Friday Oct 5 – Day at Sea

---

Here we are again, sailing north along the coast of Europe heading back toward England. Today is the last day of this cruise, but not the last of our vacation. Virtually every other passenger on the ship will leave tomorrow but we will be staying aboard for another short 3-day cruise. So our saga will still have a few more chapters after the ship docks tomorrow morning. However that is just a teaser to keep you interested.

We got up at 7:30 and went to the dining room for a sit-down breakfast instead of our more common buffet. Janet had another chance to have Eggs Benedict and David had another omelet. We were seated with others and everyone got talking about where they have been and where they still wanted to go. Our list of former places is getting longer but the list of the later still has more to go. So even though this cruise has not turned out the way we had originally planned, we still enjoy cruising.

After breakfast Janet went to the final meeting of the knitters. The others are all English and Janet hasn’t always understood everything they say, but she has enjoyed the time knitting anyway. They were admiring her yarn today and she told them about the stores in the US. They all felt it would be nice to have a Michel’s, a Joanne’s, or a Hobby Lobby near them. Surely they have some shops but apparently not a chain of them. By the way, while we were on the tram in Lisbon we went past several small Yarn Shops in the old part of town and David had to remind Janet that it was not a hop-on hop-off. In fact, still no hopping at all.

While she was knitting, David went to the 10:00 Culinary Demonstration. Unfortunately this really was a cooking show instead of a comedy act – like on some of our previous cruises. Well, they had done cooking too but with much more levity. David left early and went to the Towel Folding demonstration in the Vista Lounge. We had been instructed to bring our own towels from the cabin and only a few people had done that – including David. So many watched as the few of us made a turtle, a dog, a penguin, an elephant, and two swans. It is doubtful he will ever make them again, but he did get praised for doing them without needing special assistance from the instructor.

At noon we got back together and went down to the photo gallery to look at the pictures they have been taking of us during the cruise. Frankly we did not find any that we liked, although there were quite a few which had been taken. We did get a map of the course of the cruise – we like to add this to the photobook which Janet makes after the cruise. Then we went to the Alfredo’s Pizza Parlor on deck-5. We like to visit there at least once on each cruise. We split a Sapphire Special. Janet was able to get one of her Salted Caramel Coffees and David got a Groesch beer. It was just enough for our lunch.

Afterwards we returned to the cabin and started packing the suitcases. Since we have to change cabins back to what was supposed to be our original cabin, we need to pack up. Because the next cruise is so short, it should have been fairly easy to identify clothes we want for the last few days and can leave many of the others packed until we fly out next Tuesday. And if we miscalculate then the other things will still be available in our cabin.

We got a nice note from Stephanie with GOOD NEWS that Abigail does not need to wear her brace any longer, but SAD NEWS that her collar bone is healing more slowly, so she will need to delay a little longer before starting soccer of swimming.
<pre style="text-align: justify;">We spent most of the afternoon being lazy around the cabin. There are several cruise-long activities which are being wrapped up today, but it was much too late for us to get interested in any of them. Janet watched a movie called “Bookshop” which she had wanted to watch. David alternated between reading his book, walking around the ship (including a lap on the Promenade Deck) and doing bits and pieces of packing. </pre>

The temperature today was only 64 degrees but there was not much wind and the sea was very smooth once again. There had been a bunch of diehard sunbathers shivering around the pool, but nobody but a couple of kids turning blue in the water. About 5:00 we ran into a fog bank which probably finished any sunbathing, even for a Brit. Before dinner David cleared out the fridge and finished up the wine we were drinking in the cabin. With whatever hoop-la we have to deal with tomorrow, we decided we might as well be well rested first.

We have concluded that there are 3 people in the cabin next to us. There is a sofa in our cabin which probably makes into a single bed, as well as having a loft above it which probably can be lowered to make a 4^th bed. Anyway, the old guy next door keeps coming out of the cabin with different women, but only two of them.

We went to dinner with our tablemates for one last time. We have requested the same table again on the next cruise so we will not have to break in new waiters. For appetizer Janet had Veal Sweetbreads while David had Shrimp Cocktail and Watermelon with Feta Cheese. We both had the New York Strip Steak for our main course. Since it is the last night of the cruise, they had the Baked Alaska Parade of the Waiters with them parading around the dining room. For dessert Janet had the Deep Dish Apple Pie and David had both the pie and a slice of Baked Alaska. We said goodbye to our tablemates and wished them a safe trip back to Utah.

We went to the Princess Theater for the farewell show. This started with the Juggler from the other night doing some trick and a few off-color jokes. Then the Lion King Singer sang several songs. The show finished with the production singers & dancers doing a couple of songs. As had been the case for the last several shows (except in Lisbon) the theater was completely full by 15-20 minutes before the start time. Fortunately we have been able to go directly from the dining room to the theater and have always gotten there early enough to get good seats.

Then we returned to our cabin while inspecting other people’s luggage in the hallway. That will be us in 3 more days, but tonight we keep everything in our cabin and the steward will move it to our new location tomorrow. And we don’t need to be out as early as everyone else, so we hope to avoid the massive crowds tomorrow in the buffet. We have already been issued our cruise cards for the new cabin (B508) and the new cruise dates, so that shouldn’t be a problem.

That pretty well wraps up today’s activities – talk to you tomorrow.

---