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.
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