Birthday 2013 - Last Sea Day

I woke up early once again with final flowrider plans.  I went for a first breakfast at the WJ.  I then went to the Flowrider.  I had to watch for a while until the advanced stand-up surfing time was done.  There were about 5 guys this morning, very different from the almost private time I got sharing it with just one other guy on the morning of my birthday.  By the time the advanced time was over, 2 other non-advanced guys had joined.  It was fun, although I never got one as good I had gotten that first morning. 

On this video compilation, I left the recording I ended up with of one guy who really good at it.  Just so everyone could see what actually good on this looks like.

After around 5 tries, the line had gotten somewhat long and I was done.  It was fun though.  I was glad I had rented the wetsuit for doing this.  The water temperature was not the issue.  I just was more comfortable knowing that all my body parts were staying covered.  I saw a number of butts that day.

I then went for a second breakfast at MDR.  I ordered my usual classic breakfast, but also got the yummy leftover crab cake egg benedict.  I just ate the crab cake with the yolk on it, and left the rest there.  I almost ordered a 2^nd one though, just because I liked that crab cake so much.

I then met up with mom in the room, and we went and hung in the cantilevered hot tubs with our Kindles one last time. We followed that up with lunch in the MDR, and got done just in time to wander the promenade and see a little of the Freedom Fest celebration.

We then took our C&A books to the casino to redeem the coupons there. I actually won a free keychain with my free pull. It’s an unusual RCI keychain and I rather like it. We were going to do the match coupons at the roulette (one on red, one on black thing), but neither of the roulette tables were open, which is a supposedly almost sure way to walk away a little better than even. I played a dollar on a slot machine, just for fun.

We then went to the jewelry making class. The cost was only $10 for a set that will make a necklace, bracelet and earrings.

The easiest of the 3 options (it did include earrings and a bracelet not shown).

 The second hardest (which did also include earrings not shown)

The hardest of the three along with the class teacher (same guy who we did the ribbon to flower class with on the previous day)

If you do this, unless you choose the simplest of the 3 sets, there is no way to finish in the allowed time for the class. I did pick the hardest, and mom picked the 2nd hardest. Mom almost finished her necklace in the allowed time. I got almost a 3rd of mine done, and then dropped most of my work on the floor by accident. He helped me to clean it up, and I can re-do the work.

I had hopes and plans of maybe doing the ice skating and the wall climb on this day, but I just ran out of time. I was just minutes too late for last wall climb. I then had to rush to return the wet suits to the dive shop closing time.

We then watched the Move it Move it parade again from deck 8. This time from the other end than I had seen it that first night. We then went to the WJ so Mom could have a sushi snack in Jade.

We also had issues this night with forgetting things in the room. I had 6+ return trips to room for various forgotten things. This is a good time to mention the room steward for the rooms up the hall from ours. She was so nice. I liked our own, and he was very helpful. I just didn’t see him all that often. The steward next to ours, I saw her all the time. She always had a smile for us. And as I made at least 6 trips back to the room in an hour and a half (seeing her almost every time), she never openly laughed at me, just a nice happy greeting.

Dinner started with the cold soup for mom (another one she liked), and the French onion soup for me (it was okay). Mom had a special order turkey and veggies, and I had the fried fish and seafood plate as well as the lamb plate for me. Both of them were great.

The only picture I got of our wonderful waiting team.
We both skipped dessert. I was too full, plus we had free cupcakes in room. We had gotten a call earlier that day asking if we liked the cupcake class. Mom said yes, and they asked if we’d like free cupcakes. Does anyone say no to that question?

The farewell show was that night, of course. Before the show, one of CD staff said we was having a prize competition for the first 3 people over 18 on the stage. I saw a hat in his hands, and I was on the first row. So I climbed/rolled onto the stage. I got quite a laugh for my moves to get up there. The competition was to make a paper airplane to fly the farthest. I did not win.

My plane few pretty much straight up and straight down. Quite funny and amusing, but definitely not the winner. The other two guys’ planes went almost to the first level back row and to just past the back row of the first level. So I left with the standard RCI keychain, but it was fun.

The actual show was a mish-mash of various things: Richard Spacey’s summary of dance (available on Youtube according to him), another aerial show, a juggling comedian, and the singers along with the usual representation of all staff.

We then went back to the room and quickly packed up everything in time to put the bags out by 11 pm. And while I was sad somewhat that the cruise was ending, my feet had actually had all they could take.

After putting the bags in the hall, I went to Sorrento's in my PJ's for a final couple of slices of pizza.  Mom ordered her tea from room service.  And we enjoyed our cupcakes (there was a nice note with them).

And there was, of course, a final towel animal that night, a stingray (a little hard to see on the white bed).