Our final day at sea.

After a night of very rough seas, we woke to clearer skies.  The ship was still rolling heavily, but it was much more calm.  

All of the sea spray from the night's journey left a film of salt crystals over everything outside.  

 

  

  

After breakfast, we were delighted to partake in a Galley tour.  It was AMAZING!  We started in the main dining room, and progressed through the kitchen in a loop.  

Here's a picture of the choppy sea through a window in the dining room. 

 

Here are a couple of photos of the main dining room.   The tall thing at the far end of the room is the wine rack.  Holy moley! 

 

 

Then we entered into the kitchens, beginning with the prep area. 

 

These are really nifty little refrigerators.  

 

Here's a little teensie bit of sauce for the afternoon lunch. 

 

This is the specialty kitchen, where the cooks prepare food for the guests and staff with special dietary needs.  They have menus for guests who are gluten free, soy free, dairy free, low sugar, low fat, kosher (they even have a Rabi come in and inspect the kitchen!), nut free, and pretty much whatever you could imagine.  VERY impressive. 

 

Here is one of the main sections of the main kitchen.  The ship has several large galleys -- this is just one of them.  Wowza. 

 

Here's the line.  It's seriously huge.

 

The best view I could get of the chef was his reflection off of the ceiling.  lol

 

Photos and descriptions of every food item served from the main kitchen.

 

  

The pastry kitchen!

 

  

The pastry chefs were making some really pretty goodies as we exited the kitchens. 

 

 

  

After our tour, we were hungry.  Here's what we had for lunch:

Gelato.  Bottom flavor, Nutella.  Top flavor, Bananas Foster. 

Oh, myyyy. 

We enjoyed a lovely, quiet, dinner in Blu.  Then, we sadly packed our bags and prepared for disembarkation this morning.  

Here are a few views from our hotel this evening.  Ironically, our room overlooks the cruise terminal which is now empty.  The Equinox has boarded her next set of passengers, and is on her way back to Grand Cayman.  Without us.  For now.  We'll be back, for sure.  Next time, we very much look forward to sharing our cruising experience with our wonderful family. 

 

  

  

Would anyone like to join us? 

=)

Cozumel, Mexico

So.  What, exactly, does one do in Cozumel when one's SCUBA dive is canceled because of weather?  Well, I can't tell you all what "one" would do.  But, here's what two of us did today.  

Here's what the port looked like when we arrived.  Stormy, but still very pretty. 

 

With very blue water.  

 

We disembarked from the ship and did some shopping.  We found a shop that sold items made from bamboo fabrics!  Bamboo!  OMGosh!  How do they do that?  Bamboo into fabric??  The sales people exclaimed to us about how soft, absorbent, and antibacterial the fabric is!  Oh, my!  Maybe I should buy some to sew with someday, yes?  

(For those of you who don't know, I sew with bamboo all.the.time.  The sales pitch today was waaaaay over the top -- thus, the snark.)

 

Then we found this:

 

and this:

 

and this:

 

and life was good.  

After lunch, we returned to the ship.  

And took the elevator up toward our room. 

Prettiest elevator shaft ever, right?

 

Arrived at our floor.

  

Turned left. 

 

And headed down the hallway.

 

 Rather nice hallway at that.  We're partial to our hallway.  

We dropped off our purchases, and headed a few decks up to here:

 

The Sunset Bar. 

Where we ordered these:

 

Don't you just love that Scott's shoe is falling off in this picture?  

While we were enjoying our yummy drinks, I decided that picture-taking would be a great activity for the day. 

Imagine that. 

 

  

  

  

  

  

I discovered that I really like taking pictures of mundane things. 

  

Like benches. 

 

And heliports.

Which is actually a misnomer, as there is really only one heliport on board the ship. 

 

So then, we wandered some more. 

 

  

  

And found ourselves at the family section of the ship.  

Good thing for the lit signage, or we'd have never known where we were. 

 

 

First, we found the arcade.  

 

Then the teen room. 

 

And, finally, the little kids' area.  

 

  

  

All of which had some really nifty textural interest.  

(Uh oh...you know what's coming next, don't you.)

 

  

  

I'm beginning to wonder if the surveillance crew has me  under special watch yet.  You know, because I obviously must be taking all of these close-ups to steal ideas for other cruise lines.  

After we finished our walk, we went here. 

 

Then we became really sleepy, and rested in a super-cool covered cabana chair/bench/couch/bed thingie. 

Scott fell asleep, and I was stuck in the cabana thingie with him.  So, to amuse myself, what did I do?

Yep.  I played with the camera. 

Here's the top of the cabana.  

 

F-stop is pretty cool. 

Liiiiiiight to Daaaaarrrrrk...

  

  

  

  

Then we got up.  Here's what was outside the window. 

Hi, folks!

 

Wandered some more.

 

  

  

  

And had dinner.  

Without the camera. 

You're welcome. 

But, then, the seas really started kicking up.  It was crazy.  The ship was being pounded against the pier, and we had to wait for a group of people who were delayed.  One of the staff members told us that in her 10+ years of working on cruise ships, she'd never seen a ship this size battered so badly by the wind and waves.  We were tied to the pier, with the bow and stern thrusters churning wildly, and still bouncing around.  

As it turns out, we finally departed several hours later.  The seas, though raging and scary, were beautiful.  

Unfortunately, the darkness made photos really difficult to obtain.  I'd like to thank my new friends, F-stop and Shutter Speed, for the following photo. 

 

30 second shutter speed, sans tripod, with rough seas. 

::curtsies::

Here's what it would have looked like from a point-and-shoot:

 

Not so pretty, right?  

Here's another similar set:

 

  

And, finally, my last Artsy Fartsy moment of the day.  The sea, time lapse, as taken from our deck looking straight down.  

 

Tomorrow, we're at sea all day.  Then, back to Ft. Lauderdale and finally on to home.  

Mommy and daddy miss you, Joanie and Josh.  Give Grandma a big hug for us!  

xoxo