Morning at Sea

Let’s face it, any day on vacation is a great day. A bad day at sea is always better than a good day at work. However, this day was awesome for a couple of reasons. That first day out to sea is nothing like it. You wake up and there is no land around you. Most of the time you can’t see any other ships around and if they are there they are usually way off on the horizon. It’s the start of your cruise, you get to start the day by just relaxing. The other reason this day was great was today was New Year’s Eve which meant there was a big party coming later that night and some fun things ahead.

So we start off the first morning like we always do since the first cruise on Disney. Ella and I are the first ones up at 7:30am. I have never been one to be a chair hog, but after 3 cruises and never finding a spot to sit and getting very frustrated, I decided if you can’t beat them…join them. I got up with the intent of hogging chairs because I don’t want to scour the ship for some. So we went up to 10 aft and laid out blankets across four chairs and and we go off to get breakfast at the Lido Marketplace (buffet). We sit by the window and look out across the vast blue sea.

This was the only morning I stopped at the omelet station. They narrowed down what exactly you can put on them. This was actually a recent change within a month from us being on the ship. So I just ordered a ham and cheese omelet. Ella got a parfait, French toast and some potatoes. There was no bacon this day. Every other day the buffet served bacon in the mornings which was a little disappointing.

The omelet wasn’t that great and given there was always a line there I never returned back to get another one the remainder of the cruise.

We ate fairly quickly because while I went up with the purpose of saving a few chairs, I didn’t want to leave it unattended for hours. So Ella and I grabbed our cup of coffee and enjoyed the beautiful morning.

I continue to take in the morning and begin to write in my notes about the day before so I don’t forget anything when I write these blogs. I really really love this view out the back.

After a while, Heather came up and Ella promptly went back down to go back to sleep.

While we are sitting there we are talking to a nice couple that was sitting on a couple loungers for a bit. Heather went off to get breakfast and while she did the couple were about to leave so I asked their names. Turned out to be Kevin and Rachel, very easy for me to remember.

Leighton and Kate came as Leighton was getting antsy to start the day. Then Sophie came and then rest except for the 1s because they went up to Serenity, the adults only area at the front of the ship on 12.

And then Sophie sort of dozed off.

Today we got to have our first Guy’s Burgers. We had been waiting for this. The line wasn’t bad and we got through fairly quickly. Some people I don’t think realized there were actually two lines to get burgers. So just find the shorter line obviously. Today was also the day we tried to expand our stomachs. Okay, I tried to expand my stomach as I had ice cream, treats, tried an empanada just because. It was all a good start.

I did go see what the Lido Champion was all about to see if I could have defended my sort of title of “Hairiest Chest” competition from the last cruise. But the competition was more like a Pitch Perfect riff-off so I left knowing I really didn’t care about it, nor would I have done well.

On the Hubub (Hubb app) you could see the list of things to do for the day and you could like the things you want to do and it’ll give you a little notification when that activity is about to start. What is also nice is you can see when others in your group liked an activity. The 1s had liked a bunch of stuff on the planner and had a list of things they wanted to do this day. I’m actually not sure what they all did. Heather and I sat on the loungers for most of the morning and into the early part of the afternoon. After a while the 2s and 3s went to play mini golf and after a bit Chris and I left the wives on the loungers to go catch up with them and then join the 1s at karaoke.

Karaoke

Here is where the people watching started to kick it up a notch. Early on there was a guy named Al. Now Al was a short, Philippine man probably in his 50s with long hair and a shirt that would suggest he likes to rock. I am forgetting what song he started with but it was a rock song and Chris and I looked at each other as the music started and thought…”Oh yeah, this guy is going to rock this song” Nope, we were wrong. From the first note Chris and I looked back at each other like…we were obviously way off on this and are now disappointed.

There was also Jerry the country singer who was actually really good. When his name got called after a while of course people chanted, “Jerry! Jerry! Jerry!” ala Jerry Springer.

Jose…oh Jose he couldn’t carry a note to save his life as he sang some song about wanting his body. Jose was singing as I went to get coffee around the corner and the lady working said, “well, I used to like this song”.

Kaitlyn sang American Girl but I didn’t get a photo. Ally was going to put in for her and Chris to do Friends in Low Places but the lady running it said right away that they can’t do it because some performers had embargos on this type of stuff. At least that’s what she told Ally. So instead they did the tried and true song Chris does every time, “God Bless the USA”

And of course, as usual they got a few people to stand, and they usually are service members. The man standing below is Don and would actually have a pretty good voice as he sang a slow love song later on.

Kate and Sophie sang “Love Shack” and rocked it and had so much fun with it that we, and others, had to come out to the dance floor.

Two of the other people dancing were Jim and Carry (or Jim Carey for ease of remembering). Before they started singing Carry told everyone they had been together for 6 wonderful months and now they are on a cruise together and are going to sing “Summer Nights” from Grease…and yes I did say months. Jim was not good at all, Carry was OK. To hide their identity the remainder of the cruise if we didn’t want people to know who we were talking about, we called them Danny and Sandy (from Grease). Here is Sandy…I mean Carry singing another song later while Jim aggressively filmed her with his phone. I mean he was going around her and held the camera high, then low like they were filming a music video.

Little did we know these two would become the talk of the ship. Jim would wear a different themed suit every night that was very hard to miss. There as a Pac-Man one, Batman, Flamingo, and others. So he really got ready for the occasion, meanwhile, Carry, well she pretty much dressed like she did in the above picture the remainder of the cruise. Was weird how he was so prepared and she could have cared less. More on Jim Carry on another post.

While we were there Leighton picked out the Know-it-all fedora guy from the day before was watching karaoke.

Now, karaoke went on FOREVER. I think it was about a 2.5 hours in total, perhaps even longer, and we left about 1.5 hours in. I felt bad for the person running it as it would get so boring and long after a while. I think by the end of the cruise, if she had a gun on board, she may have used it.

Dinner and VIP

So we go down early to get ready as we had a lot planned this night and this was waiting for us in our room.

It was elegant night so the girls all got beautiful

As did everyone else.

We were in the dining room by 5:30 and the wait was fairly short this time because we were early enough.

The menu was on the Hubub so that’s why everyone is looking at their phone as they are deciding what to order. The waiter would come around and get everyone’s names and orders as our group was entered into the system so they knew who was at the table but when they took the order they narrowed down who each of us were exactly and what we wanted to eat.

Now it is elegant night and New Years Eve to boot so there were some interesting outfits. Let’s just say Boobs McGee showed up and sat at a table next to us. Another guy, who we would see quite often through the night, had a sequenced suite jacket with a big duck strapped to his shoulder. There was a younger guy who would pretty much where a wife beater shirt and shades every night for dinner, we saw him in pretty much the same type of wear for elegant night.

The waiters for SSShhhoowww Time sang Old Lang Sine.

So we ate quick and wanted to go to the Studio VIP show at the Liquid Lounge. I don’t remember what exactly happened but I got separated from the group and when I came around the corner one of the workers asked if I was the VIP. I said “No but I can be. I’m just looking for the rest of the my group.” So went around the corner and found the rest and he happened to follow me and asked again this time to my group, “Are you my VIPs?” We said, “Sure, we can be!” He said who wants to do it, you will dance up on stage and get VIP seating. Ella and Kate wanted to but you had to be 18 so Kate couldn’t. Either way, he put a badge on Ella and led her and the rest of us through like we were VIP going to a club and he sat us in our VIP seating.

Now he did give her some instructions on what would happen and that she would just have to follow one of the dancer’s lead. So the show began.

And eventually she was brought up to dance.

There was this little girl who just nothing more wanted to go dance with the ladies and their pretty outfits. Here she is sort of wanting to dance with Ella as she came back to sit down.

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Now what we were NOT expecting is what came next…..

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Ella front and center, and really Sophie, Kate, Ally, and Kaitlyn all got their very first strip tease…. while at a show….. on Carnival!! You see in the above picture the female dancer gathered up his clothes. At one point his sleeves ripped off and were flung on our table. He was pretending that he was about to rip off his underwear before the “cops” came to shut it down and he ran off.

Later, toward the end, the performers came and grabbed the other kids up and told people to go dance so most of us got up to dance the final number

The show had ended and we were still a little in shock over what just happened right in front of us!

Pictured below is Junior, the guy that made Ella the VIP and escorted us to our seats.

Now we did attempt to take a family picture but for some reason we always suck at taking good pictures. The lighting was never good anywhere so this was about the best one we got of us all dressed up.

Ally and Kaitlyn

New Years Party!

We all went to change into more comfortable clothes for the night. Ella pulled out yet another pair of new clothing we had never seen before. Come to find out she ordered a bunch of stuff online and had planned out what she was wearing most nights.

The Vikings were playing the Packers this night and Vikings lost Kirk Cousins earlier in the season and were on to their 4th QB of the year. The game was bad which was fine because there was really no good place to watch any way on the ship.

We went to watch the Vista Rock Band. Leighton would later tell Linda, “Mom, you’re obsessed with the Vista Rock Band.” Again, the lady was a great singer and the guy looked like he was unintentionally auditioning for SNL. The long Michael Jackson montage with him dancing was a site to be seen and I so wish I got that on video. I did ask them during their break if his name was Patrick from Carnival Magic and he said, “No, but he sounds like a lovely person!” Not everyone was feeling the Vista Rock Band so Leighton and the 3s went to the kids club for a bit and we told everyone to meet on the Lido at 11:15 for the party.

We went up a little early and at 10:30 and ordered a sandwich from the deli because why not. It was not fast by any means. Linda ordered one as well and eventually we did get the sandwich and turned out to be pretty good. They were about to close and Chris saw what we had and quick ran off to get one for himself. I think he was the last one.

Meanwhile we looked at the watermelon sculptures they did.

So the party crowd started growing and we found everyone from our group on deck eventually. Sophie and Kate came up with their friends they met at the club. This is Sophie with Gavin.

And would find ourselves on the ships big screen once in a while. Kaitlyn was a little excited

We would sing and dance and eventually there was a guy that got in front of me and while the music played we all danced but he danced like there was no one else around him practically and I just kept getting pushed. So I would stand my ground and purposely sing at the top of my lungs right in his ear to let him know I was there. It didn’t seem to phase him and eventually I did shift over a bit.

Finally the countdown to the New Year was on.

Happy New Year!!!

The ships horn blared for a good 10 to 15 seconds. We all screamed and continued dancing and laughing and once again had one of the best New Year party. It is so so cool to be out on the middle of the ocean as you ring in the new year with and party with a bunch of people you don’t know…but especially with the ones you do.

We weren’t even drinking, but you wouldn’t know that looking at this picture…

The Playlist Productions performers were up with Lawrence our CD and Ella was sure they spotted her and that they were giving each other love from across the ship.

We had to get a picture of the 2024 graduating seniors together with the ice sculpture.

At this point, Ella wasn’t feeling good and she ran off to go to the room.

So Ella went to the room and Ally and Kaitlyn ran off to the club. There was food out this night because of NYE but the line was insanely long. I went down to the room to talk to Ella and we figured she just needed to get some water as that was definitely lacking. We did not bring our water bottles with on this trip and the cups around the ship are always so small that you wind up not drinking enough water.

Ella and I went to look for Leighton and the 3s. We found the 3s sitting at a table in the Lido Marketplace and found 1s in the club briefly. We went back to look for the 1s as Ella may have went in to join them we but did not see them after that and she didn’t want to go in to look for them. So we went to the front of the ship on deck 7. Ella said earlier there was no way to get to the secret deck on the front of the ship but she was on the wrong level so I showed her. It was quite windy out but still so very neat to do!

On our way back to the room was interesting. The guy with the suit and duck was in the elevator so I asked him about it. He said, “my lady had been working on this for a year and I searched for the material online. The duck is velcrod on.” I never did ask why a duck.

When we were almost back to our room, a lady on a scooter was trying to get into her room. She would get the door open, try to hold it as she maneuvered the scooter in, then the door would shut and she would swear. So we held her door open for her as she said, “I have to learn to do this by myself at some point.” Probably so but she obviously had been drinking so now was not the time to learn so we held it open for her. She kept going too far to the right so I told her she has to nudge to the left a bit, then she finally got in and was grateful for our help.

We turned in around 1:30 and Sophie was the last one in at around 2am.

Tomorrow….Another Sea Day—>.

<—–Yesterday….Day 1 – Embarkation