Last sea day, a cruise summary and arriving back in blustery Blighty 30th-31st July 2019

---

Cruise day 16 & 17

Last sea day, a cruise summary and arriving back in blustery Blighty 30th-31st July 2019

Breakfast and then walk a mile. Deck 7 is 1/5 of a mile in perimeter so we plodded circuits round there. The front end is a bit windy today and it was a bit of a challenge to battle through the headwinds. Sitting out on deck after was a bit chillier than recently but then we were heading down the North Sea.

The Neptune Lounge is where the talks are and where people fall asleep as it’s so warm in there. We haven’t been in there since the second day, partly due to the falling alseep problem and partly because there have been better things to do. At 11am today though, the executive chef of the ship was doing a cooking demonstration so I went along. He made an apple strudle and was a wizard at making pastry so thin you could see through it. He was funny as well and I enjoyed watching him doing his creating. I stayed awake all the way through too!

I think I might fit in a bit of a summary here...

Cruising. Scary before you do it, well it was for me anyway. Nikki answered a lot of questions (thanks Nikki!) but I was still convinced I would stick out like a sore thumb. Actually I probably do being the tallest guest on the ship and one of very few with piercings and tattoos. But we’ve met some great people, had some interesting conversations and been pretty social/sociable.

The food has been amazing but it will take me a while to get off all the extra weight I’ve put on. The dress code for meals is not my thing but you can avoid it....as long as you don’t have shorts on....

The destinations have been fabulous and there is plenty to do to occupy your days, although having time to read has been great as well. The staff have been wonderful apart from the grumpy maitre d in the Secret Garden but he is still efficient.

Being able to take lots of luggage is new for us as usually everything is crammed into a rucksack. It’s handy although you do still forget things, bring too much and packing and unpacking isn’t fun.

We still haven’t met anyone else for whom this is their first cruise so it shows how popular this form of holidaying is. Having your hotel move with you is not to be sniffed at I suppose. As the average guest age must be well over 70 this is ideal. I’m not sure some guests have even been off the ship which is a shame as they’ve really missed out. Some of them couldn’t even be bothered to turn their heads to look at a large pod of humpback whales for goodness sake. All their loss really, particularly when a lady in a wheelchair with only one complete leg managed to get on another smaller boat to visit a glacier.

So, the big question....would I go on a cruise again? Yes. I’d diet a lot beforehand though! They’re expensive though so it may be a while before we can afford another one. You need to budget in shore tours or things to do ashore and some tips. Some cruises include them and ours automatically put on £5/day for both our main waiter and cabin maid. That is a lot of money to us and we haven’t seen our delegated waiter since night two. We took both hefty tips off our bill and split our tips between staff who had looked after us, including our cabin maid of course. We gave them out in person to people who wouldn’t normally get tips and they were all very happy.

Lunch today was a fancy buffet with huge ice carvings of animals, superbly carved fruit, swan shaped loaves and a chocolate fountain. The food, as always, was excellent. Tomorrow’s lunch will be somewhat dfferent to say the least....

As we head up the M1 a compliment to the disembarkation procedure. Last night we packed our many bags and left them outside our cabin, remembering to keep essentials for this morning. Tales of people leaving shoeless or having to call for clothes abound so we carefully set everything out we still needed last night.

We had our final fancy breakfast for a while and then waited for our deck to be allowed to get off. They started with people in the fancy suites and our deck was called last but we didn’t have to wait too long. We didn’t have to show our passports, just scanned our ship cards as we got off.

Our luggage was stacked by luggage label colour and a guy helped us get all our cases and bags onto a huge trolley and back to our car. All very efficient and a fine end (well, apart from the weather.....windy and wet....welcome back to England!) to a fabulous holiday.

---

Comments

[Home and Away]

I've enjoyed your holiday...
we see cruising much the same way as you do.