If you are just joining, catch up here to see what I am sharing about in the coming days & weeks!
-Day 1
-Day 2
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Cruise Day 3, Monday, November 3
-Day 1
-Day 2
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Cruise Day 3, Monday, November 3
Thankfully
our night last night was much smoother both in sleep & sea! We decided we
wanted to go to MDR for breakfast (the other alternative is Windjammer which is
buffet style, MDR, you are waited on). Our wonderful head waiter from our
evening dinner made it a point to serve us this morning. He got the kids
chocolate milk, made sure Sarah got whatever she wanted gluten free and again,
he cut up Olivia’s meal when it came. When it came time to order, Olivia said
she wanted pancakes & bacon. The gal taking the order said you want
pancakes? Olivia said AND I want bacon please! HA I had a delicious made to
order omelet.
Olivia's "buddy" Dario cutting her food again!
After
breakfast the 3 older girls took off for teen club. I headed up to our little
private play area with Ava & Olivia to continue to journal our trip while
they played. When we got to the play area, there was a gal there who apparently
organizes activities for the little ones 3 & under. I asked her if there
were others Ava & Olivia's ages, she said nope, they are the only ones I get to work
with. Well, sheesh, I wish I had known she was there waiting for us as we
would've came up sooner. So now on sea days, I will make it a point to get the
girls up there with her for fun activities just for them!
Amazing how they set up all this stuff in the room despite my girls being the only 2 on board to qualify for this stuff! (The toys get set up every morning then cleaned and put away around 4pm). She stayed a little bit and played with them while Erik & Kevin went to play some ping pong (I have to stay with the girls and can't leave them like you can do in the older kids clubs).
Craft project the girls leader was doing with them. Painting a dinosaur!
Amazing how they set up all this stuff in the room despite my girls being the only 2 on board to qualify for this stuff! (The toys get set up every morning then cleaned and put away around 4pm). She stayed a little bit and played with them while Erik & Kevin went to play some ping pong (I have to stay with the girls and can't leave them like you can do in the older kids clubs).
We finally saw the sun out later morning!! At
lunch time, it was a balmy 70 out!! The captain announced at lunch time that we
had traveled 700 miles so far and were currently sitting at a depth of 17,000 feet of
ocean!! Unfathomable! Since the girls were off on their own, the rest of us
went and had lunch. I've heard of kimchi before but never tried it until today!
It was really good! It’s supposed to have a lot of health benefits (it was also
spicy which I loved!)
Olivia jumped into Ava's highchair for a hug after lunch
After
lunch, Kevin & Erik took Olivia to the kiddie pool & waterslide and I
packed up Ava in the stroller and went out to the walking deck in hopes of
walking her to sleep. The sun felt amazing and after 3 laps, Ava fell asleep! I
headed towards the back of the ship to watch Olivia going down the water slide
and play in the kiddie pool. It’s kind of funny, most of our cruises, you would
find all the pool chairs taken but I think since this is an older crowd, many
of them can’t be in the heat or sun so I imagine we won't have trouble finding
a sunny deck chair!
A peek of the water slide, kiddie pool and kiddie "hot tub" (that was the same temp as the pool but bubbled)
When Ava
woke up, we swapped out and Kevin took the girls to the playroom while I
finally got a few minutes to myself. That of course is when some of ya’ll finally
received my first email update, ha!! (don’t you feel special I used my alone time for
you guys!) After emailing, I went outside and found a lounger to read on for a while.
Being outside reading felt amazing!
Earlier
today, we inquired if Erik can join the teen club and they made an exception
which is rare to be honest. He was SO excited to finally have activities he can
do! The girls have loved the teen club. There are about 8 kids who regularly
participate and they have become good friends. In fact, unless we happen to run
into the girls throughout the ship, we had not seen them all day until it was
time to get ready for dinner! They play group games both in the teen lounge as
well as outside on the activities deck. The leaders also organize fun
activities like a ship wide scavenger hunt, hide & seek, etc. A couple of
the other teens are also homeschooled. They made friends with someone who
doesn't live far from us in West Chester. Some of the teens are from overseas
like Denmark, yet my kids said everyone is polite and gets along really well. My kids are very impressed (& thankful!) that there are no cliques!
The above 3 photos are pics of the teen club area
Since
it was a sunny day today, we finally had the privilege of watching the sunset
from our dining room table during dinner. Not only do we have a huge window
beside us, but right behind us is also another window that opens to the whole
deck 4 (so 2 sides of our table has windows).
We
noticed today that there are still fans on 2 decks drying out the carpet from
that rogue wave that hit. I can't even imagine what that wave of water looked like when it came pouring in! There is still 1
elevator that is still down but the rest in the back of the ship are reopened. I guess it’s a good thing that it happened at
night when not many people would've been out there.
After
dinner, we headed back to the room and the kids headed out to see what the
evening activities were for the teens. Ava & Olivia were about ready for
bed until Olivia decided she was hungry so I took her up to the buffet and she
decided to get some spaghetti (at almost 9pm!) I picked up a few pieces of
sushi and we took our snacks back to our room. Hannah decided to stay back
tonight so she and Olivia rented a movie using our free certificate we got (and
yes she surprisingly ate all her spaghetti!) So Kevin & I also used our
free movie to rent one while I ate my snack (though I admittedly fell asleep
during the movie and am now finishing up this trip report at 4am since I am
wide awake!)
As you can tell, sea days are quite relaxing. You can do as much or as little as you would like. Each evening, we receive a cruise compass that lists all the activities that are going on as well as the times & locations for the next day. There is literally something going on from as early as 6am all the way till 1am. In the past, we've participated in a lot of those activities (ice shows as there is an ice skating rink, theater productions, etc) but with the 2 little ones, it makes it tougher to do some of those activities so this trip is a bit more laid back in that aspect. It also is our 4th time on this ship and things like the ice show are the exact same shows we've seen before. I just wanted to preface why you might not hear me talking about shows, late night buffets, etc.
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All photos can be clicked on to enlarge. The photos I am sharing are a combination of ones I took as well as my kids and husband on a variety of cameras and iPhones, hence the varying quality.
Just a glimpse of one cruise compass. It has several pages of info besides the daily schedule.
All photos can be clicked on to enlarge. The photos I am sharing are a combination of ones I took as well as my kids and husband on a variety of cameras and iPhones, hence the varying quality.