"Good morning, Missy. All is well. Well, one more day and, I don't need to remind you, that you about to leave the Emerald. I wonder what is going through your mind. Will you be happy to be home? Sad to leave the ship? Probably, both of those."
She knows me so well!
It was an emotional day, and knowing it would be that way is probably why I didn't sleep well last night, and was up, showered, and sneaking out of the cabin by 6:30am. I feel much the same way I do during our last days at home before we leave in the fall: excited, happy and sad all at once. However, the second email I read this morning was from the twins' mom, informing me of their Sunday basketball schedule, two games, at 5pm and 7pm. It's the sweetest "welcome home" email I could receive, like I'm being told, "You've had your time, but it's time to re-join the real world."
I'm ready.
Last night's storms left lots of clouds first thing this morning, so our final sunrise at sea wasn't a ball of orange rising from the horizon, but, instead, those beautiful rays of light shooting down from the sky.
Since we had done most of our packing yesterday, a long, stress-free day stretched out in front of me with a new e-book to read...that's not a luxury I'll see again any time soon. For reasons I will not expound on, we are in a minisuite for the last few days of this cruise, and today, more than any other, we understand their strong appeal, so much so that G has proclaimed that, on our final cruise of any future winter season, we might just book a minisuite. Certainly it's made organizing and packing an entirely different sport, a far cry from those late nights when I sat on one bed while G finished up his packing on the other. We've been packing for days; as soon as we no longer need something, it's been put in a suitcase, and the beauty of this cabin is that we have room to do that and still move around. The other beauty is that it provides solitude; we have lived with over 4000 people for five months, and to have peace and quiet on our own balcony right now is priceless.
Though I went to the International Cafe for my coffee, and brought it back to our cabin, G ordered room service breakfast, and we sat on our balcony enjoying orange slices and mixed berries and the remainder of last night's Korbel in orange juice.
We didn't even leave the cabin for lunch, but instead ordered beef chili from room service.
And I enjoyed the Diet Tonic Water I'd received from cruise friends Richard and Sylvia when they left last turnaround day, with the remaining minibottles of gin from our minibar. We'd traded in three of our minibars this winter for two coffee cards each, and I must thank AstroFlyer on Cruise Critic for posting the minibar trade in options; it's much easier to carry home unused coffee cards than minibottles of liquor.
The day was mostly cloudy but still warm; it was 83 degrees in the shade on our balcony, and, though we sat outside, every so often the temperature pushed us into the AC again. I had taken time yesterday afternoon to write several thank you notes and exchange larger bills for smaller ones for extra tip envelopes and disbursed all of them last night. I didn't want to leave it until today, and also thought Darko might appreciate getting the cash early, since he has to work until 8am tomorrow morning, and then disembark the ship immediately afterward. I had included my email address in the thank you notes, and Komang has already sent me the sweetest email in return, promising to keep us updated with photos of his new son, Gade, after he goes home in 11 days.
We had to check in online for our Southwest flights, to secure our boarding priority, and Internet on the Emerald Princess has been unreliable for the past few days, but is almost non-existant in our new cabin. Neither G nor I could access it at all today, so just before dinner we went down to the International Cafe, which generally has one of the strongest signals on the ship. Even there it was sketchy, but we managed to get online and, using the Southwest app on our iPhones, got checked in just 5 boarding priority slots apart. Go us!
Our final Dinner with Darko was simple; G had prime rib and I had just salmon and broccoli, a nice, healthy meal to make up for all the crap I'll inevitably be eating tomorrow. We had made our first special food request of the winter for dessert: Key Lime Pie, which we've seen on the menu only one time all winter. It was a perfect end to hundreds of wonderful meals on the Emerald Princess.
We said our goodbyes to Darko and Komang and a dozen other waiters in the Michelangelo Dining Room (short but heart-aching), made one last pass around the ship, went up to Riviera Deck to say goodbye to Raymond the Great, picked up a final fuzzy water and popcorn, and returned to our cabin. We wouldn't receive our EZ Check luggage tags until after 8pm, and so we hadn't yet set out our suitcases. By the time we re-arranged a bit and weighed them, the tags had been delivered. EZ Check is the program we used two winters ago; we put tags on our big suitcases and set them in the hallway outside our cabin, and then don't see them again until our home airport baggage claim. At $20 per person, with four suitcases weighing between 40 and 45 pounds each, it's the best deal around.
As I type this, sitting on our balcony, the Emerald Princess is 150 miles from Fort Lauderdale. After cruising about 50,000 miles this winter, twice around the Earth at its equator, it feels like we've just turned down our street after a very long road trip. We just have one more day, albeit a long and difficult one, to get through before we arrive at our front door for the first time in five months.
I will miss this life and these people so much.
I cannot wait to get home.
Mixed emotions at their most extreme. Once again, Mom is right.
:-)