We started our last sea day on board the Carnival Vista with a quick breakfast burrito and some fruit.  We headed up to the top deck for a little miniature golf.  It can be hard to find the right time to have a pleasant experience at mini golf on a cruise ship.  Sometimes its too hot, sometimes too windy, but we managed to stay the course and play a friendly round of miniature golf. 

After that we ambled around until we made it to a trivia session. I don’t know why I think I could win Harry Potter Trivia. I may be a Harry Potter fan, but I’m not a fanatic and this is not the first time we’ve been to a Harry Potter Trivia and I am clearly not going to win, but I keep trying!  We should have shown up earlier because I think we might have won a 90s song trivia. Maybe next time.  After losing Harry Potter trivia we stuck around for some general trivia.  We ran into our teammates from the Amazing Race from the previous day and we joined forces for trivia.  We didn’t win that either, but we had fun! 

We had to have another round of Mongolian wok for lunch.  Somehow it still feels healthy and that allowed us to head to the Chocolate Extravaganza after lunch.  We grabbed some dipped chocolate from the Chocolate Wonderfall (they dip donuts, or fruit or whatever into the chocolate fountain) and took it with us to the Q & A session in the afternoon. 

During the Q & A session they allow audience members to ask questions they have about life on board a cruise ship.  The questions range from normal things I think most people wonder about (what does a typical crew room look like) to very weird questions (what high school did the cruise director attend).  We didn’t ask any questions but we did learn some fun information.  Apparently, Cruise Director Matt has a girlfriend who also works onboard but his mom hates to cruise.  The entertainment staff don’t really get days off like the rest of the crew, but they can go onshore on port days if they need to do a little shopping or go to the chiropractor or whatever. 

After the Q & A we decided to go ahead and pack so it was not the last thing to do before we got off the ship and so we could go to the comedy show after dinner.  So after our last dinner and listening to the farewell show, we found some acceptable seats and enjoyed our evening comedy before heading back to the room to finish packing.

After a quick stop at the alchemy bar for some interesting concoctions.  

The next morning…

Debarkation always sucks.  There is no way around it.  Sometimes it is smooth and you get right off the ship when you want to.  This time we somehow missed the open debarkation time – we tried to get up early and failed.  So we went to breakfast in the main dining room.  They say they have an express menu.  It says you can order and eat in 20 minutes.  It definitely took over a half-hour for them to bring the food.  And they were not coming around nearly often enough with the coffee. 

But finally, we were out of breakfast and we waited in the library for a bit before they called our deck and we were able to get off the ship.  Slowly.  There was a very long line. 

And then there was a long drive home. 

I always feel like they should somehow make debarkation less painful.  Why do they want your last memory of the cruise to be a grumpy memory? 

But it was a great cruise, debarkation aside.  We enjoyed the Vista.