This morning we did not arrive into port until 11am which was really nice. Kelle and I got up and did morning stretch and then headed over to Cove for some coffee. We arrived before mom and took our usual seat. Max who worked there most morning came and asked if we wanted to put in Mom’s order, but we were sure when she was arriving so we asked him to wait. She arrived about when our coffee came and as soon as Max saw her, he told the barista behind the counter her order. That is one thing I do like about longer cruises the staff starts to know what you like and will get your drink ready.

We grabbed the girls and headed to Cabanas for breakfast. I have a nice assortment of things to eat scrabbled eggs with ham and cheese (one morning they had scrambled eggs with salmon), bacon, waffle, croissant, yogurt.

Mom, Kelle and I did the art of the Theme tour on the ship. They take you around starting on Deck 10 and going down the Deck 3 talking about the different themes and things to know. One thing they point out was that the carper in the aft, mid and forward of the ship have different logos, so you know if you see the sea shell on the floor you know you are in the aft of the ship. We also learned that the book you can sign in Palo is hand made in Venice and is on each of the ships. The parents of the man who makes the leather bound books own a mask store and made the mask in Palo. They did not say the name of the mask makers.

We still had some time and we getting closer to coming into port, so we decided to head up to deck 9 and watch the ship come into port.

As we headed up Jennah this woman who I had been looking for on the cruise. She was easy to spot since she is a cane user, so I went into Cove and chat with her. I stayed in there talking to her for about 30 minutes until it was time to head downstairs and get ready for the excursion.

Jennah’s choice was a horse carriage ride. It was an hour long carriage ride from the cruise port into the heart of Victoria and then back to the port. There were at least 3 teams of horses pulling carriages it was a popular tour.

We learned the Victoria Bay has a beach area where people like to go layout and play in the water. You can swim out there and see lots of rocks during low tide. We were told there are a lot of octopus that also live there so probably not a place I will be swimming. We did see a few people in the water since it was “warm” today at about 75 degrees.

Once the tour ended Kelle, Bella, Jennah and I decided to catch a shuttle bus back into town to explore. Mom decided not to go since she had been to Victoria before. The shuttle buss dropped us off at the Empress Hotel.

We had a goal in mind of to find a coffee shop and doing some shopping. We found the shopping first! Then we started walking towards a chain coffee shop, but then saw another coffee shop off a side road and decided to go there. I had a vanilla bean cold beverage It was good, but I would not say it was really cold.

We had the option to go back the Empress hotel and get the shuttle bus that ran every 15 minutes or it was about a mile walk back to the ship. Kelle and I decided to walk and stop to see things, so the girls wouldn’t realize we made then walk back even though it wasn’t a long walk.

The next stop on our walk was over to the Birdcage Corner store. They had a few things which is handy if you forgot something and didn’t want to make a full trip to the grocery store, but for us a trip isn’t a trip until you go to a real grocery store. So the next stop on the walk was to the grocery store! We stopped at the Red Barn Market. Then fun find was a mini jug of chocolate milk. Even the cartons of chocolate milk were large.

The next requirement for this trip was finding a donut shop. There was one right across the street from the grocery store, so we stopped in there. I have a chocolate wheat free donut it was different. The top was really yummy but the bottom part was not my favorite.

After getting our donuts we kept on the same route that the carriage ride took, so we knew we were headed back to the ocean. We did see people swimming, dogs swimming and people just relaxing on the beach.

Once back on the ship Kelle and I headed to the adults pool area. We layout out for a while and then got into the hot tub. While it was warmer today it was still a little chilly when you got out of the water, so we stuck to the hot tub. Then it was time for our last dinner on the cruise!

We headed back to animators for drawing night. I didn’t take a picture of my drawing they were never very good.

After dinner it was time to pack up and make sure everything fit into the suitcase! That was an adventure. Between the 5 of us we were able to get everything to fit and prepare to get off the ship.