It was nice to get that extra hour last night to sleep later today. That is, unless you tend to wake up the same time every day, regardless of the time change. Then the day becomes longer by one hour, making it hard to burn the candle at both ends. Good thing we have only two more hours to be on Eastern Time.
Like it or not, we had to begin the task of packing. Most of it will be shipped to our home once we get to Ft. Lauderdale. And the rest will go with us to the hotel in Florida. We’ll keep exactly what we will need for a 17 day cruise, and no more.
We still find it incredible how much stuff we had stored in our room for four months. Each time we promise to bring less, and we really have found the right amount of everything. Most of our supplies are depleted, making room for some of those nice gifts we got along the way. A good thing is that the duffels we ship home, and the extra suitcase we added, do not have a weight limit.
The first day that Sarah, the rep for Fed Ex, is at her desk for shipping services was today. For the first time, it has been done in an orderly fashion. Instead of a first-come, first-serve method, they have arranged for the guests to be seen by decks. Beginning with decks 6 & 7, one day has been assigned to take care of everyone.
It seems that another guest speaker joined the ship by the name of Jim McFarland. He spoke on the natural history of the Cape Verde Islands. Even better, Captain Mercer took folks on a virtual tour of the Amsterdam’s bridge. A most informative talk.
Today was the final delivery of our sodas and flowers for the remainder of this trip. This President’s Club amenity has worked out nicely. We never had to buy any more sodas this trip.
One other advertisement was about the upcoming Breakfast for Dinner venue held in the Pinnacle Grill on Sunday. Wine pairing was included, costing $79 per person. This is a first time venue, and many folks are wondering what will be served that will go with wine.
We met Barb for lunch again. The choices remain good, like a small dinner for the most part. The most talked about thing was the unveiling of the 2020 Grand World Voyage, which happens to be a whopping 128 days. Everyone is so happy it will include Antarctica.
A little more packing, and we were done for the time being. We have several more days left to fine tune the job. Taking a walk to get some fresh air, we noticed that the deep swells are still with us. Most of the outside deck was vacant, since many people are doing the same thing we were today.
Even the Ocean Bar had fewer dancers this evening. While we were listening to the music, and visiting with other passengers, Hamish made an announcement that the scheduled show featuring Tango Cervilla had to be cancelled. Another act will take their place. With the movement of the ship, it would have made this performance dangerous.
Two tablemates were missing, but someone added Peter, so we still had seven guests. Empanadas and the turkey dinner seemed to be the favorite meal of the evening. And a small serving of strawberry shortcake was a nice ending.
A laundry service conclusion notification was delivered to our rooms tonight. The cutoff time to turn in the final request will be Tuesday, the 24h of April. Sounds like they are expecting a voluminous amount of cleaning to be done. Of course, we all would like to go home with clean clothes. We have been most happy with their service, more so when they located a lost blouse.
One day down, and four more sea days to go. But who’s counting?
Bill & Mary Ann
