Day 7 - At Sea

Today is another sea day, a sad sea day because we're on our way back to Fort Lauderdale which means our fabulous cruise has come to an end. Everyday there is so much to do on board and this sea day was no exception. We started the day with breakfast on our balcony again - why not treat yourself when on vacation! Yesterday at dinner we found out the kitchen was doing a galley tour today which we both thought would be fun to see. So after breakfast we made out way down to the Princess Theatre for a culinary demonstration followed by the tour. The culinary demonstration was hosted by the Executive Chef Paolo Merio and Maitre D'Hotel Nicola Furlan. These two guys were a hoot to watch as they demonstrated making three dishes. We learned that everything is made fresh on the ship. They loaded about 115 tons of food on board in Fort Lauderdale. The food is purchased mostly locally in the U.S. and from Canada, but they also bring in food from other parts of the world, like Italy and France. Afterwards we got to walk through the largest kitchen on board, 16,000sf, and see a little behind the scenes in food prep. It was a quick walk through but you could see the various stations and some of the chefs at work getting ready for lunch.

Some intriguing food facts, everything in "on average daily": - fish prepared 1700; - amount of salads served 1600 lbs; - amount of pasta made 500 lbs; - amount of coffee consumed 470 gals (I contributed to my fair share here); - amount of dished washed 70,000. There are about 515 staff working in food prep/serving and total crew on board is 1,100. As you can see they dedicate a lot to making sure this side of the cruise experience is well taken care of, and they did an amazing job. No complaints on the food or service we received, well maybe only that there were too many choices of good food it was hard to decide at times!

The other day while we were docked in St. Thomas the U.S. Health and Safety inspectors boarded the ship and did their inspection. The Ruby Princess we're told scored a perfect 100 - that's comforting to hear.

We chose to relax again today and not do too much. I was still feeling the after effects of being in the hot sun yesterday, so I was very lethargic. We did get our ping pong match in though and the outcome...well not what I had hoped. I lost both sets - 21-16, 21-18. Until the next rematch!!

There was an ice sculpture carving demonstration that we found enjoyable to watch and were very impressed with the final sculptures. One was a swan and the other was the face of an Indian Chief and both were carved from scratch in 16 minutes.

Z went to go see the magician David Cats who was offering up lessons on a few of his tricks. Quite impressive when Z successfully tried two of the card tricks on me! Being the last day also meant packing and we put that off as long as possible, but got it done and then went to see the production show "Broadway Ballroom" before dinner. It was a mix of dancing and singing of some Broadway show songs, including songs from Mamma Mia and Jersey Boys. We both agreed that this was the best show by far put on by the Ruby performers.

We did the shared table option tonight and sat with the same couple from Calgary again as well as a couple from Denver and one from West Virginia. My last dinner aboard was really good...watermelon and feta salad followed by meatloaf with mashed potatoes and veggies. Z had a seafood trio appie, a beef soup followed by filet of Kingflip. Dessert of course was also part of this meal and I had an apple pie and Z a baked Alaska. The comedian Miguel Washington was doing another show tonight so after dinner we head over to the Explorer's Lounge to watch. He's really funny and it was a great way to end the day and our wonderful cruise.



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