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After a great visit with family and celebrating 45 years of marriage, we head back to Logan. After a stop over in Dallas to change planes, we head out to Amarillo. Well, the people at Southwest still have a sense of humor.  And patriotic.  Before we arrive, we have a nice sunset. 
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After a nice visit with Kelly and Leon, we fly out of Orlando to Pensacola. We will be there for Thanksgiving and visiting with family. The three of us will be staying with Michael and Niki and children.
Time to disembark. BOO! Off ship we go. We need to be off by 8:30am. It has been a fantastic month or nearly a month. We left Logan one month ago and have been out of the country for almost an entire month. Starlink was fantastic. It was not great all the time but we were able to make WiFi phone calls almost consistently. With the Upgrade package, I could access anything as if I were on a regular hotspot. Even with 1000 plus passengers, the up and download were consistently 3Mbps even in the middle of the Atlantic. A quick breakfast and then drag our luggage down to the ramp. The line was really long it wrapped up from the ramp through the Rolling Stone lounge almost half way down the ship. Even with all that it only took us 45 minutes to get off through Global Entry which was no faster than the regular line only because there was only one person checking us and 6 or 7 checking everyone else. Even with all that and the cab we made it to the station with plenty of time to spare. Taxi to the Brightline train station. Cab cost us $35. Ok but I think he fudged the numbers a bit and it should have been less than $25.  When we got on, we found a family about to sit in our assigned seats on the train. When I told them they said people were in THEIR assigned seats. I let them know that was not our problem. What makes people think, "Someone is in our seats so we will take someone else's"? After we had been out of the station for about 5 minutes, someone came by from the train and checked tickets making sure everyone was in their assigned seats. We had a nice ride and very comfortable. We snacked a bit and napped a bit. The trip to Orlando was about 3 hours. Kelly picked us up at the station which is at the Orlando Airport. Wow, that is a HUGE airport and growing bigger every year. We will stay with Kelly and Leon for 5 days.
This is our last day at sea.
It may be a bit weird being on dry ground again after being at sea for 8 days but we have not missed having hard ground under us. The crossing was great.
I just realized I have not had cash or even a wallet in my pocket for over a week. You don’t need money on a ship unless you go to the casino. You only need your Cruise Card to charge anything you do buy on ship.
We went to our last Enrichment Talk. This one was Among the Maya of Tikal given by Olga Stavarkis who was part of the original research group to the site Tikal. Very interesting. I have got to look up the research she has done
Shawna is off to the Spa and I am working on the blog info before I forget. A did get a Wang Wang which is Vodka, Gin, White Rum, Scotch, Bourbon, Tequila, Brandy, Triple Sec, and a bit of orange and/or grapefruit juice. POW!
We put a deposit down on a cruise. You ALWAYS get a better deal on the ship.
The cruise is planned for May 18 2025. Of course that could change. We might add another cruise. You never know.
A little more of the Rolling Stone band. Great as always.
Cantare's show was fantastic. Again! The last show was “Stage and Screen”.
Next, a stop at Billboard Onboard (dueling Pianos) for a few songs.
We saw the singers of the Cantare just before heading to bed and thanked them for the entertainment
Sadly, we have to get our final packing done and bed.
Enrichment Talk: An Engineer’s look at the Titanic was very informative. Interesting choice of talks on a cruise ship in the middle of the Atlantic. Relaxed most of the day. Pool, Hot tub, … eat… Shawna spent some time in the Spa in the afternoon. Then a pretty sunset, but we did not see a green flash this time. Yes, we have seen it on a sunset one time in the Florida Keys.  Dressy night for dinner and we went as Hawaiian Formal. That means our nicest Hawaiian style shirt for me with slacks and Shawna in her nice Hawaiian style dress. I wore my Kukui nut necklace. Shawna wore a necklace made of tiny seashells.  Yes, we eat VERY well on ship in main dinning room. Music tonight but this time around the pool with most of the command staff. Chocolate Surprise tonight. This is where the servers walk all over with platters of lots and lots of chocolate desserts. Some were very good but after a while we just had to say no thank you. Yes, even I can get full of chocolate to the point I turn it down.
Today, seems to be rush hour on the ocean. For the first time since leaving the Canary Islands, we saw two ships. Practically a traffic jam considering we are in the middle of the ocean.  Enrichment Talks. This morning one on The Math of Beauty. On the mathematics of how many buildings from ancient to most of DC was designed to show mathematics. After playing cards and a quick lunch, I took off to the next talk. Second talk today was “The Queens of the Seas” about Ocean Liners. Not Cruise Liners which are for pleasure trips. Ocean Liners were designed to be for transport from one continent to the other. For many years they were THE way for passengers to get across oceans. For many years, docks would be lined with liners waiting to unload and reload for the next trip across the Atlantic.  The Blue Riband is a record of the fastest trips by an Ocean liner across the Atlantic. The United States ocean liner still holds the record but sadly it is permanently kept at dock unmaintained and in very bad shape.  Tonight a magician. He was really good.   Today, we had an enrichment talk on the Vikings Settling in America. Veterans Remembrance Day Service was with a very respectful ceremony. The Captain commanded one minute of silence across the entire ship. Tonight, Comedian Bengt Washburn was fantastic. Lots of laughs.
One lady was laughing so hard and long that the whole place busted up laughing. 
Nice breakfast in main dining with some interesting people.
Dinner in the Pinnacle was nice and Very Fancy. We very much enjoyed the meal.
Cantare: "All In" was great.
We set back the clocks again so another hour to sleep or stay up and enjoy.
If I didn’t know better, I would think we were in a port. Hope it lasts. The Alans Magic/Mentalist/Comedy on main stage tonight. 
We had a nice day. Good food. At the end of the day, some nice shows.
I like to walk the promenade deck on nice days. Ok, it sounds very posh but it is just the deck with an outside walkway around the ship.
As I came to the front of the ship, a door was open that showed the chain for the anchor. It seems obvious but Wow is it big. 
Ok back to being posh, this was the appetizer for my dinner tonight.
Here is a quick compilation of some of the shows we went to tonight.
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April 2024
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