SUMMARY Our 5th and final “Day at Sea”. We attend a huge and fabulous farewell brunch in the ship’s main dining room. Some champagne may have been drunk. We snagged one of the big beds out on the pool deck and relaxed there for a couple of hours. Then, dinner and a show - dinner at the onboard Italian speciality restaurant and BritRock at the Cabaret. - Karen
DETAIL
Happy Star Wars Day! (May the fourth be with you and all that.) Our cruise director is a big Star Wars fan so we’re getting this joke from her and the captain. We’re at sea, again. It’s our last At Sea day, as we motor towards our destination, Singapore. It’s also our last full day of the cruise. We’ll be (what do you call it?) de-boating between seven and nine in the morning. Nothing’s waiting for us, so we can decide when to get off.
For now we’re sailing still through the South China Sea. We’re at 5 degrees latitude north, so pretty darn close to the equator. The captain tells us we’re now at the widest point in the Pacific Ocean. Rowing from west to east would take you the longest, I guess. We’re between Malaysia and Borneo (or is that Brunei?), and are at the same latitude of the Ivory Coast, Columbia, and French Guiana.
It’s a bit warm, but otherwise you couldn’t ask for better cruising weather, the sea is essentially flat. That’s good because they’re putting on a big brunch in the main (formal) dining room. They’ve taken over the center part, which normally has tables, and set up a huge buffet and many cooking stations.
The officers and other high level staff are serving sliced fruit and making Caesar salads. They’re making eggs Benedicts and slicing smoked salmon. There’s flutes of your choice of champagne or Mimosa. It’s a big deal. We (having been on this cruise line once before) ask if this is a regular feature on all Azamara cruises. It is, we’re told. Boy we sure missed a bet on our last cruise. We eat and say thanks to the crew and Hi to friends.
The rest of the day is kind of sleepy. We get our cleaning back and pack. After seventeen days on the ship, with our clothes on hangers and in drawers, it is a bit of a challenge to fit everything back into our small carry-on suitcases. We do make a pile of stuff we no longer want and don’t plan to take home (but it’s still perfectly good). Our housekeeper picked it all up and hopefully it’ll find a good home.
We commandeer a two person lounge and laze in the shade by the pool most of the afternoon. At dinner we get dolled up for our last fancy meal. We are dining at their other specialty restaurant, Aqualina (Italian) for the first time this cruise. Before that we grab a Negroni and Martini at the bar. Dinner was great. We have more of that fresh tuna (left over from yesterday) for one of our entrees and one appetizer and it was exquisite. I need to work on my grilling technique for that.
At 9 pm, in the Cabaret main entertainment venue, the ship’s singers and dancers do a “Brit Rock Show” extravaganza with songs by Queen, Elton John, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Sting, Peter Gabriel, and others. It is great fun and is followed by a good-bye sendoff from the staff and crew of the boat. Thankfully it's a few of them on stage and everyone else in pictures or talky video in a multi-media presentation with music. They’d like for us to think of them as family, and hurry back (and bring more friends, family, and money). It is fun and touching. Soon, though, it is time for bed. We’re losing one of those two hours we gained earlier on the cruise over night.
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