We always compare our current adventure before going home to our past trips to see where we think it rates. We used to compare everything to Alaska but this cruise and the Mediterranean cruise last year are so different, it's like comparing apples to oranges so we have to stop doing that. This trip had some real pluses -- namely Russia and Stockholm for me. Dee enjoyed Scotland in 2006 and we saw some unbelievable countryside and castles but my view was skewed because of sickness. Dee says he would still rate Italy and Turkey higher because the excursions were better but I would rate this one higher in some areas because of the beautiful areas we saw in Denmark and Sweden. All in all, it was a very enjoyable trip. We had no major problems with luggage, hotel accomodations, flights (at least coming), didn't lose anything (except Dee lost his room key second day of cruise), we neither one got sick, no accidents -- that's Dee's excuse for not fulfilling his rock climbing dare -- he didn't want to jinx the perfect no-accident trip. We met a lot of different and interesting people on the ship from all over the world -- from Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Florida, the UK and even Ardmore and Muskogee, Oklahoma (different ship but I still count them).
I think I said early on in the blog that the age on the ship appeared to be about 70+. Well, I am changing that to about 85+. Every time we turn around, someone is celebrating their 85th birthday or talking about being 80+ so that's what I am basing my highly educated guess on and it's my blog so I can write whatever I want. And, something else, I can't believe how late they stay up and how fast they move -- cane or no cane. We have been passed by, pushed around, and almost stepped on more times than I can count! One of the craziest things I have seen on a ship happened day before yesterday at sea. I told Dee I wanted to go down to the Russian Bazaar being held at 10:15 outside the shop areas. We went down at 10 a.m. and when we stepped off the elevators all you could see were little white haired ladies and men stacked 50 deep on each side of the ship with a cord tied across to keep everyone from getting to the merchandise before the beginning of the sale. I guess the shop clerks had passed out shopping baskets and I swear it reminded me of the time we were in Amarillo for a family reunion and I went with Shelley and Paige to the local Walmart for shopping the day after Thanksgiving -- very similar feel! I remember wondering then what I was doing there and that was sort of how I felt at the Bazaar.
An hour later the Bazaar was a mad house of wall to wall people. I was standing next to a lady with a British accent and I asked her if she knew what a Walmart was and she said she did -- she agreed it was very similar only I said I don't think we got any bargains like Walmart advertises!! Good thing the shops are in the middle of the ship -- I think it would have sunk with so many people in one place at the same time.
The only negative with really old people in large numbers is that they tend to complain about minor things -- but, I mean, really, why not? They have earned the right. I could only wish that Brad was here to witness some of it. He loves to hear our complaints all the time!! The best complaint I heard was about the raffle tickets. After the raffle was held, a lady said to the guy that called the number, "Hey, we were told that more than one number was going to be called. It's not fair. We were told more merchandise was going to be given away." Before you knew it, the little Russian guy was surrounded by a sea of white hair and everyone demanding that more tickets be called. We left the scene laughing hysterically!! I know we will be there soom enough.
One final note about the blog. We would recommend it for anyone that likes to "work" on vacation. We spent a lot of time "off-line" preparing for the blog each day, selecting pictures out of the hundreds we took each day, resizing them and then posting them. It's a several-step process but we got it to work fairly well -- I wrote and helped select pictures and Dee did the technical side. We only had a couple of arguments so that's not too bad. I have always kept a journal on our trips so this was a great way to replace that so when we get home we can just print the blog for each day we were gone. We hated that comments couldn't be posted but I guess that's what you get when you use a Google's free blog product. We received a lot of emails and we did enjoy those. Tenley was really good about sending us an email almost every day so we loved that! Thanks for following us on our travels. We had a lot of fun doing the blog. Maybe it will help us remember what we did longer after we've been home a few days.
Tomorrow is Dee's birthday. We almost forgot until our room was decorated when we came back from dinner. That makes tomorrow even a more fun day to go home on!
Look forward to getting home and seeing everyone!
See our last pictures below.
As they say in Demark Farvel
In Sweden Harda
In Findland Nakemiin
In Russia Do Svidaniya
In Estonia Head Aega
In England Goodbye
Love,
Dee and Evonne
a/k/a Mom and Dad
a/k/a Pops (Papa) and Gamma
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| Dee chickening out at the climbing wall! |
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| Dee on tour of Control Room for entire ship |
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| Screens showing the jet turbins that run the ship -11,000 volts per turbine |
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| The Black Forest Cake |
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| A cake for 2,500 people on the last day. Took 3 hours to make. |
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| Took 1 hour to eat half. Went back to take another picture in 2 hours and nothing left byt the table cloth. |
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| Swimming pool area |
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Looking down on the Atrium from 6th floor |
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| Light fixture hanging in Atrium |
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| More Atrium |
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| Blog publishing area |
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| Russian Bazaar area of hysteria |
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| Shopping |
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| More shops |
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| Our waiter, Neptali |
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| Dee checking out his birthday sign! |
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| A reminder that vacation is over!! |
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