Last sea day 10 Jan

Thankfully slept a lot more through the night. Attempted breakfast of some cereal with milk and a cup of tea. All good so far. There is usually very little in each days activities that is of interest to us. All much more suited to a nursing home or casino. With the Entertainment fellow's morning message over the loudspeakers, we hear him say the carpet bowls are cancelled. I say 'Well, that's my day ruined' and with that our last day at sea began. Headed to craft where numbers are very much down again. We had only just started putting stickers on our banner when a call from the captain was made for any one with O+ or O- blood to attend the conference room for a blood drive. Clearly someone was in need of blood and quickly. I'm O- so headed to the designated area where there were already a lot of people, which was good to see, but a lot were turned away as we were each being asked if we had drunk alcohol in the previous 24 hours. I seemed to be one of the few who could honestly say no. I was then asked how long it had been since my last donation, but as it was only 2 months, I couldn't donate again as they were requiring a 12 week period. It's probably just as well I didnt donate as I certainly hadnt eaten much in the last 24 hours! Eventually a call came out to say they had enough blood.

Now it's lunch time and I still dont have an appetite so Julie has insisted I put in the blog to show what a great friend she is, that she gave me permission to eat a banana in her presence. And this from a woman who detests bananas! What a girlfriend... LOL. I head up to guest services to check with them re details for our disembarkation in the morning. It was nice to go there and not lodge a complaint. We will have an early start in the morning and Julie's biggest worry is if we can still have breakfast in our cabin first. Turns out that we can't. Next stop is the photo gallery. There are photographers roaming the ship most days and of some evenings they have formal nights wher you can have your photo taken against different back drops. Took ages to locate our photos amongst the great unwashed, but we both eventually found 3 photos that we liked, which are included in both of our packages.

I head back to the cabin to pack my suitcase which we have to have outside our cabin by 9 tonight. It is a bit odd as it restricts what toiletries and clothes we will have for tomorrow, plus have to have dirty clothes from tonight in our carry on bags! Anyway, I'm pooped after packing so have a lay down while Julie goes to a music show in the theatre, the ship's version of The Voice, where a 16 year old girl won. Julie returns to the cabin and it is her turn to pack. She has to remove the bandaids from the sensor on the overhead light near the clothes racks so that she has enough light to see what she is doing. Those bandaids certainly did the trick of not lighting up the cabin every time one of us used the bathroom during the night. Not sure how we will go tonight. We head for pre dinner drinks and I am very tentative with a glass of wine and some nibbles. Time to head for dinner. We are booked in for the Crown Grill which is the really good specialty restaurant. It is $68 per person, but we had 2 specialty restaurant meals included in our package. However as an apology for all the times we lost power in the cabin, and the poor service, we were offered an extra specialty dining experience which we duly booked in for the last night of our cruise. All I can say is that I am so happy I didnt pay for it as I could barely eat a thing, Im still feeling no hunger at all. The food was excellent but after only 2 bite of my beef chop, which is the largest chop in the world!, I was done. Our waiter was most concerned for me but I told him that I truly was full and not able to eat any more. He said that this happens when people get emotional that their holiday is coming to an end, I didnt have the heart to tell him that it was the blasted mussells from 2 nights ago... Julie's lobster was apparently delicious!

We head back to the cabin and sort the last packing of our suitcases as they have to be out the door by 9pm. Julie wants to go to the show but I doubt I could sit comfortably through it, especially if it is crowded, so elect to stay in the cabin, catch up on the blog and attempt an early night. At dinner, Julie asked me what rating I would give this cruise. I had a think about it and decided on 7. She gave it an 8. Dear armchair travellers, I hope you have enjoyed touring with us, apart from the mussells! We are off the ship at 8 in the morning and our flight home is at 12.15pm so all going well I will be back home in Adelaide mid afternoon, have the suitcase unpacked shortly after and the first load of washing underway before dinner. You may want to keep your passports handy though, as we are off to Canada and Alaska in May! Bon Voyage.