Relaxing Day…All Day

Day 6 and it is time to relax on the ship again. We didn’t do a ton and probably is the day I have the least amount to write about and the least amount of pictures. We all tried to sleep in as much as we could but even that wasn’t late enough. No matter, we were going to relax by the pool all day anyway. Heather and I got to the pool deck with the Number 2s and 3s, put on sunscreen and found a spot right underneath the FunnelVision. This was a nice warm spot to sit, especially in the morning. There was no wind there and the closer it got to noon, the hotter it was and the more we wanted to leave that area and find some breeze.

Before that, Ella and I went to the Aquaduck. It was fun but the problem with the Aquaduck this time of year is with the wind on the top deck it is just a tad too cool once you get out of the Aquaduck and into the wind, it is a bit chilly and you’re not quite ready to jump back in line. You’d rather jump in the hot tub, the pool, or go towel off. So while it was fun and our initial thought was to get back in line, once we got off Ella decided she would hit the hot tub and pool…I didn’t disagree at all.

Later in the afternoon, all the adults grabbed a child and finally decided to hit the Aquaduck. They were brave enough to do it once and come around and try it again. I waited because Ella didn’t initially want to go then once they were almost ready to come down she decided she wanted to go so we jumped in line a little ways ahead of them. We followed some older guy up the stairs and you have some time to look people over while you stand in line. His toenails were so long and gross and wore shorts like I wear to work out with and had his underwear still on underneath. I know there are disgusting things that happen in the pool all the time that you are not aware of but this one was slapping you in the face as if to say, “here I am and I’m about to get into this water before you,” I didn’t need to see that.

Today was the day we also got the Mickey Mouse pretzels. Of course we all got some and they tasted…well, like a pretzel. I wasn’t a big fan of them. It was a little too dry for me even after salt and some melted cheese to dip it into. I never did finish it and neither did Ella but we did see a lot of them around the ship.

This day the ship also swayed….A LOT! Thank goodness this was Day 6 and we were used to the movement of the ship by now but had this been the first night, we would have all been sick that night. The first couple of days the waves were choppier with shorter swells and whitecaps with the wind blowing the water off the tops of the whitecaps. Today, Thursday, there were no whitecaps but the waves were longer and deeper such that when the front of the ship would hit the bottom of a swell just as the back was coming off the peak of one and then vice-versa. There were a few clouds in the sky and when we sat under the FunnelVision and look towards the back of the ship it would seem as though the clouds would move up and down. It was a very weird feeling. Later in the day, I went to the front corner of the ship and watched the waves. When the front met up just right at the beginning of another swell the water went flying into the air. It was pretty neat to watch. It was also interesting walking. For a few seconds you might feel a few pounds lighter or heavier or everyone would suddenly shift to the left as they were walking. I actually thought it was fun walking around the ship that day but I wondered how many people were getting sick from it. No one in our party did thankfully. Later I would read that they weren’t using the stabilizers in order to move faster and that is why the ship rocked so much. I don’t know much about that but I wonder if the waves were such that it wouldn’t have helped much even if they did use them but what do I know.

As I said before, we later would go up on Deck 12 because it got too warm under the FunnelVision. Chris ordered a bucket of beers for us and I think I drank most of them. We had about 3 loungers there and I think we all dozed off there at some time. We were a little tired from staying up late the night before plus the rocking of the ship just put us to sleep. Chris would leave for periods of time and I did as well as I went to check out what was happening in the adult area. In fact, today was also the day they were giving out Popsicles at Flo’s. Here was a story I never really told anyone, including my wife (hi honey!) but the more I thought about it, the more I thought this seemed very deliberate.

So I was walking around the adult pool when this younger girl, probably in her 20’s, showed up alone. One of the shallower pools has a cement bench going around the outside so you could sit on it and put your toes into the pool. This girl shows up, sits on the bench, takes off her shirt (she’s wearing a bikini), unbuttons her jean shorts but doesn’t take them off. She then unwraps a Popsicle, lays on the bench and begins to put the Popsicle in her mouth as she is laying there. At first I didn’t think a whole lot about it but after I couldn’t get the image out of my sick little head I began to think, “who would just lay there like that and eat a Popsicle?” There more I thought about it, the more I thought she was doing it to get noticed.

ANYwho….later that day, Linda and Chris wanted to go to the class on making the towel animals. Chris did say he would have to show us what he learned but he never did. Naturally we started to question whether they actually did go to the class or if they went to fool around. However, that was quickly dispelled as the Number 1s confirmed they saw them at the class because they went to it as well.

I talked the younger kids to try the Aqualab which they hadn’t done at all at this point.  We went for a little while but there is a fair amount of wind blowing through there and it was too cool to be there so we weren’t there for long.  We went back and quickly jumped back into the pools.  I would think this is more popular in the summer months when the actual temperature is warmer.

It was just a beautiful, relaxing day that we took in to the fullest. Our stateroom was finally facing the right direction to watch the sunset but alas, there were too many clouds by the end of the day to make it a beautiful sunset. The previous days we had to get ready for the night so we were usually in our rooms getting ready around sunset.

Here you might be able to get a little sense as to what I mean when I saw the swells were long and deep.

Tonight the show was called “Believe”. Kaitlyn and Ally decided they didn’t want to go to this one and I was intially OK with that but when I sat there I wished Kaitlyn was there. The story was about a little girl who wanted to show her dad some magic but her dad was too busy to notice or believe in her magic. So Genie from Aladdin shows up to take him through time in order to help him believe in magic. As it goes we see characters from various movies come and sing popular songs from “Princess and the Frog” to “Little Mermaid”. In the process of course we see this little girl all grown up and it begins to tug at the heartstrings as he watches his little girl dance with another man. So I wished Kaitlyn was there because now I wanted nothing more than to spend more time with all my girls.

This also led to my one of my favorite moments with my girls. Sophie was sitting a couple of seats down from me and they sang a song from a movie, her eyes would light up nice and big. A huge smile would come across her face and would say “OHHH! It’s ‘Dig a Little Deeper’ from ‘Princess and the Frog’!” and she would be at the edge of her seat singing along. That was how she was the whole week with these shows. At the edge of her seat ready to participate. This night was special given the story and I will never forget looking over at her every time a song would begin to play and how happy she looked. I didn’t want it to end. Later in the show, as the girl on stage was grown up and it was getting a little sad, Sophie must have felt it too cause she had to come over and sit on my lap and give me hugs and kisses for a bit.

Meanwhile, this was going on back in the rooms.

…and a few more that I don’t want to show because there are sick perverts in this world. Nothing graphic but I could see some weirdos liking them a little too much with the dresses they had on given how they were posed.

After the show, while we waited for our time to eat at Royal Court, the Midship Detective Agency game really started to heat up.

Here you can see Leighton and Ella studying the map and trying to decide where they should go next to find the clues. Hindsight, we should have started this sooner because this kept them awake and moving while we ate. Often they would get a little tired over dinner, nothing that was too much of a bother for us, but this was a nice distraction for them while we ate.

This was semi-formal night so Auger’s decided to take a family photo. Wished we would have done this.

Tonight, Auger’s really wanted to see the British duo that was singing but Leighton also really wanted to see a movie so we were at a bit of an impasse. We went to listen to them sing and dropped the rest off at the clubs and said we would be back at a certain time. Well, it was past that time before Linda went and Leighton wasn’t happy but they got over it. Linda dropped them off at the theatre and came back for little while longer to listen to the duo sing. We sat there for a while longer, listened more and had a couple of drinks and had to leave to grab the rest out of the Edge.

THIS was the night we ordered breakfast from room service. We put our order on our door handle this night and they would drop the food off at the time specified.  They had mostly dry food like cereal, bagels, muffins, and fruit.  Unfortunately you were not able to order things like eggs or bacon, it was pretty simple stuff.

Afterwards, everyone was back except for the older girls but I wasn’t tired so I decided to go out and grab some evening and nighttime video.

Tips For Future Travelers

• May have done this one already but do the Midship Detective Agency game. It might be a good distraction during dinner to keep them entertained while they wait for their food. Plus, it is kind of fun to do.
• Go see “Believe” in the theatre, especially if you have a young daughter. It will pull at your heartstrings so make sure your children are with you on this one.
• When you see the Popsicles circulating, get them early. I went later in the day and they were out so if you want some, I would suggest doing it early just in case.
• I would say don’t bother with the Mickey pretzels but I think it’s more the novelty of having one than actually eating it. I didn’t care for them.
• This is a great day to relax. By now you have seen most of the ship, or at least the parts you care to see, so now you just sit back, let the kids swim, and enjoy the sun.

Up Next: Day 7 – Castaway Cay