We are all happy to have another sea day after so many ports in a row! Unfortunately, it means it's the end of our trip--although I think we are all ready to be home in our own beds and see our families. :))

Mike has caught a bit of a cold and Rich wanted to go work out this morning, so Pam and I got all dolled up and went for breakfast in the fancy dining room. We enjoyed not having to rush and were glad we got there early cause the place was hopping once we were finished and were ready to leave.

We went to the photo place next and looked at all the pictures that the ship has made since we boarded, but I didn't see any I couldn't live without. I actually think the one of Rich & me taken in front of Catherine's Palace turned out pretty well and it's free since we took it. Can't beat the price on that!

By this time, the 3 hour sale had begun and Mike told us, "You know they are just going to have the same old $hit they've had for sale this whole cruise," but we just had to go check it out. I got a tshirt for Rich and some magnets, Pam got a tshirt for herself. Mike was right, same ol, same ol. LOL

While we were shopping, the guys were being entertained by the head chef and his cronies in the Princess theater. They were doing a cooking demonstration and throwing out facts & figures about this & that. The one thing that stuck in Rich's head was that tiramisu has 2,000 calories per slice (I find that hard to believe but he swears that's what they said). After the theater let out, Pam & I waited to find them and joined them on the tour of the galley. On display were all the different ways the ship serves potatoes--I've never given it much thought, but holy moley...there are a LOT of ways to make potatoes. I think we must've seen at least 50 different plates. Pam snapped a few samples that had our names attached to them. I wish I would have taken a photo of how many plates there were!

It was British Pub day again so we got in line early and got seated and served right away. We had a window table, but this ship has the lifeboats attached to the same deck as the restaurant so the view is blocked. Very poor planning on someone's part! We all had the breaded prawns except for Rich, who tried the chicken curry. It was good but I don't think of curry as being particularly British. (I have since been told that the Brits love their curry. Who knew?!?)

After lunch I went to the Internet Cafe to get us checked in for our flights tomorrow and print our boarding passes. The computer was running very slowly, and I used up 20 of my precious minutes trying to get us checked in before I came to the part that wanted our passport information...which I didn't have on me!! Arghh!! 20 minutes down the drain!! So I logged off, trudged upstairs and got them out of the safe, then back down to start all over again. Another 20 minutes later, I had the boarding passes in hand. It will be a LONG day tomorrow, as we disembark at 7:00 am, don't leave on our flight until noon, then have a two hour layover in Toronto. We get in to Houston at 7:00 pm which will feel like 2:00 am to us. :(( We are hoping to catch a few winks on the plane.

It was American night at the restaurant, so the menu featured typical American cuisine, such as turkey & dressing (which is what Pam & I got), steak, etc. All the waiters were wearing red, white and blue attire...fun to see them dressed like that.

After dinner, we all went to the Princess Theater to see a hypnotist, David Knight, perform. He started out the show by asking for volunteers, and I was amazed to see how many people popped up and ran up onto the stage!! Almost all of the chairs were filled and he started talking...within a few minutes, the volunteers were supposedly in a hypnotic trance. He had them do silly things like pretend they were famous pianists, dance in their seats and a few other things. He "planted" some post ideas in their minds like having one woman shout out at Martin (the cruise director) while he was wrapping up the show, "You're the Daddy!"...which was hilarious. Another woman was supposed to "roar like a dragon" at her seatmate, which she did and scared the poor woman half to death (she was seated near us so we got to witness that.) These "post" ideas lasted only 3 minutes, so the people came out of it pretty fast. Too funny! Pam just about had tears rolling down her face, she was laughing so hard. I'm a bit more skeptical of the whole thing, so I wasn't finding it quite as entertaining as she did, but it was a fun way to spend our last night.

We are all packed except for last minute things, and a big shout out to Traci & Matt for letting us use your suitcase weigher -- it sure has been handy today!! :))

It's been a fabulous trip, great weather and we are all starting a diet soon!! LOL