It was all we had hoped for... and more...

Today, our last dat before we dock at San Francisco tomorrow morning, was probably our busiest day of the two weeks!  I'll do more of a picture tour of the day, and I also realize I haven't really shown what the ship looks like, so I'll try to give you an idea.

9:45 am:  The Head Chef and his Mate gave a cooking lesson and told us a bit about the kitchen and what goes in to the food service and then we were given a tour of one of the galleys.  It was quite an hysterical show with lots of drama.  But here are a few trivia facts:

• They prepare 12,000 meals a day
• They make 180 pounds of ice cream in different flavors/day
• They clean 35,000 plates and 20,000 glasses
• They bake 16,000 dinner rolls/day
• They make 75 pounds of tomato sauce/day
• There are over 500 staff connected with the service of food and drink on board - that's more than half of the entire staff

L:Head Chef from the Philippines
C: Second in Command from England
R:  Kevin our cruise Director from Canada

Fruit & Vegetable Scupltures

More of the galley

Some meringue cakes

The galley is mammoth with different stations all around

At the end of the program, they brought out a large number of the staff and introduced them.  Then they had a special treat.  Hector, who works in the kitchen, wanted to sing us a song.  Everyone was choked up.

10:00:  Free Mimosas for all as the Captain bids us all a farewell

1:00:  Rehersal for the Pop Choir

2:00:  The Grand Princess Pop Choir Concert!  We had a huge audience and the concert was fantastic.  We started out with Here Comes the Sun, then sang Eidelweiss, followed by Blue Bayou, then Somewhere Beyond the Sea and we ended with Under the Boardwalk.  I was in my glory!

After the concert we went back to the room and started to pack.  We had to get out luggage out in the hall by 11:00 pm tonight and we have to be out of our room by 8:00 am tomorrow morning.

4:00:  Dancing in the Piazza with a mariachi band

6:30:  The final concert of the Grand Princess dancers, singers and orchestra.  We have been so impressed with the quality and professionalism of this young people and they didn't disappoint tonight.  The theme was "The British Invasion."

7:30:  Concert with a Country Western/Flamenco Guitarist!  

8:30:  Our last dinner.  Since we are wearing our casual clothes that we will be disembarking with, we went to the Harvest Court buffet instead of to a more formal restaurant.  

10:00:  ... we were going to go down to the Explorer's Bar for more dancing...  but alas, we crashed!!

And now, here's a bit of the ship; I realize I didn't nearly cover the immensity and beauty of The Grand Princess.

The Princess Theater

The roof-top pool on deck 14

The hot tub at the Neptune pool

The Neptune Pool

The Adult-only pool

Enjoying a walk on the deck

Beautiful at Night

We checked with the Captain, and we come under the Golden Gate Bridge tomorrow morning at 5:30, so we have set our alarm for 5:00 and plan to get up and go to the top deck at the front on the ship and experience it all.  

We leave you with this picture which seems to embody our last two weeks:  fun, adventurous, gorgeous, awesome, unpredictable, outstanding.

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