Sea Day #2

Saturday, June 19 – Day at Sea

Breakfast was open seating in the Elation dining room. Kent, Bob and I ordered the eggs benedict…something that wasn’t available at the buffet in the Paris restaurant. I don’t know that the food was that much better in the dining room, but it was nice to be served instead of getting the food yourself. I was also able to enjoy a cappuccino...another item not offered at the buffet.

  

On the last day, there is a big sale on Carnival t-shirts…two for $20. I knew from my experience on the last cruise that to get a good selection, you must shop in the morning. We each picked out a couple of shirts and then Laurel went to take one last look at the tanzanite rings in the gift shop. I found a big display of costume jewelry rings for sale…two for $39.99. Laurel never did end up getting a ring on the cruise, but I came away with two of the rings I found that day!

  

The debarkation talk was taking place in the Normandie Lounge which is located right by the gift shops. We stepped inside and listened for a bit but decided we could catch the talk on TV later in the day. Laurel’s main objective was to spend some time in the sun and we headed back to the cabin to change into our swim suits.

  

I am a fair-skinned redhead and had been very cautious all week about not over-doing it in the sun. I did not want my cruise ruined by a bad sunburn. Before the cruise I had spent several weeks visiting a tanning booth but still was only able to get a slight tan. Being it was the last day I decided to relax a bit and enjoy the sun with everyone else.

Finding four chairs together by the pool was hopeless, but we did find some one deck higher that overlooked the pool area. Being on this deck was actually more comfortable anyway…there was a bit of a breeze…and we could still see all of the activities taking place on the Lido deck. After an hour I started to worry that maybe sitting in the sun was sort of like suicide for me so I convinced Bob to join me on the outer part of the promenade deck. Once again we dragged lounge chairs out to sit in the shade of the lifeboats.

  

Around 1:00 hunger was starting to set in and Bob and I headed to the buffet. I’ve lost track what we ate when, but I “think” this was the day I tried one of the calzones from the Pizzeria. It takes about 10 minutes for them to make, but combined with the Caesar salad, it made a great lunch! Kent showed up while we were eating, but Laurel chose to stay and worship the sun gods!

That afternoon I knew it was time to start the dreaded job of packing. I switched on the TV and listened to the cruise director go through the debarkation talk as I worked. Bob left around 3:00 to go hear the Summer Trio perform and came back with one of their CD’s that he had purchased.

Dinner that night was enjoyable, but a little sad at the same time knowing it would be our last meal in the dining room. We made an effort to get to the Normandie Lounge early to snag good seats for the evening show. Steve Athearn, a juggler, opened the show and this guy was truly amazing!! At one point he “solved” a Rubik’s cube in a minute while balancing a ball on a long pole sitting on his forehead (meaning he couldn’t watch the cube while he was working on it!) Another astonishing feat was when he juggled a bowling ball, a softball and a doll sitting in a baby carrier!! Following the juggling, comic Jim Brick came onstage. Before he was done, Bob and Kent were both in tears from laughing so hard! What a funny guy!!

Steve, the juggler, was standing around after the show and we started talking with him. He said he and Jim Brick had flown to Grand Cayman to meet up with another Carnival ship (the Conquest I’m sure) and then transferred to the Paradise when we were docked together in Cozumel. Laurel was particularly interested in some of his routines. Her daughter is a world champion baton twirler and has mastered twirling four and five batons at once…very similar to juggling in many ways.

Both of us still had packing to finish up before bed because the bags had to be placed in the hallway by midnight. I had forgotten about the talent show or I would have made more of an effort to get the packing finished in the afternoon. After we were done and had the bags outside the cabin, we went for one last walk through the ship. We walked by the Normandie Lounge as the last performer was finishing up in the talent show and I was sorry we had missed it.

Last minute packing.

The four of us filled our big mugs on the Lido deck and went out to the seating area at the rear of the ship. Off in the distance you could see lightening in the clouds which was awesome to see in the dark night. Overall the weather had been perfect the whole week. There was one morning where we had a brief rain, but it was over quickly and had I not been up early I wouldn’t have even realized it happened.

As we walked back through the Paris restaurant, they were just preparing for the midnight buffet. None of us were really hungry, but the buffet was all crepes and I just couldn’t resist trying one or two. One side of the buffet had savory fillings, but I opted for the fresh fruit and whipped cream on the other side. Yummmm!!! The couple standing in line ahead of us were wearing their Carnival bathrobes. I’m not sure if they forgot to leave out clothes when they put their luggage in the hallway or just thought that was an appropriate way to dress for the last night of the cruise!