Vacation: A Day at Sea

Our next day on the ship was a full at sea day.  Each night, you are given a "Navigator" that tells you all the activities for the following day and I had highlighted some things that I thought would be fun.  Everyone was up by 7:30 and after witnessing a gorgeous sunrise, we went to the buffet restaurant, Cabanas, for breakfast. They had a wide-selection and everyone enjoyed picking out what they wanted.  I tried to stick to healthy foods, like oatmeal and fruit, to help me feel better about the ice cream and other desserts I knew I would be eating later.  The kids were anxious to get back to the kid's clubs, so we dropped them off around 9:00 so they could enjoy "Goofy Files: a fascinating activity that takes you into the invisible world of forensics where you will discover different ways to identify the suspect of a crime."  Anna and Kara said it was great, Jack chose to play the computer instead (watch for a theme in coming posts...).

Thomas and I walked around the ship some more.  Thomas had gotten up at 5 and gone running and he wanted to check the accuracy of his watch.  He had turned the GPS off, but his time was still way off. He knew his 6-minute mile was too good to be true, but it was still disappointing.  They had a deck where you could run all the way around, each lap was 1/3 of a mile.  Thomas and I also tried our hand at shuffleboard.

We picked the kids up around 10:30 and watched the movie planes in the ship's movie theater.  Then, it was back to Cabana's for a buffet lunch.  The food for lunch was good, they had a lot of seafood choices, including shrimp and crab legs, two of my favorites.  Since Jack is allergic to shellfish, I had to sit at the opposite end of the table and make sure I scrubbed my hands, but it was so worth it!

Looking at the Navigator, I can't figure out what we did for the rest of the day.  There are a few things highlighted, but we didn't do them.  As the vacation progressed, we got better at joining in activities.  I know at some point, we got snacks and ice cream on the 9th deck, because we did that every day.  But, I really can't remember the rest.  This is why I should have brought the computer along.

At 5:45, we headed to dinner.  This time, we were at Animator's Palate.  It was also semi-formal night. The girls wore their princess costumes and Jack put on Captain America.  Animator's Palate is an amazing venue.  The artwork on the walls changes as if someone is drawing a picture.  It was fun to guess which character was being drawn.  It is all in black and white.  Toward the end of the meal, the drawings turn into movie screens and scenes are displayed as color erupts around the room.  Since this description is kind of lacking, here is the one from the website:" Animator's Palate serves up something more than just fine food: an innovative dinner show celebrating the art of Disney storytelling and animation, where many of your favorite Disney characters come to life right before your eyes. Throughout your meal, Disney character sketches located on the restaurant walls slowly transform from stark black and white to brilliant color, amid the familiar classic orchestral themes of Disney movies playing overhead."  At the end, Magic Mickey comes out along with all of the restaurant staff.  They played music about sidekicks while the screens showed different scenes featuring heroes and their sidekicks.  The other scene I remember was one devoted to villains.  It really was awesome.  I wish I could go there for dinner tonight!

After dinner, we took the kids back to the kids club for about an hour, after which we picked them up for the "Twice Charmed" production.  The plot revolved around giving the wicked stepmother and stepsisters a second chance at thwarting Cinderella.  Of course, Cinderella triumphed in the end.  We all loved it. 

By now, it was about 9:30 and way past the kids' bedtime, so back to the room we went and everyone was soon asleep.  And now, the pictures:

We were up in time to see the sunrise

Off in the distance is Cuba, a little too close for Thomas' comfort.

Our daily ice cream and snack break

The girls

The superheroes

A grainy picture of tAnimator's Palate 

Our nightly towel animal