Today was our last full day on the ship. In the morning, we will leave the ship and transfer directly to the airport. We fly home tomorrow. Today we until almost 8am which is almost 10am Missouri time. We ate breakfast and I packed everything. We did our tour of the ship a little late this cruise – its where we start at the bottom and go through each floor seeing everything. This is a smaller ship built back when the ports were the entertainment so no bumper cars or 4D theaters exist. It is a lovely ship. I took pictures of a few of the interesting items we saw today. This ship was built in 2004. It is well maintained and this cruise to Alaska is the second cruise out since COVID hit in 2019 and shutdown the cruise ships. We have not learned of anyone onboard being sick and there have been no notices about extra precautions or wearing masks. The crew seems to be the only people wearing masks with a few others here and there. There are sanitizer stations and of course spotless clean bathrooms all over the ship. Cruise ships were spotless before COVID. We
took our grand tour of the ship and we ordered some pictures. I dont normally fall into the cruise ship picture trap too badly but they had some good deals and I liked some of our pics this time around. I had ordered us a metal luggage tag with our pictures on both sides and our last name and phone number on it. Kamie was with me when I the luggage tag and he liked it so much we sat down together and designed a second one. It only took a few minutes to design and order and you can upload your personal photos to use on the tags. They are adorable. Kamie loved them. Me too. (( Only $7.99.. thats the TODAY ONLY price ? ))
We said goodbye to some friends we made on the ship today. We exchanged information and some requested to be on our Christmas Card list and they certainly will be. (Yes, we are THOSE people that still use USPS mail to send Christmas Cards every year) One couple, lets call them Ace & spouse, they are my favorite by far. I could sit and listen to her talk all day. He
is a retired Colonel from the Air Force (but he retired at 46). Hes not even 60 yet. I dont really know them but I like them. This ship had a large group of retired Air Force guys cruising together.
This evening around 8pm, we arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. We were off the ship late because of a customs holdup (after 8:30pm) and had to be back onboard before 11:30pm. Three or four hours for one port might seem silly but ships leaving the United States must stop at an international port before returning to the US or there is some sort of fine or fees/taxes. This was our one international stop. However, this little town is famous because it looks like a little London. Its a mini replica of Vancouver, Canada to us. Thai restaurants everywhere, manicured lawns, lots of incredibly expensive housing and Audis dotted with a homeless population. Interesting, for sure. We saw the Parliament Building, the famous Empress Hotel, a few other areas, and got back on the ship. I was asleep around midnight.
