Cruise VII

Another day at sea, which is actually kind of a relief after the shore excursions and activities this week. We all have spa appointments for manicures and pedicures this morning, while 'the guys' hang out (probably watching football). It was very relaxing and I managed to snag a cancelled appointment for a facial later on in the day. Score!

The Adorable Husband felt a bit under the weather this mroning -- he's trying to catch a cold, I guess, so he slept in and just joined us for lunch. I was so relaxed and noodly after my facial that I joined him for a nap afterwards. We did take in a bit of the football game on the giant screen, but mostly we just lumped around and relaxed.

And packed. In order for disembarkation to work smoothly, they want to collect everyone's luggage around dinner time the previous day. So we had to pack just about everything up and set it outside our stateroom. This is not such a big deal for us - I'm perfectly happy to wear what I did to dinner on the plan tomorrow, and use the shampoo and stuff provided by the ship...but poor Nin has about forty different bottles of "product" that she is not willing to give up. Luckily, you are reunited with your luggage at customs in the morning, so she just put everything in a tote bag. Oh, the perils of good skin care!

Since it was our last night, the three of us pooled together to tip our room steward. Tipping is technically included in the room fees (they charge 11 dollars per person that is pooled and divvied up among the waiters, stewards, etc.). But Piotrek was extremely helpful and we were pretty demanding (everyone got locked out of their room at least once except us, and needed extra towels and such!) so we added a bit. It seemed fair, at any rate. They get about a two bucks a day per stateroom otherwise. It's probably not necessary, but we're notorious over-tippers anyways.

At dinner, there was the traditional Parade of the Baked Alaska -- Pat mentioend it as being very common on cruises, and lo-and-behold, they did. It was, I'll admit, a tad cheesy: there are no open flames allowed on ships any more, so the traditional Baked Alaska still on fire being paraded through the dining room was not allowed: they had, instead, little electric lights on top. Kind of like slightly-browned UFOs. It was rather odd. Tasty, though.

They had escargot at dinner, too. I can't eat them. I mean, eeeeuuuu! Snails. But that doesn't stop me from soaking up the garilc butter with bread and eating that, of course. Peter tried on (they were done perfectly, according to everyone who ate them) and declared them, "ok". He also ate an appetizer of chicken, mushrooms, and sweetbreads. After much conference around the table, we decided to tell him that it was braaaiiiiiiiinnnnnns. That was pretty funny.

We all adjourned to the casino after dinner. My Dad loves to hit the craps table with his sons-in-law. They have no idea how the game works, really, but it's always exciting. Everyone went back to their rooms early, though. They put everyone in groups (based on their flights, their rooms, and whether they have transfers to the airport, etc) and have specific times for those groups to meet and get off the boat. I think everyone except us had to be off the boat by 7:45am.