Day 27: 20231020 Friday October 20, 2023- Crossing the Tasman Sea
Even with turning the clocks back an hour last night, it was still hard to get up in the morning. The seas have settled down a bit, so the ship’s gentle rocking has a way of encouraging sleeping in. We did participate in the morning trivia, although since we are at the end of the cruise, there’s little incentive to try to collect any more prize tickets. We did learn a few new things though, such as the fact that lobsters (and crabs) have their teeth in their stomachs. Betcha didn’t know that. And Scotland isn’t the only country with a mythical or extinct national animal because the national animal for Mauritius is the Dodo bird, which was probably last seen there in the 1600’s when it was hunted to extinction there. It’s not clear when unicorns went extinct.
There was an “Enrichment Box 14” class on the schedule in the afternoon which we had no idea was about, but it turned out to be an origami class that turned out to be interesting and fun. The teacher was also the ballroom dance instructor on the ship. We haven’t done any of the ballroom classes because they are in the piazza which is very crowded and hard to hear instructions in.
The Leading Men had a second show this afternoon which showcased more about the experiences of the 4 men, and each did a solo from one of their favorite musicals. They also did a medley of female musical leads, which may have been intended to be humorous, but certainly didn’t showcase their singing skills nearly as well as the songs for male roles did. They also did a couple of songs by Frankie Valle and the 4 Seasons, but being four leading men, they tended to all sing the same lead vocals without anyone singing the harmonies.
We did finish packing up our larger suitcases to get them out for pick up in the evening, and were able to retrieve the drone from security in the early evening. While we were down there, another lady was busily packing cases of Spam and Chocolates from Alaska into her suitcase.
Dinner was a sentimental round of good byes to our servers and fellow section diners as we exchanged contact info and gifts. But they did have a decent surf and turf and a surprisingly good bacon wrapped meat loaf.
We wrapped up the cruise with a farewell variety show by the entertainment staff which included brief numbers by the production singers and dancers, the Leading Men, Tom Ward’s amazing classical guitar and the singers from the bars and lounges. It was an enjoyable show and fitting end to the cruise. We have been on the ship for almost a full month and we really feel like we have built a community on the ship. We will be sad to say good bye to the ship’s staff and fellow passengers as we disembark tomorrow.
