Day 15

Monday, Oct. 10

What a difference a night makes!!  We woke up this morning to a lovely day.  The sky was clear and the sea was calm.  The water had changed colour to a beautiful blue, similar to our pool liner.  The temperature had gone up some from yesterday, and it looks to be a warm, humid day.

While on the deck reading, there was a bird (it looked like a gull, but I don’t know if it was) that was flying along beside the ship.  We watched it for quite a while it fished.  It is really interesting to see them.  They fly along, glide and generally stay close to the water.  Suddenly they just dive into the water for a fish.  We started to see the flying fish again, and then the bird began to chase the flying fish.  I actually saw it catch one in the air and gulp it down.  It had to settle on the water for a few minutes and then got back up and continued fishing for its breakfast.

Went up for breakfast and tried to take a smaller portion.  It likely was, but I couldn’t tell, according to how full I felt for the next several hours.  They had put a Happy Thanksgiving cake for Canada out at the top of the stairs entering the buffet.  It was quite nice, although it was so huge I don’t think it was a real cake.

In the buffet area, they were setting up a display of the pastries they create on the ship.  There was an ice sculpture of a parrot, and many wonderful looking creations.  These ones were for display, but I imagine they are very much like what we eat.  The ones we are provided for eating are certainly great.

Then it was off to pick up some baggage tags, to get some crew and tour operator appreciation cards, and to pick up the final things from the duty free shop that we were asked to bring back.  After that, it was off to our cabin to start packing up.  We had to try and fit everything into the bags we had brought with us.  They were full when we left Kamloops, so it was a test of wills to fit all the new “stuff” in.  We made it, made sure we had clothes to wear tomorrow, and then we were about done.

Now, we have to get our final bill and make sure that is all looked after.  I think there are 38 minutes left on the internet account so that should go quickly later on today.  It sure doesn’t take long to use minutes.  We will likely be able to get this uploaded to the blog, look at and answer some emails, and that should be it.  I don’t plan on leaving any minutes because there is no refund.

Mom, Karen and Dawn went down to play Bingo this afternoon.  The jackpot was getting pretty large (about $3500) and it had to go today.  A couple ladies shared the winning pot.  Mom has won some Bingo pots already, and she and Karen have made some money on the slots, so they must be lucky.  Today wasn’t Dawn’s turn again (she only went to Bingo yesterday).

I’m sitting out on our deck typing this entry.  We just passed a very small island in the middle of the sea.  It had a tall lighthouse on it and very white sand beach.  It was tiny – I would say about 100m long and maybe 20m wide (hard to tell from the distance we were away, but that is my guesstimate).  We also passed a beautiful yacht that was going the same direction as us.  It was huge, although much smaller than our ship, but must have been worth a small fortune.  I imagine there was a crew to run that ship for whoever owned it.

While we were looking at it, Karen spotted a shark swimming by our ship.  Boy, do they ever move fast.  I guess I won’t jump overboard for a swim.  By the time they got the ship stopped to pick me up, I would likely be inside the shark.  ;-)

Well, that was pretty much it for the day.  We set most of our bags out in the hallway before we went up for dinner, as instructed.  When we got back, they were still there, so I guess it wasn’t as important as they seemed to think.  We’ll get the final things out before we go to bed, and then only have our carry-off bags for the morning.

All we are waiting for now is our final bill.  There is a gratuity charge per day per passenger, plus anything else we purchased on the ship, so I’m sure we are looking at $400 - $500 in charges, but we knew that going in.

It’s time to sign off now.  The next entry will be from Fort Lauderdale and our hotel room.  We are scheduled to disembark at 9:30, so we will be up early to get some breakfast and then get to our disembarkation location.  So for now, Happy Thanksgiving Day.