The Great European Adventure, Day 14: The Final Sea Dayfeatured

We’d finally reached the end of the road on this Vision of the Seas cruise: the last sea day. There was nothing left to do except everything we didn’t do in the past week and a half. And pack.

But packing’s the worst, isn’t it? I always put off packing before we leave because as long as I hold off on packing, there’s still that great anticipation of an adventure to come. Once I pack, the trip is underway and once it’s underway, it’s over. And I hold off on packing to come home because packing is that last step that ends the adventure. I won’t even get into the “I shopped too much. How the hell am I going to get this all home?” dilemma I seem to find myself in every time I go just about anywhere.

So our last full day onboard the Vision began with breakfast, in the Aquarius this time. We’d gone a week and a half of only having breakfast al fresco from the Windjammer, so we decided to go with something new on our last day.

If I haven’t mentioned it already, the dining room onboard the Vision of the Seas is really quite lovely. High ceilings, neutral tones and stunning chandeliers fill the open space, making it seem larger than it really is.

There was no wait for a table and we were quickly led to a small, private table and asked if we wanted some freshly squeezed orange juice (for an extra fee), water or coffee.

You have two options when you opt for breakfast in the dining room: ordering off the standard menu, or self service from a small buffet set up near the entrance. Stephanie and Mom opted to order off the standard menu, enjoying their Fast Fare Breakfast and Smoked Salmon Plate (respectively).

Fast Fare Breakfast

Smoked Salmon Plate

I opted for the self-service option so I could get in that Build Your Own Cereal Bar, which offered a few options of muesli and granolas, along with various toppings.

There were also plates of pastries, fruits, cold cuts and even some hot traditional English breakfast plates put out with the cereal bar, but I stuck with some granola mixed with some fresh melon.

We headed outside after breakfast to see what the temps were like and found it to be pretty chilly. Mom and Stephanie headed back to the room to grab their swim gear and we headed out to the Solarium. They opted for some Jacuzzi time and I opted to sit in front of a window with a book.

After an hour or two, we started seeing land and my iPhone told me we were passing through another set of straits – between Corsica and Sardinia.

The clouds made way for the sun and the temperature rose enough for us to head out to deck 10 to get in some sunbathing. We didn’t know how the weather would be on a European cruise and we certainly weren’t expecting to come home with a tan, but there were times when the weather was downright Caribbean-esque.

We continued to sail along the coast of Italy on our way back to Spain, and I marveled at how close to land we were sailing at points.

Below us, on deck nine, they began setting up some grills for an outdoor cooking demo or a contest (we weren’t sure which), and we had a primo spot to watch them cook up a seafood paella and a veggie pasta. We weren’t interested in either, but the aromas filled the open deck space, teasing us until we gave in and headed out for lunch.

Later on, we headed back to the room and found luggage tags waiting for us. Early afternoon on the last day is far too early for me to pack, so Mom volunteered to be the first and Stephanie and I left to walk around the ship and look for everything we didn’t see or do over the past 11 days, wandering the ship deck by deck.

The Viking Crown Lounge

Deck 10

The Jogging Track

The Solarium

Shuffleboard

The Rock Climbing Wall

A secret private deck outside the spa

The Centrum Shops
(where we had to stop and buy a rolling duffel bag because, of course, we bought too much and couldn’t fit it all in our suitcases)

Café Lattetudes

The Library

The Photo Gallery

The Internet Café

The Schooner Bar

The Promenade

The ATM Machine
(we needed Euros for Paris!)

The Community Board

Casino Royale

We got back to the room and Mom had ordered us a mid-afternoon snack. She also ordered us to start packing.

The boat was really starting to rock at this point, so there wasn’t much to do at this point. Stephanie started packing. I took a shower. And straightened my hair. And I flipped through the TV channels and actually found shows in English (Parks and Rec and The Goldbergs)! And then, when there was nothing else to do but nap, I started putting things in my suitcase. And then I napped to reward myself. Nothing beats an afternoon nap while the waves rock you to sleep.

Later on, before we headed out to dinner, we decided to pay a visit to the Purser to settle our accounts. I figured the lines would only get worse as the evening wore on, but I wasn’t prepared to wait nearly an hour in a line that wasn’t that deep. I never missed Carnival and my Platinum perks more than I did at that moment.

Dinner this evening was bittersweet – the food was fantastic, but saying goodbye to Lloyd, Pawan and Marc was difficult. Over the past week and a half, they’d really become like a part of our family and I felt truly lucky to have met them. Lloyd lingered around our table, giving us tips for our next few days in Paris, telling us about his home and how much he misses his wife and his little boy. He’d been working onboard Royal Caribbean ships for the past 15 years and had decided that this would be his last contract. His contract will be ending within the next few weeks, so if you’re sailing on the Vision of the Seas and you’re lucky enough to be in his service area, please tell him that his Charlie’s Angels from Chicago say hello.

Eggplant and Kalamata Olive Tartare

Pan-Seared Bay Scallops and Chorizo

French Onion Soup

Spanish Tapas Plate

Royal Shrimp Cocktail

Chilled Pineapple and Lychee Soup

Tomato and Baked Feta Cheese Salad

Rosemary Lamb Shank

Roasted Turkey

Rigatoni Pasta

Williams Pear Chocolate Crisp

Sugar Free Key Lime Slice

Frozen Strawberry Souffle

Low Fat Warm Apple Strudel

The Last Supper

We headed outside to the promenade for our obligatory post-dinner stroll, but it was too windy to stay for long.

There was an aerial show scheduled in the Centrum, but they had to cancel it due to the rough seas we were sailing through. With nothing else to stave off my procrastination, I begrudgingly walked back to the room to finish packing.

Stephanie noticed that there was another round of Musical Theater Trivia coming up while she was reading through the Compass, so I had a power hour of packing before we headed up to the Schooner Bar.

I take Musical Theater Trivia very seriously. I sing show tunes in the shower. I hold Broadway in Chicago season tickets. I did the whole performing arts camp in my childhood summers. I know my shows. But it’s been a few years since my last Musical Theater Trivia victory, and I was intent on restoring honor to my family name. This was my moment. And with 13/15 correct, victory was mine. So were some zipper pulls and Royal Caribbean themed pens, a momento of my win.

Dusk was approaching and someone at the table next to us mentioned they thought they saw a whale. I saw something peeking from the water, but like most things, it was all too fleeting to get a picture of.

When we headed back out to the promenade to watch our last sunset, we noticed that our private balcony wasn’t so private anymore – finally on the last night, dozens of people caught on to our secret hiding place and decided to catch the sunset, too.

Once the sun was hiding well below the never ending horizon on the sea, we headed into the Masquerade for the headliner show, a duo called Circle of Two who performed an acrobatic act that blew my mind a little bit.

After the show, we headed back to the room to finish packing up all of our odds and ends and get our suitcases in the hallway before the 11:00 deadline. We treated ourselves to a snack from Park Café when we finished, chatting about our favorite parts of the trip and looking up everything we could about the long train ride we’d take the next morning en route to our final stop in Paris.

We put off sleep until we couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore. Tomorrow would close the chapter on this part of our voyage, but start a new one with something all of us had been looking forward to for a very long time: Paris.