MITSUGIRLYS GRADUATION GETAWAY CRUISE review and pictorial
Day 6: Sea Day
Today was a sea day, so I made sure I didn't set the alarm and wanted to try to sleep in a little. I woke up at 10:30am and out onto the balcony I went. It was sprinkling a little, but nothing major. Although it was cloudy, I knew if it did rain, it would more than likely not last long as they seem to never last long in the Caribbean.
We headed off to breakfast in a hurry, since it's my favorite meal of the day. Once again, we checked out the Flamingo Grill and they were open. I tried another one of their breakfast sandwiches, some bacon, hashbrowns and also so more yummy danishes that I had before.
Since it was already 11am, I knew that Sakari wouldn't have much time at the kids club before we had to pick her up at noon. I ask if she even wanted to bother going for just a little while and she did. I figured I would use this time wisely and do some of my shopping today since I hadn't bought a thing yet.
Here is a random picture of my ship pin that I picked up from customer service:
I snapped a few more pictures as we walked toward the gift shop.
We came across the replica ship again and I figured now was my only chance to get some good pictures of it since there wasn't anyone else there and the photographer would probably have the space taken up once again tonight.
I was really happy to see that NCL finally came up with a new scrapbook design. I have been buying the same old scrap book on every cruise ship for years. I'm not sure if this is only exclusive to the new ships or if they rolled out this scrapbook to all the ships. I know it was the old scrapbooks on the Jewel in December.
I also liked that they had new stickers and embellishments as well.
Oh my, what do we have here? We also have an embellishment packet JUST FOR THE GETAWAY!! Woo hoo. Score. Of course they know suckers like me will buy it.
I headed down to see about getting a tee shirt. I really have to say that I didn't care for most of the designs they had. I ended up buying this one...
They were having a "sale" that you could get 2 tee shirts for $30 or 2 NCL towels for $30 or mix and match the two. I chose to get my tee shirt above and get a really bright blue NCL beach towel. (Courtney bought the NCL beach towel and a bright pink one that says I <3 cruising...do you think she's hooked now?)
I kind of strolled to the right and kinda glanced over at that beautiful shiny diamond ring that was calling my name and gave the hubby a "look". He said "You really want it don't you?". I guess my puppy dog eyes gave it away and he called the lady over to bring it out of the case once again. It fit perfect!!! Just like it did a few days ago when I tried it on!!! That HAD to be a sign right? Price tag $3100...but wait, they were having a SALE!! This was our lucky day!! I agreed that this would be my graduation gift, my mothers day gift, my birthday gift (from a few months ago), my Christmas gift and for good faith I would throw in Halloween and the 4th of July too if that would make it better. :D He worked his magic and haggled with the sales person. She was frantically punching in numbers on the calculator and re-figuring and.... they finally agreed on a price. Not his price, but pretty darn close. She told him "Well you could pay your price and just have your wife pay the difference" Um...what did you just say? I thought that was kind of WEIRD for her to say, but whatever.
I walked out with my new shiny beautiful beget ring on my finger.
So since I was actually still in the mood to shop :eek: (yikes) I went over to the camera area and informed the hubby I needed a new camera while we were at it too....since my Canon D10 back-up camera just took a dump in St Thomas. I won't get caught without at least 2 camera's while on vacation. That's just preposterous!
I knew how pleased I have been with the Olympus Tough that I purchased on the Star in 2012 and knew that I definitely wanted another Olympus and just an updated version would do.
I ended up with the Olympus Tough Stylus 830 in BLUE this time (my other one is the hot pink). They have made a lot of changes since my last one. It still has the same settings, but they are all different to get to. They even changed where the battery and SD card goes from the bottom to the side and the charging cord from the side to the bottom. There's a new way to close and lock them as well. The buttons are different and...well it's just different. It would take me a bit to get use to. The size is bigger too. I thought that was strange. I still to this date haven't messed around with it enough to see if they have added any extras that the 630 don't have. It's on my "to-do" list.
The photo rep was at the counter trying to give his speech to "sell" me this item. Um, I'm already bought on it...no need for your speech. I told you what I wanted when I walked up to the counter and tried to hand you my card the minute you put it down. I don't need to see it. I don't need to be told about it....I don't need.....SNAP....he takes a picture of us standing at the counter to show us the picture quality.
I was finally able to make my purchase and out the door we went...outside for some reason.
The hubby walked up to the bar and said "Give me a bloody mary...I need one now." to the bar tender. LOL When he signed the receipt, he also wrote something on the receipt that he got to keep. When I first glanced at it I thought it said Diamond F-ing drink. YIKES. But it said diamond ring drink instead. HA he's such a silly wabbit. Like you had to buy me a ring to get your drink. I would have let you have that drink either way honey. snicker.
This was his deep in thought look at the ocean. I captured it without him even knowing and then started laughing afterwards.
I looked at my watch and OMG, it was noon and we should be picky up Sakari right now. It didn't give him much time to enjoy that drink, so he downed it and off we went running to the kids club.
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After picking up Sakari and heading back to the room with my "goodies" from my shopping spree, I decided to take Sakari back up to the stores to pick out her cruise ship gift. Every cruise we let her pick out a gift from the gift shop on board. She always picks out a stuffed animal. However, the Getaway really doesn't seem to cater to kids for some reason. There wasn't any stuffed animals and really not much for kids at all. I was really disappointed. She could pretty much chose from a huge blow up ship (which I knew would pop in a matter of days) or a small plastic ship that blows a ships horn and you can pull back on it and let it go and it moved forward. She opted for the one that wouldn't pop. Good girl. She had also found a small Christmas ornament that was heavy and shaped like the ship she wanted. I was in a GOOD mood and let her have both.
We were really pressed for time because there was a lot of things I wanted to get accomplished today. One of them was getting to walk that plank and ziplining on the sports deck.
After her purchase, we raced up to the sports deck where I geared up and headed off on the ropes course again. Since I had already done the ropes course before, I really didn't need to do it again (since we were in a hurry) and headed on the easiest path to the plank. It was extremely windy out that day, but at least they weren't closed this time and I was already a pro at walking this course.
Out to the plank I went. It wasn't scary at all (at least not for me). I really enjoyed it and the view.
Look, no hands!!!
Sakari was entertaining herself with another round of putt putt.
I told the hubby to video me as I did the ziplining. Now that was a little scary for the fact that they tell you hold on down really low, which feels really weird like you'll fall or something and then they tell you to run really fast and jump. Well I did and it was fun. We had previously done ziplining in the rain forest in Roatan, so of course this didn't quite compare, but I can say I have ziplined on a cruise ship now. Checking that off my bucket list I guess.
When I was done, here was the hubby waiting on me with his murse. Just kidding, he was holding my purse while I was on the ropes course, but I just had to get a picture. Life is hardly ever serious to us, so he did a proud husband pose for me to take a picture.
We raced down to the Atrium because we knew it was time for the Nickelodeon SpongeBob and Patrick meet & greet. I really don't feel that there was too much on this ship with the Nick characters. When we were on the Jewel, there was something almost every day. They had TONS of different Nick characters and there was something going on every day for about an hour. Not so this time. It was kinda disappointing to Sakari.
I arrived at the Atrium to find Kendra already there? Can you believe it? She even had seats....and even in the front row. Wow. The hubby headed off to get another drink (lol) at the bar and decided to stay there during the entire thing.
I kept the seats warm that Kendra had obtained and sent Kendra off to stand in the long forming line with the munchkins for their picture session with the characters.
Out came Spongebob and Patrick to do their little dance. (Click the picture for a video)
When it was the munchkins turn to get their picture taken...just like the Jewel, the photographer would take a picture then the staff would take your camera and take the picture with it. I think they plan this just so that the pictures don't turn out the greatest and you're forced to buy theirs. But that's just speculation of course from a money standpoint view. Naturally they don't have the background on it and you end up with a green screen with your camera of course.
I don't think Sakari realized that it was time for us to get our picture, so she had to have another one....she needed to pose of course.
She is so silly with her poses. I told her to stop doing that...it looked like she had to potty. She just laughed.
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Of course once I located the picture from the ship photographer (NOT in room 9180, but 9188), it was better and I opt to purchase it for my scrapbook.
After that was over as quick as it began, we walked around the corner to the bowling and decided it was time to do that. Kendra headed off to O'Sheehans for some breakfast (well, it was probably breakfast for her since I have no idea what time she even got up today).
When we arrived at the pin bowling, there were 2 lanes and someone was on both lanes. However, one of the couples said they were almost done and we could have their lane. They finished up within 5 minutes and it was our time. This was going to be quite the experience since I have never seen or tried pin bowling (if that's what it's actually called).
I ask the outgoing lane couple if we needed to check in with someone and get shoes and pay for it. He said "nope, you don't do any of that." Um ok. Maybe I had read it all wrong...we actually get to play this for free? Wow. I know every other ship you had to check in with someone, pay $5 each person, have socks on, and get their bowling shoes just like at the bowling alley. Today's our lucky day.
So, you bowl in your own shoes or whatever you want to do, but how do you get this thing to work? Oh, you slide your room card (which charges the $5 with each slide). Ok, so maybe not free after all. I slid the card and pushed a button. It gave me 1 person as Player 1. How do you get more names? I slid the card again and was like a madman pushing all the buttons trying to figure it out. Player 2 popped up. I tried for a 3rd slide and the pins were moving and the game was starting. Geesh, I must have done something wrong. It also didn't give us options to put our names.
Since there were 3 of us (including Sakari) and only 2 players up there we rotated. Sakari bowled first...player 1. Then me as player 2. Then daddy as player 1. Then Sakari as player 2 and so on. So each time we bowled, we switched back and forth between bowling player 1 and player 2. Yep, our scares were all jacked up and didn't really belong to any 1 player. This way, I don't have to claim it was the rocking of the ship that made me bowl so badly. It was all Sakari's fault. wink wink
Easy daddy, it's not a real bowling alley, it's a mini bowling alley. No need to take your frustrations out on the mini pins. hehe
Kolin walked by and seen us and told us where Kendra and the rest of everyone was at (eating) and he said he was going to go get them to come over and play some bowling. They never did show up.
Sakari ask if she could throw the ball between her legs..."Um, do you see those scores? You can do anything your little heart desires Sakari."
I didn't discover for a few rounds that there was a button you could push and the bumpers would rise from the floor. I spent each round pushing the bumpers up and down for Sakari. She felt like a big girl when her ball didn't go off of the lane.
Our final scores....LOL Yep, we had a good time.
Just so you know, these scores last on the screen about a good 10 seconds before they disappeared. So those of you that want to take a picture of it during your cruise, you gotta be quick.
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I had worked up an appetite with all of the activities we were trying to fit in and new that Sakari needed to be back at the kids club by 2:15pm so that they can get ready for the Circus show.
We headed over to O'Sheehans and was quickly seated. I had been craving a cheeseburger and fries the entire week and decided I was going to get it today.
We ate as quickly as we could and headed back to take Sakari back to the kids club for practice.
BUT, not until I snapped another picture of my new bling.
On the way across the pool deck and over to go up to the kids club, I decided I needed a drink myself and ordered a mudslide. It was very yummy.
The bartender gave Sakari a cup of cherries and she loved it.
You see that missing tooth on the bottom? Yep, she lost that the night before we left on the cruise. This was just the missing tooth cruise I tell ya.
We dropped Sakari off and we headed to the Casino to kill some time until the show.
We also made reservations for tomorrow at 9:15pm for Teppanyaki (both Kendra and I agreed on the time). Then I also found out that you had to have reservations for the show tonight for Legally Blonde. I tried to make reservations and they were showing ALL SOLD OUT!! :eek:
I tried for the following night too (since there were 2 shows each night for 2 nights).....SOLD OUT! Seriously? So I guess we weren't going to get to see that show.
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​The circus show started at 4pm and usually there is plenty of seating. This time the theater was pretty packed and we had to sit back a ways. Sakari is use to seeing us sitting in the second row. She could not find us the entire time and had a sad look on her face...but the show must go on.
Joel was the ringmaster
The tigers and lions came out first. This was Braydens group since he was still 5 years old. He's in the gray with the yellow lion mane and if you notice, he's pretty much the biggest in the class.
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Brayden was so big that he knocked over the "blazing fire ring" and fell. Next up was Sakari and her feather balancing act.
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Notice how the kids are all lined up in a row along the curtain area and she's out in the front of the stage. Yea, she's a ham.
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​Her big moment was over and the kids started to single file off the stage...except Sakari would was still in the front of the stage performing some more.
Last off the stage...She gets a high five from Joel
After the show ended, everyone came out on the stage
Brayden looks more than thrilled.
Sakari really enjoys doing the circus show every cruise. I think she really liked that she moved up to the big kids "team" and got to try something different. She has been a tiger for so many cruises now. Hopefully next cruise she will pick something different (balancing plates and so on).
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Kendra stayed in the theater for a little bingo and Courtney hung with her. We made our escape.
Shortly after the show we went to pick Sakari up and headed outside to walk around on some of the lower decks (this is when I managed to get a lot of my outside pictures). We hadn't really been to the back of the ship down here yet and seen the wake. It was beautiful as always and represents where we have been and the memories we have made.
As we circled around, we came to Dolce Gelato and decided to try out their icecream. I really had no idea what it was about, but figured why not. It was $2.50 for 1 scoop of any flavor and I elected Vanilla Bean on a sugar cone. I love vanilla bean anything...especially cheesecake. So this had to be good. Sakari got the strawberry and the hubby got caramel I think?
Kendra come out of the doors after her bingo and coming "this close" to winning. She wanted to know why we were buying ice cream when it's free inside??? I replied "because I wanted to try it out" and so she decided she wanted to try it out too. Monkey see, monkey do.
The ice cream was VERY soft and melty. (If that's a word). Like before you could even take a lick it was running down the sides of the cone, the napkins, your hand. It was ridiculous. The hubby made a comment about how he didn't think it was frozen enough either. It was a mess.
The bad part about it was it wasn't even very hot outside. It was warm, but I can only imagine if it would have been one of those hot scorching days with the sun beaming down on you.
I ended up having to get a cup to put Sakari's in. It just was not going to work as a cone. Meanwhile, I'm getting brain freeze (why do they call it brain freeze? It doesn't freeze your brain, it freezes your throat!! I never understood that) from trying to eat mine as quick as possible.
So how was it? Just my opinion, but not worth the $2.50 for sure. Not only because of the non-frozen part, but to us, it just wasn't very good. This was an all around consensus from everyone that day too (and Sakari doesn't turn down ice cream often...she didn't finish hers). I would much rather have the soft serve at the buffet or even the hard scoop ice cream at the buffet counter. I would never buy it again.
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Since the ice cream really wasn't the greatest or filling, we decided to head back to the room and get dressed up to go to one of the MDR's.
Here is our water puddle for the day....rolling eyes.
This is where I ended up taking pictures of all 3 of the MDR's. Why? Because NONE OF THEM WERE OPEN! So, we ended up at the buffet again.
After dinner, I discovered some cake at the buffet. Hmmm, I wonder what this will taste like? It looks like a cake. It presents itself like a real cake. Could it be a REAL cake...not a NCL desert made cake?
It was YUMMY! It was the real deal and not the icky NCL deserts. I was happy AND it WASN'T butter-cream icing either! Even happier!!!! It was the whipped topping icing and I loved it.
Sakari insisted on this pink "thing" that looked like a cake, but it was an imposter. To me it looked like the normal rubber texture cake they make. It just looked fake. But she tried it and said it was ok. But then again, she didn't eat all of it either. She enjoyed her strawberry. I guess she got in her fruits for the day (bar cherries earlier and now strawberries).
Back to change into normal clothes since I kinda felt rediculous being dressed up for the buffet and Sakari was wanting to head back to the kids club at 7pm when they opened.
When the elevator opened on deck 12, the doors to the kids club was closed and the staff was preparing for the night. We were the first to arrive (yeah, Sakari was anxious).
I had this obnoxious child behind me that stepped on my foot once (not the hurt foot, the other) and at one point he was swinging around something (I don't remember what it was) and it hit me pretty hard in the funny bone. It wasn't so funny and I held back the scream, the tears, and the punch in the throat.
Tonight was Survivor night. Obviously whatever they did, Sakari survived because she did come back to the room later that night.
I love how they decorate everything. It's so cool. I also love the lit doors in this place. How hip is that?
We signed her up for sitting services for tonight. It was the White Hot party made over into the now GLOW party and we were ready!! We had been planning on this night for months. We had glowing paint, glowing eye shadow, glowing fingernail polish, glowing outfits, glow jewelry...yep, we were set.
I told them that we would be back before 10:30pm to check on her and they said "You can just call us or we'll call you on the iConceirge line if we need you". Um, ok.
We had about 2 hours to kill and decided since we couldn't go to the show, we would hang out in the casino and try our luck until it was time to get ready for the fun night.
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Back to the room at 9pm to start getting ready for the GLOW party. I had wore my outfit that Kendra bought me for the glow party on 80's night. I was really struggling with whether or not I should wear it again. I finally decided against it. I ended up with some hot pink shorts on instead and I wore my white sequins shirt that normally goes with my white hot party outfit.
We painted our arms with different colored glow paint and I painted a yellow happy face on my chest. hehe
We had our glow and glitter make up on, glow necklaces, glow earrings, glow bracelets and glow glasses. We were set for the party.
I met up with Kendra and Courtney in her room....still getting ready of course and being late. Everything had to be perfect...except the time we arrived of course.
We arrived and the party was hopping!!!
The place was PACKED!! For all of you that always come on here and ask, "Will I feel left out at my age? What age groups are there? Should I go alone?" Well look at this video. Every age group, I don't think anyone is left out of anything, and feeling alone? Pshhh, how would you be able to tell in this crowd?
It was me, the hubby, Kendra, Courtney, Kolin and Brayden. Kendra's bf said he was going to get in the shower and come in a little while. Well, that never happened and he fell asleep. Almost instantly, Kolin decided he didn't want to be here either and left to go back to the room. He said "I don't dance and feel stupid, so I'm leaving." LOL
This ship photographer came around and took some pictures.
Someone from the crowd came and scooped Brayden up and put him on the stage in front and got him dancing. (Yes, Brayden went. He didn't want to go to the kids club and begged to come to the party).
Oh geeze, I completely forgot that I had pre-party, getting ready pics to share....See my other new shiny ring? It glows yellow.
This is our Miley Cirus pose compliments of Kendra's idea.
I think the "glow" thing hasn't really caught on yet. Everyone is so use to the White Hot party and most were wearing white. Notice Courtney standing out in the crowd?
Even though this picture turned out blurry (I must have been bouncing up and down with the music lol), I still like it because you can tell by the look on our faces that we were having a great time.
Courtney and Brayden dancing and Courney and glowing...
We danced and danced. We waited for them to play ANY of the songs they normally play at the partys and we had been practicing at home for months. You know, the Wobble, Cupid Shuffle, Danza Kuduro, Gangham style, teach me how to dougie....anything. But none of them were played. It was all Latin/Spanish music and we really had no idea what any of them were. I have to say, it really wasn't as fun as they normally are.
Some "things" happened with Kendra and Brayden, and let's just say I was so embarrassed that I will not discuss it here. Security was called and they left. I was left standing by myself on the dance floor (the hubby had went to go get drinks) acting like I had no idea who those people were.
After I found the hubby, we decided to head over to Bliss. According to the dailies, the party would move inside at 11:30pm for the "after party". When we arrived, the "after party" was hideous if I say so myself. There was not 1 person dancing on the floor and only a few people at the tables.
We quickly decided that this wasn't going to happen and I would just rather go pick up Sakari from sitting and spend time with her. I figured she would be hungry by now and wanted to feed her before bed.
When we arrived at the kids club, everyone was upstairs (where they have the 3-5 year olds) for sitting. We actually got to go up and pick them up there.
Then we headed to the buffet, but it was closed. So we were off to O'Sheehans for a late night snack instead.
Sakari informed us that they had their "own" glow party at the kids club and she was excited to find out we did too. I let her wear all of my glow jewelry.
We returned to the room to find this little guy just hanging out.
We were in our hard bed and sound asleep by 2am.