Vacation Day 8: Last Day of Cruising

Here is the continued story about our recent family vacation on a cruise . . .

(4/21/12) Saturday

This morning was a little bit different for us. Daddy had a special All Access Tour of the ship today. We left for breakfast around 8:30 a.m. while he left for his tour. He got to see places like the kitchen, the bridge, the helipad, the crew-only areas, and lots more!

Daddy got up early to catch a picture of the sunrise before his tour. Isn’t it gorgeous?

I will let him talk about his tour in a future blog post, but I wanted to include this picture of him on the helipad at the bow of the ship.

While he was on his tour, the rest of us tried a new spot for breakfast. The Park Café was located in Central Park. It was a lot less crowded than the Windjammer and had more of an upscale, classy Café sort of feel to it. I had an English muffin with an over-easy egg, Canadian bacon, and American cheese in it. I also had a fruit and yogurt parfait, a cinnamon Danish, and OJ.

I finished with a mini-chocolate muffin. It was all really good!

We walked around in the park a little bit after we ate. It’s really beautiful!

On a ship with 18 floors, there are lots of stairs to climb. I enjoyed taking the stairs occasionally just to have a chance to look at all the beautiful and unique art displays. These were views from an airplane window.

The colors in this photo were quite dramatic.

After stopping by the room to change into our swimsuits, we went down to the Boardwalk and went rock-climbing again. While we were there, we listened in on the Q and A session with the Captain, going on in the Aqua Theater. He explained a little bit more about what happened last night, although he never said what originally caused the fire. But it sounds like they have excellent systems in place and a good response plan for emergencies.

Since my neck was doing a bit better today, I went rock-climbing again. I was happy to ring the first bell! I am completely ok with the fact that I’m the oldest grandchild and that my much-younger cousin still beat me to the very top of the wall. I just didn’t have a burning desire to go any higher! J

After rock-climbing, some of our family went to play golf. I stuck around and waited for everyone else to finish and then we all met on the sports deck. By then it was around noon, and we went up to the stateroom to meet Daddy. It sounds like he really enjoyed his tour!

We all went to lunch at the Windjammer Café. I had some fried rice, a roll with butter, fruit, ribs, and assorted salads.

For dessert I had an interesting Viennese chocolate cake and bread pudding. The chocolate cake had some sort of filling, but I couldn’t quite tell what it was.

We finished lunch around 1:30 p.m. The adults had some business to attend to with their accounts, ordering family pictures, etc. While they did that, we kids went up to the sports deck to swim and go on the Flow Riders one more time. Since my neck was feeling a little bit better, I braved the waves again today.

I started off with boogie boarding. It was going quite well, and I had stayed on the board for an entire minute. But my exit/wipeout didn’t go so well. The current wiped my face across the divider before slamming me into the back wall. I think it just jammed everything back in place. J I worked up the nerve to try the surfing one more time, and thankfully I didn’t injure myself badly this time!

After a few hours of swimming, we went back to our rooms to get ready for a show and dinner. Here’s a picture of the inside of our stateroom. The couch converted to a bed for the twins. The closet and the bathroom are to the left of the picture.

Here is our tiny bathroom. There was room for one person to be fairly comfortable in there, but definitely not room for two! But there were lots of built-in shelves that made storage a lot easier.

And here is our little balcony! We spent lots of time out here watching the world go by.

Around 5:00 p.m. we all met in the Amber Theater to see a show called “Blue Planet.” Each scene was in a different natural setting (i.e. the desert, the forest, underwater, etc.) The show combined singing, dancing, and acrobatics.

This tree was amazing! There were about a dozen dancers perched on different parts of the tree. They were all really still at the beginning of the dance, and then all of a sudden the tree seemed to come to life!

My favorite scene was the underwater-themed dance. It really looked like the girl was swimming in deep water!

They had a neat scene where they were bouncing off trampolines on the rocks. The show was good, even though I didn’t agree with all the themes presented. But I could definitely appreciate all of the dancing!

After the show, we went to our last dinner in the dining room. L I had a sourdough roll, and a couple of mini-cornbread muffins.

For my appetizer, I ate hot pumpkin soup garnished with candied walnuts and sour cream. It was satisfying!

My main meal included roasted turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, carrots, rutabaga mash, and Brussels sprouts. It reminded me of Thanksgiving!

During dinner, our dear waiters sang and danced again for our entertainment! We absolutely loved getting to know them over the week, and we really miss them!

Speaking of waiters, our magician friend came over to the table one last time to do a few tricks for the kids. Once again, they loved all of his tricks! They were especially pleased when he let them in on the secret to one of them. Josiah has been waiting for an opportunity to play the trick one someone else! J

With dessert, I had some lemon tea. I’ve been feeling a little bit of a cold coming on, and thought I should have some hot fluids to keep it at bay a few more days.

For my actual dessert, I had a brownie sandwich filled with chocolate mousse. It was really hard to say goodbye to all of our waiters. It felt like saying goodbye to good friends!

I had to take a picture of one of the information screens. These were huge touch screens that would tell you everything from the occupancy of a restaurant, to giving you directions to somewhere else on the ship, and lots more! It was really helpful!

I had to take one last art picture on the way to our room! This artwork was created with dozens of rulers!

When we came to our room, we saw our stateroom attendant down the hallway. We said goodbye to her, and took a picture with her. She has been so sweet to our family!

Photo Credit: Betsy.

Then came the truly sad part: packing our bags. We were trying to pack quickly because our bags had to be waiting outside the door to be picked up by 11:00 p.m. We made it on time, and then went to bed. Tomorrow we will be back in Florida…but the vacation won’t quite be over…!

Photo Credit: Roma.

Vacation Day 1: Traveling to Florida

Vacation Day 2: Boarding the Ship

Vacation Day 3: The Bahamas

Vacation Day 4: Cruising

Vacation Day 5: St. Thomas

Vacation Day 6: St. Maarten

Vacation Day 7: “Bravo, Bravo, Bravo”