December 29, 2023

This morning, as I completed yesterday’s post, we were approaching the island of Great Stirrup Cay, where we would anchor and be taken to shore by a large boat. The boat was being pretty tossed around by the waves and Norm thought it was probably going to be too rough to go to the island. Sure enough, within 5 minutes of him saying that, the captain came on the intercom and announced that it was not safe to go ashore in the swells. Norm had noticed the boats turning back so we were not surprised. There were two ships at another part of the island so they were able to go because they were docked.

It is Mark’s birthday today!! They put the birthday announcements on the room TV. We will celebrate later with dinner in Red Ginger. So good to have the whole family here with him.

Leslie announced a new schedule for the day including a cooking demonstration, the casino tournaments and a movie in the Vista lounge.

Norm is having a massage today so he extended it to a longer one. 

The rest of us went to the cooking demonstration which is always fun. Executive Chef Raffaele and Executive Pastry Chef Andrea made us laugh with their banter and showed us how to prepare some delicious dishes. We got the recipes for Cotoletta Ala Milanese (a veal dish), Risotto Alla Milanese, Chocolate Mousse and Tiramisu. The carved watermelons would have been at the onshore barbecue so they used a few of them for decoration here.

Here are some more pictures from our galley tour. Adam has over 400 pictures just from this tour and these are all from his selection. There are 142 chefs on the culinary team. They go through 100 pounds of sugar a day!

Mark and I played in the blackjack tournament again but neither of us won. I was rooting for the birthday guy but it was not to be!

I went to the movie – My Big Fat Greek Wedding Three. Don’t bother is my opinion, but the popcorn was good.

We played our last trivia. All of the points were given to Adam, Mark and Ramsay and they redeemed them for shirts and socks.

Mark and Ramsay did get to check out afternoon tea in Horizons.

We had some cocktails in Martinis and the Founder’s Bar (for the blog readers that are also Oceania travelers – Founder’s bar is amazing – we think the best on any of the ships).

Dinner was in Red Ginger, delicious as always with great service. And a birthday celebration for Mark with his favorite, carrot cake.

And they decorated Mark’s room for his birthday!

We still had some non refundable credit to use up, so Mark and I bought a few things in the boutiques, I played a bit in the casino and cashed in my chips (more than I started with!)

Miami in the morning, good bye to our sons and daughter in law and an end to a wonderful cruise but especially the family time. We are very grateful.