Day 4 - Day at Sea
Today is the last full day at sea. It didn't get off to a brilliant start, but fortunately the day did get better.
We didn’t have the best start to the day. John’s hearing aids beeped, meaning that the batteries were going to die. I’d packed spare batteries in the bag with John’s asthma medication, but when I went to get them to change John’s hearing aid batteries, they weren’t there. I looked everywhere and couldn’t find them. I phoned guest services to see if they could help. They gave me a call back about 10 minutes later, after they had contacted the health centre to see if they had any batteries and contacted the shops to see if they sold any, but there were no hearing aid batteries to be found on the ship. They even asked our stateroom hostess to come and help us look, but we just couldn’t find them. John suggested posting in the WhatsApp group to see if anyone there had any spare batteries, so we did that and then we went for breakfast.
At this point I was really upset because I was worried how John was going to manage as a totally blind man with a hearing loss, without his hearing aids. I have to say that the crew we spoke to were very kind and also tried phoning round to find hearing aid batteries. After breakfast we decided to head to the health centre ourselves to ask in person if they had any batteries. I was still upset at this point and unfortunately, we encountered a very brusque member of staff who said we had already had other people ask on our behalf, and that guests should take personal responsibility for their belongings. We found him to be really rude and it made me feel extremely happy that we hadn’t had any medical episodes on the ship. I think even if we did in the future, I would be loath to go to the health centre. He told us he’s from the United States and that’s how it is there. It made me very thankful for our NHS because I’ve never encountered staff as rude him at home.
Fortunately, at this point I got a WhatsApp message from someone in the WhatsApp group who had spare hearing aid batteries, so we met up and she gave us two batteries. We’re extremely grateful to her.
Batteries sorted, we headed up to Deck 11 and to Sweet on You. Here we had two Mickey ice cream sundaes and a Minnie ice cream sundae. You could choose three scoops of ice cream and up to five toppings, plus cream. We have the little tubs to take home with us.
On the left is the Sweet on You sign, with braille underneath. In the middle is a picture of Mickey and Minnie sitting at a table together, inside the shop, sharing an ice cream sundae. On the right there is a picture of John with the two Mickey ice cream sundaes and the Minnie ice cream sundae.
After washing the tubs out and leaving them in our room, we went and had lunch. We were planning to do one of the tour activities after lunch, but we couldn’t find the place where we were supposed to meet! I find the ship can be quite confusing to try and find your way around, so we gave up on going on the tour in the end.
John and George went on a wander and went in Mickey’s Mainsail. John had been asking in there if they had any Genie merchandise, but they don’t have any on this ship. This is where John was pixie dusted! Joachim, in the shop, had a Genie pin traded with him, so he gave it to John!
While John and George were wandering about, they got to meet another family from the WhatsApp group, and spent a few minutes chatting to them. Guess what I found while John and George were gone? Yes - the hearing aid batteries! It's much easier to find things when you're not in a panic!
I think the WhatsApp group for the cruise was a really good idea. People have met up and made new friends, and also helped each other out, as we were helped earlier.
It was quite windy and choppy at sea today, and we were doing a few slow circles! We could see the white cliffs of Dover from our veranda, yet we were not due in Southampton until tomorrow! George wanted to try the Aqua Duck water coaster, but sadly it closed because of the strong winds, so we may have to do another cruise for George to try the Aqua Duck!
Before we headed down to dinner, at Royal Court tonight, we got our big cases packed and tagged, and placed outside our stateroom to be taken away. We’ll get them back tomorrow when we’re in Southampton. During dinner we distributed our tip envelopes too. Tonight’s blanket animal was a swan, I think. What do you think it is?
On the left are our cases packed, ready for debarkation, along with the Donald Duck tags we were given. On the right is tonight's blanket animal.
We have to be off the ship before 9.30am tomorrow morning, so it’s an early night for us tonight.
