Day 13 - Last Day at Sea

Today we wanted to fully enjoy this last full day of vacation!  And to our family eating in the dining room 3 times is how we enjoy the pampered life onboard a cruise!  So I awoke around 7:30 am but our family delayed breakfast u TIL everybody was ready to go about 8:45. You see the dining room serves breakfast between 7 - 9 am. The Lido begins serving breakfast buffet style at 6 am and that goes until about 11:30 when it switches over for lunch. The international cafe is open 24 hours a day and has fancy coffees to buy (if you need a daily cappuccino or the like - for a price). The small selection of food they serve has no charge associated with it. 

After my oatmeal and fig compote and fresh papaya, I was energizedfor the day. J, JG and I went to a culinary demonstration in the princess theatre.  Executive Chef, Florin Dragan and Maître D’Hotel, Federico Arcos of Spain demonstrated how to put together a 4 course meal in 45 minutes  (if all the prep work and clean up is done by others). The Maitre D provided the comedy and the chef provided the substance!  They prepared and shared recipes for pasta with smoked salmon, flambeed shrimp, Caesar salad and Black Forest cake. They also provided the recipe for a 5th dish, chicken luai.

They offered a tour of the galley after the demo and showed where 600 of the staff work on the Regal Princess - that is nearly half of the staff onboard. Roberto the F & B supervisor at our dinner table said the ship was designed with a kitchen far too small for all the food they prepare. You would have thought they consulted with experts when they design a class of ship!

After lunch in the dining room we headed up to the Lido deck for dessert - because we knew they had a dessert buffet - with large cakes. I chose a chocolate gluten free cake. I chose also, to have three bites of JG’s gluten and dairy filled dessert and that earned me an immediate trip to the washroom. While I was there, J and JG hung around the back of the ship and spotted a number of dolphins swimming alongside the ship. What a thrill for them!

We returned to our room where J packed up and I talked to my sister on Facebook messenger video. Amazing that the technology on this ship allows for that ( messenger is one of the free apps associated with the Ocean medallion technology) and carry on a conversation in the middle of the ocean!

I then showered up and went to hear the finale of the voice of the ocean contest. And what a contest it was!  All of the 9 singers had excellent voices. The winner, Brian, was born in Montreal and now lives in Sacramento. 

We went for our last supper in the dining room. I had turkey with most of the trimmings and a coconut gluten free, dairy free cake!  Everybody else ate baked Alaska for dessert. We said farewell to the family of four from Thunder Bay. The moms exchanged contact information so we can keep in touch. 

This evenings weather was a continuation of the days weather - cold and rainy. So our family was the only family on deck to watch Spider-Man-the Homecoming on the MUTS screen. The rest of my family lasted about half the movie, I persevered and watched it all. Then I headed to passenger services desk to pay our bill with most of our leftover American cash. There was the inevitable lineup at guest services the night before disembarkation!  Once that was taken care of I returned to my room to pack.

Tomorrow we will walk off carrying our own luggage sometime between 7 - 9 am. In gaining an extra hour of sleep, we shouldn’t have to get up extraordinarily early!  All good things must come to an end!