This morning there was a Mariner Society Ceremony held at 10:30am in the Queen's Lounge for a select number of guests. As there was only one medal-awarding time, it was necessary to limit the guests to those who were actually getting medals, and the highest day passengers, we assume. By a quick count, we would guess there were about 200 folks present.
There were only five members of the President's Club in the "corral". As always, we arrived at 10:15am, and were escorted to a receiving line of Captain Fred, Bart, the hotel director, and Erin, the cruise director. Following us, were the new medal awardees, who sat close to the center of the room to get their new medallions. The most given out were the bronze for 100 days, and only two for silver. No gold or platinum, although, when asked to raise their hands for those levels, several folks put their hands up. At the end, Joe and Sylvia, then the two of us went up to have our photos taken with the officers. Dolly went up last, of course, which made her day. She looked so tiny between the Captain and Bart, who are both rather tall fellows. Anyway, the 8 x 10 photo was delivered to our room later in the afternoon, complimentary. Nice.
We had some fancy canapes served on a three level server, along with cocktails. Good grief, it was only 10:30am, too early but someone has to do it right? Brunch in the dining room was being served right after 11am, but we decided not to attend. Mostly because we had just eaten breakfast, and to eat again was out of the question. So we asked our head waiter if he would save us the tiles, and he said certainly. We happened to notice that none of the center tables had reserved signs on them, so we doubted that any table would be hosted by staff. Shorter trips do not operate the same as the grand voyage, where several tables are hosted. Today, there were two brunch times, with the second one beginning after 1pm.
Since today was our final full day onboard, we needed to do the final packing, leaving out our clothes for tonight, which we will wear home tomorrow. The nicest thing about this was not having to worry about weight in any suitcase for a plane flight. We intend to ship everything Fed Ex, and only carry off the small wheeled duffels that were gifted to us on the world cruise. This way, we did not have to squish them into our big duffels, or buy extra suitcases or even purchase cardboard boxes to ship the excess stuff.
The weather was finally cold today. Mostly cloudy, overcast and grey, except for a brief moment when the clouds parted and we saw sun for a short time. Standing at the railing on deck three, we spotted a flock of birds right above the water several yards off of the ship. Under them, were dolphins feeding, since all we could see were occasional dorsal fins breaking the surface. Also seen, were some turtles and one very large seal lion. Surprising to see this wildlife, since the ship was sailing rather far off of the coastline. Always pays to stop and look.
Life on the ship was continuing as usual with the rest of the passengers who are staying onboard to Vancouver or Seattle. There are a total of 500 of us going off tomorrow, but 540 coming aboard. Should get lively with the new guests, who for the most part, will be on for 4 days of partying, drinking, and gambling. The food and the entertainment are secondary, we have heard. Don and Alene will be staying on to Seattle, so they should have some good stories when they get home.
Ship sales were the big pitch of the day. Clearances of clothing and accessories were front and foremost, as well as the final art auction. There was a $25K jackpot bingo and a win-a-cruise lottery draw. Wonder if anyone ever wins either of those contests? We stopped attending those events many years ago. Remember the days when bingo attracted the entire population on the ship? For some reason, those days are gone. Maybe, because the cards cost a whole lot more now to play.
Most of the day, we spent saying goodbye to many friends, old and new. And the staff who has been most kind to us these past months. They still strive to provide the best cruise experience they can, even with the many cutbacks that we have noticed. Hard to blame anyone for this, since we understand every cruise line in the industry has been following the same process. In time, there will be winners among them, and we certainly hope HAL is among them.
Around 2pm, we ordered a light lunch through room service with soup and salad. When it arrived, a dinner menu was left on the tray. We don't know why, but we will list what was available for dinner tonight.
Originally we had reservations in the Pinnacle Grill this evening, but we changed our minds when we read the menu this morning. Some of our favorite dishes were offered, so we cancelled the PG, and went to our table upstairs. This would be our last dinner with our waiters, so we did not want to leave without saying goodbye. By the way, the dinner menu began with starters of a melon cocktail, smoked fish sampler, cherry tomato with mozzarella cheese, and Greek meatballs with Metaxa sauce. There are always three soups available, and tonight's were tomato Florentine, liver dumpling, and a cold soup of chilled pear puree. The appetizer salad was spring mixed greens. Always available are French onion soup and Caesar salad. Gone are the big shrimps with cocktail sauce, as they are only on the grand voyage. Mains included two vegetarian dishes of penne primavera and wild mushroom strudel. The larger salad was tomato and bread with tender salmon bites. Entrees included soft shell crab pad Thai, beef ribeye steak, Grandma's roasted chicken, and our favorite…wiener schnitzel old Vienna style. Always available are grilled salmon, NY strip loin, and chicken breast, a good alternate. Desserts were numerous, but we ordered one scoop of ice cream with a little bit a chocolate sauce. Not really on the menu, but always do-able. Anyway, that gives you all an idea of what we had to choose from every evening, and why it is impossible not to gain a couple of pounds along the way. At least this will give us something to do (among other things) when we get back…..lose the extra pounds!
There was no special goodbye parade or baked Alaska on this segment. Just as well, as it can be sad to see this all come to an end. On the world cruise, there are a lot of tears with longtime friends going their separate ways after four months of having fun together. As Tom, our host reminded us all, there are only 36 weeks left until many of us meet again next year, or sooner if they join the Asia/Pacific cruise in the fall. For those of you that inquired about the 2018 Grand Asia/Pacific, nothing has been announced yet.
Tomorrow will be a busy day, with clearing customs, directing our luggage to the Fed Ex trucks, and finding our way to Pier 39, where our son should be picking us up around 1pm. As long as it is not raining, we will be happy. With this year's most unexpected rainfall, anything is possible.
We will be signing off for now, but will return soon to do some follow up reports, and our final thoughts on this 126 day trip. It has been quite a ride!
Bill & Mary Ann
PS Rich and Peg, we sure miss seeing you at breakfast! Happy to read that you have taken the time to read the blog. Hope we see you all soon. Marilyn and Harry, every day before 5pm, we expect to see you sitting in the comfy chairs on deck five in the Atrium. Have missed our rendezvous! You need to come back so we can keep each other up-to-date on ship and port news.
