May 7th, 2023 Day124 of 128

Sea Day 2 of 6

It is Sunday here on the ship and we had a lot on tasks today. Today is the last day to send out laundry to the be washed. So we packed up the remainder of anything we had in the cabin and sent it out. We started our morning by having breakfast in the Pinnacle and had the opportunity to pass out most of staff thank you notes. Then we went up to the Ocean Bar to meet the project Linus group. The remainder of the blankets that have been completed since the previous display on March 22nd were all laid out and displayed. I believe the final count for completed blankets was 620 blankets. A world cruise record. We took a group photo of the majority of the 150 blanekteers that worked on the blankets this trip as well. Next, we headed home to start the dreaded packing of suitcases. We made a large dent in what we needed to accomplished. We are organized and have to decide what we need for the next five days or so and what we will take on the plane with us, versus what we will have shipped home and see in a couple of weeks. Megan had tutoring at 12:00 and she headed out while I kept working. Our next event was a BYOB cocktail party in the Neptune Lounge for the suite Ladies. A group of guests spearheaded this meet up and we have a few of them throughout the cruise this year. It was nice to get together with our neighbors one last time. Henk’s wife Crystal came and we spent a good hour talking with her about their life back in the Netherlands and their life together. They’ve been together since they were 16. They are an adorable couple. Next it was time for dinner. Megan and I had our last dinner in the Pinnacle steakhouse this evening. A wonderful meal as always and we ate too much, again. THEN, tonight there was a Barn Dance and we were encouraged to dress in our western attire. They had country music and line dancing in the Rolling Stone lounge until almost 11:00pm. I had a free drink voucher I was saving from the beginning of the cruise when we had the derby and my “Horse” won. So I indulged in a Wang Wang, basically a long island with juice instead of coke. It is named for the sound the ambulance makes when it comes to take you away when you drink too many of them. Mom and I discovered them in 2020 and this one was to her!! So that was three outfits in one day, and we have no more laundry service. Guess we’ll be bringing home some dirty clothes. LOL!! It was weird trying to decide everything we wanted to wear from now until our flight home on Friday so we could pack the rest. We have one more formal night in a couple days as well so that can all be sent home as well. We heard there are 14,000 pieces of luggage that need to be off loaded of the ship when we come into port on Friday. A large number of those pieces will be processed by Luggage Forward who will take our luggage from the port and mail it directly home for many of the passengers. Such a well orchestrated sympathy that takes place as we come home and they have to basically completely clean and turn over the entire passenger manifest in one day. There are 1800+ passengers getting onto the ship the day we get off. Can you imagine? O.K. Enough rambling for today. Enjoy the photos from today. Blessings!!