DAY 3: SEA DAY

As I said, this was another sea day (it felt weird to have 2 seas days in a row, plus the day we left at sea). I had set my alarm for 9:30am so that I wouldn't miss breakfast. Once again, I was up by 8am. What the heck is wrong with me this cruise? My times are so messed up. I usually go to bed around 3am or later and get up around 11am. 

I checked the tv and it said it was still in the high 70's (78.8) and the waves were a little over 4 feet. You could still feel the rocking of the ship. We looked like we were getting closer to St Maarten. Woo Hoo.

We decided to get ready and head up for breakfast...just the 3 of us. I didn't text the rest of the fam and thought it would be a nice relaxing breakfast. I don't know why, but instead of heading to the buffet, I walked up the steps. We ended up at the Flamingo Grill and it was open for breakfast. (Oh course if I had done my research, I would have known they served breakfast). But it was a nice find. 

I'm not sure if most people don't know about this place for breakfast, but there were plenty of seats available and NO line for food. It was kind of a buffet/help-yourself meal, which everyone knows that I like this, but it did have other types of food that I didn't find in the buffet.

They had several different types of breakfast sandwiches and I decided to try the sausage, egg, and cheese on a muffin. They also had the regular scrambled eggs, hash-browns, bacon and other various items.

I filled my plate and headed for the table. Hmmm, there's so many to pick from. I decided to sit away from the buffet area and more out toward the deck, but something told me not to get too close to where the roof overhangs. 

I also managed to get something that said "cheese filled _______" something. I had no clue what it was, but I love cheese. They also had ham and cheese ones just like it.

It ended up being an awesome danish that reminded me of a cream horn outside, and a cheese danish on the inside. It also had some type of sugar sprinkles on the outside and it was so yummy. Yes, I did go back for a second one.

Before we were done eating, I looked out toward the slides and oh my....it was POURING!! I mean really coming down. People laying out on the loungers were running for cover. I had no idea and didn't even hear it, but now know why my internal instinct told me not to sit at the edge of dining. The wind was blowing hard enough that it pretty much soaked the first 2 rows of tables by the entrance.

As soon as we were done eating breakfast, the kids called and said they were at the breakfast buffet. HA! Dodged a bullet this time around. wink wink. Just kidding. The rain had completely stopped by the time we finished. Lucky us.

We decided to head over to the ropes course so the hubby could try it out and I was finally going to get to do it as well (since the day before when the girls did it, they closed right when it was my turn). Sakari also wanted to try to trampoline bounce that was closed the day before. We already knew that we needed tennis shoes for these activities and came prepared this time. HA!

We arrived at the bounce and the guy tells us that Sakari would need pants on to do it. He said "no short shorts". Sigh. Ok, maybe I thought I was a step ahead this time, but I guess not. That meant another walk back to the room to put pants on her. The weird thing was I sat there and witnessed tons of kids with not only shorts on, but short shorts on bouncing. Really? I think it was just their way of trying to let me get my exercise in during this cruise.

FINALLY, Sakari got to bounce. She has never been on one of these before and really didn't know what to do. She has been on trampolines, but not something with lines to it.

Once she got going, she was getting good at it and going pretty high.

Maybe next time I can talk her into a few flips? Snicker. 

Sakari decided that she wanted to show daddy her new climbing skills with a bunch of "watch this daddy" as she climbed all the way up.

Her skills and speed were improving and she quickly made it back up to the top.

After several rounds of watching her climb, we convinced her it was time to move on and we were going to do the ropes course. I explained that mommy didn't get to do it the day before and I was sad and stuck out my pouty bottom lip. She quickly agreed. She doesn't want to see mommy sad.

There were a few people in line and I was getting Sakari ready to let her go on the mini-ropes course again and daddy jumped right into a harness. Well, I guess that means you are going first? So be it.

So here I am again, just like the day before, standing around taking pictures and running back and forth between daddy and Sakari.

When you get out to the end of the plank, there is a rope there. When you pull it and look at the camera, it takes your picture. Now, it takes a picture of you from the front and it also takes a picture of you from the side as well (standing on the plank).

Here's a random video of the hubby ziplining

So now it's time for me to do the ropes course. No wait, wait a minute, where are you going with the harness????? What do you mean you're putting them up? Sigh. Not again. Will it ever be my turn??? I guess it's just not meant to be for me to do the ropes course. 

Well, let's make the best of it and go do some putt putting with the family. We headed over and Sakari decided to play some golf instead.

Would you look at that swing? I feel the need to yell "FORE"

Daddy showing her how it's done. (She's putt putted plenty of times. It's just been awhile.)

Ok, obviously that did not go as planned. You are supposed to go up and over the pirate ramp, not around it. 

We were done with our game and it was getting hot out. We decided we would make this our official "swim" day. Time to head back to the room and get our bathing suits on.

As we are walking across the deck toward the stairs, Sakari decides to do an immediate STOP and step BACKWARDS and rams me in the toe with her tennis shoes. I had flip flops on, so this did not go over well. I immediately felt like someone had dropped a car on my toe. Gosh it hurt so bad. Sakari was almost in tears because she knew she had hurt mommy and she hates to see anyone in pain.

I gathered my strength and limped slowly back to the room. I was determined. We were going swimming. This wasn't going to spoil my day and it didn't. After all, I'm the one that broke my hand on the Epic cruise and continued to snorkel in St Thomas and Nassau at the next 2 ports when you couldn't even tell that I had knuckles anymore and I was so bruised on the top and the palm of my hand. I must go on. I have a high tolerance for pain and I tried not to let the pain show to Sakari.

However, by the end of the night, I was limping pretty bad and in quite a bit of pain. Thank goodness I always come prepared with my pre-made first aid kits on every cruise and one of them happen to be some heavy duty medical tape. I know from working in the ER that there's nothing you can do about a broken toe but buddy tape them and let them heal. So, my 2 toes were about to snuggle for awhile and become best buds on this cruise.

This was about an hour after it happened. It only got worse with the swelling and bruising. I'm still nursing it of course and it still hurts by the end of the day. But it's healing.

We arrived at the kids splash area and immediately Sakari insisted on having her picture taken with every single character.

Take a look at squidwards face, then look at Sakari's face. Yep, she was doing a little bit of mocking.

I think Patrick sprung a leak.

Brayden came along, and of course Brayden is a climber, so this was his beginning pose.

Which evolved into this (as my heart pounds from working in the emergency room and seeing how so many little kids get hurt...I was imagining every bad situation of him falling from here at this point).

We found that the munchkins were allowed on the bigger slides (just not the drop slide), so off we went to check it out. Then once Sakari went the first time, there was no stopping her. Her and Brayden did it over and over again.

I guess Brayden had already been up on the huge slides (higher up) before we had arrived. So he took Sakari up there to try it out. She had a blast.

The ending is kinda in a weird spot and ends on the deck above (where the Flamingo grill is) but it's closed in with glass. There's also no one there to tell you where to go when you get out. I'm standing on the other side of the glass pointing for Sakari of course.

We headed to the family pool for awhile. Sakari insisted on getting in the pool and swimming. I didn't bring her puddle jumper, so that meant that I needed to get in with her even though she knows how to swim. I just don't feel comfortable with her in there alone for several reasons...it's salt water and that alone kinda seems to throw her off. Then with the ship moving, it's not calm water either.

So in I went and the water was cold, but refreshing. Yes, the water is salt water. She swam over to Kolin and Courtney all the way across by herself. Then back again.

One more time across the pool

Then all of a sudden she lunged at me. I grabbed her and she let out a blood curling scream and started crying like someone had just cut off her leg. I kept asking what was the matter and she just kept point to her belly and chest. I couldn't figure it out and she was in such a panic that I couldn't understand what she was saying.

I took her over to daddy and he took her to a lounge chair. We never did figure out what was wrong. She laid there for a good 1/2 hour and daddy was calming her. He thought maybe she needed to poop and tried taking her to the potty with no luck. She still complained but it was getting better. The only thing we could figure out was that she got some type of muscle cramp in her stomach while swimming? We still are not sure.

When she had recovered, she decided she now hated the pool and wanted to just go back and play in the splash area. As soon as she left, she was back again with the same pain, but not as bad. Daddy made her lay with him for awhile until it went away.

After the last time, it never returned and she was off to play in the water. Her, Brayden and a few other kids came up with a sliding game. There were these sprayers coming out of the walls at the back of the splash area and they would run and slide across the floor into it. I knew that someone was bound to get hurt and told her several times to stop, but obviously it was just too much fun and she went back to doing it after awhile. By the time we left, she had a red belly and a few marks on her knees and the top of her feet from rubbing.

Going on the drop water slide. I have to tell you, this is THE most FUN thing EVER!! Seriously. We did it over and over. The anticipation of hearing the countdown 3-2-1 and knowing that you are going to drop, but it's still unexpected each time. What a rush. BRAVO NCL for coming up with this. It was simply amazing.

Just know...you CAN NOT have anything on. NO jewelry (including wedding rings), no earrings, no belly button piercing, no nothing! You can not have any hair clips in or anything. No cells phones or cameras. NOTHING. They will make you take them off and either leave them there and walk back up or take them to someone else to hold down below. So you have been warned.

You can chose to wear the foam on your back or not. A lady in line said she overheard someone say they make the girls with 2 piece bathing suits that have a tie in the back put them on because the slide can make the suits come undone. I don't know if there's any truth to it, but I wore one just because I wanted to save my back from getting red.

The last time that I did this, I actually got stuck at the top after the drop. I made it right within a foot or so of the hump before you drop again and go down. We did witness several people that this happened to. They have a ladder spot and landing with an opening in the tube for those that this happens to. You come back down and have to crawl out of the hole and walk down the steps. I was determined to not have to do this. I sat up and scooted until I made it up over the hump before it took me back the other way. Woo hoo. It was still a rush, but that was the last time I did it. haha

It was getting late and we decided to head back to the room to take showers and get ready to eat some lunch. We had a busy day today and the sun was draining us. I limped back to the room. My toe was hurting a lot by now from climbing all the steps over and over. 

I did a little packing for tomorrows arrival in St Maarten. I knew we would be busy tonight and I wouldn't feel like doing it then. Then we headed down to the buffet for a little lunch.

After lunch, it was my turn to try the ropes course. I checked my iConceirge and knew that it was about to open back up and I WAS going!!! We went back to the room so that I could get my tennis shoes on and I was in so much pain from putting them on. It was a big mistake, but I was determined. I double wrapped my toes good and limped my way to the ropes course.

As I took off up the stairs, I told the hubby "I don't know how this is going to work out with my foot hurting this bad and I hope I don't get stuck in too much pain to make it, but I'm going for it."

Up I went.

Look at me...1 handed.

I have to say it was pretty easy to do. I actually did several of them without holding on to anything. I must have a pretty good sense of balance because I didn't find anything too difficult and it was a lot of fun.

The hubby headed up to the basketball/soccer court and managed to get a picture of me from the same level. I wish I would have done that earlier. It made for a better picture without having to look into the sun.

Walking with 1 hand again.

Ok, I don't admit this, Kendra does not get her goofiness from me, I swear.

I made it out to the plank...woo hoo. I felt like I needed Leonardo behind me at this point. I was flying. Well, not actually. There was a clip that prevented me from going out. WTH? Um ok. I wasn't able to go past this point (below). I went over to the zipline...the same thing. There was a clip preventing you from going that way. Grrr.

My toe was not hurting at all doing the ropes course. I think because you are not using your toes for balance on this, I was walking on the middle of the bottom of my foot and it actually relieved the pain because there was no pressure on it. Go me!

I made it back to the ending and ask about the plank and zip line and they said that it was just too windy to let anyone do it. I will admit that it was VERY windy the day I was up there compared to earlier when the hubby did it or when the kids did it. I was still walking those ropes with no hands though so I think I could have managed. hehe

Once I was done, I found the hubby and Sakari up at the basketball playing soccer. I think Sakari has found her calling. She loved it.

Sakari decided she wanted to play with her friends now, so it was time to drop her off at the kids club.

We headed back to the room to change into something nicer because we wanted to see the Burn the Floor show and I wanted to go out to eat somewhere nice tonight.

The hubby trying to be serious and I didn't notice until I uploaded this picture to post...what the heck is wrong with my skin on this picture? I have no idea why it turned out like that. Could it be the flash? I was holding the camera in my other hand. It just looks weird in the coloring. There's a weird mark on the hubby's neck and kinda across his shirt. Maybe the camera had just had too much sun today as well. ???

The theater was just like the rest of NCL's theaters. Not much room in front of the seats forcing people to get their feet stomped on when others wanted by or having to stand up every time. I really wish NCL would get a hint from Carnival and make room in front of the seats and even add tables to put drinks and stuff on. It would just be so much nicer. Each chair had the normal a/c in the backs of them, but I still think it felt a little warm in there. It's usually freezing cold inside the ships, but not this time. I was extremely warm inside most of the venues on the cruise. Weird. 

The show had some amazing and talented dancers. Man they wore me out just watching them. However, I felt like the show went on and on forever. It was the same dancers and looked like most of the same moves to different music and backgrounds. This is were I started to realize the "latin" theme and I guess maybe what Miami is about? There were a few times at the end were we (along with others in the theater) thought the show was over and stood up to leave, only to find out they weren't done and started the music again for another routine. They even ended with introducing the dancers and where they were from...and again, we thought it was over and people started to leave only for them to start yet another routine. I enjoyed the beginning of it, but toward the end, I couldn't wait for it to be over. I don't know how long the show was supposed to last, but it was over an hour. Maybe an hour and 15 minutes? Just too long at that point.

Once we were done with the show and it finally ended, we headed up to La Cucina for dinner. We did not have reservations, so they told us it would be a little bit of a wait. It was about 8:45 and they said to return at 9:15pm. No problem, off to the casino we went to spend some money (I mean time).

We both were doing pretty good on the slots and hadn't lost any money, but it was time to go so that we would make it to our reservations. Although it wasn't a far hop from where we were, it was still a slow journey for me.

We arrived at La Cucina and was promptly seated at a table for 2. We ordered our drinks and looked over the menu.

I ordered the fettucini (which wasn't on the menu, but when I ask if they had it, she replied yes) and the waitress ask me if I wanted chicken in it and I told her yes. The hubby ordered his meal (no clue what it was called) and then once she was done writing our order, I ask if she would mind using my camera to take our picture. She said "Hold on just a minute and I'll be back after placing your order." I thought it was a little strange since it would have taken 5 seconds to take the camer and snap a picture and the only thing in her hand was a pen and pad which could have been put on the table. I mean it's not like she had her hands full or anything or was in a rush.

She continued to pass us several times and never once stopped to take th picture. I thought it was odd. It was almost like she was avoiding us and wouldn't even make eye contact.

Another person brought out some bread. It was lovely and we enjoyed it.

By the time our food arrived a ship photographer came along and took our picture (of course with HIS camera so you were forced to purchase one from the ship). So I'm not sure if that's why she didn't take the picture for us or what. I just really thought it was lame.

We ended up just taking pictures of each other while sitting at the table. Not exactly what I was wanting.

When my food arrived, there was no chicken like she had promised. At this point I had decided that I didn't like her for not coming back to take our picture as promised, so I decided to not say anything to her and just go about my business and ignore her the way she did me. (Not really, I'm just pouting).

While we were eating there was a REALLY obnoxious lady sitting in the middle part of the restaurant with another couple. This was the loudest lady ever. She kept talking and talking and was so loud that you could hear her entire conversation. It was pretty annoying. I did witness a few people get up and leave. She even stopped a couple leaving and said a few words to them and they just smiled and walked away rolling their eyes and whispering under their breath. I had to laugh when I heard the lady make a comment saying "well, I don't like to air my dirty laundry in public but...." and kept going. Really? You don't? The STFU. Really. It was ruining my own conversation I was trying to have with my husband many tables away. I just hate rude people like this. I'm not there to hear your business nor do I want to. Just.shut.up! 

I wasn't able to finish all of mine, so I had her box up the remaining to take back to the room for Sakari once we picked her up from the kids club. I also ordered a cheesecake to go. Yep, it wasn't a "normal" cheesecake like I always like. This one was a "lemon" cheese cake. It was normal on the bottom and had a lemon topping to it. I tried a few bites and it was "ok", but I still like the normal cheese cake. So, I scooped off the topping and ate underneath it. :D 

Here's the picture the photographer took of us. I finally managed to get one of us together, the downside is I had to pay for it.

I headed back to the room with the food and "daddy" picked up Sakari from the kids club. She had some of my left overs and played with her new friend "Ellie":

So now I'm sitting out on the balcony after our shower and taking notes and I realize....WE MISSED THE DARN LATITUDES PARTY!!! :eek: Are you kidding me? This is now the second meeting we missed and free booze at that!!! What the heck is wrong with me this cruise????? Sigh (As you can see, there was a lot of sighing going on this cruise).

The husband was watching more shows on the making of Breakaway and Epic and we decided to go to sleep at 11:30pm since we had to be up early in the morning for our first port stop...St Maarten.

Good night Getaway. I'm off to my hard bed and creaking walls.