Our last day, but a fun day at the beach.

We love going to the beach, but have not really had much beach time this summer. Sitting in the rain on the Oregon coast really doesn’t count so it was great to get back to the sand again.

The day started very well with the most delicious eggs Florentine for breakfast in the Galley.

Then it was time to disembark and head for the beach.

There is a little shuttle train on the dock that takes you on about a 10 minute ride to the beach resort, and once there you could either head to the beach or the pool.

We chose the beach, but were clearly not the first people there. We found 2 sun loungers eventually, but we were in the 3^rd row back from the beach, and there was no shade. Still, we were there to have fun, so we dumped our bag and headed straight for the water.

The water was a beautiful blue, and nice and warm. Perfection. We spent ages just enjoying being in the soothing waves, and deciding that we absolutely need to spend more time on beach holidays. I could have stayed there all day, but the sun was very fierce, so we went back to the loungers, but without any shade the sun was pretty fierce there as well. Still, I do like to be beside the seaside. I was thinking I could get used to this, when out of nowhere the DJ arrived, and cranked up the music. We were back to thumping techno music again, although he did play some quite reasonable and melodious music too.

Our dinner companion from the first night was sunning herself nearby, and I was anxious to hear what she and Captain Giovanni had been up to. As it turned out there was no offer of a bridge tour, or any hanky panky (much to her disappointment as it turned out), he simply had a bottle of champagne delivered to her cabin. Nothing more. Still, it was a very nice gesture. She didn’t even have to shake the app.

When we had had more than enough of the sun, we went over to the “beach eats” and sat in the shade enjoying great food, and interesting people watching.

After lunch we took the shuttle back to the ship, and took some photos of her. She is not the ugliest cruise ship out there, and she definitely looks better from the side than she does from her rather unattractive behind.

Back on board we headed straight for the pool. As everyone was still on the beach, the pools were pretty deserted, and we were able to lie in the shade. I had the most wonderful pina colada. We really needed to go and pack, but life by the pool was just way too good to move anywhere.

As I was lying on the lounger I was looking up at the running track, and realizing that there was one more deck for me to explore. The ship has a wrap around promenade deck, but it is quite narrow in places, and I could see that if you had a lot of people trying to walk, jog and run around it at the same time, things could get very nasty. Virgin have solved this problem by having a running/walking track right up at the top of the ship, so it is dedicated to moving at a fast pace rather than strolling along. I decided to check it out.

I must say I have bad memories of running tracks, and this was the first time I had been on one since 1988. Brian’s department, for some inexplicable reason, had decided to have their annual holiday party at a very fancy athletic club. As we arrived, Brian and his friends all dispersed to do something athletic and I was left to my own devices. I am not athletic at the best of times, and things were complicated by the fact that I was 9 months pregnant, and even walking was a challenge. My center of gravity had shifted dangerously, and it was only that morning that I had toppled over in Crate and Barrel, causing a 6 foot high pyramid of expensive glassware to come crashing to the ground.

I thought I would be safe on their walking track. Other ladies were walking around it in a stately manner, and I had assumed that no one would come to harm if I joined them.

Halfway round I heard some thumping and panting behind me and a man yelled out something like “to your left”, so I obligingly moved to my left. The next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground with a very sweaty confused man lying on top of me. OK so apparently he had expected me to understand that he would be passing me on my left, and I had misunderstood things.

The incident caused a lot of consternation at the athletic club. There were a whole lot of doctors there fussing around me, when all I needed was someone to help me get up off the floor as I was unable to do so by myself.

Two days later our very healthy middle child was born. No damage done. Except I had avoided running tracks ever since. You never know when someone is going to run up behind you and knock you over.

Well today was my lucky day. There was no one else in sight, so I got to walk around the track with no harm coming to anyone. Yes, it is safe to return to running tracks again. Not that I am likely to come across another one in the near future. I will continue to limit my evening strolls to promenade decks.

Well, there was no escaping it. I did need to get some packing done so I returned to the cabin and threw everything into our suitcases. There, that was easy.

We had been waiting for the envelope to come under our door containing the instructions for disembarkation and luggage labels. Nothing was forthcoming. I went on to the app to see if the instructions were there (they weren’t), but it did ask me what time we would like to disembark. Our plane doesn’t leave until 5:40 PM so I chose a 10:45, the latest time available. That still didn’t explain what to do with our luggage. I went down to the customer service desk to find out. Problem solved. Apparently most passengers travel with a good deal less luggage than we do (I should have guessed that by how skimpily people were dressed. Not much to pack), and they carry it off themselves.

However, there are people who chose not to do this (phew!) and I was given luggage labels and told to put our suitcases in the corridor at 10:00 PM. In the whole long corridor of deck 12 there were only 2 other suitcases waiting to be removed at 10:00 PM. It just didn’t look like the last night of a cruise at all.

Having sorted out the disembarkation issues I had time to sit on the balcony and watch our sail away from the hammock. We really do have a very pleasant whistle, and the 3 blasts we gave as we left the port were very impressive. That’s almost my favorite thing about the ship.

I watched from the balcony as we sailed into the sunset. There certainly were things that I disliked about Virgin Voyages, but sitting there in my hammock, sipping champagne and watching the sun go down I could help but feel that there was sooooooo much to enjoy on Scarlet Lady.

Our last dinner was in the Mexican restaurant, Pink Agave.

Would they have upbeat Mexican music to serenade our meal? A strolling Mariachi band maybe? No such luck, it was the same old awful loud noise.

I ordered a margarita as soon as we sat down, and it appeared in no time at all – but in a regular tumbler, not a proper margarita glass. Maybe they are worried that margarita glasses will get off balance in rough weather. Sort of like heavily pregnant women on running tracks.

My meal was very good, not amazingly oh my goodness this is so yummy good, but certainly tasty and well presented. I do like the idea of eating in a different restaurant every night rather than spending the whole cruise in the same restaurant.

I was pondering on the thought I had when I had walked through the casino earlier that evening to get to Sip, the champagne bar. This isn’t like a cruise. This is like a long weekend in Las Vegas. Overstimulating, but still fun. Good for a change.