Well since this was a sea day we definitely slept in (at least for us) until around 8am. Rise and shine everyone...I'm hungry!!!

Here's the Checklist to Chill for the day:

We headed up to the buffet to see what breakfast was going to be like. I had high hopes that the breakfast selection was going to be better than lunch or dinner. I mean breakfast is the most important meal of the day right? It's also my favorite!

I was happy to see there are no bacon police on this ship. Take as much or as little as you want...and I did. Plenty of meat choices this morning. Yep, this momma was happy.

Now the breakfast deserts are my weakness. Every ship seems to have these Danishes and I just LOVE LOVE LOVE them! It would be the same 3 throughout the entire cruise but I wasn't complaining.

The buffet was open until 10:30am I believe.

We went back to the room to get our bathing suits on and headed to the pool for awhile. BRRRRR! The water was cold! We ended up just sitting on the side of the pool with our feet in the water the entire time. Sakari was the only one brave enough to actually get in.

As we sat on the side of the pool we watched the cutest little girl jumping in and swimming. She must have been around 3 or 4 years old. It so reminded me of Sakari when she was that age and swimming all over the place while onlookers watched in amazement. This little girl had no fear...just like Sakari was back then. Oh how I miss those days.

Since the water was so cold, we decided we'd try out the hot tub...that is once a majority of the "under 10 years old without a parent" got out. There are signs everywhere saying no children under a certain age allowed in the hot tubs and no children between a certain age allowed unless a parent is present. No one paid attention to any of the rules. I even seen very small children in the hot tub WITH their parents who obviously couldn't read the signs either.

It was hot outside and being in the hot tub didn't last very long and out we went and back to the room to shower.

Sakari suggested going up to play putt putt so off we went. Of course once we climbed an abundance amount of stairs, we would find that we needed to go all the way back down to get the equipment to play. I haven't been on a cruise ship (that I can remember) that they didn't have everything out in a bin to use so this was weird. You actually had to check the items out by giving the room number and name and how many you needed.

Ok, back to climbing more stairs. Hey, at least I was working off those breakfast Danish's I wasn't supposed to eat right?

I have to admit, it was rough trying to play. The wind was blowing like crazy and everyone was hitting curve balls like they were bowling instead of putt-putting. There was an area beside the wall that had a large ship fan blowing out that you couldn't even put the ball down to take your first putt without it blowing away. "I would have made a hole in one on that shot had it not been for the wind" I said multiple times. I don't think the family believed me. :/

It was quite the struggle during the entire game but we had a lot of laughs and the most important thing was accomplished...I won the game. Just saying...

We headed back down to the towel area, two very long flights down lol, to turn in our equipment and get more game-playing-goodness-items to climb back up the two flights to....play corn hole on the opposite side of the ship.

Now as I've mentioned before, this is not your normal back yard corn hole. There were multiple different holes in the course to adjust to. It was a lot of fun. I wish other ships had this.

We liked it so much that we played several games and although I don't remember who won, I'm claiming I did. I mean the fam isn't on here to dispute it right?

Of course after turning in our equipment on deck 9, that put us right by the food again and guess who was hungry....Karl. (When isn't he hungry??)

We decided to check out the Taco Bar. They allow you to tell them how many you want and you are not limited (that we found) so that was good. They are mini taco's so pick wisely.

Karl and I got taco's and the hubby and Sakari decided to have food from the buffet. I was enjoying my taco's so much that I don't even remember what they had at the buffet for lunch nor did I bother to get a picture.

We headed back to the room and found that our room steward had already cleaned and he left the cutest little towel mouse for us! We were so happy to see that Margaritaville does the towel animals. We have so much fun seeing what they come up with and is part of the cruise experience IMO.

Our room steward was out in the hall still and I needed to ask him for wash rags. Sorry that's what my mom use to call them growing up and it has stuck with me but Karl kept correcting me saying "It's wash cloths momma B". I now had a point to prove and while talking to our room steward I said "We don't seem to have any wash RAGS in our room". He replied "Would you like some?" AH HA Karl! He knows what I'm talking about which means others say the same thing.

We headed out to explore and decided to go look in the shops on board. Along the hallway from our room I looked down at the handrail and found the smallest itty bitty duck I think I've ever seen. Wait! Is this a duck that people are hiding on here? "I FOUND A DUCK!!" I yelled. Sakari did her "awww, it's so cute" phrase and Karl had to come see.

We looked around at the shops and I found so many goodies that I would love to have as decor in my house but I withheld from buying anything. Sakari decided she wanted a few necklaces...only her card wouldn't work. I used my card and then went down to Guest Services to have them change it so that all of us would be able to use our own card. They thought I was nuts for allowing the kids to have full access to any amount. They questioned me several times about it and even ask if I wanted to put a limit on the amount others could spend. While I realize parents have walked away with a ginormous bill their kids ran up and they didn't know about, but I trust mine and they have good paying jobs so I'd get my money back either way.

So what should we do now? The hubby and I decided we wanted to head to the casino for awhile and the kids were going to go walk around (I'm sure Karl was on a duck hunt). On the way back to the room, I found an actual REAL SIZED duck...and by that I mean the normal rubber duckies and not this fingernail sized imposter I found earlier. I was so excited. After that, it was game on between me and Karl. We searched everywhere we went. Him and I are very competitive in case you didn't know.

We parted ways with the kids after I put my 2 newly found ducks up on display for Karl to have to stare at while gloating about my prized possessions and off we went to the casino.

We found several games that would end up being our favorites throughout the cruise. They seemed to hit pretty well when we played and weren't stingy with the bonus rounds. We aren't big time players and our rules are to take $100 each and only put in $20 each time. If we double our money, we cash out and keep the ticket and whatever we have in tickets at the end we cash in and walk away with...whether it's more or less than what we came with. No need to get greedy or too hopeful that if you hit that button one more time you'll win again.

I'm also going to add that we discovered tonight that if you ask for pop at the casino bar, they will give you the entire COLD can! SCORE!! Then the hubby lets me know when he was at the bar getting us drinks there was a menu on the counter and a duck behind it and someone walked up where he was at and found it. "WAIT WHAT? You didn't grab it?" He claims he didn't know it was there but after that, I'm pretty sure he won't tell me again if he misses a duck.

So for this round of playing, we walked out after playing around 1-2 hours with $191 and some change. We went back to the room and soon after that the kids arrived. I slammed the money down on the bed in front of Karl and said "Boom! Look what I won in the casino!" His eyes got big and he was so excited thinking I had won that much not knowing what we went there with. Hey, I can have a little fun with him right? No, I did not tell him the truth today or the rest of the cruise for that matter. LOL His retaliation back at me was....

Yep, he had found a duck of his own! Way to go Karl. He was gloating the rest of the night. I of course had to remind him that I had found 2 ducks and was still ahead of him.

Now there's been a lot of talk about the condition of the towels on the ship. People have said they are yellowed or dingy. I found that to be the case as well. I desperately tried to get a good picture but do you know how hard it it to take pictures of material that's white (or not white in this case) that has texture? But yes, they do have some towels and wash RAGS that are off color, dingy or yellowed. I guess when they bought this ship they obtained the towels that came with it. But you can be rest assured they are clean and smelled good. They are just old I guess.

So Sakari has this blanket, and I'm using that term lightly because there's a PIECE of a blanket she used to have when she was little, that she takes with her on every vacation and sleeps with it. It's a blanket I crocheted for her when I was pregnant with her. She slept with it since she was born and when she was younger our Husky got ahold of it and shredded it. She was devasted. I have offered to make her another multiple times throughout the years but she's not having it. She wants THAT blankie. So, she carries this small piece around with her and always has. She will hold onto it while on the plane and at night. (I'm sure some of you have seen this in previous reviews when I snap a picture of her holding onto it on the plane and twirling it between her fingers)

Why am I telling you this? Because it's so small and raggedy that one might mistake it as trash and throw it away. So before we left out earlier in the day I stuffed it in a cubby hole beside the bed. When Sakari returned and looked for it she couldn't find it. Her and Karl had torn the room up looking for it and her worse fear had (she thought) come true and it was thrown away by the room steward while he was cleaning. She was in complete panic mode and had a melt down. She even called housekeeping and had people looking for it. This girl I tell ya.... I immediately pulled it out of the cubby hole and handed it to her. We called off the search party and everything was good now. Can we go to dinner now and put this mess behind us? Karl is hungry.

There were some crazy looking clouds out tonight and even some black ones. I wondered if we were going to have a rocky night tonight.

The kids wanted to go to the main dining room tonight so we decided that we would dress up. Sakari just loves dressing up and going out (whether on a cruise, land vacation or at home). She has so many dresses and always ordering more. The girl has more clothes than she has closet and dressers for and this girl has a 2 story bedroom if that tells you anything. She loves her clothes.

So what's on the menu today?

We ended up at Fins Dining Room this time. Some of us started out with a Caesar Salad and others the Cheese Ravioli and Jimmy's Jambalaya (I think it was)<--since I don't know what it was, I bet you can guess this wasn't what I ordered. ;)

As we waited on our main entre to arrive, we took a few pictures.

Well, the photographer noticed we were doing this and came over to take some "professional" pictures.

Here's 2 of the meals we ordered. The funny thing is...I ordered the Deviled Shrimp and didn't even take a picture of it. I'm slacking and it's only the second day of the cruise!

Here we have Chicken Marsala and Ranchero Flat Iron Steak, which wasn't so flat.

Everything was great and service was excellent!

While waiting on our deserts, Sakari said "Oh my gosh! Look at the Koi Fish on the table!"

Yes, we are that family that looks up in the sky at the clouds and makes something out of them. I never thought I would be doing the same with the reflection of ice in our water on a table but they were everywhere on the table and I could totally see it after she said it. LOL

For desert we ordered the Pineapple in Paradise and Pina-colada Lush....both to die for! Look at the cute little green flip flops they stamp on the plate with icing. Another cute little added touch by Margaritaville.

With our bellies full we headed back to the room to relax. Tomorrow was our first (and only) port day of this cruise and we needed to wind down from all the laughter during dinner at Sakari's Koi fish comments.

On the way back to the room....winner winner chicken dinner! I found another duck. Hmmm, Karl this makes 3 for me today! Or do you consider this 2 1/2?

Now I'm going to add one more section before I close out this day. Remember how I said the clouds were getting dark outside and I wondered about the weather? Well I missed the opportunity of a lifetime and something I have always wanted to see. :( Off the back of the ship, within minutes of us passing, there were 3 waterspouts!!! Three of them!! I'm going to share a few pictures that were uploaded to our roll call group so that you can see them. I'm still kicking myself for not looking out at the clouds after seeing how dark they were. I had no idea this was going on. I will definitely keep an eye out the next time we're on the water and the clouds are dark!

THESE ARE NOT MY PICTURES!!! THEY BELONG TO OTHERS IN OUR FB ROLL CALL!

Is that not the most amazing thing you've ever seen?!? One of these days I will witness it with my own eyes.

Off we went to bed. 💤