At Sea, Last Formal Night

We slept late and didn’t have breakfast until almost 10 am.

We strolled down to the Fusion Lounge and picked up some bingo card sets. I (Connie) haven’t played since I can’t remember when. Rob had to remind me of the different kinds of games. They don’t just play a line of five anymore. We did several different patterns and then finished with a “cover all”. Interesting. No, we didn’t win anything. But we had a lot of fun.

We decided that if we wanted to get in a pool or see any sun time we would have to go aft to the adults-only Terrace Pool. There was room on the bleacher-like benches next to the pool for me to sun and Rob was in the pool with only two other people. It’s much nicer than trying to fight your way into the big pool and much easier to find a place to sit and sun.

We eventually had lunch around 3:00 pm, and went to the cabin to enjoy the patio for a while. We later went down to deck 7 and watched the flying fish scatter from the bow of the ship.

At 3:15, we went to the Wheelhouse Lounge to hear a lecture from the ship’s navigator. He spoke of all the different control surfaces of the ship, the instruments they use to steer a course, and the engines and thrusters that move it sideways, backwards and forwards. I was a little tired by this time and fell asleep. Rob was asking some technical questions. He got answers for them too, but then was asked to keep it simpler for the benefit of the rest of the passengers. I expect that if they had let him, he would have been up on the bridge checking out everything. Sadly, this is not allowed.

Once back in our room, Suriyan (our cabin steward) had done his usual good job of turning down the sheets, leaving the chocolate, and dumping a bunch of forms for us to fill out. He said that if he got all 18 of his cabins to fill out the survey by dinnertime he would get New Year’s Day off. We filled them out right away.

We also started sorting out the debarkation papers he had left, and came across a problem with the airport transfers. It looks like we might have missed getting our shuttle boarding passes, although the luggage tag colors clearly indicate that we should have seats on the shuttle.

Well, we will have to wait until tomorrow to check with the tour desk. They’re closed until 10:00 am.

We finally had to get ready for the last formal night. I will be sad not seeing the same people for dinner tomorrow. They managed to get reservations in the Crown Grill (difficult to do) and won’t be joining us for the last night. We did take pictures of everyone, exchanged addresses, hassled Anatolyi (sp?), our waiter, and generally did our best to get ready for the inevitable….debarkation.

We stopped in the casino on the way back to the cabin. I won about as much as I lost. Rob was playing blackjack. ‘Nough said?

Rob went out on the upper decks to watch Guantanamo Bay go by. It was all lit up like daylight. The rest of the island was darker than night. He couldn’t see a whole lot. He thought maybe no one wanted us to. After watching it drift behind it, a storm started coming in so he came back to the cabin to turn in.

Well, tomorrow is another day at sea. We will “sea” everyone soon!