From Hot to Cold — Three Days at Sea

Friday — December 11

Our bags are packed, tagged “Red 4,” and placed outside the cabin door. Today’s cold temps — it was 47F (8C) at noon — served as an incentive to get this end-of-the-cruise chore out of the way early in the day. Now, I have a bit of time before dinner to catch up on the blog.

Though the brisk wind made it way too cold to sit on the veranda today, that wasn’t the case the past two days. The weather was hot the first day out from Sint Maarten; balmy the second day. It wasn’t until late afternoon yesterday that the temperature started to dip and the ship’s motion became far more evident than it had been at any other time during the cruise.

Our first two days at sea after our last port call followed the same pattern as our last two days at sea before our first port call. We were up around 6:30a; did our laps on the jogging trail on the Sky Deck; ate a leisurely breakfast; spent pretty much the rest of the day on the veranda. Plenty of reading; some embroidery; some blogging; a few crossword puzzles — the days flew by.

First my feet, then me.

Mui takes advantage of the hot temps to take a dip in the pool.

We woke up to overcast skies this morning, but the clouds glowed as the sun rose to the aft of the ship. The pink glow didn’t last long. I didn’t need to step out on the veranda to gauge the temperature — the day just looked cold and dismal. And so it has been.

After breakfast, we bundled into our layers and went for a walk on the Promenade Deck. It wasn’t easy to do. Not only is the bow off-limits on this ship, but to go around the aft, you have to go up a set of stairs from deck 6 to deck 7 and then go back down again on the other side; a “u” instead of a full circle. To make things even more difficult, the staircase back down to deck 6 was cordoned off to swab one side of the Promenade Deck with soapy water. Oh well; we walked a bit and then found a couple of chairs from which to enjoy the seascape. We had the entire Promenade Deck to ourselves. I’m sure the few people who stepped out for a few seconds thought we were crazy. But sheltered from the wind, we were actually very comfortable.

After lunch, which was a cross between having our main course in the dining room and our dessert in the Palm Springs Café, we finished our packing before going to the cinema to catch the matinee show. Today’s feature film was Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise as Von Stauffenberg, the Wehrmacht colonel who was one of the key players in a plot to assassinate Hitler. Spending the afternoon at the movies was a perfect pastime on a cold winter day at sea — all we were missing was the popcorn!

More later …

... Later — 10:00p

When we left the islands behind, we also left our al fresco dinners on the veranda behind and went back to eating in the dining room. We even dressed up last night and went to the formal night dinner instead of taking advantage of the casual dining venue in the Palm Springs Café. Tonight we ate our last meal in the Manhattan Restaurant — at least for this cruise —and said our goodbyes to Cesar and Gunowry.

Menus for our last three dinners in the Manhattan Restaurant.

We brought our evening to a close with a walk around the ship. It was pretty quiet in the lounges and the shops. There were a lot of bags out in the hallways, waiting to be whisked away to the bowels of the ship. All signs of our impending debarkation tomorrow. I guess all good things must come to an end; a cruise is no exception. The weather forecasts these past few days have mentioned snow in the Mid-Atlantic region. Let’s hope we don’t have to dig our car out at the cruise terminal tomorrow.

Next Up: Back Home from the Cruise