meeting scheduled tomorrow to decide to whom they will give their speed bump. 

As we are chatting with Green, we find out that Orange has completed that stupid house of cards challenge in 30 seconds – because they walked right in – saw Purple team completing it – and copied. Not fair!  And then they wouldn’t let Green come in the room – they stood there and said no – you have to go outside you can’t be in here. Again – no fair! Cheaters can’t tell other people they can’t cheat!  Everyone is stretching the rules – that’s almost part of the fun, trying to figure out what to do, how to do it and what questions to ask – and what’s good for one is good for all.

Ok – Orange still has a speed bump too and we aren’t really happy with them right now – so we are on pins and needles as the waiting begins.  All speed bumps must be used by midnight Monday (Ponta Delgada) night. We all run up to the café to avoid hanging around as targets for the speed bump and discuss how we are going to avoid getting the speed bump.  Bev says we need to make ourselves incognito – and we agree.  Keep a low profile – or as I said “HIDE!”