Saturday - February 09, 2008

The Great Pancake Race 

Excitement was in the air as we took our places by the rail above the pool where the Great Pancake Race was going to be run. The teams came out to great cheers from their supporters as they were announced. I have to say that if a prize had been awarded for best team costumes, the "Mauretanians" from the Mauretania restaurant would easily have won. 

They had tablecloths for capes, silver serving trays for shields, and spears and helmets made from silver foil wrap. When they gave their battle cry and shook their spears, the deck trembled. Unfortunately, they couldn't flip a pancake and run at the same time to save their lives, so they lost in the first round! 

Our "Happy Feet" team from the Queen's Grill took second prize for costume and for the race. They had black tails and bow ties, white shirts, and penguin masks and feet. They also had a really tarty looking "lady" carrying a bucket for donations. Mike and I were scratching our heads trying to figure out who it was until I got a good look under all the stringy, dyed hair and realized that it was Sebastio, one of the waiters, in drag! 

The rules were that 3 members of each team stood on either side of the pool. Lines were taped on the deck to divide the area in between into three sections. Each team was given a frying pan and a pancake and they had to run the distance, flip their pancake 3 times in each section and then hand off to the next member of their relay team. 

To great cheering and clapping and laughter, the races were run in heats until we had two finalists. More than a few pancakes hit the deck and there was some obvious cheating going on when it was noticed by all that one of the lady runners was flipping her pancake over and over with her hand! Boo! Hiss! That stopped the race and crowd had to give  thumbs up or down to decide if the team should be disqualified. Luckily for them, the crowd didn't demand blood and that heat was restarted. To our delight, one of the finalists was Happy Feet. Lawrence, our waiter, was incredible. That guy could race at full tilt and flip pancakes all the way. He pulled the team's fat out of the fire in at least 2 qualifying rounds. They might have won the whole thing, except that the fellow who ran the final leg for the team neglected to flip his pancake and was sent back to start again. Buggah! 

The final photo here is of the Happy Feet team, with Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg, who do the World Cruise ever year. They pledged $1,000 to support the team and the charities. We pledged somewhat less! The fellow in the front looking up at the camera is Lawrence, our waiter. He comes from Calcutta, India, and he does a great job. He has a good sense of humor and always has a smile on his face. I told him I'd like to take him home with me. 

The fellow you can just see on the left is our Maitre D. He was Assistant Maitre D until just a few days when our Maitre D fell on a flight of stairs and broke his leg! The break was so bad that he had to have a metal plate put in and was flown home from Valparaiso. I felt very badly for him because he has been with the ship for 40 years, even before its first sailing, and now he will miss a good portion of her final year at sea. I hope that he is back for the last sailing, to Dubai. 

So which team won, you ask? Well, who do you think? The guys who flip pancakes for a living - the Chefs, of course!