Panama Canal Post 9 Cruising Home

I want to include a few overall observations as I finish up these posts from our trip. 

Activities

There were always fun things to do while on those sea days.  This is the Lido deck, next to the pool on one of the last days at sea.  We were treated to an ice carving demonstration.
I enjoyed my yoga class, walking the deck, reading, and going to some other classes and demonstrations on occasion.





One thing I especially enjoyed was a tour of the galley.  This bouquet of flowers is made of vegetables and the china flowers below are actually carved in a watermelon.

Food

Dinner was my favorite time of day, and mostly that was because of these people.  It was so great to visit with Dad, Diane and Bryce each evening, but our dining room stewards were absolutely the best.  Our head steward, Gerry (left) and his assistant Rudi are both from Indonesia.  They worked so hard and were so gracious.  They always had smiles on their faces and seemed to just love their job.  Rudi has two children at home, one a three month old daughter that he is with now for the first time since boarding the ship last February.

See that smile?  Gerry just loved getting his picture taken.  He's taking Bryce's lobster out of the shell.

Now do you want to eat?  Here's some appetizers:

 

 

I didn't take any pictures of soup or salad, but the soups were amazing.

Now for some entrees:

I had fish probably 95 percent of the time, but as you can see, the veal and prime rib were awesome as well. 

Dessert anyone?  Well, that could almost be a post in itself.  I will include here the "dessert extravaganza that we had near the end of the cruise.  Bon Appetit!  Oh, no I can't say that in French, this is the Westerdam.  It must be Dutch.
  eet smakelijk!

 Notice all the fruit?  Those fountains are in white, milk and dark chocolate.  Oh, yeah.

 I saw some of these bread sculptures being made on my galley tour.

 This is the chandelier in the center of the ship.  The picture below shows where it hangs.  The dessert extravaganza was on all three floors.

Night Time

After dinner, we enjoyed wonderful entertainment each night.  We had singing, dancing, comedy and just a lot of fun.  Finally at the end of the day, we were greeted by a tidy room, some chocolates and a cute animal on the bed.

How about one more Dutch phrase to sum it all up?  
Slaapwel!  (Good night!)