Cruise Days 3-5

For day three, we were supposed to stop at Labadee, Royal's private beach area in Haiti. However, due to the violence and unrest in Haiti the port visit was canceled. Instead, we had another sea day. Everything felt really crowded, with super long lines for all the ship's activities. Although, at one point Luke and I did the Abyss with absolutely zero wait. We had walked by earlier and the line was super long (probably 50+ people), so it was a big surprise. We actually thought it must be closed, but we just happened to walk by in a complete lull. We were so amazed that we texted Thomas who met us at the top to ride again. Other than that we just kind of bummed around. Anna and I did trivia. Thomas and I went to the adult comedy show after dinner; it was okay, not amazing but not bad either. All in all it was a pretty okay day.

Thomas and Luke also climbed the rock wall. 

Day Four, we were in Jamaica. Thomas and I started our day around around 630 with a visit to the gym. We all had breakfast in the main dining room, which was nice and relaxing. Then, we went off the ship for a little while to walk around the port area. I was interested in taking a cab on a tour, Thomas did not feel like it was a safe thing to do. We had a bad experience in Jamaica on our honeymoon and we have never really forgotten. So we walked around the port and then went back to the ship. Luke did not want to go with us, so we left him in the kids club. We checked on him when we got back and he did not want to leave. He ended up staying there all day! We checked on him every hour or two and he kept waving us off until we had to pick him up at 4:30 because they closed at five.  During that time, we did a lot of different stuff. We played miniature golf, ping-pong, had snacks at El Loco fresh, sat by the water enjoying the views, rode the Abyss, and generally just enjoyed the quiet ship until dinner. 

Just chatting with some amazing views

Trying to decide whose drink was better.

After dinner, Anna, Jack, and I went to the aqua show. I thought it was really, really good. But, Jack left early and Anna said it was her least favorite of the three we’ve seen.  To me, that was crazy, because it was BY FAR my favorite. They had an amazing martial artist doing all kinds of crazy flips, there was tight rope walking, synchronized swimming, slack rope performers, and of course amazing dives. After the show, Thomas and I went with Kara to get a snack and then watch the live band. we thought they were doing party songs, but it ended up being slow songs, and we were too tired for that so we left.  Jack and Kara went to the teen silent disco and the rest of us decided to call it a night. I ended up walking about 20,000 steps, and climbed 45 flights of stairs. Thomas had about the same number of steps but 65 flights of stairs! It was my favorite day of the cruise so far.

Day five was another sea day. I can’t remember much about the morning, even though it was just yesterday (when I wrote this), the day seems to run together. I know Anna and I went to trivia at 10 and we got 11/15 questions. We were happy with that, although, it did not win us anything. And, Kara and I took Luke back to the rock climbing wall.  We also met up with Mike and Sunshine on the Boardwalk. The kids got cotton candy and then Luke and Mike went to the arcade. They played a few games and decided to go to the kids club.  Mike had been sick for the first few days of the cruise, so Luke was really happy to finally spend some time with him. 

That afternoon, Thomas and I went to love and marriage show at 3:15, it was really entertaining. No way would I ever volunteer to be on that stage, but I appreciate the people who do. We also had a specialty lunch at Jamie‘s Italian. It is fresh made pasta and it was super good, but super rich. I was very full for the entire afternoon. 

Jamie's. Thomas still isn't eating added sugar, so I "sampled" two desserts.

Dinner was good, it was lobster night! My lobster was delicious and I loved it. I was the only one in my family who got it.  Jack is allergic to shellfish and nobody else in the family likes it. Kara will eat shrimp on occasion, but shellfish is not really anyone’s thing, but mine. Sad! They used to give you unlimited lobster tails, but they recently changed to just one ($17 for additional). Our waiter, Sergio, who we really liked, saw me enjoying mine and said he had an extra plate. So, I got my two lobster tails after all. Thanks, Sergio!

After dinner, we changed, and then some of us went and listened to the house band do music from the 50s and 60s. It was really nice. Then we went to the show, Flight.  It was described as a history through flight and I really loved it. So did Thomas. It had some really amazing visuals unlike anything we had seen. The kids liked it, but weren't nearly as impressed as Thomas and I.  

After the show, Luke really wanted to do the gaga ball tournament in the kid's club. The only problem for us was that it started at 10 PM. It was during their extra hours time, meaning you have to pay.  I think they try to do really fun stuff to get more kids to come. It certainly worked for Luke! We told him he could do one hour, because we were tired. So he went from 10 to 11. But Kara and Jack went to some teen party, so they were out anyway.  Kara didn’t come back until midnight, Jack came back shortly before that. So I did not get to sleep until everyone was safely in their rooms. (by the way--15K steps and 42 flights of stairs)

It was a long, very fun day! One funny thing that happened, I was getting a drink from a bar, (nonalcoholic Lava Flow) and a very drunk guy was talking to me. Not flirting, just friendly and drunk. Anyway, he told me that he and the bartender were basically the same person, that they were just so similar and he clearly knew everyone working at the bar, who all came over to fist bump him. So while I waited for my drink, we chatted (well, he chatted and I listened). Then, he told me I had great energy and handed me a $100 bill to tip the bartender. Very strange, but I did it and the bar tender was thrilled. Sunshine was with me and took a picture. That night her daughter told her about some guy who gave her and her friends $100 to stop talking. Sunshine showed Lily the picture and sure enough it was the same guy! I wonder how many hundred dollar bills he’s walking around with? We joked that we needed to follow him around and see if we could collect some of those Franklins!