Day 93 - The last sea day of this cruise - for us.

We are now on NZ time.

A fair sleep and the cough has almost gone, thank goodness.  A bit late breakfasting as trivia wasn’t until 11:30 as Chef Marzi had another one of his cooking demonstrations, followed by a tour of the kitchens for those who hadn’t done the tour before.  That increased our chances of trivia success, but despite Paula’s earlier Zumba session, it didn’t kick the brain into gear any more than usual.

We headed to deck 5 for coffee, but once again, no seating.   With so many staff being so friendly, it comes as a bit of a shock to find a couple of the deck 7 waiters/waitresses distinctly cold.  (It hadn’t gone unnoticed by our head waiter Vasco, so it wasn’t just our assessment.)

So packing was on my agenda for the afternoon and that all went OK and then an escape to the final Ukulele class with Alex at 4:15pm – exactly the same time as trivia…

One of the group (another Ray) had organised a whip round for Alex but asked me to propose the vote of thanks.  Hopefully Alex will use the loot to buy his own ukulele.

Sadly, due to the late scheduling, the drinkers started rolling in well before we’d finished and as I was at the rear of the room, their noise was drowning out Alex.  I managed to move a couple on, but they were coming in too fast so we just had to put up with it.



With Dave Watson 

It was a busy night with another show (that is 3) from Roland Storm.  He is a real encyclopaedia of popular music and this was another show backed by the orchestra.   Another enjoyable show too.  Too few of the entertainers have enough decent material for three shows, some can't even cope with two and several rely on old material.

A bit of dancing and some farewells then our last dinner and I managed to grab a pic with former England football player Dave Watson.  He started his professional career with Notts County in 1967 when I was a regular spectator at Meadow Lane then he went via Rotherham and Sunderland to Manchester City and 65 England caps. 

A spell overseas before bowing out back at Notts County 1984/85, though he retains a strong interest in the club.

After dinner and a few other farewells and down to the Vista lounge for a Princess favourite, the Marriage Show.

We were thrilled to find out that Theresa and Errol had put their names in – as newlyweds.  That is a relative term on cruises when the average age is well over 60.  They had been married 8 years, but known each other 24.  They had no idea what they were letting themselves in for, expecting it to be simple stuff such as what is his favourite film, or her favourite colour.

For those new to Princess cruises, it is a little bit bawdier than that and depending on the Cruise Director/Host and the three couples, can be so-so or hilarious.  This was definitely in the latter category, with all three couples creating the laughs.  As Errol & Theresa were the newlyweds, the middle couple had been married about 35 years and the final couple 57.

It started a bit late (no idea why) so after it had finished, we still had Danny McMaster again and another good show.  Yes, we’d seen it before but still funny.

So, on our last night, Paula was just about asleep standing up as we headed to the cabin for the last time but we managed to drain the last of the port before falling into bed just after midnight.

Just a few hours more and we are home.