A Day At Sea

We woke up at 8:00 a.m. to an annoying alarm clock. Who wakes up at such an ungodly hour whilst on a cruise??!?! Ummm...apparently that would be us. It was frustrating to be woken up by an alarm that we didn't set. As it was, it appeared that the "accident" turned out well in the end. We were surprised that it was already 8:00 because we are usually early wakers and early breakfast people. The whole tribe got dressed rapidly because we all wanted to do a test run at the beginner session of rock climbing. We made a decision to go to the concierge lounge in an effort to save time. It worked out to be a good call. There was only one other family there and we were served very quickly. Our bircher muesli and fruit was wolved down in record time.

We got to rock climbing only to discover that we ALL needed our sea pass cards to do it. This was one of the down sides of such a big ship. The distances between various locations can be huge! This was a time when there was an upside to having children! We sent Elliot to quickly run back to the stateroom, collect the missing cards and run back to the rock climbing wall. Fortunately we didn't lose to many places in the queue...We soon learnt the key to rock climbing: to keep driving upwards with your legs, otherwise you’ll get stuck in an awkward position! Poor Jonah didn't make the height requirement once again. The child sat patiently and waited whilst the rest of the family had fun. We indulged him by spending extra time at the carousel post rock climbing. Jonah loved it.

Using those strong legs...

Yep, you don't have to rock climb to get a medal

Zumba in the middle of the promenade with the whole ship watching ?!?! I just couldnt make myself do it...

I am not sure how  The Hoff got onto my photo but its ridiculous enough that I'll keep the photo on

At the end of the session, we were surprised to realise that it was still only 10:00am! It felt like we had been climbing the whole morning. The children were keen to go to Adventure Ocean, RCL's children's club, so we traipsed as family to the children's club to check it out. Jonah took one look and decided not to stay. I could understand why. Whilst there was nothing wrong with the facilities, it was definitely not as engaging as those on the Disney ships. The older two were not as fussy and stayed happily. It gave Malcolm, Jonah and I some time to further explore the ship. We stumbled with joy into the card room and the library! Although small, it chewed up our morning before we then returned to our stateroom and waited for Lara and Elliot to reconvene at the arranged time of noon.

With the family reunited, we left to explore “Central Park”, an open area in the middle of the ship filled with greenery that was modelled to recreate the feel of central park. After perusing the shops and various restaurant offerings, we settled on the casual Park Cafe for our lunch. We were pleasantly surprised at the considerably healthy options available. After lunch it was a flurry of activity on the top deck of the ship. We watched Lara (the only one brave enough to do it!) zip-line across the ship, jumped in the pools, had a water fight, miserably failed flow rider and went back to the room to get changed into our formal clothes. One of the perks of being in a concierge stateroom was having your formal wear pressed with compliments. It was thus frustrating to discover that our clothes hadn't turned up from the pressing service despite a reminder. After finally being able to get dressed, we were almost late for dinner. And no, we didn't take a photo of ourselves in our formal gear! Not sure how that happened...

Entrance to the kids club, with a reluctant Jonah lagging behind

The library was much more to his liking!

A huge sandwich for lunch

Zip-lining across the middle of the ship

Here she comes!

Lara very proud of herself

As you do when you're waiting for your laundry to arrive...

...you watch the world's sexiest man competition!

Enjoying the view of the vast ocean from our balcony

At dinner it was clearly the evening for lobster bisque and duck! It was the meal of choice for the whole family. Whilst munching away, a young man at the table next to us dropped to his knee and asked a young lady if she would like to marry him. The "yes" that followed resulted in everyone around the area cheering and clapping. It certainly set the mood for us for the rest of the evening! The dessert was enjoyable and we were pleased to discover that Elliot prefers sugar free ice-cream to normal ice-cream! That is a big congratulations to the staff who have managed to make diet ice-cream taste good!

On the way back to the cabin, a lady came and said to us, “You’re the best looking family on the ship!”. Our heads must have swelled somewhat with that lovely compliment...so we slept with peace, ready for a new day!