Oh Noes! Last Day!

The last day on a cruise ship is kind of like the last day at camp, you go do all those things you were meaning to and all the things you loved best. 

We wandered through the scary On Board sale in the dining room - I'm still trying to figure out who wants t-shirts of destinations they didn't visit.  Needless to say, nothing was purchased.  I went to the morning Bridge Lesson - watch out Auntie's I learned about strong 2s.  I also learned how to become a Cruise Bridge Director - new life goal!! I went to the bingo (twice) with Ron's parents.  In the morning, with a single card, I was one number off the grand prize.  Someone else from Gatineau won, so I'll be happy for them I guess.  Ron and I went to the Final Art Auction, because how often do we get to go to Art Auctions?  They showed us an interesting trick with Thomas Kincade paintings and light.  We picked up our Ceramics at Sea project and said good bye to Allie as she headed across the ocean on the next voyage.  It was a busy, fun, relaxing day. 

Then we packed, hit the buffet as a large group one last time and had the most hilarious, long, wet decked, family shuffle board tournament in the history of all time. 

Good Friday is a great day to spend at sea, nothing's closed and they make on board easter eggs! 

The atrium smelled awesome. 

The blue one is wearing a fruit loop hat. 

Saturday we had a smooth-ish debarkation (I didn't like the find your own luggage approach, and there was some confusion on the taxi situation) and checked into the Aloha Condo in FLL for a bit more relaxation-ing.  Oh yeah, we also headed almost immediately for Sawgrass Mills for post cruise shopping on Easter Saturday.  I wouldn't recommend this as part of a good cruise recovery plan.  Also, no one should try on clothes after ten days at sea. 

So, that's the sunny Southern Caribbean with our family adventure.  It was a great trip.  And now to start planning more adventures...you'll hear about them here for sure!

Relaxed Day at Sea, Formal Night

Ending any trip with a few days at sea is an awesome way to go if you can.  We got up, had breakfast, and then saw our friend Allie at the "Final Ceramics at Sea" and got our craft on, inspired by the things we'd seen on our trip!

Inspired by the sunset in Aruba.

Inspired by the Breakfast River Gorge. 

We went to see the King's Speech in the afternoon in the Princess Theatre - its like a really good episode of Materpiece Theatre.  Then there was some primping for Formal night round two.  We had tried on the first formal night to put together a nice family picture, but sadly, none of them worked out (well, the really silly one did, but it wasn't quite what we aimed for).  Tonight we gave it another go...and were eventually successful at all not blinking!  Woohooo!

The gang headed off for dinner, and we had some time to kill before our reservation for that meal we won at Sabatini's so we had drinks in the Explorer's Lounge.

Caribbean Cooler, and my sparkly purse. 

Ron's drink of unknown name. 

We made our way over to Sabatini's to find it pretty vacant - a table of officers and a few others finishing up.  Soon enough we were alone in there.  The waiter's explained we just had to pick an entree and they would take care of everything else...and they meant it.  This was a crazy meal.  Food just kept coming.  Note that I forgot to take a picture of the round of pizza.  There were four kinds.

Cold appetizers.

Hot appetizers.

More hot appetizers. 

My minestrone.

Ron's soup. 

Three kinds of pasta. 

Ron's lobster.

My Spring Chicken. 

Ron's dessert. 

My tiramisu. 

With full bellies, we headed to bed.

Underwater in Aruba!

We drifted overnight to our last stop - Aruba!

Cityscape. 

Seems like a nice place to stay :)

 I went in the morning with the two Rons (Senior and Junior) on an Atlantis Submarine adventure! 

Convenient fish identification card. 

Get that camera ready!

Underwater stuff. 

They've sunk things for our enjoyment!

At depth of -133 feet!

The tour wrapped up around noon, and we strolled back through the shopping zone - Aruba's got some super high end places for sure.

Posing with the Louis Vuitton dripping gold display.

We don't know why there's a car and a dinosaur here. 

The street clocks in Aruba are by Breitling.

Couldn't figure my way into this mall though!

Before we knew it, we were back on the ship and pointed north for the voyage to Fort Lauderdale.

This, was a spectacular sunset.  I have 10 more pictures of it if you want to see it in flipbook format.

I think we went to dinner with Ron's parents this evening, and got our "honeymoon" cake from Princess - tastiest cake all week.  But - I forgot my camera!  Can you imagine!  You'll have to trust me, it was a lovely evening.

Bon Bini to Bonaire!

After a lazy morning, we pulled in to what would turn out to be our favourite port this trip, Bonaire.  Now, some of you know I had booked a bike trip for Bonaire which I was both excited and intimidated to do.  Unfortunately, the night before, I got a note under the door that explained that the tour had been cancelled due to operational reasons.  So here we were with seven hours to enjoy Kralendijk.

I watched them tie up the ship very carefully.  I've never seen that many lines used before.  I'm pretty sure there were 16, including ones from the other side of the ship.  I read something I picked up in town that explained that Bonaire doesn't allow ships to drop anchor, just one of the many protections for the coral and sea life in the area.

Here go the lines to tie us up!

This bar, on the pier, says Welcome to Paradise on the top.  I can't say they're wrong.  We saw someone pull their boat up to the end and sit down for a drink, with their dog in tow.  Awesome. 

It's the Chill Out Bus! 

We ventured off the ship and went for a walk around.  The first thing we noticed was how calm the island seemed.  There was a market where you get off the ship, but it wasn't crowded or intimidating.  Someone we met along the way explained that Bonaire doesn't allow its entrepreneurs to approach tourists - you have to come to them!  And ask them for something!  Amazing!  I had some gelato and we did some tourist-y shopping.

Its a boat full of fruit!

Lots of murals, someone offered to take our picture at this one.

Bonaire's only iguana.  (The only one we saw anyways). 

In town we happened upon a real estate business.  Paradise Realty of course.  Here we learned many important things.  For instance, you can rent a home with a private beach in Bonaire, that sleeps 4 couples, for just $2500/week.  Who's in?

I wasn't satisfied with just seeing the stores, so we took a walk down the boardwalk.  It was amazingness.  Bonaire has a wonderful  sleepy "beach/cottage" town feel and we were soaking it up. 

You can see fish from the sidewalk.  I've never wanted to snorkel more! 

I guess there's some good fishing in the area.  (check out the 114kg Tuna!)

This is A. a good way to see the fishies.  B.  a good way to get your sneakers wet. 

Tiny advertising sailboat!

Edges of the water were lined with dried up coral.  It sounded like breaking fragile glass when you walk on it. 

Bonaire is a desert island, so it has cacti!

Pretty flowers. 

We bought some Bonaire Sea Salt (we'd seen the salt piles on the way in), a picture of the fishies we'd seen and made our way back to the ship. 

After watching the sailaway for a while, we went to the aft pool for a swim, and would pop our heads up and see the lights of Kralendijk get further and further away over a couple of hours.  And then it was time to rest for our last port!!