Rockin’ The Night Away - Full Day At Sea
Editors Note: Hi Folks! I'm about a day behind here in posting. This one roughly outlines our full day at sea headed towards Grand Cayman. As I type, it is actually Wed. morning 5:30am local time (we went to bed early last night - long, busy day) and we are about 50 miles east of Cozumel. I'll try to get in a few posts today to catch up. Hope you are enjoying this. We are having a blast!
…rocking…. Rocking…more rocking….even more rocking….faaabooom!!!..whoa!? Faaabooooom! Whoa! FaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaBOOOOM! Holy ship! By 2:30 the combined rocking effect, wind howl, and faaaaboom noise of the ship lifting and crashing into waves was something else. I don’t know how Jule and Alyssa were sleeping next door, but I was literally rolling back and forth in the bed unwillingly.
Faaaaaboooooom whoosh!!! Whoa.
Not able to sleep, I made the mistake that I would be able to successfully navigate my room at 2:30am to see first hand this squall. I opened the curtains to our full length window/balcony door and just saw dark and spray….spray…and then wind….howl…spray… Okay, figured that one out. I was windy and rainy.
Next clue was the GPS channel to get an idea for those winds. At this point, sustained winds were topping 37 mph and God knows what the gusts were at. All I know is that our ship was rocking. It was kinda fun, but did keep me awake. No noise from next door meant all was well - I think.
I finally fell asleep by 3am for some solid sleep. 6:20 I woke up again, mainly out of curiosity with the current weather conditions. It took me a moment to realize that I was no longer rolling from side to side in bed - which was a good sign. But the lack of sunlight was also an interesting way to start the day (sunrise should have been around 6am). So I got up again to look out the window and this time saw very dark, grey skies and choppy surf. The balcony was soaked - a clear indicator that the night had been wet.
Still, the ride was much smoother than the previous 12 hours and that was a good sign. I was more or less awake, so I got up to watch some CNN news. That is when squall #2 took shape. Had I put my swim gear on, I would have braved the rain to go out and take photos, but I decided beyond the shower and watched for the next 10 minutes as the Carnival Legend withstood one last onslaught of rain. A minute after that rain ended, it was sunny and clearing. Jule woke up and came over. Her night was much the same as mine, but she was not feeling well from all the motion. I seemed fine. Alyssa was up by 7 no worse for the wear.
Faaaaaboooooom whoosh!!! Whoa.
Not able to sleep, I made the mistake that I would be able to successfully navigate my room at 2:30am to see first hand this squall. I opened the curtains to our full length window/balcony door and just saw dark and spray….spray…and then wind….howl…spray… Okay, figured that one out. I was windy and rainy.
Next clue was the GPS channel to get an idea for those winds. At this point, sustained winds were topping 37 mph and God knows what the gusts were at. All I know is that our ship was rocking. It was kinda fun, but did keep me awake. No noise from next door meant all was well - I think.
I finally fell asleep by 3am for some solid sleep. 6:20 I woke up again, mainly out of curiosity with the current weather conditions. It took me a moment to realize that I was no longer rolling from side to side in bed - which was a good sign. But the lack of sunlight was also an interesting way to start the day (sunrise should have been around 6am). So I got up again to look out the window and this time saw very dark, grey skies and choppy surf. The balcony was soaked - a clear indicator that the night had been wet.
Still, the ride was much smoother than the previous 12 hours and that was a good sign. I was more or less awake, so I got up to watch some CNN news. That is when squall #2 took shape. Had I put my swim gear on, I would have braved the rain to go out and take photos, but I decided beyond the shower and watched for the next 10 minutes as the Carnival Legend withstood one last onslaught of rain. A minute after that rain ended, it was sunny and clearing. Jule woke up and came over. Her night was much the same as mine, but she was not feeling well from all the motion. I seemed fine. Alyssa was up by 7 no worse for the wear.
We strolled out for breakfast around 8am and discovered that we were nearly alone. I grabbed food for Jule and Alyssa and over-heard several other passengers commenting that their friends/family were in their rooms a bit sick. Huh…so we did fairly well considering. Plus, we got the breakfast buffet nearly to ourselves. But Jule had no appetite and Alyssa was clearly still tired. They nibbled on their breakfast and I had a growing headache. So we just took our time because the location of the café seemed to not be rocking as much as the rooms or other spots on the ship.
By 8:30am the scene began change as more and more people decided food over waves and the seas gradually began to calm. Alyssa conked out during breakfast so we returned her to the room for a nap and some slow time for us too. I went out on the balcony and watch flying fish dodge the ship and Jule watched some TV.
Barely an hour later, we were all ready to try something else. We checked Alyssa into Camp Carnival (she was very excited) and went to a seminar on how to get the best shopping deals in our ports. That was kind of neat and Jule won a free T-shirt (re-gifter for sure). Then she got hungry for pizza (baby on board after all) so we walked to the café and just as Jule orderd her pizza, the pager buzzed indicating we needed to go check on Alyssa. So I agreed to bring pizza back to the room while Jule check in on Alyssa since the kids room is one floor directly below our rooms. Jule came back with Alyssa in tow. She had become concerned where mommy, daddy, and the humpback whales were (Alyssa is determined to see dolphins and humpback whales in the ocean). So the ladies had lunch.
I agreed to baby sit our laundry for a hour while Jule took Alyssa swimming. I tried to make it out to the ship’s version of Survivor - a game show they were doing poolside, but ran a bit late as fate would have it. As I strolled out to the pool area, I saw the ladies being scolded by a crew member. He was informing Jule that Alyssa could not swim in the regular pool and would have to go to the baby pool (I.e. the piss pool). Jule seemed annoyed so I went over to assist. According to her, she asked several crew members if and where the kiddy pool was and all pointed her to the pool she was in (with many other toddlers, mind you). None indicated that there was a kiddy pool.
So why were the other toddlers not being asked to leave?? According to the crew member, because they were NOT wearing swim diapers, therefore they could stay because clearly that meant they were potty trained. Yah, sure. So while other parents let their toddlers pee away, we were being responsible and suffered the consequences. Interesting. So we were left to find the mysterious kiddy pool on our own, and finally found it up on some hard to find deck at the aft of the ship. The name should be the Kiddy Puddle, because this pool had about 9 inches of water in it. Oh well, it made Alyssa happy to splash around, although Jule was much warmer not being able to dunk into the pool.
After a good hour or more in the sun, it was time to get Alyssa back for a real nap. I took the chance to look into the onboard shops for deals, but unless you wanted some scarves, purses, or some crappy fake jewelry, nothing was worth getting. I spared Jule a set of new zebra print scarves for now. Oh, the urge! Just $10!! It is amazing how a stupid sign can fool people into value.
Anyhow, we spent the majority of the rest of the day taking advantage of many of the ship’s offerings. I finished 2nd in a trivia game because I did not know that Miles Davis was known as Jazz’s Prince of Darkness (I did laugh at the teen who yelled out “OZZY!!”). We then came back and got all dressed up for formal night. Alyssa’s formal night would be shorter than ours. We dressed her up, went to the Captains Reception and party, which was pretty lame since the captain sat up on the stage rather than mingled (as was our experiences on Royal C.). The majority of the crew is Italian, so we are in good hands.
After the reception, we jammed in as many formal portrait sites as we could. One of the other things about cruising is you can take full advantage of the many photographers around the ship who will be stationed at certain areas with various backgrounds or props (including a grand piano) or they will be awaiting you as you come on shore to take some goofy photos in the theme of the destination (lots of pirates here in the Caribbean). So we snuck in a good 3-4 formal sessions and Alyssa smiled at only one, because Jule tickled her). Still, I think we got one decent photo out of it. Buy the 8x10 and scan when you get home and viola!! For roughly $20 you have a family portrait scanned to make all the smaller sizes you want. Not bad, eh?
So off Alyssa went to Camp Carnival and off Jule and I went for our
own romantic dressy dinner. Tonight we enjoyed our own company. Ubiwon shows no promise of leaving the ranks of padowan learners - her medichlorian count must be low. Jeffry our waiter is cool, but busy making up for her mistakes or lack of enthusiasm. Jule had lobster while I had prime rib. Both were excellent but the banana dessert was to die for. The beeper went off telling us that Alyssa was unhappy, so we called to the Camp to find out that she was a bit unhappy during dinner, but had since settled down. We would the evening down by playing some slots (no winning) and going for an evening stroll around the ship.
It was an early evening for us, since tomorrow meant our first port - Grand Cayman Island! Our island tour begins at 8:15 and this means we need to be on the 7:30 tender (boat) to shore. Thus breakfast and all needs to be done by then. Early….God I hope the seas are calm tonight!
By 8:30am the scene began change as more and more people decided food over waves and the seas gradually began to calm. Alyssa conked out during breakfast so we returned her to the room for a nap and some slow time for us too. I went out on the balcony and watch flying fish dodge the ship and Jule watched some TV.
Barely an hour later, we were all ready to try something else. We checked Alyssa into Camp Carnival (she was very excited) and went to a seminar on how to get the best shopping deals in our ports. That was kind of neat and Jule won a free T-shirt (re-gifter for sure). Then she got hungry for pizza (baby on board after all) so we walked to the café and just as Jule orderd her pizza, the pager buzzed indicating we needed to go check on Alyssa. So I agreed to bring pizza back to the room while Jule check in on Alyssa since the kids room is one floor directly below our rooms. Jule came back with Alyssa in tow. She had become concerned where mommy, daddy, and the humpback whales were (Alyssa is determined to see dolphins and humpback whales in the ocean). So the ladies had lunch.I agreed to baby sit our laundry for a hour while Jule took Alyssa swimming. I tried to make it out to the ship’s version of Survivor - a game show they were doing poolside, but ran a bit late as fate would have it. As I strolled out to the pool area, I saw the ladies being scolded by a crew member. He was informing Jule that Alyssa could not swim in the regular pool and would have to go to the baby pool (I.e. the piss pool). Jule seemed annoyed so I went over to assist. According to her, she asked several crew members if and where the kiddy pool was and all pointed her to the pool she was in (with many other toddlers, mind you). None indicated that there was a kiddy pool.
So why were the other toddlers not being asked to leave?? According to the crew member, because they were NOT wearing swim diapers, therefore they could stay because clearly that meant they were potty trained. Yah, sure. So while other parents let their toddlers pee away, we were being responsible and suffered the consequences. Interesting. So we were left to find the mysterious kiddy pool on our own, and finally found it up on some hard to find deck at the aft of the ship. The name should be the Kiddy Puddle, because this pool had about 9 inches of water in it. Oh well, it made Alyssa happy to splash around, although Jule was much warmer not being able to dunk into the pool.
After a good hour or more in the sun, it was time to get Alyssa back for a real nap. I took the chance to look into the onboard shops for deals, but unless you wanted some scarves, purses, or some crappy fake jewelry, nothing was worth getting. I spared Jule a set of new zebra print scarves for now. Oh, the urge! Just $10!! It is amazing how a stupid sign can fool people into value.
Anyhow, we spent the majority of the rest of the day taking advantage of many of the ship’s offerings. I finished 2nd in a trivia game because I did not know that Miles Davis was known as Jazz’s Prince of Darkness (I did laugh at the teen who yelled out “OZZY!!”). We then came back and got all dressed up for formal night. Alyssa’s formal night would be shorter than ours. We dressed her up, went to the Captains Reception and party, which was pretty lame since the captain sat up on the stage rather than mingled (as was our experiences on Royal C.). The majority of the crew is Italian, so we are in good hands.
After the reception, we jammed in as many formal portrait sites as we could. One of the other things about cruising is you can take full advantage of the many photographers around the ship who will be stationed at certain areas with various backgrounds or props (including a grand piano) or they will be awaiting you as you come on shore to take some goofy photos in the theme of the destination (lots of pirates here in the Caribbean). So we snuck in a good 3-4 formal sessions and Alyssa smiled at only one, because Jule tickled her). Still, I think we got one decent photo out of it. Buy the 8x10 and scan when you get home and viola!! For roughly $20 you have a family portrait scanned to make all the smaller sizes you want. Not bad, eh?So off Alyssa went to Camp Carnival and off Jule and I went for our
own romantic dressy dinner. Tonight we enjoyed our own company. Ubiwon shows no promise of leaving the ranks of padowan learners - her medichlorian count must be low. Jeffry our waiter is cool, but busy making up for her mistakes or lack of enthusiasm. Jule had lobster while I had prime rib. Both were excellent but the banana dessert was to die for. The beeper went off telling us that Alyssa was unhappy, so we called to the Camp to find out that she was a bit unhappy during dinner, but had since settled down. We would the evening down by playing some slots (no winning) and going for an evening stroll around the ship.It was an early evening for us, since tomorrow meant our first port - Grand Cayman Island! Our island tour begins at 8:15 and this means we need to be on the 7:30 tender (boat) to shore. Thus breakfast and all needs to be done by then. Early….God I hope the seas are calm tonight!
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