Thursday is a great day at sea. The faint, white smoke from the
funnels drifts slowly upward
as it dissipates in the amazingly clear blue sky, staying almost directly over the ship. We are making 11
knots with a trailing wind and a following sea, the sun is shining
and Mother Nature is at peace with the marketing arm of Princess
Cruises. Everything is as advertised.
A really nice way to wrap up
a cruise. We do all the touristy things we think will interest us,
from touring the galley (at least the tour is still free, but they
are hawking a $29 Chef's cook book. Yes, I bought one) and attending
free health maintenance seminars. We tour the ship to see if we've
missed any decks or crannies that are unique, and we head back to the
library to check out one last book. Or was that Friday? No, it had
to be Thursday because we turned the books back in on Friday. That's
what's great about cruising when all goes well: you lose track of
time and that is the whole idea.
Thursday
is the Captain's Cocktail Party, followed by the last of the two
formal dinners. Lobster tonight! Must be Thursday! We take in the
show in the ship's theater, “What a Swell Party,” a tribute to
Cole Porter, but the strain of constantly being on is showing on the
the dancers and performers. The show is a canned, prerecorded
production but it is still a
pleasure to watch the entertainers do their best, even when the
cruise is about to wrap up. They do two shows a night so it isn't a
cakewalk by any means.
Friday
is another laid-back, enjoy-the-cruise day. Weather is perfect and
we head for the theater at 10:30 am for a Chef's culinary
demonstration, followed by the Galley tour. OK, so the galley tour
was on Friday! Award winning Executive Chef Giuseppe de Gennaro and
his comedic side kick, Maitre d' Nicola Furlan, put on a memorable
demonstration of cooking pasta, including the over-the-shoulder pasta
fling to see if it sticks on the wall. If it does, it is ready! It
did, to the delight of the audience.
Some last minute shopping from
the ship's stores, and spending an hour or so standing on deck seven
forward watching the flying fish as they skip away from the ships'
bow wave and one last lunch in the buffet. Tonight the luggage is
picked up from outside your stateroom for transfer to the dock as
soon as we land. Everything you have left goes in your carry-one
luggage or bags. The last call for placing your luggage in the hall
way is 11:00 pm, so we have plenty of time to change after we eat and
lay out the clothes for the trip home.
We
eat dinner one last time, and once again we get to hear Buster
Poindexter.
One
of the few traditions that seems to be carried on every Caribbean
cruise regardless of ship or cruise line is the dessert on the night
of the final dinner, and how it is served. Our German friends were
somewhat startled when the lights in the glamorous dining went down
after dinner and “Hot, Hot, Hot” began to play on the dining room
speakers. The conga line of servers and waiters still wind their way
around the darkened dining room carrying Baked Alaska on their heads,
singing and generally having a good time as they have done on every
cruise we have sailed on. The lights finally came back up and
everyone took photos of their by-now-famous desert. I have never
seen so many different sizes and types of digital cameras! They came
out of nowhere. I think were pulled out of thin air. Everybody
seemed to have at least one!
As our waitress held out the Baked
Alaska we were to be served so we could photograph it, I realized the
rum flambe on top has been replaced with an LED candle. Ahh,
progress! Actually, safety is the reason for the change and it
doesn't affect most the people who could care less anyway. Just
another point of nostalgia for us old cruisers who still remember the
good old days.
As we
finally say goodnight and turn in, we reflect on what has been a
pretty good cruise, especially considering the rough weather of the
second and third days. Tomorrow we will be back in Port Everglades
to disembark.
Will
we be back? Oh, I'm sure we will, we just don't know when or which
cruise ports we want to visit. Only one thing is absolutely certain:
It won't be on the Oasis of the Seas. Having two thousand passengers on a ship is more than enough for me.
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