Day 3: Valletta (Malta Island)

Our first time leaving the ship

The fun part about excursions is it turns the ship into a floating hotel. We don't do anything, but the hotel gets us to a new place each day. The bad part is to get the full experience, you have to get up early. So, rather than going to the early morning stretch or playing tennis, we joined the Three Cities and a Boat Ride Tour of Malta.

We walked around Senglea, a fortified city in the Grand Harbor. We then loaded into a "Dghajsas" boat and toured the harbor. We then went to a restaurant in Birgu (which is pretty fun to say over and over again until your wife gets annoyed). We walked its narrow streets and toured an ornately adorned church. We then went to the harbor at Marsaxlokk, where we wanted to buy a toy knight but we didn't have any Euros on us. After returning to the cruise ship harbor, we tried to find some toy knights but they were not as good of quality, so we gave up.

Back home

We were one of 12 couples who signed up for the Mystery Dinner that evening. We met in the Starlight Theater to be assigned groups and parts (James was Joey Breakers, a surfer dude, and Kristal was Holly Day, a wealthy widow) and then proceeded to the Grand Pacific to dine with two other couples and figure out the murder. James turned out to be the murderer, to all of our surprise (except for Chief Wiki-Wiki, who figured it out).

The entertainment that evening was provided by Second City (a famous improv comedy show from Chicago). We even recognized Allison Bills from when we went to Chicago last summer, and, after talking to her later, she thought it was pretty cool to be recognized. Good thing Kristal has such a great memory.

The Weakest Link game show was one of the highlights and pivotal moves of the trip. James volunteered and faced off against three people who would later become friends -- Kaitlyn, Andy, and Kevin. James voted three times to get rid of Kevin (for no real reason other than he remembered Kevin's name). The game moved along and James faced Kaitlyn in the finals. She was a quick-witted college student from Syracuse. She had a couple of tough ones in the finals while James nailed three of four to win it all. The prize? Nada. Just the wonderful knowledge that James was the smartest person on the ship.

The Newlywed Game was next and despite attempts to volunteer, we were not selected. Wow were we happy not to be selected. The questions and answers were wild and the game was so memorable that the ship's close-circuit television channel played it constantly. Kevin and Tasha, friends on the ship, gave us a new appreciation for the terms helicopter and battle cry.

Basking in the glow of the game show win and having to get up early the next morning, we went to bed.