Thursday, May 29, 2025 - It's  GO HOME DAY!!!

We made it! After our 132-day journey around the world, it's disembarkation day.  This morning we'll disembark the Silver Dawn for the final time on this 2025 World Cruise and fly back home to California. It's been a great cruise but I am thrilled to be going home to see my grandkids.  For a great majority of the time, both of us were healthy.  I was sick for a few days at the very beginning of the trip, and for the last few days of the trip  both Bob and I had terrible colds.  Bob took one fall early in the voyage.  He fell on his enormous camera and may have broken a rib but didn't see the ship's Dr. since there's nothing to be done for broken ribs anyway.  His rib is still a bit sore.  Thankfully, I had no falls!

This morning will be  quite hectic.  They assigned us a time of 8:00 a.m. to disembark the ship, then we will get into a limo which will take us to the airport.  On our arrival, we will go to the airline lounge to wait for our flight, which will be nearly six hours.  Although it will be a very busy day, at the end of it we will be sleeping in our own bed!!!  

It's always somewhat of a bittersweet feeling when we disembark the ship for the final time.  We were thrilled to be reunited with some very dear friends on the cruise this year, as well as making some delightful new friends.  It's also tough to say farewell to  the crew, many of whom have become dear friends.  Silversea really does have the best crew sailing the seas.  We will miss them very much, and hope to sail with some of them in the future.  However, I am looking forward to a summer filled with visits from grandkids and lots of fun family time.    

Silversea's disembarkation arrangements went absolutely perfectly.  A private limo picked us up from the ship and transferred us to JFK.  Once at the airport, we were whisked to a private lounge reserved for Delta One passengers.  We haven't flown Delta in many, many years and were shocked and delighted by the spectacular lounge.  We were escorted directly to the private lounge with all of our luggage, bypassing all the passengers waiting in line at the check-in counter. They took us to a large, totally empty, room to check in!! Seriously, we were the only passengers in the room!!  Next, they escorted us to the most spectacular airport lounge we have ever seen.  There were multiple buffets with a large array of international food and drinks. Plenty of comfortable seating in oversized lounge chairs.  The multiple rooms made the lounge feel uncrowded and comfortable.  We are so grateful to Silversea for sending us off in such an  elegant manner.  

Once we boarded the aircraft, we buckled up for a very smooth, unremarkable flight back to Los Angeles.  Once we arrived at LAX the Blacklane driver met us immediately and made our short drive home quite enjoyable.  The moment we opened the door of our home I could feel my entire body breathe a sigh of relief.  It was a wonderful voyage but it is a fabulous feeling to be back home.  

Friday, May 30, 2025 - First day at home

It was wonderful to sleep in our own bed again.  There's nothing like the comfort of home  to give us the sense of peace.  Now, we begin the process of settling back into daily life and catching up on Dr. appointments.  We will be looking for our butler and suite attendant to make our bed, serve us coffee and snacks, and leave a chocolate square on our bed each night!

  

And it ends the way it started......with suitcases.  Amazingly, our four huge suitcases which were shipped from our cabin back to our home arrived!! We were quite surprised that they arrived so quickly. So now, we will be busy for the next few days unpacking and getting our house back in order.  We were fortunate to have a family live in our house while we were gone.  They had lost their home in the Palisades fire and needed a place to stay with their three kids.  We were thrilled to be in the position to help them by offering our home for a few months.  We didn't know them and just heard they needed a place to stay.  They took great care of our home but we do have to find a few items that were moved while they were here.  

So, until our next big adventure, this is Twila and Bob Elliott signing off for now.  We have decided to take a couple of years off from the World Cruise.  We will join it again in January, 2028 when the voyage returns to the smaller ship, the Silver Shadow.  Until then, we will enjoy time with our kids and grandkids, which is the greatest blessing in the world.

See you in 2028! 

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