We have a week left on this cruise and things started wrapping up a week ago. A week ago, we got a letter from Holland to choose a disembarkation time and pick up corresponding luggage tags, two weeks before the end of the cruise.  Many cruises would not have even started.  They are rushing the season.  Throughout the week there were other impending signs of the end, a note from Guest Services to review our bill, an invitation to a farewell cocktail party, a clearance Sale on branded merch. I got an email from Alaska airlines telling me to pre-order a meal for my flight home.

The clearance sale is a big thing.  Holland America switched shop contractors, and the current contract ends June 1.  Everything really must go.  They have closed many of the shops for final inventory.  What hadn’t sold is being packed up to be unloaded in Boston.  At least this cruise will not end with the young men in black suits trying to lure us in for one last bargain.  That ship, so to speak, has already sailed.

They at 10 PM on May 28.  I was in the ocean bar listening to a killer version of “Night in Tunesia” watching the young men in black suits trying to lure the final shoppers in.  They locked the doors at 10:18 while the band played Bésame Mucho.  At 10:21 one of the saleswomen rolled up the “Last Chance” banner.  In a way it was sad.  We are ending a trip; they are losing a job.

On the World Cruise in 2018 I had a conversation with Henk, the Hotel Manager.  He said there was a fine line to walk between getting people ready to go home after settling in for four months and not ending on a downer. An early warning to get them thinking about wrapping up and more parties to end on a high.

Daniel, our Cruise Director, said the long winter cruise is not a vacation for many, it is part of the annual cycle.  People are, in effect, closing the winter home on Memorial Day or closing the cabin on Labor Day.  The staff understand this.  Many people book the same cabin every year, it is their winter home.  And when they return next January, they are greeted with a banner “Welcome Home.”  On our first long cruise one of our friends said they chose an annual world cruise over owning a ski condo, Palm Springs winter home, or summer cabin on the lake.  A cruise is less expensive and less work.  No maintenance.  Turn in the key and go home.  Suzi and I are not there yet, we are still too attached to Sitka, we don’t want to lose our “sourdough” status and revert back to being Chechakos.   But we are attached to the friends we’ve made over the course of several long cruises. 

During the last few weeks, we’ve celebrated the 152^nd anniversary of Holland America with a gala dinner, had a sock hop and masquerade, that I have already written about, and a barn dance. 

Barn Dance!

Tonight, we had a cocktail party for people who have been on since the beginning of the cruise in January.  Captain Paul made a quick pass through the party, we’re traveling through thick Grand Banks fog, and he can’t get away from the bridge for long.  He’s had a rough day.  Strong winds buffeted the ship coming into St. Pierre.  He had to turn it around for a different approach and then use the bow and stern thrusters to hold it against the dock while they tied her up.  For good measure he dropped anchor.  He is thinking of clearing some time for another presentation to us about this.

Scenes from the Cocktail Party.

And tonight was the last performance by the World Stage Rep Company, all singing and dancing.  They had a receiving line after the show and there were a lot of hugs.  We love this troupe and went to both performances tonight.  The last performance they cut up a little, grabbing hats from earlier shows putting them on each other and playfully tossing them with high fives.  They have added immeasurably to my enjoyment of this cruise.

But there is something disturbing about the shows.  They have medleys of hits which I originally thought were edited for length, but as I watched the shows over 15 weeks, I think the suits in London who construct the shows had more in mind.  They were not just edited but bowdlerized. (Thomas Bowlder was a Victorian Englishman who “edited” Shakespeare.)  Often the point of the song was cut.  Hotel California omits “You can check out anytime you like but you can never leave,” the most memorable line in the song.   And there are no “steely knives.”  Big Yellow Taxi omits “Hey farmer farmer, put away that DDT.”  That was Joni’s point.  I remember headed discussions between DJs and program directors about whether to include the song in the playlist because of that line.  Last night they cut “A time for peace I swear it’s not too late” from Pete Seeger’s “Turn, Turn, Turn.”  The ghost of Bowlder prevails.  They also cut some references to death, not all, because too many songs profess “I’ll love you ‘till I die.”  I don’t know if anyone else noticed, but over the course of 15 shows I did.  The shows made me think, perhaps not in the way those who put it together anticipated. 

The pace of the cruise will continue to pick up.  We have an invitation for an upcoming lunch for loyal customers like us.  They tell us we’ve spent 700 nights on Holland America ships.  Is that possible?  In Newfoundland, Volendam brought on Breton Thunder, a Nova Scotia band, for a big finish!

But tonight, we sail through the fog, the horn sounding for five seconds every two minutes as we slowly (at between 9 and 10 knots according to Garmin) make our way to Nova Scotia.  Overnight we fall back to Atlantic time.  One time zone to go.