Slept in!!! Went to breakfast around 9:00 down in the dining room. Before going back to our cabin we went down to the Promenade deck for a little shopping. Picked up a couple of bottles of Bailey’s (2 for $40 and they packaged it for us to put in our suitcase – bonus!). Determined not to leave packing to the last minute (like last year), we went back to the cabin and started getting things together. We had until 11pm to get our luggage in the hall but wanted to get most of it done ahead of time. Since just about everything was dirty it went together pretty quickly. By the time we finished that it was lunch time. We walked around the buffet to see if we could find anything but ended up back in the dining room again. 

DE and Jesse were going down to the casino to play in a black jack tournament at 2:00 and Sarah and I planned to go to a scrapbook thing at 2:45. I couldn’t imagine what kind of scrapbook activity they could have but was curious enough to go – until a coughing spell hit me. Bob went down to watch DE and Jesse. I just hung back and read and rested. Bob came back about an hour later to get some money to do a little gambling of his own. He ended up $57 up – not too bad. He was happy with that. We chilled for a while and them remembered our bottle of white wine was still in the refrigerator so popped that puppy open and sat out on our balcony enjoying our last afternoon on the water. There is nothing like it. I’m never ready to go home. It’s just so peaceful. It recharges my soul.


Last sunset from the ship:


All to soon it was time to get ready for our last dinner. We knew it was lobster tonight and weren’t missing that. The dining was hopping tonight too. Looked like no one was missing the lobster dinner. At a certain point during the evening all the chefs and lots of the servers gathered together on the stairs to sing their rendition of “Leaving on a Jet Plane” for us, with Antonio accompanying them on guitar. It was pretty cool. We got pictures with the Antonio and Marlon, thanking them for taking care of us this week. They were amazing.


There was a Karaoke Superstar contest at 8:30 in one of the theaters. We convinced Jeff to compete since he got a standing ovation the other night after singing John Michael Montgomery’s “Sold.” I couldn’t wait to hear him sing. There were five contestants in all. Jeff was last. Boy blew it out of the water. He had chosen “La Bamba” and he killed it. There was really no contest. He was so much better than anyone else. He has the moves, the personality and the joy to perform. It just comes natural to him. Apparently DE sings too but refused to compete against his brother. Maybe we’ll get to hear him on the 2018 cruise. Someone from the audience yelled out that the first place winner needed to give us an encore, and it there were some who had heard him do “Sold” the other night and requested that. So I got to hear him do that one too. That’s a hard song to sing. We could’ve sat there all night and listened to him.


It was time to say our goodbyes and head back to the cabin to finish our packing and get our luggage in the hallway. Another fun filled week bites the dust. Thankfully, we already have two more on the books already. November 2017 and February 2018. Last night to be rocked to sleep listening the the wind and water. I’m gonna miss this.