I'm blushing!
It was a real blast being up there with my father. He was the one who had the magic seat! He was allowed to take me with him! Together, we came real close. Far closer to a cruise than he or I ever expected.
We got through 9 out of 10 questions, with the 10'th question being the one for the free cruise. There were no life lines left. We had 90 seconds to come up with the final answer. A few people were shouting out the correct answer (including my daughter) in spite of being instructed to be quiet. Unfortunately, it was a blurr on stage. Watching the clock count down and trying to decide whether to take the money (a $400 shipboard credit) or take a gamble was mind numbing. If we stopped there my father got $400. If he answered wrong, he dropped to $175. If he answered and got it right, he got a free cruise! Oh, the pressure! What to do, what to do.
We finally decided walking away with a guarenteed $400 was wiser than taking a chance. The sad thing was that after the game was over, I realized I had known the answer and the pressure of the moment completely threw me! What a bummer!
Oh well.... it certanly was one of the highlights of the trip. You can sit in your own easy chair at home and get all the answers right and think the game is easy...... but then when you get there it's a completely different story!
What added to the fun was for the few days after, people would stop either one of us and congratulate us on our game. They all said they thought that we did the smart thing by taking the money and they would have done the same.
Odds are I will never get that lucky again, and to be able to share it with my father just added to the joy!
