Vacation Notes 2015: September 14th: Journey's End

Monday, September 14^th.

It’s Monday. A day spent at sea. A lazy day at sea. A very lazy day at sea.

We sleep in and enjoy a relatively late breakfast. The wife continues engaging in her Jedi mind-tricks in hopes of beating jet lag.

 

Daughter and I ate lunch together on the upper deck. We watched as we drifted by Mt. Stromboli. It’s much more formidable in person than the picture on the pizza box would suggest.

I decided that I would spend some time by the pool reading. Bon chance! The pool side is surrounded by bodies of all sorts stuffed in bikinis—it’s amazing to see how much stuffing a bikini can actually endure. Eventually I’m able to find an empty chair among the sun-baked hams covering the deck. I join them, set to medium broil and read my book, breaking away occasionally for a refreshment refill.

Today is the day of the teenage rock-climb challenge and daughter is ready. The race up the wall will begin at 4:30, more or less. Both the wife and I make time in our busy day to attend the event.

After the rock-climbing event we try to take a pre-dinner walk around the upper deck, but some end-of-cruise maintenance cuts our stroll short.

There are bookings and rides to be arranged for when we de-boat. (Is it correct to say de-boat? I know we de-plane.) The wife skips off to do her thing in the Internet Café, while daughter and I take up residence in the Centrum. There we engaged in a game of "Heads Up".

 

Eventually wife finished the final confirmations and we all went to the forward "Viking Lounge" to pass some time before dinner. We sat in glorious air-conditioning overlooking red bodies baking by the pool. Once again, we played daughter’s iPhone-game, "Heads Up". .

Dinner in the Edelweiss, aboard the Rhapsody of the Sea, one last time. We were joined once again by Jims and Fiona. Also joining us for this last dinner is a New Zealander, whose name has escaped me, and her mom.

After dinner, we returned to our room to pack for our departure.

Once again, we tried to take the walk around the upper deck. Once again, we were detoured by maintenance. We descended the 6th level, through the Schooner Bar and into another night of hardly-anybody-there karaoke.

We selected a song, Ob-bla-di Ob-bla-da. My voice was in frog mode tonight and notes as most people know them, did not emerge. Oh well, nobody seemed to mind. The room contained only the usual suspects. By 12:30am the DJ had had enough and shut us down for the night. We returned to our room.

Our departure will be early. Breakfast starts at six and because we are carrying our luggage we must leave the boat by 7:30am. This actually works to our benefit, as we need to get to the airport in Rome for an AM flight.

Si dispone di una notte di riposo .