Since we had gotten an early start, and since our cruise route started at the southern end of the Windward Islands (Lesser Antilles) and worked our way back north, the return voyage required only one day at sea.
Jan got up early for the massage she won. Afterwards she relaxes on the promenade deck with a mystery. It was a bit more brisk here than at the southern end of the islands.
Jan was was able to relax and rest.
Shuffleboard courts were available on both sides of the promenade deck. I tried shooting the disc with the cues provided, and could get it to land in the scoring area. However I am not so naive as to believe I could win against skilled players. There's a whole strategy about placing your discs and knocking the opponent's into 10-off (subtract 10) or off the scoring area.
Ricky Matthews, the cruise director, gave a talk on debarkation procedures. To get two thousand passengers, each with a week's luggage plus purchases, off the ship in an orderly manner, the luggage is picked up and prepared for transfer the night before, and passenger exit times are staged. You also have to get any liquor you purchased out of the brig where it's stored during the voyage.
Jan looks at merchandise in the duty-free shop on the mezzanine of the Grand Centrum.
Although Jan looked at lots of merchandise and I gave her carte blanche, there was nothing that interested her.
We met two delightful women, both named Marilyn, from Rockford, Illinois, on the trip, and sometimes joined them for meals and in the lounge. They were not uncomfortable with the idea that this could be our good-bye cruise. I think they are looking at jewelery with Jan here.
At 11:40, there's a slight chop. After a week of really calm seas, on Friday night there was a mild change. For the first time, we could perceive the ship rise and fall with the waves. Neither of us got sick--actually it was rather restful. When this continued on Saturday, I checked the cabin TV (which has a channel with images of the guages at the bridge and learned that the seas were barely off the bottom of the guage. I realized then how fortunate we had been to have such calm seas, gentle breezes, and sunny days, which I had taken for granted. This realization is reflected in all the picture captions.
This gentle chop is as rough as it ever got.
The choppy waves are deflected by the ship's hull.
The weather contributed to making this the perfect cruise.
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