At Sea, Vancouver, HOME!

(Sorry I'm late posting this...) Since our day today was at sea, we slept in and went to breakfast late.  The ship scheduled several presentations including the one we especially wanted to see: the Galley Tour.  I couldn't help but think of our friend Wes who is in the food service industry.  A half-hour presentation introduced us to the head chef, Eric, the Maitre d Hotel, Luigi, and the Head Pastry Chef.  They cooked two Entrees and one dessert in a light hearted fun way.  Chef Eric licked his fingers and the spoon the whole time, just to be cheeky.  The entire room was filled with passengers.  Then they took us through the Galley itself.  Whoa.  The entire thing was covered in stainless steel, with the exception of the skid proof floor tile.  Two separate pairs of escalators help the staff move the food up from the prep area to the serving area. There were multiple freezers and coolers each one for a specific purpose: fish only, meat, salads... One separate area downstairs was just for washing pots n pans. The dishes were wash on the upper floor.  A section for desserts, one for breads and pastries, it was all unfathomable.  They rattled off some of the statistics:  they serve 10,000 meals and use 30, 000 eggs and 26 gallons of dish washing soap  PER DAY.  It,s hard to imagine the coordination effort involved. One thing I did notice is that, like I mentioned, the portion sizes are just right.  I'm sure they've studied the food eaten and discarded and made the portions accordingly. There's really no use for leftovers.  Though we have a small refrig in our room, there's no microwave.  We usually ate breakfast at the buffet.  Anything you need or want is available, not just at breakfast but anytime.  No one will be surprised that I hit the Ice cream stand a few times, but again, the portions are just right.  We see our new friend, Trevor and he give us the food report...four ice cream cones, a shake, three pieces of pizza...and that was before dinner. Rick asks him if he had breakfast...Oh yeah, he forgot about breakfast.   He would stop by our table at dinner every night if we were in the dining room just to say hello.  Sweet kid. I told his Grandma that I'll bet he's going places. She said, "yeah but I hope it's the right places!" Speaking of dinner, it's our last night in the dining room with Carlos.  He is his usual charming self.  We decide to give him nice tip as a group and he appears truly touched.  The waiters paraded out of the kitchen carrying Baked Alaska.  Our table was last to eat our desserts and half of the Baked Alaska was left. Trevor walked by and asked Carlos if he can have the leftovers.  "Sure!" and away he goes with the dessert! Back at our room I'm too stuffed to move but need to pack our things for departure in the morning.  We must set our luggage in the hall by 10 PM and be ready to leave by 8AM.   Rick heard that Princess' disembark system is pretty efficient and that what we found.  We gathered in the theater by color coded group and shortly after called to exit.  We didn't touch our luggage until we arrived  at the airport & checked in.  As sad as we are to see our great vacation end, we're all ready to be home.  We're reminded win Vancouver that we're in Canada.  Odd as it seems, we don't have Canadian dollars and if we do present US dollars, we will get change in Canadian. Kinda hard when all the cash I have is my mad money $100.... DEBIT CARD!  Our connection in Dallas landed on time but we were late leaving for Chicago, putting us in at 12:30am, Chicago time. Luckily, we thought ahead and made reservations at an airport hotel. I looked at the clock when my head hit the pillow: 2:00am.  We met our buds at 9am in the lobby. We find out that Rick got the last hotel room and our friends each got a combo meeting room with a small Murphy bed. So sorry :(. They did get a free breakfast out of it, though.  We realize that we are no longer on the full service cruise ship. CARLOS!! WE MISS YOU!!   Thanks for cruising with us!