MITSUGIRLYS BACK TO BELLY SUN CRUISE review and pictorial
Day 3: Our first Sea Day
Ok, on to Day 3. Our first official "sea day", which is actually Day 2 of being on the ship.
Since it was a sea day, I was not going to set the alarm and just let my body rejuvenate and sleep in. (Although it's always in the back of my mind that we may miss breakfast and that would completely throw my day off).
I managed to sleep in until 9:30am and once I noticed it was that late, I jumped up really quick, got myself and Sakari dressed and we raced off to hopefully *fingers crossed* find that breakfast was still available. No time to wake daddy up and wait for him to get ready. He was on his own today! It's a dog eat dog world sometimes and this would be one of those times.
We were able to go to Moderno for Waffles and we got our bellies full and satisfied. When we returned to the room, daddy was up and dressed and ready to head upstairs for coffee so that he would be able to function that day.
After this we went to the meet & greet, located in Las Ramblas. We had a pretty good turn out-35 people signed their names to the list but I swear it looked like more than that. We had originally had a total of 78 people signed up. I guess I didn't realize that only 35 people showed up until I just now looked at the list.
Planma'am the life of the party over there at that table. As always, they passed out cards with the "important people" information on it.
Meanwhile, my hubby is daydreaming out the window and oblivious as to what is going on. He's not much for these meetings, but tags along because he knows they are a must for me.
We are once again introduced to the senior staff. I feel like it's dejavue since we were introduced to them the night before during the "Welcome Show".
They did have the normal "treats" set up for everyone, drinks and snacks.
We had a question and answer during this time as well. Some of the things we discussed:
***There were over 700 latitude members on the ship this sailing.
***There were 1832 people on board
***55 was the "average" age during this sailing
***There were 100 kids on board
***The new menus have NOT rolled out on this ship yet. The only 2 ships they are NOT on now are the Sun and the Pride of America according to the officers.
***There is NO LONGER a lobster night. It has been done away with.
One of the roll call members had previously done a ship tour of the kitchen area and we (the roll call members) officially elected her to ask if we might be able to get that tour offered to us. (I had previously ask my representative about it and was shot down saying that it was a paid tour and any of us were welcome to pay for the tour if we wanted to go).
So when she ask, once again we were shot down with the "you have to pay to tour" statement. I think this is kind of weird since most of the other ships that I have been on usually offer "something" for the cc members, which is usually a tour of the bridge, and we don't even have to ask for it. But to be shot down several times after asking was just weird. In the end, we managed to "kinda" talk them in to at least checking into it for us. We signed our name up on a list saying we would be interested and the representative would let us know if she could "pull any strings".
Some of the roll call members did a gift exchange after the officers were done. Others stuck around to chit chat and I met some wonderful people. It was a good roll call. I have been to great roll calls were people because really good friends, talked forever and then I have been to roll calls were people went and then scattered like flies when the officers were done speaking. It's a hit or miss kind of thing.
Almost directly after the meet & greet we were invited to the latitudes party. Now this is a party that we usually go to. Hey, what can I say, the one time we get to enjoy free booze.
All for me? You shouldn't have. Well, maybe you should have but you'll be carrying me back to the room.
Some of those fancy looking, dry break with stuff on top snacks.
Sakari was super excited that she was able to get a drink. (She is just now at the age that she understands "adult" drinks and that she can't have them because there's a difference)
They had a live band playing on the stage to entertain us. Here we go again....out comes the senior officers again. We are introduced and I'm starting to feel like I personally know each and every one of them at this point.
They did the normal "drawings" and I did the normal "no winnings", which is becoming a habit of mine.
After that they started asking for the couple that had been married the longest. They ended up being married 56 years and 3 months. Then came the "newlywed" couple, who wasn't such a newlywed coming in at 3 years married. Then they picked an "odd" couple that was supposed to be NOT married and cruising alone. Only this took a turn into the funny farm when they later discovered that the "older" gentleman was actually married and had left his wife back at the cabin, so was considering himself "alone" at this function. He was paired with a younger lady and we all got a kick out of it.
Then come the fun and games. There were going to have a dance off. They played the Twist and let the dance. Of course the couple that had been married for over 56 years won the contest...they always do...and of course they always deserve it in my book just for their accomplishment.
We dropped Sakari off at the kids club and decided to head to the casino for awhile. We were armed with $40 each and away we went to find our "perfect" slot machine.
They had some really good ones on the ship and I immediately found a few that I would play for the rest of the week.
I put in my first $20 and started playing...jumping from machine to machine when I had lost a "magical number" that I pick out in my head. I had $5.40 left on my first $20 bill and decided to try a machine that we play on other ships and back home. Quick Hit Platinum.
Since I didn't have a lot of money left over, I decided to play small and only did the .30 bet. If only I had known what was about to hit. My hubby walked up and said that he had spent his entire $40 and was headed to the restroom while I finished my first $20. He got quite a bit away and he turned around and my extremely loud screaming and yelling his name. I had hit 8 Quick Hits DURING my bonus round, which I had no idea what that meant at the time, but I knew it was at least more than what I walked in with and I was more than happy with that.
As you can tell by the picture, I won $315.71. The hubby didn't even realize it until I cashed it out and showed him.
Of course I left immediately after that with a big smile on my face but yet that part of me that kept thinking in the back of my mind...if only I would have hit a higher bet.
We decided to head out to the back of the ship and celebrate for a few...still gleaming with a smile on my face.
A few random pictures to fill the space.
While sitting at the back of the ship checking out the wake.
A random door in the womens restroom being worked on.
One of the glass elevators broke down the very first night of the cruise. It was stuck on deck 11 and would not be fixed until the 4th night of the cruise.
I have to admit, I completely forgot about Sakari being at the kids club and that we are supposed to call them whenever we "move to a different location"...just in case they needed to contact us. But, we were only "not" in our designated location for about a good 20 minutes before moving on.
We started walking the deck (12) toward the sports area only to find that Sakari and her kids club class was actually there playing in the basketball court. We say down and decided to watch her play the sports with each game being different.
While they were playing, the "Furries" come along again out on the pool deck. They were taking pictures with everyone and having a good time.
They came upstairs to visit the kids at the basketball court and Sakari was the first one to come over. Yes, she's an animal freak, even if they look weird or are not real.
Then it was back to your regularly scheduled channel or more ball playing.
When the kids club does anything, they do it LOUDLY. This would not be any exception to the rule. When they were leaving, they started singing their "chant" (this is on every ship and Sakari knows it well of course). If you are ever on the ship and hear something like this...you'll know the kids are coming. This is also a way we have managed to located them during a "parade" any given night.
I do have to say I feel sorry for those people that stayed in the section right down from the kids club on deck 7. If they didn't have kids, were early to bed or wasn't drunk, this would not be the place I would want to have a room at because they do this song going down the hallway too.
We ended up following Sakari back to the kids club to pick her up for lunch and was scolded for not being where we said we would be. They said that Sakari had complained that her knee was hurting (which I didn't see anything wrong with it and sounded like just a complaint to maybe get out of playing a particular game she didn't like). I explained to them that we were actually on the deck, right beside them, watching them play sports. Sakari had even waved to us. I guess I can't imagine out of all the hours in the day, the one moment they needed us and tried to contact us was the short 15-20 minutes after walking out of the casino, to the back of the ship and then up to the deck. But whatever. They told us to make sure that we called them every time we left and went somewhere next time.
We went back to the room and found another VIP surprise.
We also found another surprise that was unexpected....
The room steward had taken our dirty cups from the desk, put them back up by the ice bucket and put the "I'm clean" covers on them...only they weren't clean. Um....ok. That was weird. Some how I think I want clean cups thank you.
After getting lunch, Sakari wanted to go swimming, so off we went...to the kids pool to check it out.
As always, anything involving water=she's having a blast.
I was busy snapping pictures of the sun setting.
We stayed until the sun went down and then decided to head back to the room to shower and get ready to go "out" to eat. We try to go to a MDR at least a few times on each ship. Usually once at each MDR just for the experience. This would be the night.
All "spiffied" up and ready for dinner.
Sakari and mommy=<3
Being silly waiting for our meal. Gotta squeeze in one of daddy so he don't get jealous.
The feast has arrived.
Sakari loves soup and always has to order soup off the main menu (and then orders the rest of the food off the kids menu).
This time around it was chicken noodle soup. They had made it with spaghetti noodles (which I had never seen before) and she absolutely loved it (although truth be known, mommy thought it was not very lady like to watch her try to get them out of the bowl with the spoon they provided, so I opted to tell her to use the fork).
Mommy's meal, which was delicious. I also had an egg roll.
Daddy's burrito meal, which he said was good.
They came around during dinner and took some pictures. We purchased 2 of them. They always do this at the worse time. This time around daddy was right in the middle of eating and had a mouth full and this will always be the time you are approached.
Sakari wanted to go back to the kids club and show off her "pretty dress" she said. So off we went. We dropped her off and did a little shopping then headed to the casino to use our Slot Play coupons. I have been using Slot Play coupons since I found out about this years ago. It is always such a good deal. However, they have discontinued this program and you can no longer buy them for the ship. I was real disappointed in this, but it is what it is. I was able to purchase these before they discontinued them, so they were still valid. (Pay $25 and get $50 to play. One each for us).
We played for a little while. As always the hubby lost all of his in a matter of minutes and I continued to play on mine for hours. I walked out with a winning of $38. Not too bad considering that I only paid $25 for it. At least I was still ahead of the game.
We headed back to the kids club to pick up Sakari and watched outside by the round windows for awhile. They were doing a lot of dancing, which we all know Sakari loves to do.
She was dressed in a weird outfit and had sunglasses on. I had no clue what was going on, but obviously it was a fun night.
After signing her out, they informed me that the kids made "costumes" that night and she was the winner of the costume contest. She was beaming with pride when she showed off her paper outfit. I guess she was a butterfly? I mean yes, yes she was a butterfly. A beautiful butterfly.
That is a butterfly with a balloon tail. ??? LOL
On the way back to the room, we found the Furries hanging out at the Internet cafe on the floor down from us. As much as Sakari wanted to go down there, I was ready to head back to the room for some relaxation and to prepare for tomorrows port.
We arrived at our room to find the towel animal of the night would be Mr Rabbit. He had a message for us...turn our clocks BACK 1 hour. Woo Hoo. We were getting an extra hour of sleep AND we wouldn't be arriving in port until 10am, which gave us another day to sleep in. We are NOT morning people at all. I work 2nd-3rd shift and I'm use to staying up half the night while sleeping in during the morning with a usual wake up time for us around 11am-noon. When we cruise, it's a real shock to our system when we have to switch. So, any extra hours to adjust is always welcome.
Sakari pulls out her notebook and starts to draw like she always does.
Tonight must have been a bird kind of night.
As I packed our beach bags for tomorrow and discovered that I had only brought 1 beach bag this time around. I don't know what I was thinking. We always bring 2 huge bags: 1 bags to carry our towels and personal items and another to carry the snorkeling equipment.
I also remembered how the ENT doctor had told my husband not to swim unless he had ear plugs. We did not have any ear plugs. I figured I would run down to the gift shops and see what they had. I know they have a variety of "weird" things there and figured this would be one of them.
Well, I was wrong. There were no ear plugs to be found and an associate confirmed that they did not carry them. Bummer. I was really doubtful that we would be able to find any in port and knew that since we would be in Roatan and at Little French Key, we probably would not get a chance to go to a store to find any. So the hubby decided he would probably not swim and just come in the water neck high when needed.
I headed back to the room and ran into the room steward who proceeded to tell me that she was sorry about the "underwear" issue on the first day. While I had her there, I decided to tell her that I needed our dirty cups replaced as well instead of leaving them in the room and putting a clean cover on them and the cups had been dirty since the day before. I also took this opportunity to tell her that I needed a total of 4 towels left in the bathroom. There are 3 of us and I have extremely long hair and needed an extra towel for that when I showered to wrap it up.
One thing that struck me funny during our conversation was she said "Today is also laundry day, so I'll be changing your sheets and comforter on the bed." Um what? What does this mean???? I'm left confused. Is she saying they only do laundry on Mondays and my sheets and comforter only gets changed on these days? Am I sleeping in a bed that the previous cruisers slept in? That would make me a little unsteady the rest of the night.
I showered that night in the skin sucking shower only to find out that if I left the sides of the shower curtain open, it left me alone for the most part. Also, not turning the water on full blast also helped keep the curtain on good terms.
We hung out the rest of the night in the room and discovered a t.v. show called "The Profit" that was a little like Shark Tank and my husband loves that show.
Sakari continued her drawings of the birds tonight and I called for a wake-up call of 8am and we went to bed...dreaming of dirty linens as germs danced over our heads.
