March 10, 2012 – Day 66 – Sea Day
The wind-down is in full gear. The sea state is good. We attended the last "thanks and farewell" drawing in the jewelry shop. First they had two drawings for loose Tanzanite stones. Our numbers were not even close. Then the big prize, a necklace strand of gray fresh water pearls. As Shafi read the numbers, we stayed in the running. Alice won! Amazing. She had won the first drawing, and now, the last. A very pleasant experience.
The Captain’s farewell party was scheduled to precede each dinner seating. That put ours in conflict with Mass. We opted to go to church, and attend the second party after our dinner. Perfect.
After entertainment, we started organizing for packing tomorrow.
March 11, 2012 – Day 67 – Sea day
Today is packing day. Ugh! We got it done with a lot of squeezing. The zippers held, and, hopefully, they will make it to Elk Grove Village.
There were a lot of sad goodbyes with the many new friends we have made. Future cruises may bring us together again. We hope so.
March 12, 2012 – Day 68 – Ft. Lauderdale
Well, it is over. We docked on time, but disembarkation started slightly later than scheduled. Our group was about half an hour late, as a result, but this was no problem.
We got a porter in the luggage hall. He gathered our 4 bags, and led us to customs. The agent was very nice. He saw that our purchases were under $1,600, and just asked about cigars and liquor. He kidded about fake Cuban cigars, and welcomed us home. The porter took our bags to the FedEx semi, and got us a taxi.
We were in the airport by 10:05 AM for our 12:00 flight, and we got to the boarding area by 10:30. The plane left on time, and arrived in Chicago early. We were home at 3:00 PM.
March 14, 2012 - Epilogue
We are still buzzing with the thrill of all we experienced.
Today brought another high. I went to my ophthalmologist, who confirmed the diagnosis that I had received in Panama. My loss of vision was secondary to the primary event, a TIA. After a very thorough eye examination, he said that my continued blurred vision resulted from the clouding of the “bag” that holds the lens he inserted during my cataract surgery 18 months ago. It is easily corrected with a laser procedure. This will be scheduled soon. After that, my eyesight should be clear again. We could not be happier!
So this is the end of the Grand Voyage.
It was an adventure beyond our wildest imaginings. The trepidation of embarking on our longest voyage ever, ever, ever (stolen phrase from our entertainment one night) dissipated soon after embarkation, and never returned. We will be taking more long voyages.
Thanks for following along.
We hope to see you aboard!
No comments:
Post a Comment