2016-12-12 through 12-14 --- Sea days and back to ATL:

Dec. 12---Today was the day of the Mariner luncheon.  Our time slot was noon.  Apparently we've moved up in days sailed so that we now get seated with the higher ranking Mariners!  I think we have about 125 days sailed on HAL. Can't say the menu was too impressive this time---either a fish or pork entree.  One of the couples seated with us even got up and left before ordering.

  I ended up with the fish.  It and the rice was pretty good. The fritters were chewy.

Then they forgot to serve us dessert.  But we wouldn't leave until they finally brought it.  

Later in the day we went to the Billboard where the dual pianists were playing and singing Beatles songs.  Those songs we recognized!  The pianist/singers were very good.

That's when we also found out that the billboard bar has a happy hour appetizer buffet.   So we had some free apps and 2 happy hour beers---the extent of our spending on board for the 10 night cruise.

Later we hit up the Dutch Cafe for a free dessert.  

 Then I took a walk around the promenade deck to see what everyone was complaining about.  There is a walking track on deck 11, but a lot of people seem to think it should still be on the Promenade deck.  It's still doable on the promenade deck, but pretty boring.

 I think this was Jamaica off in the distance.

About 5 I went to deck 11 to hang out for sunset.

 the clouds looked really promising.

 pretty, but it still didn't throw a lot of color across the whole sky.

Did get to see the full moon.  Unfortunately it came up on the other side of the ship and I didn't notice it until it was already pretty far up.

 one last sunset picture that night.

Had lobster and fillet mignon in the Lido for dinner.
Went to Off the Charts in the World Stage---which was pretty good.  At least we recognized most of the songs.

Dec. 13, 2016--another sea day.

Another pretty day weatherwise.

Went to another of the Windows classes.  They certainly have a nice set up for those classes!

I even went to the pickle ball meet up on the sports court at 4pm.  I had played it once a couple years ago and really enjoyed it.  Then we moved and I haven't found somewhere to play since.  Will have to research that a little more!  It was a lot of fun.  As a former tennis player, I missed the ball several times---a wiffle ball doesn't bounce nearly as well as a tennis ball!  But I was beginning to get the hang of it by the time we were done.
Another pretty, but not spectacular sunset.  The clouds have just been too thick on the horizon.

 The magician Joseph Reohm performed on the World Stage tonight.  He was pretty good.

 Then we went to the Lido movie and had dinner and a movie---dinner of hot dogs from the Dive bar

 and the movie was White Christmas.  Finally a  little Christmas reference!!!  I was even surprised to find out I'd never seen that movie!
Back in our room, this little guy was hanging around.

12-14-16 time to go home!

 We were up with the sun --- to find that we were in port already.

 Ken registered us for an early debarkation.  We did put luggage out the night before, so we weren't in the group of early walk offs, but our color was called around 8:30.  We were off the ship in about 10 minutes, found our luggage, then practically walked right up to customs!  We've never disembarked this quickly!!!  And this was the largest ship we've been on!  I had even downloaded the new passport mobile app for getting through customs quicker, but ports weren't set up for android phones yet, just I-phones. As it turned out, we didn't need it.  We caught a taxi and were at FLL by about 9am.  We got our boarding passes, but were too early to check our luggage!!!!  Had to wait about 15 minutes before we could check luggage for our flight 4 hours later!  Ken is a very nervous traveler!  I know he was happy to be there that early---the earlier the better for him.  I don't like it, but have learned to accept it.  At least I had a lot of pictures to edit while I was waiting-----while Ken napped in a chair at the gate.

It was another fantastic trip!  I'm glad we're able to afford such trips and still are healthy enough to enjoy them.  Hopefully we'll be able to continue traveling for a long time!