Yay for ending the cruise on an “at sea” day! I slept in until 11 something, and it was every bit of amazing as I needed it to be! We got our bathing suits on and headed to the pool deck to get a burger and fries since we slept in so late. At the counter we were informed that the burger place wasn’t open yet, because the time changed at sea and we went back an hour.. it was only 11:05! Talk about exciting 🙂 sleeping in AND getting an extra hour, too! I accept!
So, we hung around until 11:30 to get our burgers and fries.. ate, and then went to find lounge chairs to claim for the day. Clearly mom and I were late to the game, because all of the spots near the pool were taken. We went up to the upper deck (the one I run around) and got chairs up there. Mom wasn’t a fan, because we had to go up and down the stairs every time we wanted to go to the pool.. but I loved it-direct sun with no shadows, our “own” less crowded bar.. I was more than content.
We laid out, I read.. I had to pause on my “Get out of your head” book.. I feel like I need to pay better attention when reading it, to really get it, and there’s too much distraction on a cruise ship to let my mind wander away from the words I was trying to read.. unintentionally. So, when I started “The Paper Palace” I was sucked in immediately and quickly flew through several chapters. Hmmm, can we say brain self sabotage here? Lolol
We really didn’t do anything but lay, hop in the pool, swim around a bit, get a drink on the way back up to the lounge chairs, read, and repeat until close to 5pm. It was glorious! Nothing required to do, no where to be, no tour guides and small talk. A pretty good example of a perfect day to me!
Sometime after 5, we moseyed back to our sunset deck for a while. The sun wasn’t even close to setting yet, but the breeze was nice and we enjoyed it. At some point it started to rain, so we retreated to our room to shower and get ready for dinner. We knew that if we came to our room any earlier than necessary, we’d nap away this beautiful day.
Once clean and dressed, we went back to our sunset bar to find out that while it wasn’t raining, it was chilly now.. so we ate pasta (it’s like a build your own pasta bar that you pick the noodles, the sauce, the ingredients like mushrooms, chicken, spinach, zucchini, squash, bacon, ham.. and so much more, and they make it to order for you) and I drank wine at the little dinning room inside by the deck bar. We watched the cloudy sunset from there, then decided to go to the formal dining room for dessert.
Our friend sat us at a nice table again, and then seemed mortified that we just wanted dessert. Even when we left the hostess was concerned that we were leaving because we weren’t satisfied. We had to explain we only came for dessert after eating the pasta upstairs at the back deck lol
I will say, the staff and crew of this ship have all been incredible. They are kind and remember faces (or at least are really good at pretending). One of the wine bar guys, Ramesh, would call to me every time I passed him and would chat about the day as he poured my wine and pulled out a water or a Coke Zero for mom without even asking her.. I realize that their job includes making our stay a great one for reviews and whatnot, but they really do go above and beyond.
After dessert we went to the last show of the cruise, the variety show. It had 3 of the previous acts perform a 20 minute “mini show.” Mom lasted through 1 1/2 performances before saying she was going back to the room.. I lasted through the whole thing, and then went back. We had to pack everything and sit it outside of our room to be collected for departure tomorrow. So, once that was done, I made my way to the upper deck to run. I tried to go for 2 miles, but after all the food and wine today, I just couldn’t.. I got to 1.6 and called it quits. I’m also sad to announce this is the only day so far I haven’t gotten 10k steps because I forgot to look at it before I fell asleep. Sad story.
Anyway, my run streak is still solid, so the garmin points will just have to suffer lol. “Tomorrow” we get off the ship, take a shuttle bus to the Ravenna train station, take one train to bologna and then another on to Rome! (I’m writing this from one of those many trains). We’ll have an Airbnb in the heart of Rome, between the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain for 5 whole days! I am sooo ready for that!