The last full day of the cruise was another "Fun Day" at sea because we needed to sail back to Jacksonville Florida. I saw VioletKitty after breakfast walking through the Lido deck pool area. Then I attended a Debarkation Talk in the Astoria Lounge where the customs rules and regulations were explained to us and luggage handling was described. Our cruise director Paul Santley kept it amusing. The other YouTubers were sitting on a balcony but I did not join them because I had a better seat. After that we had a group photo taken. We really did not take much video or photos of each other. Everyone kind of did their own thing. This did not make it much of a gathering but a cruise vacation offers a lot of other activities so I did not miss my friends much. On the other hand, it would have been slightly sad to have gone all alone. I was just as thrilled to meet my favorite vloggers as I was with the cruise sights. I ate lunch alone and then wandered around until I found the group in the Wheelhouse Bar & Grill. Then I went to my cabin and watched a bit of the movie The Matrix on TV.
I’ve been without TV for over a year so I did watch a little TV on the cruise. They had channels that featured the filmed activities onboard the ship but none of us appeared in those videos so I was not interested in buying the DVD. I started to think about going home and realized that I needed to print out my boarding passes. This was a problem because the only Internet access was expensive and excruciatingly slow. Internet access at sea is slower than dial up modem. This was a big complaint among us YouTubers because we need our Internet. Of course, when they do have good Internet access during a gathering they tend to get on Stickam in their individual hotel rooms rather than meet face to face. This has become a popular joke but it helps the people who aren’t there to participate. Anyway, I was able to check in on the US Airways web site but could not print my boarding passes at that time.
At dinner I had escargot and the seafood platter but later I regretted it because the greasy breading gave me terrible acid indigestion later that night. After dinner I went back to the Internet cafe where I finally got my boarding passes printed out.
The stage show that night was X-Treme Country. I hate country music and cannot imagine it ever getting extreme unless you mean extremely bad. Fortunately VioletKitty wanted to do some karaoke that night so I waited in the Endless Summer Lounge for her. She can sing pretty well and I thought she was the best performer onboard. Carnival should consider hiring her as a cruise director. The lounge was virtually empty except for us so I thought it was a little awkward. VK sang the theme to the Love Boat and I found that very funny.
That was pretty much the end of the cruise. The only hitch on my trip home was a one hour delay for my final flight to Williamsport from the Philadelphia airport. I had to move to a different boarding gate. Fortunately I took the opportunity to buy a book at a newstand. I bought Michael Crichton’s book "Next" which is very cynical about genetic testing. I found it disturbing that some mean medical professionals would order genetic testing and then tell their patients about the terrible genetic diseases they will suffer from later in life. It is very cruel to inform a patient of that and ruin the rest of their life long before the disease manifests itself.
My vacation was perfect in every way and I am very grateful to the YouTube community for enticing me to do something a little unusual. I have to admit that participation with the YouTube community can really change your life. You can meet and get to know people from England, Australia, and Canada. You can do more traveling to meet interesting characters. And you can make many friends.
