MITSUGIRLY sails off into the HORIZON-review & pictorial
Day 3: Sea Day
SUNDAY DECEMBER 16: SEA DAY
So today was our first full sea day and my intentions were to sleep in. I made it until 9am and then I was wide awake and bushy-haired. Kendra was already awake and I mentioned to her that I wanted to go to the Michaels Crafts at 9:30am. She said she'd wake her troop up and meet me there.
Sakari woke up to find that her elf on the shelf and reindeer had escaped the jar they came in during transport from the house to the ship...and Trixie was just hanging out in the bathroom (literally) and Cookie the deer was plugging the glass jar so she wouldn't go back in it.
We raced to get dressed and headed off to Ocean Plaza for the crafts event.
We arrived and it was a full house. But, there were still plenty of seats....and the best part...they were serving breakfast! SCORE! They had a mini buffet set up with plenty of eggs, breakfast meats and fruit. Yummy!
They started us out with wooden picture frames and some ink. We were going to make Christmas frames. I was hoping for a scrapbooking page of some sort (I'm not sure why I thought that's what they were going to be doing here).
Nothing like greasy breakfast fingers and ink mixed together.
Kendra and fam was doing their own thing...and Brayden was a little more interested in eating than crafting and Kendra kept having to remind him that we were only here for a little bit with the supplies.
They gave us 2 ideas for decorations on our frames: one was light bulbs and the other was reindeer. As you can see, Sakari had her own ideas and broke all the rules with some fancy snowflakes instead.
Brayden finally finished his Christmas light frame.
Kam said Kari was doing her own thing so she wanted to do her own design as well....such rule breakers these girls!
Kendra's reindeer frame:
Mine and Sakari's frames:
We were there a little longer than they had for the event because not only is my family late to show up to everything but obviously we are late to leave as well. Such is life.
After the crafts, the kids wanted to head up to the sports court and ride the skyride and do the ropes course. We headed back to the room to change into tennis shoes because they won't let you on it without them.
The line at the skyride wasn't really that long. However, the small line stated it was an hour wait from "here". Within 5 minutes we were to the "45 minute wait from here" and within about another 5 minutes we had progressed to the "30 minute wait from here" sign. Hmmm....not bad. However, the 30 minute sign was probably accurate on the time.
They do have 4 carts running total and the timing all depends on just how fast your little legs can take you around the course.
There's that tongue again....
Sakari got on and you could tell by the look on her face that she was immediately nervous! I'm not sure what's gotten into her lately. She's been scared to go on any zip lines or anything high lately and she used to be my fearless child that would do anything. I guess she's getting more aware of what "danger" means.
The hubby and I were going to race but I made it a point to tell him to stay with me at the beginning because I knew they had a camera up there that takes your picture.
Well later after looking at the pics, they didn't even take mine (at either location) and the hubby had several. Blah
At least Kendra was able to capture a photo to prove I did it!
They did capture a photo of Sakari and by the looks of it, she had a good time.
This ride is fun and I'm glad that it was open while we were on the cruise. I had heard, prior to the cruise, that it was closed a lot but this wasn't the case on our cruise.
If you take the outer course then when you get down to the end your cart takes off and goes down a small hill, which gives you a lot of momentum and puts you under the other cart. The other cart doesn't catch up for a while. It's fun to watch the faces of those on the carts as the other one zooms past them and they are left behind until they get to the other side. LOL It's so unexpected.
After the skycarts, it was time for a little bit of rope course-test your skills ability.
Sakari was super scared on the last cruise when we did the ropes course, but this time she was a little more confident. She did do the easy course first and the second time around she did the harder course. By the end of the cruise, she was doing great and wasn't scared anymore.
Kendra always has some type of pose to do. It's just her thing! LOL
And that tongue again....
By the 3rd or 4th time around, Sakari was striking poses just like her big sissy. I'd say she got confident with it.
It was pretty hot outside at this point and we all decided it was time for a little bit of swimming fun. We headed down to the room and changed and back up to the pool only to find that they were having some contests there and we decided it would probably be less crowded to go to the back of the ship to swim.
Sakari morphed into a mermaid and with a little aid from her dad, she wasn't a fish out of the water for long...
Notice there wasn't many in the pool and at certain times, she had the pool to herself. I won't let her swim with her fin on if there's a lot of people. She knows no splashing or wiggling the fin in or out of the pool with people around. I don't want anyone complaining and her not get to wear it anymore. So far, we have never had a problem with her having it in the pools.
Kendra and fam showed up a little later.
After a few hours, we had worked up an appetite and headed to Guys Burgers for some lunch.
After lunch, the kids wanted to go to the waterpark and who was I to stop them on this extremely hot day right?
Last time Kam cruised it took her until the last day of the cruise to get the nerve to go down the kiddie water slide. Well, it took a little bit to convince her that she'd have fun and thank goodness there was a slight issue with one of the water outlets that pours water down on you when you sit down to go down the slide and that small little opening of water not working allowed her to squeeze her head, unscathed any water to the face, and she would finally go down it with some coaxing from Kari.
Kendra being the big kid she is...had to go down the kiddie slide too.
Only to get yelled at by the employee at the bottom of it. She's too big and you are supposed to be a certain "size" to go down it. He says "you must be a child to use these slides". Of course my reply is "She is a child, my child, don't that count? I'll watch her and make sure she behaves". LOL He laughed of course, but that excuse still didn't work out too good.
I really miss the water guns that you can point at the unexpected people and soak them. Instead, you have these now.
After a while, it was time to try out the water slides. Sakari and Brayden had already went several times and said it was a lot of fun. One was closed and has clear places within the tube to let in light and the other is open and you go down on a tube. Both fun.
Sakari, being the creative self she is, discovered that you can open your mouth in the middle of this waterspout and water won't go in it. Such a proud momma moment. #rollseyesatthestuffkidsdo
A short video of our fun on the Skycars, Water rides, Water Park and Ropes course. Such a fun day.
The hubby is a professional chiller...
During our fun water play time, the main pool (just below) was about to have another contest. It was a singing contest and the contestants were to sing a different song each time, with no hesitation, and the more audience participation, the better. There were 3 kids in this contest to begin with. Well, one kid was AWESOME and did a great job, on command, coming up with songs and the crowd went wild. Then another one of the kids...disappeared, came back with GUYS fries and jumped back in the contest line with his fries midway during the competition...like nothing had even happened. Well Mike, the CD, caught on. It was a funny moment. He made jokes about it. Then told him to have a seat. It wasn't too much longer, the kid finished his fries and JUMPED BACK IN THE LINE! Um...ok. Mike told him to sit back down, he was out of the game.
We were waterlogged and decided it was time to go back to the room and get some dry clothes on and head for more games and fun. We were going to make the most of this sea day.
Up at the FourSquare area, we decided to play Sky Billiards. This is pool, but in a big version with balls and you use your feet. It's not as easy as you would think. LOL But A LOT of fun!
Notice we played until it was dark out!
Then a little bit of ping-pong fun. Sakari absolutely loves playing this!
Then off for a little bit of a workout...because, we hadn't "worked out" enough during the day, right?
And if all this wasn't enough for the day, Sakari and B went off to play pool and the hubby and I decided on a more slower-paced event such as putt putt.
Putt putt has several holes on the same floor and then you go upstairs for 4 more holes and back down. And I thought this was going to be a non-work out time for us...psshhh, I'm still climbing steps. My legs got one heck of a workout today!
Ok, we had worked up an appetite. I had no energy to go get dressed up and we decided to head to the buffet. The food was good.
We took the kids to the kids club and decided to convince Kam that it was "school". She started preschool this year and it was touch and go in the beginning with Kendra having to stay with her for hours before sneaking out. She has gotten used to it and now enjoys school. So, this cruise we had planned on doing some scuba diving. Well, without Kendra's fiance coming along, that meant one of two things. 1) Kendra would not be able to go diving at all because there's no one to watch Kam. 2) She would be able to talk her into going to the kids club for the day and get to dive. So, we decided to tell her that while she's on the cruise, she still had to go to school (and that was the kids club).
We went there and dropped the kids off (Sakari wasn't really into it but agreed to go anyhow). She ended up having to go to the kids area, 2-5 year olds, with Kam for a while before she was able to sneak off and go to her own section.
We headed to the comedy club for some stress relief.
t was funny, but it was the PG version. The Limelight lounge is just not big enough for this event. Everyone was trying to get into it. Once the show was over, they told everyone they had to empty the room and then come back in if you wanted to stay for the adult show. Well.....that line went all the way down the hall! Like forever long! There was no way you were getting back in. This should tell them they need to be holding this somewhere else! It was ridiculous!
We picked up the kids and headed back to the room for the night. Sakari complained about not wanting to go to the kids club anymore and she was bored. However, they did have "free play" and she was able to make a necklace/choker out of rubber bands and she did enjoy that.
Our first port day was tomorrow and it was an early day.
We would find a towel elephant friend when we got back to the room.
Sakari played on her phone and created this:
We had a little bit of wine, watched some t.v. with Spanish commercials and headed to bed around 11pm.