DAY 7 OF OUR CRUISE - FRIDAY 8TH AUGUST... OUR LAST DAY.

Today we are really in cruising mood.  The weather is perfect, the ocean is vibrant blue and it is our last day at sea.  We decide to make the most of it.  Had a bit of a sleep in again this morning, and then it was down to the Waterfront Restaurant for Breakfast at 8am.  Again we got to meet some lovely new people.  Di and Danika had breakfast with us this morning…. I love going to the restaurant and being waited on.  The service on P & O is superb.  These guys really know how to look after their passengers.   We had eggs benedict for breakfast once again….  We could get used to living like this.  

We were still at breakfast at 9am, so we needed to hurry as we had a talk about disembarking at the Marquee at 9.30, followed by a Culinary Demonstration and then a tour of the Gallery.  

The Culinary Demonstration was really very entertaining, and we were shown how to cook three different recipes.  The first recipe was Prawn and Scallop Risotto.  The chef cooked this and talked us through it and then four people from the audience were called to come out and do the taste test.  Steve managed to be one of the passengers that was selected.   Seeing that he loves seafood, this was the perfect dish for him to try. 

Culinary Demonstration in the Marquee

Steve got selected to tast test

Taste testing the Seafood Risotto

  Next , we learnt how to pan fry barramundi, and how to steamed some vegetable or make a home made pasta sauce to go with it.  Finally the head chef demonstrated how to make a Cherry Brulei, also showing us how to use the touch to burn the sugar on top.  This demonstration lasted for an hour and then we were taken down through the Galley were all the food is prepared. 

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A large Stainless steel galley

Plenty of chefs on board.  about 75 of them..

Already staring to prepare dinner for this evening...

Pretty amazing galery directly below the restaurant. 

Enjoying checking out the galley.

It was amazing to see all the chefs at work.  There are over 80 chefs that work on the P & O Cruise ship.   We also saw some of the amazing artwork that the chefs doing using fruit and vegetables to decorate their meals and tables.  Of course I took lots of photos.

Anmazing cupcakes

Chocolate tortes

Special occassion cakes

Wedding Cakes

fantasy cakes

 They do awesome things with vegetables...

Making all sorts of flowers..

Carved flowers out of carrots, parsnips and capsicums

Enjoying seeing all this creativity

 The things they do with watermelons is just amazing... 

Toucans

Parrot

Crab

Fish

Flower

Brolga

Sailing ship

More flowers....

 They really are very talented..

Their ice sculptures are really excellent too....

Ice sculpture of a bird

There are some wonderful creative chefs on board....

The Galley is situated directly below the Waterfront Restaurant, and their are sets of escalators  up and down from the restaurant to the Galley.  This would explain why the service is so good and so fast. 

Riding the escalator up to the restaurant.

Waterfront Restaurant

A glimpse into the Waterfront Restaurant

Waterfront Restaurant - it is a huge restaurant.

 This tour finished just after 11am which meant we had a mad rush to get back to the Marquee in time to play Bingo.  (Our first game ever).  There were good prices to be won at Bingo.  And on two occasions we were one number off winning.  All good fun.  

Time for a game of Bingo

Crossing off the numbers.

 It was such a beautiful day.  Beautiful blue skies, vibrant blue sea, gentle breeze.  The perfect day for our last day at sea.  I wanted to capture it...

Our last day at sea

Vibrant blue seas

Lovely blue skies and gentle breezes

After lunch we sat and played Zilch for a couple of hours.  We had a ton of fun,  lots and lots of laughs, and both Steve and I won the games.  Time with Ian and Kathy is always a lot of fun, full of laughs.  Our happy medicine. 

Lunch at the Plantation Restaurant

Steve enjoyed a feed of prawns for lunch

delicious deserts

Finished off by a cuppa tea

 Enjoying a game of Zilch

Ian and Kathy playing Zilch

In is obviously happy with his throw,

Our scorer

Make it a good one Kathy

At 3pm we headed up to the Dome for “Guess that Song” game.  That was a lot of fun also, and we did manage to get 11 out of the 20 tunes correct.  This was made heaps harder by Rory singing the songs illegibly, so that it made it hard to concentrate and let the right words come to mind.  One group did really well and got 19 out of 20. 

After "Guess That Song"  we headed back out onto the walking tract just to enjoy the beautiful day again...

Ian and Kathy on Deck 14 -- What a day

Couldn't ask for a prettier sight with such a blue ocean and clear blue sky.

the four of us on Deck 14

Steve and I enjoying a stroll along the deck

 By now it was 4pm, and our suitcases all need to be packed and ourside our door between 5pm and 8pm. WE needed to have everything packed except for the clothes we were wearing for the night and what we would wear off the ship in the morning.  

As our table for dinner was booked for 6pm, it didn’t leave us a lot of time to pack, have a shower and get ready for dinner and the evening.   Once again we had a fabulous meal in the Waterfront Restaurant.  The meals here have been beautiful.  Tonight for dinner I had a Broccoli, Scallop and Bacon Risotto, followed by seared pan fried Barramundi with vegetables, and for desert I had wild berries, Chantilly cream pavlova.  Mouth-watering.   We also enjoyed fresh bread rolls.  They are to die for and we finished our meal off with a cheese platter, which consisted of 4 different cheeses, crackers and an apricot jam.  Very nice. 

 

Our last dinner on board the Pacific Princess

 We were seated at the back of the restaurent and have a lovely view of the sunset

Our view from the dinner table

Ian and Kathy

Steve and I

My desert -  mixed berry pavlova....

We finished dinner around 7.15pm and then headed straight for the Marquee to see th final show of the cruise “The Motor Show”.  It was fantastic.  The quality of the entertainment on this ship has been absolutely superb.   What a night we have had.  We followed this show by going to see the Pacific Circus Performers put on their show in the Atrium.  They are amazing and I could watch them all night.  This show finished at 9.30pm and then it was a mad dash back to the Marquee to see the Pop Star Finals.  Karaoke at it’s best, honestly it was like being at another show.  I am so thankful that I was not a judge and the quality of these singers were superb.

Heading to the Marquee for the last show of the cruise

Steve and I together outside the Marquee Theatre

The theatre was packed for the last show..

The last show was titled "The Motor City"

 

 We were keen to make the most of this night, so as soon as this show was over we headed to the Atrium to see the Pacific Circus crew do their last show... It was wonderful.  You just couldn't take your eyes of them...

 From here we headed back to watch the finals of the Karaoke.  They were really quite professional.. We expected to be pretty basic with guys not being able to keep tune, but they were very good and it was like going to another show...

Ian and Kathy retired to bed at the end of this show.  Steve and I decided to take one last walk around Deck 14, on our last night at sea and then we dropped into the Plantation Restaurant for a late night cuppa before retiring.  It is really sad that this holiday has gone so quickly.  We can definitely understand why people get the cruising bug.  I am sure that this won’t be our last cruise. 

Our last chance to enjoy a stoll around the walk on Deck 14 before leaving the boat.

We are back in our room now doing the last of the packing.  We need to be up at 5am in the morning to have breakfast before we have to disembark.  What a wonderful wonderful holiday we have had.  Roll on the next one.