I can always tell we’ve made it to the last day of our cruise because it’s always the day that has the fewest number of pictures. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m “pictured out” by this point, or if we’re just too busy soaking up that last bit of cruise fun, but either way, I’ll apologize now for the lack of photos

This was a bit of an unusual day – while we were heading into a port, we weren’t docking in Victoria until almost 7pm, so it was really more like a sea day. Because of that, we all slept in quite late. Once we got ready, we decided to head down to the atrium where they were doing a Character Dance Party! Sounds fun, right? Well…

Our kids were done. We got to the party and both refused to dance, ending up near tears as if we had asked them to do some horrible task, like cleaning their rooms. I should have known –  the end of the cruise blues were setting in…

Trip Tip #11:  Cruises are truly awesome and every one of my family members loves every cruise we’ve been on. But, all that fun combined with the food, the late nights and the early mornings can cause overload. Add to that a bit of sadness because you don’t want the fun to end, and it’s a situation ripe for a meltdown of some sort. Every kid (and parent!) is different, so your situation might be different, but for our kids we’ve learned that we just need to go with whatever their mood is for the day, even if it takes an abrupt 180 degree turn from just 5 minutes before.

Instead of dancing, the kids were ready to eat, so we headed up to Beach Blanket Buffet (for only the 2nd time!) and had a leisurely family lunch.

After lunch, the kids headed off to the kids club and Colorado Dad and I went back to the room to hang out on the verandah for awhile. We were surprised with this guy when we got back to the room:

He came with our customs paperwork and the luggage tags we would need to attach to our bags. Bummer, that meant it was almost time to start packing, so we spent a little bit of time sorting through the things we had accumulated over the week. Luckily, we didn’t have to spend too much time on that before it was time to head up to Vista Spa for our couples massage.

Trip Tip #12: Give yourself a gift and book a treatment at Vista Spa. It doesn’t matter what you choose, pretty much everything is great. Yes, it can be a little spendy, but seriously, it’s worth it. Pamper yourself! They do like to sell you the products used in your treatment, but if you don’t want to be hassled, just indicate that on the sheet you fill out before your session begins and they won’t ask.

Colorado Dad and I have both had massages onboard before, but this was the first time we’d done the couples massage. We didn’t splurge on the private villa treatment option, which includes a room with a private verandah and whirlpool (maybe next time!) but it was still great and the masseuse and masseur were both fantastic.

Because the ship was docking in Victoria around 6:45, they changed the evening entertainment schedule a little bit – moving the main dining’s show to 2pm and our show to 5:45pm – so after our massage, we headed to the clubs to pick up the kiddos. As we were doing that, we realized that the shops were only going to be open until 5pm and would not open again, so we stopped by to pick up a few last things, before heading to the show. After the show, the kids begged to go swimming one last time, so Colorado Dad took them while I started packing. I wish I had a good tip to share on packing, but I really don’t. It’s a miracle we fit everything back into our suitcases and didn’t leave anything behind!

As I was packing, we were coming into the dock at Victoria, so i took a break to grab a couple shots of the port.

We decided before the cruise that we were just going to stay on the ship in Victoria. Most of the excursions didn’t sound super appealing to us and we always like to have dinner in the dining room the last night, so just decided to skip it. I heard that it was a very cool city though, so we’ll definitely have to visit some day.

Colorado Dad and the kids eventually showed up and helped me finish up the packing so we could get our bags out in the hall for pickup. Remember, unless you’re carrying your own luggage off the ship in the morning (something we might do next time), you have to have everything packed and ready the night before. This cruise, we didn’t have to have our luggage out in the hall until 10, but we were done packing before dinner so went ahead and put our luggage in the hall before dinner.

On our way to dinner, we took a stroll around the ship and ran into a few familiar faces:

I was happy with our decision to stay on the ship. The dining room was almost empty and we were the only ones in our server’s section so were able to have a little fun. Apparently so much fun that I can’t remember anything about the food we ate that night! Colorado Boy decided he wanted to “help”, so Yusuf taught him the proper way to serve drinks and food. Colorado Princess had been extremely shy during the whole cruise – barely speaking to Buyani and refusing to even look at Yusuf – but she finally came out of her shell and was giving high fives, hugs and even a kiss on the cheek by the end of the night.

It was a fun night and a great way to spend our last night on the ship. This guy was waiting for us when we got back to the room…anyone know what it is? A turtle maybe?