PrincessArlena'sDad

That does look good. I’ll have to try and remember this. Hopefully it is sometime soon. We’ve already broached the idea of doing and ABC cruise next year. If Carnival still had the book while on board benefit, maybe we would take advantage of it.

Hope you get it!

Kids are safely retrieved and recounted their adventures. Camp Ocean had a space themed activity that he really liked. The other won another pair of socks in a Rock Paper Scissors tournament. It’s his 2nd pair. He’s really racking up the prizes. He also won two $5 arcade gift cards. I forgot to mention before that when we finished lunch (or, late snack by that time), I noticed that the sky ride and ropes course were already closed. Lesson learned: if you want to do either of them, and you see they are open, don’t delay. They may not be opened for long. Speaking of wind, the ship is listing a bit again. Going from Camp Ocean (deck 11 mid) to Circle C (6 forward), we cut across the resort pool. The wind was strong even in the enclosure there. After dinner, the kids went off to camp, and my wife and I enjoyed the bottle of Champaign we won (technically it was sparking wine, not Champaign. but, it was really good) before going to the Playlist production show, Havana Nights, or whatever it was called. Memory isn’t my thing. The show, again, was great. The shows were really much improved over our last Carnival cruises in 2016 and 2018.This time, they weren’t as creative with the musical arrangements, but they made up for it with the singing and dancing. Especially the dancing. The choreography was impossibly difficult, but they pulled it off flawlessly and beautifully. After the show we wandered around a bit, bouncing off the walls as the ship rocked. Well, I did. My wife walked like it was smooth sailing. One of our stops was the piano bar, with Hans. We will definitely be stopping in there again. Lots of fun singing along. He also gets the bar servers to join in with him. Though that may not sound like fun, it really is a hoot. We also stopped at the Horizon Rock Band (or something like that). They were ok. Maybe we’d stop and listen to them in the future, but wouldn’t make an effort to listen to them. Hans at piano we would. And that brings us to where we started this evening - waiting for the kids. Tomorrow is La Romana. Our only plans are to rest in the morning, eat, try for the sky ride and ropes course, and go down the water slides. We’ll probably pop off the ship and wander around the port complex Carnival built. Don’t know if we’ll bring our bathing suits for the pool. Hub app says there might be thunderstorms tomorrow. Oh, my wife also booked a massage for tomorrow in the spa to use the $100 gift card she won, so I’ll let you know how that goes as well. And I think we’ll send out the free bags of laundry we get for being in a suite. Is it strange I’m looking forward to that?

Once on board the ship, we dropped our bag o’ sunscreen in the cabin and ran up to the sky ride and ropes course. It was not open… but the crew member said it would be shortly! We waited, and got to ride the sky ride with very little wait. YES! We’ve been waiting for this! So, after days of anticipation, the ride was NOT a let down. It was more fun than I thought it would be. Hopefully we’ll have the chance to ride it again. I don’t want to talk to much about it, as I think it is best not to know too much if you haven’t ridden it yet. I will mention that they do a weight check before getting on the ride, but I’m not sure what the limit is. We then went across to the ropes course with no wait. While up there, the horn blew. Let me tell you. The horn may seem loud from Lido deck. Or louder from the Tides pool. From the ropes course, it is deafening. And, creates a whole new challenge for the course. I was literally in the middle of a difficult transition when it blew, and almost knocked me off. Took quite a few moments for me to catch my balance, and get the rope bridge to stop swinging like a trapeze. Of course, then the ship starts to move. Fast. Curaçao does not require any tight turns when leaving, so we picked up speed quickly. And, with the speed, came the wind. Lots of it. There I am, reaching out for the next rope to grab, and it’s blowing back and forth, giving me a moving target. Definitely made life interesting! Kids wanted to do a 2nd lap, and I wanted to also, but it was 3pm by this point, and we were starving. So we hopped down for food and hydration. The rest of the fam had buffet items and pizza (no wait for it at 3 pm, FYI), and I had Guys burgers pig patty. Yummy. That bacon is much better than the family harbor breakfast bacon. Fries were good an fresh, and very enjoyable, but I do prefer the freshly cut fries over the frozen they now have. But, this is more of a personal preference than actual quality of food. However, I do think the frozen fries last longer once fried. The fresh cut need to be eaten right away. If the fries sit for more than a few minutes, the frozen is better than the fresh cut. After lunch, my wife decided that she didn’t do enough walking, so went to use the treadmill, while I went with the kids to the Tides pool and whirlpool. The pool was comfy, but the whirlpool felt great after walking and rope climbing. Upon meeting up before dinner, my wife described the treadmill as an adventure on it’s own. The ship was rocking so much, that when she was running on it, she had to aim her step slightly left or right, depending on the motion at the.moment, to land squarely on the treadmill. I am in awe. Dinner was again great. Food and service both. Marie is also great at Showtime! She really gets into it, as do we. Prime rib was cooked perfectly, but I did cheat. Remembering that the chef runs the steak hot, I ordered medium and got medium well, which is perfect for me. The only weird part was it was served with mashed potato (yummy with the au jours, but no veggies at all. Oh well. I got ice cream later in the Family Harbor Lounge instead of the veggies. I thought that worked well. I gotta run and pick up the kids from the clubs. Assuming I don’t pass out on the stairs en route, I’ll finish up the day before turning in for the night.

Once again I’m sitting in our cabin, waiting for the kids to return from the clubs. How they have this energy after such a busy day I’ll never know. Circle C is having a color splash party (whatever that is) and Camp Ocean is having an animals party (whatever that is). I guess I’ll find out when they get back. Maybe. Probably not. Ship is still rocking. At one point today the ship listed about 5-10 degrees, and stayed that way for a few minutes before correcting. Made the stairs challenging. I thought I won my daily battle with the wake up call this morning. I was up before it rang, but I was in the bathroom at the critical time. It hung up before I could get to it. So I walk away, and a couple of minutes later it calls back. I do pick it up this time, and it says, “This is your wake up call to let you know that missing the first call means I win.” I guess you can always win if you change the rules. Bacon for breakfast. Well, it was available. Sausage for me. Tasted different for me this time, less spicy. Looked the same though, so I don’t know what was going on. We docked at 7:30. But we didn’t get off the ship until a little after 9am. In hindsight, I wish we had gotten off earlier. We did a self guided walking tour that I found here: https://www.curacao.com/en/activity/architectural-walking-guide-historic-willemstad It is excellent, but if you use it, keep in mind that some of the buildings are a different color than in the picture. Also, construction has some of the streets closed (looks like a long term project). Hint: the Tommy Hilfiger store is one of the buildings on the tour, and from the 2nd floor of the store, you can see the next building on the list from the comfort of AC. We paid the $10/person (age 12 and up, 11 and younger free) to go into the Jewish museum. We spent MUCH longer than we anticipated. Close to two hours, actually. It is so interesting, and they have so much on display. There’s even some topics we plan on researching when we get home. With a 2:30 back on board time, and because of the long visit at the Jewish museum, we only got to finish part 1 of the tour (the east side of the Queen Emma bridge I think), though we only went into the. Maritime museum for an AC break and to buy a few bottles of water. (We briefly considered bringing bottles of water from the ship, but decided - correctly - that there would be plenty of water bottles available to buy throughout the city, and so it wasn’t worth the weight to carry water around). We hope to make it back to Curacao one day to finish the tour (including touring the Maritime museum, it looked really interesting). We also didn’t have time to go into the gift shop at the Jewish museum. So we’ll do that also. We got back to the port with about 30 minutes to spare (we walked leisurely with an eye on the clock), including stopping for photos at scenic views from the fort that was converted into a shopping plaza (Riipfort I think It’s called? I’m too lazy to check the spelling right now). If you click the link above, it’s listed on the 2nd part of the tour. Don’t be lazy. That’s my job. Go look. I’ll be here when you get back.

Snorkeling was a lot of fun. Lots and lots of fish. And the best part? None of THESE fish bit me! Lots of coral, though not very colorful. I know nothing about types of coral, so that’s about as much detail as I can give you. At first the water was very gentle, but after a bit (not sure how long we were in there, it was pretty long though) the waves got a lot bigger, and the current stronger. Our tummies told us it was time to get out anyway, so we went to go get food. There are two options: the grill for hamburgers, or the buffet. We chose the buffet. We chose wisely. I could not believe how good the food was. First was the salad bar. Just the basis, but it was really fresh and tasty. Only creamy Italian and Caesar dressing. Italian dressing was good. Then the lentil soup. I don’t like lentil soup. But, this Aruban version was one of the best soups I had in my life. I wish I could have had more, but I was too full from everything else! (Just to be clear, the buffet is unlimited, so I could have gone back for more soup). I also had carribean rice, potatoes, and fish. (TAKE THAT YOU PIRANHA). Yes, I am bitter about being bitten). Desserts: I had the bread pudding (WOW!) and the rice pudding. Best desserts of the trip. Ironically, I had bitter n blanc for dessert for dinner in the MDR. De Palm Island bread pudding ruined bitter n blanc for me. Now stuffed (I wonder if they intentionally stuff us to later slaughter us to feed to the fish?), we moseyed on down to the water slides. Three slides: a drop tower and two body slides. These slides are great. I’ve been on 3 other drop towers in major amusement parks, and this one was the best. And the body slides were top notch as well. We spent almsot an hour on the slides, immediately going up after coming down. There was never more than a 2 minute wait, either, so we all got a great workout! We decided this counted for our daily exercise, so we did skip the fitness center on the ship today. By this time it was time to leave. We would have loved to stay there 2-3 hours longer. This took the top port day for us, which used to belong to HMC. Oh, I didn’t even mention the included drinks. They had them. On the way out I stopped in to look at (then buy) our Photos. It included videos as well, which I didn’t realize until then. Paid the $39, and got an email link to download them. It’s too much memory for my phone, so I’ll have to wait until I get Home. The instructions say the link will last for four weeks. A short ride back to the mainland. (Main island?) Followed by the bus ride, but this time including a commentary on what we were seeing. I didn’t know that Aruba was very arid, with only 12 inches of rain per year. Or that the original name for the capital was (when translated to English) Bay of Horses - which explains the giant blue horse statues. Or that most people speak 4 languages. Back on the ship, cleaned up, rested, and went to dinner in a mostly empty MDR. Great service yet again, great food (though, now underwhelming bitter and blanc by comparision), sent the kids off to camp, and my wife and I left the ship to walk around the port area, and take some pictures. We were back in about 45 minutes. About five minutes from the ship it started to rain. Hard. In just a few seconds it looked like we just finished our snorkeling. I can now tell you that Aruba has had it’s 12 inches of rain for the year. Being 5 minutes from the ship, there was nothing for us to duck under (we were entering the parking lot area for the port). Just 1 minute more and we would have been under the awning where they check IDs. Do I even have to mention that my wife wanted to turn back a minute earlier? But, no, I wanted to take a couple of pictures of a giant flamingo stature, with the Horizon centered just right in the background. Another point for women’s intuition. After changing into dry clothes, we had just enough time to catch The Liar’s Club. Very fun. Eddie Spaghetti was the star. The only thing left for the day was waiting for the 14 year old to return from Circle C (which he did a few minutes ago), so it’s time for me to get to sleep. Only thing I want to add is that the texting on the hub app stopped working completely tonight. Nothing went through, at all. For hours. Caused a problem with my 11 year old, who would have liked to stay for Night Owls for a bit, but couldn’t let us know (he originally said he was too tired but changed his mind). He tried texting us to ask us to come OK the charge, but we didn’t get the message, so they sent him back to the cabin. We met him there (we had arranged to meet at 10), so we were going to walk him back up, but he decided to just hang out with us for a bit before going to bed. The kids still didn’t get the message we sent them almost 5 hours ago that we were back on the ship. Curaçao tomorrow. It’s an early day (early arrival, early departure), but that suits our self guided walking tour. Bye for now!

At 11:30 we went back for sea trek, and they took us to the area, passing by their turtle home and flamingo pen. We were interested in them, but they ignored us as we passed. How rude! Then the short safety briefing. For those that have never done this, the instructions are: 1. Walk 2. Breathe 3. Finger and pointer meeting to make an “O” means OK. 4. Pointing up means get me out of here. Then they split us into 3 groups of 8 people, and it would take a half hour each. If you weren’t in the first group, you had to leave and come back in 30/60 minutes. Happily, we were in the first group. It was the 5 of us, and a family of 3. Going first is obviously best, but I couldn’t tell you how we managed that. No advice on that here. Sea Trek was great, and VERY easy. And fun. And nice we could wear our glasses. Don’t wear sunglasses though! (Someone almost did. The other family. Not ours. Honest.) We saw lots of fish, walked around, posed for pictures and video, and held out our hands for them to give us fish food to feed the fish. Here is where we ran into a problem. The fish bit me. Hard. Numerous times. I’m not kidding, my hand got all bitten up. No one else. They all talked about how it tickled a little, it was cute, the fish rubbed against them, how soft they are. I get eaten. OK. I had the tilapia last night, and the shrimp cocktail. And the seafood appetizer. But they didn’t know that! I took a picture, and when I post some photos of the trip, I’ll include a picture of the piranha food. The trek was about 20 minutes underwater, but it went by really fast. I could have stayed down there for an hour. It’s so peaceful and comfortable. After kicking us out, and using a crane to take the helmets off our heads (no joke, they weigh 75 lbs, though feel light under the water - and you need the weight to help keep you on the bottom and not floating up), we continued the adventure in the snorkel area.

If you have never been to Aruba, it is the easiest terminal ever. You walk off the ship, walk across the dock the short way, and into the terminal building. Here it gets a little confusing. They have a sign directing you where to go, and I think the sign was designed by the Scarecrow from Wizard of Oz. It says “To Tours” and a double arrow pointing both ways. Not helpful. After a quick discussion with the fam, we decided to go left. Then, we changed our mind and went right. Don’t know why, we just did. There’s a very small number of shops, and then two restaurants. S’Barro and Quiznos! I guess they feel it easier to compete with Lido deck pizza and deli than the real local restaurants outside the port. After passing those eateries, you walk out the door to where the tours meet, as well as taxis, or a very short walk out to the street. We quickly found our tour guide sign. He was very easy to spot. He was standing in front of a bus that said “De Palm Island” We boarded the bus right away, so no standing outside in the heat (though, it really wasn’t that hot, very pleasant actually). We got on at 9:40 for our 10am departure. While waiting, he passed out the liability waiver forms that made us swear we have never even had a runny nose once in our lives in order to participate, and handed out wristbands. 3 per adult, 2 per child. He spent sometime explaining it: 1. Red and white wristband to show we’re doing sea trek (they also have scuba and beach day) 2. Green band to show we’re a cruise guest that gets the all inclusive food and drinks (but no banana boat). Kids did not get this one. 3. Green and white to show we haven’t had any alcohol. Once we finished sea trek and snorkeling, we could take this one off and get drinks, but they wouldn’t let us snorkel anymore, or do the sea trek if we hadn’t done it yet. Kids do get this one, instead of the green. Bus was loaded, and we pulled out of the lot at 10:04. It was a 22 minute drive in a comfortable bus with working seat belts. Then a transfer to a small boat to take us across to the island, which was only a 5 minute ride. Does this mean we went island hopping? First thing we did was check in for the helmet dive. This was at 10:35. They said our start time was 11:30, so come back then. We rented a locker ($5 charge, $10 key deposit - but the deposit had to be in cash. I had it, but the Carnival description left that detail out, so I imagine some people would be bereft without a locker). Then went out to the beach inlet to waddle around for a bit. Waddle waddle. A duck walked up to a lemonade stand and he said to the man running the stand….. I’ll continue shortly after that musical interlude.

Here I am, at 6 o’clock in the morning…. Still thinking about you… I have no idea why that song just got stuck in my head. It’s not 6, it’s midnight, and I don’t think I heard that song once today. Oh, well. The ship is still rocking, but not as much as it was. Forward “secret” decks are still closed. Balcony is open, but I elected to type this indoors. Lots of sea spray and electronic devices don’t mix too well. We are enjoying the balcony, however. We love the coves. My red headed wife burns easily, so this is the first time she’s really been able to enjoy without constant sunscreen. I guess I should go back to the beginning of the day. I’m fairly confident that it will be more interesting to read about Aruba than our balcony. So, once again, we managed to wake up prior to our wake up call. I decided I love when that happens. You see, when the wake up call comes, I pick up the phone and say, “Ha, ha I’m already awake! You didn’t wake me! Joke’s on you!” I get no response from the automated voice. Therefore, I win. Family Harbor breakfast. BACON AGAIN! UNLIMITED SELF SERVE! I still prefer the sausage. Cookie announced we were free to leave the ship, via the after or mid elevators. Being in the after of the ship, we went to the aft elevator. But, the aft elevator doesn’t go to 0 deck. Cookie made a boo-boo. He meant mid or forward. It was the comedian from two nights ago who gave us directions. You might think one should never take directions from a comedian, but, we took the chance. At last we made it off the ship.

They don’t allow guests to take their own pictures, so you have to buy their package. We did, and I’ll give details in a bit. Spoiler: $39 for all of them.

Here I am in our cabin, settling down for the night. Despite being midship deck 2, it is rocking a LOT. Upper decks are a pirate ship ride. No waves out there, it’s just from the wind. After lunch the kids went back to the clubs, and my wife and I went to the fitness center. I got on the treadmill, but, with the rocking, within a couple of minutes I almost fell off. If someone took a video, they would have thought I was drunk. I really couldn’t stay on. I must admit that my wife was able to do just fine. Women’s intuition must have scored another point here, I guess she knew when the ship would zig and when it would zag? In any event, she came with me to the recumbent bikes, so I wouldn’t be over there all alone. Isn’t she sweet? Of the 5 recumbent bikes, 4 of them need maintenance. 3 of those 4 have seats that slip. 1 of them also doesn’t turn on at all, 1 of them has no resistance, and one has the belt slip if you go above level 6. Of course, my wife chose the one that works perfectly from the very beginning. I lost track of how many points she has. After freshening up, we met up with our 11 year old and went to Walk the Plank. This was a fun team game; 4 teams, I think 6 on a team. We got there a bit late, and they already had enough people, but someone volunteered to sit out so that our kid could play. His generosity was very much appreciated. The fun squad host (Eddie Spaghetti) had 1 person on each team compete for points in a series of games. Each team member got one game. We’re pretty sure Eddie Spaghetti made up the rules as he went along, as they would often change in the middle of the game, and he didn’t seem to realize it! DIdn’t matter though, everyone still had a blast. The highlight game was and adult only game where each person had to wear a bottle for a hat, and were given Nerf swords. The object of the game was to use the sword to knock the bottle off the opponents heads. Our team came in 3rd place overall. After that we had a little time before dinner, so we picked up our gold pins and complimentary water bottles from the bar. Dinner was completely on point and everything was absolutely delicious. Great service team! After dinner was family comedy, which, again, was great. Better than yesterday. Which brings me to the point I was at earlier, namely, waiting for Vintage Pop. Getting there early paid off nicely. We had great seats (which are very few in number) and fully enjoyed the show. The Playlist team on the Horizon is immensely talented, and they really are given great material to work with. We are highly impressed with the productions so far. After the show, we went to the after party in the lobby. The cast asked for 3 couples to volunteer. My wife and I quickly did, and were chosen. Each couple got a turn to dance, by themselves, up and down the dance floor area. Afterwards, they lined us all up and presented each couple with a free bottle of champagne! We’re going to enjoy that tomorrow evening. We wanted it tonight, but it needs to be iced. Tonight was the mega deck party. We went to check it out, but it was just too humid. It isn’t that hot at all, but the humidity is disgusting. We came back to the cabin and called it a night. I need to get to sleep. Sea Trek time tomorrow! We’ve been waiting three years for this.

The plan was to try the ropes course and skyride next, but they were closed for wind again. In fact the ship was rocking and rolling all day. Great weather though, just windy. Instead we did the salsa class. That was fun. The rest is the fam did great, and did it perfectly at the end. I was lucky to stay on my feet, especially with the ship participating in the class on it's own. (Rocking and rolling ship, see what I did there? ) After much debate we settled on the Mongolian wok for lunch. Food was excellent and they accommodated our allergies nicely. Vintage pop will be starting in a bit. Assuming I can stay awake long enough, I'll finish off the day before turning in for the night. If not, see you in Aruba!

I am now waiting outside the liquid lounge. Vintage pop is the show tonight. I can hear the violins in the atrium. So this works. The kids are hanging out in the clubs until showtime. As we were determined to make the family harbor lounge breakfast this morning;, we set a wake up call for 9am. Turns out we didn't need it. We were all up by 8:30. So... the answer to the most important question on all of cruise critic: THERE IS 🥓 🥓 🥓. Not only is there bacon. It is self serve bacon. As much as you want. Unlimited. Replenished faster than it can be eaten. I preferred the sausage. After breakfast we went to the military appreciation. Cookie did an excellent job here. It was very moving and meaningful experience. Cookie has not been in the military:, but did share what branch he would have liked to serve. No spoiler here. You'll have to take a cruise with Cookie to find out.

We had some time before dinner, so we got portraits from 3 different backdrops. Does the Dreamscape count as a backdrop? Or is that a different category? Service in the MDR was excellent. Absolutely perfect. All of our steaks were cooked to a temperature hotter than what we ordered, so the chef needs to work on that. At least he was consistant. There was also a wandering magician who came to our table. He came last night also, but I forgot to mention it. Which really is unfair to him, as he was very good. Different tricks from yesterday, also. After dinner we saw the PG comedy as a family, with the guy who was funnier last night. Kids almost spilled their Shirley Temples they were laughing so hard. Then we saw Soulbound. This was the best Carnival show we’ve ever seen. Actually, it was one of the best shows we’ve seen in a very long time, anywhere. After the show, the kids went to the clubs, and my wife and I returned to the cabin to watch Cuba sail by. Well, the kids have returned from their partying (my 11 year old won a medal for his dancing skills!) so it is time for me to turn in for the night. Tomorrow we’ll make the family harbor breakfast or die trying. Or, at least fight for it. I think they have bacon every morning. They did today (hence my almost uncontrollable urge to fight for the food). We shall see. After that we’ll try for the ropes course and sky course. We also would like to go to the military appreciation event. For lunch, should we go to the Mongolian wok or pasta bar? Guys burgers? We already did the BBQ. Brunch again? Blue iguana? What do you predict we’ll do?

After the welcome show, they had the Comedy Showcase, which was 15 minutes of each comedian. The first one was OK, the 2nd was very good. Then we staggered back to the cabin. I would have fallen right to sleep, but I had to force myself to stay awake to wait for our 14 year old to return from Circle C. Party animal! Our plan was to get up to have breakfast in the family harbor lounge, and then sea day brunch for lunch. That didn’t happen. Not because we didn’t want to pig out. But because we slept too late. The food was gone when we got there. People were still eating though, and it looked really good. I thought of starting a fight to steal their food. But I was too tired. So we went right to brunch. Brunch was very good, very fresh, and good service, and accommodated our allergies really well. Breakfast potatoes were a standout. We then went up to try the sky ride and ropes course, but it was closed for high winds. So instead we wandered around a bit. The kids went to the clubs, and I was going to come on here and catch up, but, instead, we went up to the fitness center. The machines are set up really nicely to be able to look out into the ocean while working out. And then they put giant TV screens on top of each machine to completely block the view. Why? Am a an anomaly? Would most people rather watch TV than the open ocean? After burning off the cheesecake I was about to pick up at Family Harbor, we collected the kids and got ready for formal night.

The Welcome Show was fun. We like Cooke a lot. One point he made, which I fully appreciate, was how fortunate and blessed we all are to be on this cruise, and it was because of the men and women in uniform that keep us safe, that allow us this luxury. Then they did the competition to win the VIP seats to the shows. I was hoping to get chosen. I did not. Speaking of the Liquid Lounge; WHAT WERE THEY THINKING??? That venue is terrible. A huge disappointment. The lower level is bad with the flat level, but the balcony is possible even worse. I’m over 6 foot tall, and sat in the 2nd row, center balcony. The person in front of me was a short, petite woman. Yet, she completely blocked my view. I had to lean one way, then the other, to see around her. And the side balcony? First, the seats should be angled to the stage. Why they are facing the other side balcony, I do not know. The people sitting across the theater are not that interesting. Sorry, but true. And, second: those columns completely block the view of many a seat. Those columns are even less interesting than the people across the theater. The columns obstruct the view so badly that there should not be seats there. I do have to say, though, that this is by far my biggest complaint. We really are having a fantastic trip. I hope you all are so fortunate when you have your trips!

Before commenting on the welcome show, I want to talk a bit about Camp Ocean and Circle C. 11 year old is enjoying Sharks (it’s the party night there now, so I’ll go get him at 1am. Or sooner if he texts me asking for a pickup. We gave him an old phone to use that we don’t use anymore. Galaxy S7, actually. Works great with the Hub app, so he can text us on it. He was given the option of moving up to Circle C with his brother (they asked out of the blue), but he decided to stay with the kids his own age. Last time we cruised he was a Stingray, and he really wanted to be a Shark at least once. Next year he’ll be Circle C. Apparently, the parents on this ship didn’t get the memo that on Carnival ships they are supposed to let their kids run wild. The scavenger hunt had to be cancelled because hardly any of the Sharks were given permission to leave the camp without a parent. So far he is enjoying Camp. He’s made a couple of friends (one of whom was on the same flight into FLL that we were on - maybe they’ll keep in touch when we get home!) Circle C has also been a lot of fun. He danced the night away with a couple of kids last night. That’s not just an expression. He really loves dancing. And, today, they went around doing the scavenger hunt together. Right now they are having a Hollywood themed party. Fun stuff! All the middle school and HS kids are also being very well behaved. Even the adults have been very polite. Well, there was that one person who cut the line to get the free charm bracelet. Yes, that really happened. I guess there’s always one.

Thanks! Only things I published were for school - academic boring stuff. I do enjoy writing though.

Our server at dinner, Marie, is fabulous. Full of energy, fun, and really on point. As I mentioned earlier, we got a lot of allergies in our family. I thought we would have the allergy tablet, but they aren’t using it. Maybe because we have some non-typical allergies that the tablet can’t accommodate? Anyway, the kids ordered gf/dairy free/egg free sweet and sour shrimp. Marie let us know it would be 15-20 min delay because the chef would have to make it from scratch. We finished dinner at 7:40 (we have 6pm fixed). Food was great. I had the brisket, which was perfect and fresh. Stir fry veggies were very good, but a weird pairing. Dessert was melting cake. Between dinner and the welcome show we finished straightening out the cabin. Oh, I also enjoyed the family harbor lounge cappuccino machine. Absolutely great. Kids are enjoying the hot chocolate (at least the ones who can have dairy). We do have one gripe with the machine though; “black coffee” has some cream in it. You can’t get plain black coffee. So, the machine can’t be used if you have a dairy allergy.

Sorry for the delay getting back. I meant to continue upon returning to the cabin last night, but I just fell asleep. And, today was a fun, busy day at sea. I just took a picture of Cuba from our balcony. I’ll post it here later. It’s not very good, considering it’s 11pm, so it’s just a few lights in the distance. I bet the view is better from the Havana cabins. But, hey. It’s Cuba. So, back to yesterday, where I just left you all at pork butt. After lunch, we went to our cabin to find that most of our luggage arrived, so we did most of our unpacking. Once that was done we explored the ship. And, by explore, I mean get lost. Over and over and over again. We found about 15 ways to get to the basketball court, but not a single way to get to Camp Ocean. Spoiler alert: midship stairs to deck 11. As we were wandering around, my wife suddenly says she wants to go to the spa raffle. I ask, “Why?” She has never used the spa services, never seemed interested, but she really wanted to. So we did. And she won! $100 spa credit! I told you it was coming: 2nd point for women’s intuition. She’s going to book a facial treatment (probably) on the morning of La Romana, where the ship comes in to port late morning. (The credit has to be used on a port day). Freshly aglow with her victory, we continued our tour of the ship, until it was time for the sailaway party. We felt obligated to at least try the big deck party, but only stayed for 2 minutes. That’s because it took that long to cross the deck. Why did the family cross the deck? To get to the AC! It really is too loud for us. And hot. Instead we went to the “secret deck” all the way forward. I think we were on 12, but maybe 11. Of course, as soon as we get out there, my 14 year old says, “What are these windows?” And sticks his head in it. Spoiler #2: It’s cabins. We hung out there while we pulled away, and enjoyed the view and the breeze until reaching the open sea. We were the first ship to leave, followed by Harmony of the Seas hot on our aft. We left the Disney Magic in the dust. Or sea spray. We did enjoy the deck party music of the Harmony of the Seas. We did the Cupid shuffle with the folks on Harmony. They were a fun group, waving and cheering for us as we passed. The Disney folk were a bunch of snobby stiffs. Ignored us low life Carnival cruisers completely. At this point we went back to our cabin to get ready for dinner, and found the remainder of our luggage waiting for us. So, we put away the remainder of our stuff. Then made our way to dinner. Well, we got lost first. Then went to dinner.

What a busy first day! It's 9pm, and I don't know where the kids are. That reminds me. This is from a disney cruise, but it's cute. Song to "When You Wish Upon a Star:" When you're sitting at the bar And you done know where your children are Take this tip You're on a ship They can't go far So... where were we? Oh yes... we boarded! For those who keep track, they boarded a wedding first, then suites. I didn't stick around to see who was next. They took my Priority G placard (I tried keeping it, but no luck) We walked into the atrium, and the colors explode. Almost overwhelming, but in a good way. We walked down a flight to drop odd our carry ons, and walked into a wall of people boarding the ship. The non Priority folk board the ship deck 2 midship. Salmon swimming upstream. And that wall of people were hungry for salmon. And confetti cheesecake. Next we went to lunch. We went to Mongolian wok on 11, but it was closed today. They did it'll be open for lunch tomorrow. Same ss pasta bar. So we went to Guys BBQ. Very good. The welcome show starts in a couple of minutes. So... I'll leave you now with thoughts of pork butt. Coming up next.... women's intuition scores point number 2.

We had a helmet dive planned in Bernuda for 2020. When we booked this cruise, the first thing the families said was "can we do a helmet dive?"

So far so good! We're now relaxing in the priority lounge at Terminal F. I hope the rest of the week goes as smoothly! I hope i didn't jinx it! The hyatt breakfast was very good. Food was replenished quickly and stayed fresh. Larry's Limo arrived at 8:35 for our 9am pick up. We weren't quite ready yet, but it felt good to know our ride was there. The van was a nice 9 passenger van, very clean, great ac, courteous driver. Highly recommended. We left the hotel at 9:01 and pulled into a spot at the terminal at 9:26. A porter came up to us to collect our luggage, confirmed we were not giving him our boarding passes and ids, and gave us directions on where to go. He almost left before I could give him his tip! I had to chase him down! Check in was a breeze. No one in front of us. Up to the luggage area. A bear sniffed our carry ons. (The sign claimed it was a dog. That was no dog. That was a bear. ) We all had to restrain ourselves from giving her a great BEAR hug. Upon entering the priority lounge we got a card with "Priority G" on one side. The other side says we have to return the card when boarding. Dang! I thought i had a free souvenir! We took our picture with the horizon booth and got a seat in a mini living room. A coach and 2 chairs. Restrooms are nice and very clean. We've been sitting for about a half hour and they just announced boarding will start "soon!" I'll see you all on board!

No, but we don't plan on leaving the port complex. There's a nice pool there that opened this year. We saw online they have pictures with monkeys, a fish pedicure we might try, and shopping.

We collect our bags and call the Hyatt for pickup. The guy tells us which door to wait for him at (Door 223 I think from the departures level. Don’t bank on this, I’m still punch drunk from sleep deprivation!) He gets there 1 minute after us (if that), and, as he helps us load our bags into the van, BOOM goes the FL thunder! We get ourselves in the van just before the flood gates open, and we’re practically at sea already. A short 10 minute drive to the Hyatt, and we exit the van to completely dry skies. FL weather. Hyatt Dania beach is very nice. Large rooms, comfy beds. Nice fitness center (which the whole family used). Dinner was at Lime’s Mexican Grill across the street. AMAZING. OUT OF THIS WORLD. Biggest problem was that the free salsa bar had too many amazing varieties and my stomach could only fit so many chips after that burrito with a side of beans and rice. And a strawberry margarita. I would have taken pictures, but everything was eaten faster than I could get my phone out to take them! After that we walked over to Sprouts for 3 bottles of wine (advantage of a daughter who is 21) and nut pods for my wife’s coffee. And, ice cream sandwiches for dessert. I should mention that we have a lot of allergies in our family, so we’re going to have a lot of experience with the allergy tablets. But, for now, I should note that Sprouts is heaven for desserts for those with allergies. Those dairy free and gluten free ice cream sandwiches didn’t last. We walked back to the Hyatt, and as we walked under the awning the rain returned. We timed that perfectly! And, now, here we are, settling in, excited for embarkation day! Larry’s Limo is coming at 9am, and my wife wants to use the fitness center before breakfast, so it’s time to turn off the Diner and Dive’s marathon. Good night everyone, and see you tomorrow!