Day 26: 20231019 Thursday October 19, 2023- Crossing the Tasman Sea
It really feels like this cruise is winding up as the ship is headed across the Tasman Sea. We’re both tired of the coughing and looking forward to being healthy again, and spent a lazy day sleeping in and not doing much other an another Grapevine wine tasting in the afternoon after a low key morning trivia where we met one of our teammates mostly just to give her some prize tickets that we had accumulated and to hand out Princess swag that we had cashed out our tickets on to some of the dining room staff who have really made us feel at home on the ship. Although quite a few people boarded in Auckland, the majority of passengers will be disembarking in Sydney, so luggage tags have made their way into our cabins, and we spent some time today packing things back into our suitcases. Since we will not be flying back to the US for a while, we can be a little more liberal in how we pack since we don’t have to worry about weight limits or restrictions on what can be on carry on vs checked bags.
We had our final formal night tonight. They did have escargot and lobster on the menu, and our waiters let us each have a lobster and split a Beef Wellington for a surf and turf experience. The lobster was better tonight (it had been a little overcooked last time) and the beef was also excellent. The evening featured a repeat performance of the British Invasion show that we had seen at the beginning of the cruise. To our surprise, it was the exact same cast, even though some of the dancers were clearly different from those in the Sweet Soul Music and Born to Dance shows. It appears they do have some specialization in the casts so they don’t have the same cast doing all the shows on any particular cruise, but the lead singers have been in all of the production numbers.
After the show we did some more packing and watched a Puss in Boots movie on the TV. Our clocks go back another hour tonight, and gain tomorrow night as we approach Sydney. Tomorrow will certainly also be a low key day, although we are already starting to say our goodbyes to the people we have spent most of the last month with. People will be going in many different directions as they leave the ship. Many have plans to spend more time exploring Australia and New Zealand as we have, while others will be jumping on board flights back to the US and Canada.
