Up at about 6:45 this morning, no alarm required as it was one of those on again off again sleeps and we begin getting set for our departure. We clear out the safe and check the drawers about 3 times to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything - don’t know why we check them some 3 times as if something magically shows back up, may be just nerves. We have a small window of an hour to depart the vessel, 8:00 comes and goes while we wait for our tag number to be called. Hmm, 8:20 and no announcement, I call guest services, they inform me that all colours and tags can disembark - oh okay, so no Lime number 1 then, “no sir”. We close our suitcases and carry ons, take a last look at, what was our home for two plus months, and say goodbye to stateroom, 1956. As we are walking down the hall to the gangway, bing, bong, bing is heard, “all passengers with all numbered tags and colours, please disembark the ship”, aha, so I wasn’t the only waiting for an announcement - perhaps, I inspired it. lol. We leave the ship with massive fanfare, I think all the remaining crew showed up. Captain Mercer was first at the exit, wow, now this was tough as I felt a tear well up in my eye, all I could do is look him in his welled up eye and say thank you quietly. I wanted to say was that it was a pleasure and honour to sail with him on his last voyage as Captain on the MS Amsterdam, but just could not find the words without a meltdown. As we exited and scanned our cards for the last time the song, Red, Red Wine was playing and I caught Henk’s eye (thinking about the two bottles from last night), thinking now that’s timing. Some quick pics and goodbyes to the many crew. We thank you all for seeing us off, this memory will stick in my mind for a lifetime.
The shuttle to the day hotel (Novotel) was waiting for us we jumped on and some 40 minutes later we had checked into our day room, 811. The was a bit of a dramatic issue as we checked in as there was no promised shuttle to take us to the airport, okay really, is this how this journey is going to begin, we are all stressed and nerved right up. I send an email to Seattle as well as post on FB, ending my post with, “HAL if are you listening”. Now, I am not sure if this was simply a miscommunication at reception or something else or maybe my messages but within an hour our phone rang and the promised shuttle is now back in play, okay great. The rest of the day was spent either on line or watching TV as we did not feel it to be okay to wander outside. These people in Perth were kind enough to let us in and seek shelter and we thought it just wouldn’t look right to have these “cruise people” wander their streets. We now fall under the umbrella of, the group of people that helped spread this thing, although our ship was clean considering where we travelled from. So room service it was, shower up, shuttle at 7pm, airport and check in by about 7:45 and our journey home begins. Time line for those of you playing at home, we left the ship at 8:30am Perth Time on the 23rd (Vancouver time this would have been 5:30 pm on the 22nd), so you could let the travel clock kick in there or because we were able to have a hotel rest, I would call our travel clock to begin after checkin or 5 am PDT on March 23rd. A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy…
Quote of the day: “Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground.” - Theodore Roosevelt
Snif Snif 😢
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