Mitsugirly takes great PRIDE in bringing her Spring Break extreme review
Day 4: Another Sea Day
Day 3-Another Sea Day
My plan was to sleep in the best that I could, but the bed was hard, I tossed and turned and the room was still freezing. I was up by 9:30am and we decided to head to the buffet for breakfast this time.
We loaded up with the usual...eggs, bacon from the bacon police, toast, french toast...you know, the basics.
Everything was good and as expected from the buffet. No complaints here...but then again, I'm a buffet girl.
Sakari headed off to the kids club...but wait, where are they? They were back up on the 10th floor at Club o2. Do they ever stay in their area? Where are the kids at that belong in Club o2?
We headed back down to donate more money to the Carnival cause and I didn't have any luck, but the hubby did.
We picked Sakari up at 12:45 and decided it was time to play a round of "golf"...yes golf when Sakari plays.
Of course since it was a sea day, it must have been every kids choice of things to do today too. When we first got there, there were no golf balls and we waited and waited. We finally decided it would be best to walk over to where it ended and get some ones balls as their game ended. We had a good time and I'll claim bragging rights to the game.
By this time I was hungry again and Guys Burgers it was.
We absolutely loved that this ship had the new Dr Seuss things on it. It was now time for the Dr Seuss parade. I had asked prior to the cruise if others dressed up for this. I got the impression that "most" don't, but some do. I went all out on this cruise. I purchased Sakari and "Thing 1" shirt with her name on it. I made her a matching tulle dress. I got me a "Mom of Thing 1" shirt and even bought me Thing 1 blue crazy hair. I tried like crazy to find daddy a "Sam I Am" shirt (his name is Sam), but I swear they don't exist...at least for adults. LOL
We headed back to the room to get ready for the parade and story time. Sakari couldn't wait to wear her outfit and had been begging since we got on the ship. She also begged to wear my blue hair and who was I to deny her?
Off we headed to the atrium (the meeting place) while along the way everyone starred at her and snapped pictures. When we arrived, parents had their kids stand with her and took their pictures...over and over and over. Sakari was loving it up and acted as if she was a celebrity...putting her arms around them and taking pictures with strangers. So much for stranger danger...everything out the door on that motto.
They handed her a sign to hold during the parade. It was HEAVY. Maybe these signs were for the "big kids" to hold instead? Either way, once Brayden made it there, we handed it off to him. LOL
Jase the CD was preparing the crowd to get excited for the entrance of the characters.
They have arrived...
Sam I Am showed up too
Everyone headed out for the journey to the theater where they would hold story time for the kids. Sakari was way up ahead of us and Brayden was at the end dragging along. We were sorta in the middle...where ever we could squeeze into the crowd.
We arrived at the theater and the kids took their place on the stage.
We managed to get prime real estate in the first row and I was excited...until this happened...
I could not believe the guy sat down right in front of us blocking our view of the action. Ugh.
So, we were forced to move to a different location, mid center and rows and rows back.
Out came The Cat in the Hat and the crowd went crazy.
Jase told the story and people they picked from the audience acted out the story with props.
This guy was super hilarious and played the part well.
When they talked about it raining outside...it literally rained...
The kids had a good time and the concept was cute. I like having Dr Seuss on the cruise. Great idea Carnival.
She decided she wanted to go on the water slide and up she went.
Are you watching me mommy?
Now I know the waterpark is new, but I also know that the Pride had a water slide before the 2.0 and (I think) it was blue. Now I'm not sure if this is the same slide that has been repainted or if it's new but it reminded me of the old water slides on the NCL ships by the main pool. You try you best to slide down them and even with the water going, you go nowhere. This slide was about the same. You drifted ever so slowly along the water while doing a jiggle with your rump trying to move along.
This would be about as far as she could make it any given time and that's pushing it.
She would have to stand up and walk the rest of the way to the end each time.
I don't know who invented these things but obviously something went wrong with the design, the material or the decline in them. They just don't slide. She still squealed with excitement like it was the best thing ever...after all, it was still water right?
Brayden and Kendra joined us now, but they sat on the opposite side. Now I know this is an older ship and they installed this funtastic water park and I'm not complaining, well maybe just a little, but there's absolutely no place to sit up here. They have maybe 4-5 chairs on one side and the same on the other and 2 umbrellas. How many people is that really going to accommodate? Not many. I can only imagine on a hot day the amount of people up there. You are pretty much forced into going down a level to find a chair. Well, this is a kiddie park area so parents aren't going to just leave their kids up there by themselves. They should at least put some chairs out around the railing or something. Just not designed very well IMO.
Run and have fun is the name of the game.
Momma's boy
As always, Brayden is known to just throw himself on the floor and wiggle like he's having a seizure and then spin himself around like a turtle on its back. Weird child I tell ya.
So...Sakari is daring...everyone knows this. She will do anything an adult will do if you let her. She has done everything we do on every excursion, including jumping off 2 stories decks into the ocean, ziplining by herself at 3 years old in Roatan, swimming with sharks and every other animal known to man and she's definitely not afraid of heights or fast things. Today would not be the exception and that moment when she says "I wanna go on that!" and points at the Green Thunder drop slide...my heart drops and daddy says "come on".
Up they went to the crap your pants slide. (Don't get me wrong, I LOVE these things and went on it over and over and over again on the NCL Getaway. It's amazing)...BUT, we are talking about a 6 year old now. It may be a different story for her.
Of course I had to peel myself from the nice warm chair with the sun beaming down on my golden tan skin and takes pictures of this...and hopefully a video.
It's almost her turn...
It's now or never to chicken out! And....DROP! Off she went. I was so ecstatic that she did it and was so nervous to hear the end result on whether or not she liked it that I completely messed up the video...but for what it's worth...here's the proof and her thoughts on it (well not in words but you can tell):
(click video below)
The reason I messed the video up is by standing on the desk at the end of the tube, you can not look into it and I had to reach my hand over it and hope for the best in capturing her. I couldn't make it down to the very end in time. It is what it is...but I got the ending.
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I made my way back to our chair, a proud momma, only to find that a big group had came along and sat down beside us and a girl was in my chair! Um, ok...that's my seat. She said "so you are sitting here?" Me "yes, that's my stuff here in the chair and my towel." She said "so you want the chair back?" Me- "Obviously?!?" She hesitated and gave me a weird look like I was supposed to gather my things and move. I think not. I didn't owe her an explanation and I know chair hogs are a problem on cruise ships but I have NEVER EVER been a chair hog. If I have no intentions on sitting in a chair and swimming instead, I won't even put my things in a chair. I'll find a place along the deck and throw my bag down there. 99% of the time I won't be in a chair and won't claim one. I mean what's the use if you are going to be in the pool? However, this wasn't the pool and I wasn't in the water, so I had been sitting in the chair the entire time until I got up to watch my daughter be brave. I was gone for maybe 4-5 minutes tops. I told her I got up to record my daughter going down the green slide and she just starred at me and said "what?" I said it again...not that I owed her an explanation as to what I was doing or how long I had been gone, but I was doing it as a courtesy. She finally got up and stood there with the rest of her party.
About 5-10 minutes into that and feeling a little out of place now that our "area" was taken over by all these people, I decided to join my daughter...BUT I took it upon myself to drag my lounge chair with me!!! I was moving, but you wasn't getting my chair! The hubby drug his chair over too and there we would remain the rest of the time. It wasn't a great location because now we couldn't have full view on the water park part and it was more a view of the steps to the water slides.
Sakari tried to talk Brayden into going down the green slide and his response..."sissy, let's go over here and play...I'll race you down the slide" (referring to the purple baby slides and off they went.
Now here we go again. I get up to use the restroom, hubby and Kendra still at the table and chairs and I return to, once again, find a lady sitting in my chair. Hubby was looking at me and shrugging his shoulders. She was an older lady, so I didn't say anything. She needed the chair more than I did and she was just up there with the rest of the family who was watching their little one on the slide. I moved my stuff and took another chair that the kids had been sitting on and resting and trying to get warm off and on and all was good. She stayed for about 20 minutes and then left thinking her family had left her because she hadn't seen them at all the entire time. They later returned about 15 minutes after that wanting to know where she went. Not my day to babysit someone else's family member, it's only my day to give up my chair to anyone that passes by and feels the need.
It was around 6pm and almost everyone was gone from the area so we decided to call it a day and head back to the room to get dressed for dinner.
Now I have always been a 2nd-3rd shifter and every cruise I have to adjust my times and it completely messes with my circadian rhythm. Dinner to me is around 10-11pm. However on a cruise, it just doesn't work IF you plan on finding decent food.
We got dressed and headed down to the MDR. Two nights in a row at the MDR...imagine that!! It's a record for me that I'm not heading up to the buffet.
We arrived and there's a line...I mean A LINE!! Ouch. I have never came across a line on any cruise when going to the MDR, so it was new to me.
While we waited, Sakari discovered a piano...and it played itself.
She would pass the time by... amazed by this piano.
We finally made it up to the desk and the lady takes our room number and says there's a wait...about 30 minutes. At that moment one of the guys she had given a beeper to came back and put his beeper on the table. She stopped and yelled at him "Hey Sir! Are you not waiting?? You can't just leave that there without telling me! You have to let us know so we can take you off the list!" Now I know what she meant, but the way she said it was kinda rude along with her tone of voice. She turned back to us and handed us a beeper and off we went to the piano playing itself room to have a seat and wait.
30 minutes had passed by and I see this same lady coming around the room and asking people for their room number. I had a bad feeling about this....and I was right. When she made it to us, she said "ok, I found you. I forgot to write your beeper number down when I handed you it so now I have it thanks!" me "Oh, oh oh...hold up just a minute. So are you telling me that we will have even a longer wait because you didn't copy down our number?" Her "Well, you'll have about a 30 minute wait." Me- "Um, that's what you told us the first time around and it's been 30 minutes, but since you didn't copy down our number to activate our beeper when we were next in line and a table was ready, this puts us back in line from the beginning and we have to wait yet another 30 minutes??? I think NOT! Take you beeper back, we'll go elsewhere"
At this point I was tired, I was hungry, I was pissed to tell the truth. Their mistake and I was paying for it. They did not even try to accomodate me and move me up on the list. Nothing...this was very disappointing. Our first visit to the MDR the night before...no steak sauce, empty bottle, cold food at that point. Tonight, no activated beeper, no food-strike 2 for the MDR!
Off we headed to the buffet. I knew there was a reason I normally stick to them and this would be one of the reasons.
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Up to the buffet we went.
Now this buffet is a lot different than what I'm use to. Usually the buffet is all together and repeats itself in various areas. You go to 1 area and gather everything you need and that's it. This is the first time I have been to a buffet that is just so spread out all over the place. I guess it can be a good thing and keep the areas from getting as congested, but I honestly didn't care for it. I felt like I was constantly walking and searching for what I needed and wanted and nothing was close together. If you wanted a salad, you had to go to one area, you wanted other food another area, one corner was the pizza the other corner the deli, around the corner the deserts. It was just not the way I'm use to or like. But, it's food and I'll sniff it out until I locate something I want.
I honestly had a hard time finding anything that looked appealing to me. But, I managed. I always say you will never starve on a cruise and there's always SOMETHING to eat...and there was. However, I just was not impressed with it that night.
We did find that there were plenty of drinks stations around the ship on this floor. You never had to go far whether you were in the buffet area or out at the pool deck. I liked that. Another thing I wanted to mention was they pretty much only offered lemonade (or tea, which I don't drink). Now normally when I drink lemonade, I can only have about a glass of it and then it makes my throat so dry and scratchy. I don't know why. I love lemonade, just can't have much of it. However, this lemonade didn't do that. I drank tons of it and loved it. Go figure... I did find myself missing NCL's choices of drinks...they have a mixture of flavored drinks that they started a few years ago and they are awesome for a change in variety. But, lemonade would have to do.
Now on to deserts. NCL CAN NOT get deserts right!! Their deserts are the nastiest thing I have ever tasted (other than that Easter cake in the kids club the other night). I just don't understand how you mess up every desert you make. It's SO BLAND and...well yuck (unless you are eating the cheesecake). I see complaints after complaints about this and nothing ever changes.
However.. Carnival seems to get it right. I tried a little variety of things during the cruise and never had 1 thing that was bad. It wasn't the best I had ever had, but definitely filled the sweet spot I had and I gobbled it up. I was really super happy and even commented to the hubby about it.
On to the evening activities...which wouldn't be much for us. I was full and really didn't feel like going to a show or doing much. Sakari wanted to head to the kids club and off we went. Tonight they would be doing a "sports" night and playing basketball, volleyball and putt-putt.
We headed off to the casino and donated $40 that night and called it a day.
We went to pick up Sakari from the kids club...standing in line and I notice (after knocking the phone off the wall a few times) that there was a sign up on her door saying it was the 9-11 year olds. So, we got out of line and seen the sign that said 6-8 over on the young kids side (2-5). So here we are waiting in line again. Once we made it up there, they tell us "no, they are on the other side". Ok..."So why does your sign say 6-8 year olds and their sign says 9-11 then?"
Back over to the other line we go to wait and knock the devil phone off the wall a few more times while listening to the filthiest potty mouthed mom in the line that I just wanted to smack her. Geesh, come on. You are standing in line with a bunch of parents and right outside the door to the kids club and all these young children going in and out no one wants to hear that crap! Once I made it up to the window to pick up Sakari, yes, I had to make a comment about "the signs" and how someone needed to correct them. I got a smile in return and that was it. They love confusing you there that's for sure. Never in the same place, never with the right signs. You start the cruise out on a scavenger hunt for stickers and candy and you continue the rest of the cruise on a scavenger hunt for you child at any given time.
Sakari said she had a lot of fun and told us all about being up on the deck and playing putt putt and the other activities. I'm so happy she's enjoying the kids club this time.
We headed back to the room and Sakari's new towel animal had arrived.
I spent some time packing our beach bags for the following day at Grand Turk, daddy watched some t.v and Sakari kinda laid there in a candy coma.
Off to bed we went around 11:30pm