We finally ambled out to the pool deck around noon, hoping for a swim, or at least some sun. The sun had shown its yellow orb, but the winds were amazingly high. Darn near knocked over our drinks, w hich would have been a tragedy had we not been on the unlimited drinks plan.

This is a good time to mention the true terror on the ship: The Washy Washy People.

To be quite fair, cruise ships are are very paranoid about preventing norovirus outbreaks. There are sanitizer stations near the elevator banks in the public areas. And then, when you walk to the buffet, there is someone armed with a large spray bottle of hand sanitizer. "Washy, Washy! Happy, Happy!" Early in the cruise it was annoying. By the end we were all playing along. But yes, I'm glad they at least attempt to do something about dirty hands before people go touch the food serving implements.

I have to wonder how those people stay so cheerful. Maybe it's the cheap drinks the crew gets when they're off-duty.

Douglas Adams wrote of the Long Teatime of the Soul. That may apply to the last afternoon on a cruise ship when it's too windy and cold to swim and there are no decent activities going on. Napikin folding demo or bingo. Which should I choose? Oh, there was also a martini tasting, but I'm pretty sure that one was overcrowded. The main age groups on this ship seemed to be under 30 (including a number of overgrown frat boys who made the most of their unlimited drink plans) and retired people. Hey, we were in one group and are rapidly heading to the other, but there must be something not passive to do when swimming and sunning aren't an option. Other than drink.

With that in mind, we headed back to the room for a while, where the ship's information channel informed us that the effective wind speed was right around 50 MPH. Well, it was educational, as I leanred to convert from nautical to land miles. (Nautical x 1.5 = land.) (Okay, it's actually 1.1508(ish), but when the wind is blowing like that, who's counting that extra thousandth?)

Finally, it was time for dinner, and we had booked a reservation at Le Bistro, the French restaurant. This was probably the fanciest spot on the ship, and the food lived up to the atmosphere. Our waiter was awesome, and even got my sarcasm. That was probably where I put on all the weight during the voyage. But after two glasses of wine and splitting a couple of after-dinner drinks, we weren't sure if the ship was rocking, or if we were. We knew it was the ship once we settled down in our seats in the theater for Dylan Mandlsohn's adult show. When the waiter came by for the drink order I told him that I was about to say something he'd probably never heard on this cruise: "I think I've had enough." He took that one in good humor.  We had packed our bags and set them outside the door earlier, and returned to find they'd been whisked away.

The ship is scheduled to arrive at Port Orlando at 7:00 AM tomorrow. We had been informed when we made our reservations that disembarkation would be two hours later. Imagine our surprise when we discovered it would be 8:30 or sooner! So much for lingering on the ship for a bit. That meant it was time to set an early alarm.