Skigoofy

Some of the holiday decorations around the ship:



The deck crew were busy making a Christmas tree from one of the lines.

A bit of a Clark Griswold moment with a tree too big for the space - they had to remove a ceiling tile to make it fit 🤣.

Breakfast in La Terrazza this morning.
The Silver Wind has been retrofitted with these all in one hand washing stations.  They go through four stages first dispensing soap. a brief pause to lather, a clean water rinse followed by dispensing a paper towel to dry your hands, all in one compact station.  

Meal with a view.

While La Terrazza advertises a buffet they also accept orders such as an omelette to your specifications.  
New expedition information posted.

Our next destination.


Enrichment lecture with Jess O. exploring the concept of survival bias using the Shackleton expedition and the Endurance as a case study. 


Very well done.
In one hours time at 11:15 we have a mandatory biosecurity briefing for our next stop.

The walk back to town was easy.  


When we boarded the bus we were given a postcard with a stamp already on it that we could mail home.  Here is the post office.

A Catholic Church.



The Anglican Church.


Our guide had pointed out this house due to the brick construction.  There is no brickyard in the Falkland Islands.  The bricks would have had to have been shipped in back in the day, no small task.

I inquired if I could take pictures and they agreed so here are some pictures from inside the museum but I'm hardly capturing a fraction of the detail.

The final stop was at the Historic Dockyard Museum.
We were given the option to leave the tour at this point and visit the museum or stay on the bus to return to the town dock.  The museum is a ten minute walk to the dock so I decided to visit the museum.  Admission is included for cruise ship guests.


A propellor from the Protector.





 

The town dock we landed at:

We were offered several excursions for Port Stanley going back several weeks.  Upon boarding they had added a couple we could switch to.  I stuck with the Exploring the Highlights of Stanley tour.  This was included in the cruise fare.
This was a bus tour which I have a love-hate relationship with.  Despite that I appreciate the value of seeing and learning a lot about an area.  
Our resident tour guide grew up in Stanley and was well acquainted with the town and its history.  The bus was comfortable and featured vinyl seats.  Apparently they have hosted wet cruise ship guests before.  

Typical housing.

Our first stop took us through to the end of town, past the airport and to Whalebone Cove which features the wreck of the Lady Elizabeth.


The Lady Elizabeth.
In the day of wooden ships the Lady Elizabeth was a state of the art iron ship.  Unfortunately she became damaged as she transited Cape Horn.  Upon seeking shelter and repair in Stanley she struck a submerged rock.  Being a remote small community Stanley didn't have the facilities to deal with an iron ship back in the day so there was little they could do for her.  While waiting out a solution she broke free of her mooring and ended up in Whalebone Cove.

Our tour bus.
 

Our next stop was a sign post that was established by some military that were stationed here in the wake of the 1982 conflict.  It has since become a popular attraction.

About the AAA from earlier, someone posted this to the FB roll call group shortly afterwards. Sad if true…..
 

As mentioned, dinner was at Giovanni’s tonight. This was actually the first time the kids have eaten at Giovanni’s Kitchen. They have had the original one before, and Jamie’s, but not this. Both girls loved it!

Before heading into dinner at Giovanni’s

Dinner tonight was at Chops. The holiday special included a mini bottle of Moët for each adult, lobster tail (but with star we got the full lobster), and also a sample appetizer plate consisting of mushroom arancini, chicken lollipop, braised beef, and shrimp. Everything else was the same as the regular menu. Food was great, just slow. 
 

Outfit of the night! 
 

I asked my SIL to get pics of your sailaway from her verandah. 😍
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

So long Fort Lauderdale & 2023…
📸by me…better ones by Hubby later. Need to get ready for photos and dinner 🙂

Odyssey of the Seas - Grand Loft Suite
First floor 








Second floor









Upstairs Bathroom 


Balcony 
Love the reflective glass here! 

La Bamaba…Round #2! 


We are not kidding, we truly love this place. Tonight as we were eating, we came to the sad realization that it might be quite some time before we can come back. We have zero cruises that leave from Fort Lauderdale in 2024 and we have not booked the rest of 2025 yet so it’s uncertain when we can return to our most favourite restaurant in all of North America. So we soaked up our memories here, had some great laughs, and walked away with happy hearts and full bellies. 


Now chilling out, packing up a bit, and heading to bed soon. 

Back to regular scheduled cruise content - Genie news 🧞‍♂️🧞‍♂️
Having too much fun in Texas and I forgot to confirm the dining schedule. My bad. It’s now confirmed ✅
Our private flowrider session is scheduled for Day 2 at 7:45am. Berty confirmed the star class session is from 8:30-10am on Day 3 so that is perfect that it doesn’t overlap on the same day. He asked if we wanted to reschedule our private session to a different time. I didn’t know that was possible so I have asked if a later time that morning or early afternoon is available.  

Will finalize plans for all the celebrations once onboard but Berty has a preliminary plan so all is good.  
Star Class Priority Check in & Baggage handling instructions - no new information; arrive at zone 6, meet with terminal genie Jessica, don’t give your luggage to anyone but Jessica or a star class porter.  Expecting boarding to commence at 10:15-10:30am.  
 

We ate at Mama Teresa’s Flying Pizza & Italian.  It was within walking distance of our hotel. Food was excellent but we ordered way too much given the large portions.  

The moon of the summer solstice.

With a guest appearance from Jupiter - the small dot on the right.

Daily briefing for Port Stanley tomorrow.  

Expecting wind.

Looking past Port Stanley we have two sea days to the South Georgia Islands.  
The first sea day won't be too bad with waves estimated to be 2.7m.

On the second sea day the wave estimate is higher at 4.5m.  

Meanwhile the winds have died and it's a beautiful evening.

Nothing like coming back to hot chocolate and other beverages to warm you up.

More 360 camera fun on the zodiac ride.

The Tea House.


Unfortunately the group before us took forever to load the zodiacs on the way here and we lost a lot of time.  We had 10 minutes at the nesting site and by the time we reached the Tea House they were closing it.



Time to head back to the ship.

The hike back was a little easier.



Felton's flower.






Our guide pointed out the wind blown trees.  The Falkins are known for their winds.  These trees didn't grow this way, they were pushed this way.

There were many Albatross soaring above and buzzing the colony close to ground but not landing.  I suspect this was part of the ritual to find a mate, a bit of showing off.



Definitely some mating rituals on display.

Some birds of prey looking for a meal.

More Black-browned Albatross.

More chicks at this nesting site.