MAR 23

2024

Saturday: last sea day.

1316 - in our stateroom bed: we woke up and went immediately to breakfast in the MDR. I got the scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, toast, and hash brown, but I didn't like the eggs very much. Afterwards we stood in line for the galley tour that our head waiter had invited us to, and he walked us through how there's one entrance on each side for dirty dishes and one exit side for prepared food, how everyone washes their hands as soon as they enter, where beverages are prepared, how the bakery is set up, and how entrees are made and laid out for delivery. I took a fair number of photos, and afterwards, we had some snacks and appetizers laid out like deviled eggs and chocolate mousse cups. We proceeded from there to the Schooner Cafe for "Ditloid" puzzle solving, which is the term for those pairings of numbers and abbreviations such as "26 L of the A". The ones we got wrong were "2 W on a B" (2 wheels on a bike—we had wings on a bird) and "15 P on a R T" (15 players on a rugby team, not 15 people on a rowing team). We sat with another couple who were excited to do the movie trivia in the Karaoke Lounge, so we went down there afterwards. It was packed and hot; we lingered in the entrance and used a hand sanitizer dispenser to write on. Julie identified every actor and movie (total of 30), so we tied for first and got keychains/zipper pulls. Julie suggested we take a lap on the track on deck 5, though I would have preferred to not be wearing jeans for that. We returned to our room, and the Internet was spotty thanks to the storm, so I'm posting this update. Spent a lot of time looking at old updates on my website.

0746 - on the transfer bus: after my last update, we eventually got packed and then left for dinner, where I had the tapas plate starter and almond-crusted salmon for the entree. My waiter recommended against the Black Forest tart, but I had it anyway, and it was perfectly fine. We returned to the stateroom briefly before leaving again to the Royal Theater (one last trip through the casino, smoky as ever) for a comedy show. The Internet had been real flaky the last 12 hours at this point, so I had been updating the select button thread, and Julie and I decided to take another photo with the flamingo sculpture before the show started. The show was alright; Cruise Director Ricky came out to pump up the crowd, and then there were two comics who had each performed earlier in the week. The first lady did a lot of age and gender material, while the second guy was more poking fun at the cruise itself. Once the show ended, we went back up to Central Park to cross back to the aft end of the ship, and we spent a little time chilling while listening to an acoustic guitar performance of Radiohead's "Creep". We decided not to indulge in one final trip to Sprinkles for soft serve and just returned to the room, where I caught up in Animal Crossing and played some Hearthstone before I fell asleep.

2023

Thursday: Julie thought she wasn't going to have to go in on Thursday this week, but by Wednesday she knew otherwise. Another typical day for me, though. I did start the process of downloading games on Wii U & 3DS since the eShop is supposed to close this weekend.