Tuesday, April 15, 2025

February 26, 2025 – At Sea – Atlantic Ocean (near the Bahamas) – Mostly Cloudy – 75F

Another nice breakfast with another nice view 

– a few mornings ago, I started sitting a little further back on the Port Side (just a little more aft than the coffee station).  There is usually a good seat there and the proximity to the food and two coffee stations is a plus. 

At 9:30 AM, I went to the theater (back there again) for my final presentation, “Open Unsolved Cases: Forensic Genetic Genealogy”.  














The turnout was good – again the crowd would have been two plus SROs at Celebrity Central.  I spent a few minutes going over my background since not everyone came to the first talk (I did run a little late but who cares).  The talk did go OK (still hard to read things on the screen because of the fuzziness) but the best part was the large post talk chat group.  One very nice young couple wanted to know how the COVID vaccine worked and the woman was concerned about the vaccine changing her DNA.  I think she feels a bit better about it now.  I also met the “Three Coppers from Canada” – three ex cops (I’m guessing Homicide) a couple of which had some experience in handling DNA evidence.  They were a hoot and so much hand shaking – more hand shaking on this cruise – must be the Canadians.  I really enjoy the post talk interaction but finally we had to vacate the theater.  All in all, the sessions went well.

We went upstairs for lunch – the place was slammed because it was the “Grand Buffet”, which featured all sorts of cakes finished with mirror glaze.  We checked out everything and found little so we went over to the Spa Café where I had the Tuna hockey puck, the soba noodles, and the caprese salad – we brought iced teas with us because they only have juices in the Spa Café.  Ellen asked the servers for some bread and got some, which was good with the tuna and salmon she had.

We spent the afternoon in the Solarium in an area near the Spa where the chlorine is minimal.  Today was also free massage sampler day and I got two of them (two different ladies).  Very relaxing and nice.

I had not heard from Sameer about my incidental expenses and so I called him and he told me they were already put on as a credit on my account.  He was right so that was checked off my list.

Tonight, we thought we would send this cruise off in style by eating in the Moonlight Sonata Dining Room.  We didn’t get Table 516 because we got to the restaurant late so we had to settle for the table for two just around the corner from the entrance.  The waiters come pretty close to us when they are flying around with dishes so I moved the table back a bit (this put us close to the table behind us but it’s better than getting bonked by some dishes).  I ordered the bean and pepper empanada off the veggie menu and the Tilapia Putanesca off the regular menu.  Ellen had the standard salmon.  The empanada turned out to be a large fresh salad with some kind of beans on it.  I asked for Thousand Island and Ranch Dressing and the salad itself had some kind of green sauce at the bottom of the bowl.  It was bizarre but it turned out to be real tasty and one of the better salads of the cruise (the waiter said he put in the empanada – he actually didn’t know what an empanada was).  The tilapia was undercooked – maybe I should ask them to really char it next time – but the putanesca sauce (spicy tomato sauce and olives) was good on the pasta – maybe just ask for pasta and sauce next time out.  Ellen’s salmon was good as it usually is.  We both ordered the Apple Pie a la mode but this time it came warm and it is much better cold.  Decaf tea for us both.  Throughout the meal both the waiter and assistant waiter emphasized how important the post cruise survey is and how getting 10s was very important to them.  We said we understood (even though we can’t turn in the survey).  While the food was a bit wonky, the service has been quicker and better. 

Tonight’s Showtime is Ryan David (aka Ryan Joyce) Hypnotist.  We never go to these shows even though it might have been interesting why Ryan performs under two names on the same ship.

Instead, we went to the room to finish packing – Ellen had done a lot of packing already and I just put the items in the closet and the toiletries into my suitcase.  The bags went out around 9 PM. 

We are in Group 18 tomorrow and we are supposed to vacate our room by 7:30 AM and then hand out in one of the public spaces until 8:40 AM when our group should be called.

And tonight, for some reason, we are turning our clocks back one hour (that is not usually done on the night before disembarkation but it is happening tonight. 

Lights out at 9:30 PM (EST).  

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