Our Last Day At Sea

Friday, May 27, 2016
This is always the toughest day, cause it is the last day of a cruise.  We feel like we've just gotten into the groove and ready to go when suddenly we get the disembarkation information and are told the luggage must be outside our door by late evening.  It's done???  How could that be?  But alas it is. :-(

Last night we had to move our clocks forward an hour so already we are facing the major time changes that lie ahead.  Now we are on Pacific Time and already sleeping in a bit put us behind on the schedule we'd set for ourselves.  Soooooooo, we just relaxed over breakfast and chatted with a couple from Redding, PA rather than try and race and make it to the activities we were going to try to do.  After all, we're cruising and that means RELAX!!!!

Since the big suitcase had to be packed and put out later in the evening, we took time in the morning to do most of that packing and reorganizing of our stuff before just reading for a bit and doing the paper and pencil games that are put out each day in the library.  I managed to solve the "fiendishly tough" Suduko puzzle and Ken figured out what countries various well know streets were in.  And before we knew it, it was time to eat yet again.

Our little Pop Choir - 8 strong - gathered shortly after lunch for a final rehearsal of our five songs. Since the presentation was to be almost immediately after, we had to change into our black and white oufits right after lunch.  Then it was off to sing sing sing.  Dave Rumrill agreed to take a few pictures on my camera so I even have a couple of pictures of us performing in the atrium for all the people who lined the stair cases and railings on the 5th - 8th floors.

We were really quite amazed at the number that came to cheer us on.
Here are most of us with our director, Miranda in the middle.

Once that was over, we returned to change to the clothes we'd wear tomorrow and the rest of this day and packed the rest of the stuff.  That job was done!!  And there was time for Ken to take a short nap and for me to do a little work on this blog before heading off for our last dinner on the ship.  That of course included the fun Baked Alaska parade.

We and lots of cheering for our wait staff.  We really had a terrific waiter this time.  His sense of humor and ability to interact with us provided alot of entertainment this week.

While we were eating a couple of people at our table spotted whales out the window (Ken and I had our backs to the window so didn't see them)  We were passing through the Seymour Narrows which apparently is a good spot to see whales. Unfortunately it poured rain all day today, so visibility was low but even so several times as we walked around the ship we were aware of people gathering at windows and exclaiming "there's one".  Lots of people were very happy because that was on their bucket list for this trip - see a whale.

After dinner we attended the Voice of the Ocean show in the Princess Theater.  Potential competitors had tried out earlier in the week and it had been reduced to six competitors with three members of the staff acting as judges including one of the entertainers on this trip.  The singers were surprisingly good but one girl was outstanding and ultimately ended up the winner receiving a trophy for her efforts.

The final event of the day for us was attending the staff show in the Princess Theater.  It was fantastic with a couple of singers, a drummer (he is a wine steward on the ship), a Chinese dancer (from the housekeeping staff) and a couple of skits that had us in stitches put on by the cruise entertainment staff.  What a wonderful way to end our cruise!