Day 9 Cruising toward Vancouver

Day 9    Thursday      June 28, 2001        

Cruising toward Vancouver

This was our last full day on the ship and there was no port of call this day.  However there were many activities on the ship that day.  We were up around 8:00 AM and once again went to the Windjammer Café for breakfast.  It was a routine by now. 

I was still battling a sore throat and the beginnings of a cold.  Mary caught up with Sharon and the two of them went to a few activities and ended up in the sauna.  I ended up in the ship’s library.  There were big comfortable chairs with great views of the ocean. RCCL printed headline stories form newspapers from around the world so I caught up on the news.  Other than that, I was totally unaware of what was going on in the world that week.  I was nice ‘to check out‘ for a while.  Also, this is where I caught up on journal writing. 

Peter saw me in the library and came in.  He and Cathy were about to go to the art auction onboard.  I thought that was an interesting activity to have on an Alaskan cruise.  As mentioned earlier, there were many activities on days with no port scheduled.

Mary and I met for lunch in the Windjammer Café.  It was a very easy and relaxing afternoon that day.

We had our last dinner on the ship that evening.  This was the last time we’d spend time with Polly and Lud.  They were a nice couple.  Since they had just celebrated their 47^th anniversary, and we, our 25^th, I was curious and I decided to ask Polly a question.  I asked her which was harder in their opinion, the first 25 years or the second 25 years (they were close enough at 47).  Polly did not hesitate at all.  She said the first 25 years were much harder.  Her first reason was that the focus was mainly on the kids during those years.  It was her second reason the caught me by surprise, she added that Lud had mellowed to some extent during the second 25 years.  It was an interesting conversation.

I had grouper that evening; it turned out that I had seafood every night of the cruise.  That was not planned, it just happened that way.  By this evening, I had had my fill of formal dining.  I suppose there are people who really like it, the attention, the fuss, the scraping of your breadcrumbs, etc.  But for me, it got to be too much. 

After dinner it was back to the room to pack.  They do not allow you to carry your luggage off the ship.  Therefore, in order for them to have enough time to collect it, you had to have it ready to go the night before you leave the ship.  So we packed everything that we did not need for the next morning and put it in the hallway.

At about 8:30 we went looking for friends we had met while on the cruise to say our good byes.  We met up with Alister (from the salmon fishing trip) in the dining room.  He had his salmon (prepared by the chef onboard) and was sharing with the rest of those at his table.  Unfortunately the salmon was overcooked and very dry.  Oh well.  Next we saw Peter and Cathy at their table and agreed to meet them after their dinner.  We could not find Sharon and Brian.

After a while we met up with Peter and Cathy in the lounge.

We chatted with them for the next few hours and said our good byes.  As it was getting late we headed back to the room.  It did not seem like we were on this ship for seven days.  It went by incredibly fast!

Day 10 - Vancouver