I was awoken by being covered by balloons and streamers 'borrowed' from a gathering held in the night club the previous evening. Our cabin steward had also stuck a couple of balloons and a sign on our door so that everyone who happened to walk by knew that there was something exciting going on.

Other than a birthday celebration, the day was filled the usual sea day activities .

Due to another culinary demonstration/experience, this morning’s Zumba took the form of speed Zumba – meaning the content of a 45 minute class is condensed into a 30 minute class or at least we tried to condense it.

A semi celebratory lunch was had in one of the restaurants. The lunch was mainly to say goodbye to people in a group we had joined. Being the last lunch we would have as a group (several people were getting off in Auckland), a huge cake had been organised. Since it was my day of birth (as well as another lady’s), we had the privilege of making the first cut to the cake.

I tried again at winning something at bingo and again failed. I did however consider my effort at trivia to be somewhat triumphant. Being a team of one, I was quite chuffed to get a score of 10/20. I was even more chuffed when I realised that I alone had gotten a higher score than the teams on either side of me.

The theme of cake eating was continued at dinner, when the staff bought out the complimentary chocolate cake from the cruise line (it’s their gift on your special day, you also get one if you’re having an anniversary). Several waiters gathered around and sang happy birthday. In an interested twist, salt and pepper shakers were used to add sound effects. Most excitingly, my tiny cake was presented to me with an actual candle.  This is exciting because naked flames are bad on a ship and as such only really reside in the kitchen area.

Once the cake had been shared with my table mates, it was off to the night club to listen to some karaoke. Mum departed to watch one of the shows and after hearing one of the cruise staff sing a Bee Gee’s song I headed back to the cabin.

Fun fact:
Party balloons are mostly made of a natural latex tapped from rubber trees.