This is our very last day at sea. In spite of that, my
husband K got up at 6:30 and went to the fitness center. I slept until 7:45.
When K came back to shower, he brought in our mail, which included our
disembarkation info. He didn’t really look at it, though. When my daughter J
came at 8:30 for breakfast, she said that her disembarkation info was wrong. It
had her down as part of the brown self-disembarkation group, even though we’d
paid for Holland America to take care of transferring us to the hotel. I looked
at ours and it was the same. As I dug for my paperwork that included our
boarding passes, K said we could take care of it later. J and I knew the line
would be terrible later. So, off we hustled to the customer service desk. There
was no one in line and we each got an agent, who looked up our info and gave us
new brown luggage tags to go with a later brown group that was being
transferred by Holland America. We were finished at 8:45 and went to meet K for
breakfast.
We’d not eaten breakfast in the dining room yet, so we
decided to go today. J and I were quickly seated at a table for four and
started looking at the menus. K took longer than expected, but finally showed
up.
I ordered a breakfast parfait, orange juice, cranberry
juice, and Swedish pancakes and had a chocolate croissant from the table
basket. It was a delicious meal.
J enjoyed a build-your-own omelet, apple juice and pineapple
juice.
K ordered something he hasn’t had for a while, a half
grapefruit. He added to that buttermilk pancake stack and turkey bacon.
We were finished at 9:42 and made our way to the Lido deck
for the sales tables that were set up there and opened at 10. K found some
Russian chocolate to take back as gifts.
J and I were quite interested in the 11:00 America’s Test
Kitchen demo, “We Love Chocolate”, because we do indeed. It was standing room
only when I got there, while J made a stop. The chef herself went to get more
chairs. I managed to get two just as J joined me. The demo was on brownies and
pot de creme. Oh, my, I do wish we could have tried them!
K, meanwhile, went to “Behind the Scenes at World Stage” to
meet the cast and crew and see backstage. Being a musician, this all appealed
to him.
After our demo, J and I went to my cabin to sort papers as a
prelude to packing. J helped get some of them in order.
At noon, we all went to the Lido deck for lunch. K had a
corn and zucchini pancake, while J had a leg of lamb sandwich. I got my usual
salad, but they were out of balsamic, so I had to have Asian sesame dressing.
It tasted terrible. It was the first and only thing I ate and didn’t like
onboard. At least the pretzel I got was good. We shared desserts of raisin and
ricotta tart and chocolate chiffon pie.
J wanted to go to the “Tapas Party” demo at America’s Test
Kitchen, but I knew I had to pack. So, K and I went to our cabin to tackle it.
He had to leave for the 2 p.m. “Ask the Captain” at the World Stage. He said it
was packed. People asked questions and there was a virtual bridge and engine
room tour.
My suitcase was 50 pounds coming over, so I had to be
careful what went in it. I like to carry as many of my souvenirs as possible
home in a carryon. I’d brought a collapsed one, that K would use as his second
carryon. Some of my clothes weren’t going back, but I’d picked up a bunch of
paper and there were a lot of postcards. A lot of meds and vitamins had been
taken, which freed up that bag for souvenirs. It’s all a bit of an art.
J came over at 2:45 and I was pretty well done. It was too
late for the fitness center and pool, but I needed to stretch. So, we went to
the Promenade to do the three laps to make a mile. We were finished by 3:30 and
could relax for a while before heading off to 5 pm Mass.
Since Sunday was disembarkation day, there would be no
morning Mass. The first two weeks, Mass had not been crowded, but today, we got
two of the last seats. We tried to save one for K, but when a woman asked, I
felt we couldn’t turn her down for him. The room held 114 chairs. Father got a
couple more to put up near the altar and the bishop, whom we’d not seen at Mass
heretofore. A couple of people sat on a counter, others stood in the door, and
still others-including K- stood in the hall. My guess was that there were at
least 150 people present. Father said, “You’ve heard of C and E
Catholics.” Someone said, “Christmas and
Easter,” and he replied, “ No, Come and Enjoy.” What a marvelous priest!
I was lucky enough to get to be second reader. Father told
us to use travel to learn and expand our experiences. He told us that before
this cruise, he did not know there were Indonesian Catholics. Neither did I. I
thought everyone there was pretty much Muslim. At the Prayer of the Faithful,
he asked us to call out the names of countries represented on the cruise for us
to pray for.
Because this was the last night, it was not a gala night. I
was glad that I had told Gandhi yesterday that we were going to be late to
dinner due to Mass. He said, that he would make sure the table stayed open for
us. We didn’t get to the Dining Room
until 5:55. He greeted us and immediately asked how Mass was. He’s from Bali. I
never asked if he was Muslim, but Father had pointed out during Mass that the
Muslim crewmembers were fasting due to Ramadan. Since the sun was setting so
late and rising so early, they were going without food for a long time. That is
pretty impressive and something I could not do.
We all started the meal with crab and daikon cakes. They
were not Maryland style, but I could taste the crab.
They brought out all the chefs, cooks and wait staff for us to clap for to show our appreciation.
For my entrée, I chose baked rigatoni with Italian sausage.
It was very good. J enjoyed braised pork osso bucco. K had one more fish dish,
butter basted sole with leeks.
For dessert, I had a delicious chocolate puff pastry
craquelin, as did J. K chose Athena fig
and almond baklava, as a salute to our Russian visit.
It was 7 when we finished and none of the entertainment
interested us. So, we retired to our cabin, where we watched The Greatest Showman. We liked it, but
wished we had Google, to see how accurate it was.
Before J left, we happened to look outside and saw fog. We
went on the veranda to see how it was and it turned out to be pretty thick.
After she left, we noticed the ship’s horn being blown. I soon timed it and
found it was every three minutes. Eventually, I realized that this just had to
be captured. So, I watched the time, went on the veranda and made a video
during one of the soundings. The horn soundings lasted until about midnight,
but it was not so close that it was annoying.
Since we are rounding Denmark tonight, I realized that we
are definitely leaving the Baltic behind. I think what will stick with me from this
trip are bikes and ferries.
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