Birthday Cruise, Day 1

The kids were off of school on Friday, so we used the opportunity to schedule their second-annual-birthday-weekend-cruise! Before departing on Friday morning, I took Anna driving for about 30 minutes. She made some good improvements and I even let her drive the mile home from the park where we had been making circles around the parking lot. 

Our check in time for our Independence of the Seas cruise (first time on this ship) was 10:30 and we left our house around 9:30. It only took about 45 minutes to get to the port and check-in was a breeze. We had to wait around for the ship to officially open for boarding, which happened shortly after 11. We went straight to the Windjammer, but it didn’t open until 11:30. We were among the first in line for lunch, which was good because it was super crowded by the time we left. After lunch we walked around the ship and then Luke, Thomas and I changed into our bathing suits and tried out the waterslides and pool. The waterslides were okay, but very slow. Luke also later did the sky pad and rock climbing wall. 

The VR wasn't working on this trip, so it was just jumping.

We relaxed in our room until dinner, which was in the main dining room. There was a snafu and our table was not with the Tilleys/Farnhams. That was a little annoying, but it was my own fault for making assumptions about our reservations being linked. After dinner, we walked around the ship. We played shuffleboard and enjoyed the night sky, including a really great view of Jupiter and a beautiful pink sunset. We saw the 9:15 ice-skating show which I thought was good, Thomas did not like it, and the kids were somewhere in the middle. Oddly enough, every male skater who had a solo performance fell (either 3 or 4). After the ice skating show, we called it a night and went to bed.

Jack went to the gym. The rest of us enjoyed the views. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the pink sunset was beautiful!