Florida Gators and Caribbean Cruise: Day 7 November 13, 2018

(click here for today's pictures)



Last night’s update-after picking up Keaton and Campbell from kids’ club, I asked how Whitman acted. Keaton looked confused and said that he didn’t really do anything wrong. Campbell said that he walked too fast. Hmm, okay, hearing their reports did make me feel a bit better about his behavior.

As I was talking to the kids’ club lady, I asked how many kids they usually had. She said that they usually have 10 kids on the boat so maybe one would show up. She continued with that this week has 40 kids so they had around 10 tonight. Maybe the lady is just a bit sour that she has to work this week! She continued that their median age is 65-so glad that I am still under their median age.

The girls and I met Whitman and Robby upstairs in the buffet this morning. We all ate and then headed down for a tour of the kitchen. We had to wait in a bit of a line to walk through the kitchen area. I am sure that we only saw a good portion of the kitchens, but they were still pretty massive. The man said that they do 400-500 room service orders a day.

Campbell did pick out a room service meal for her to have this morning. It came on time, but was probably the smallest of meals on the menu-pastries, yogurt and fruit. So she joined us upstairs but only picked out a muffin.

Back to the kitchens, there were a massive amount of people already cooking this morning Everything also looked very polished and clean, but I guess stainless steel everything will do that.

Once that was over, we walked right across the hall to America’s Test Kitchen. There is a show, which we don’t watch, but they also have a partnership with Holland America. They do food shows on the cruise. The theme of today’s was Italian, so they made a pasta dish and a meat something or another. It was interesting to watch, yet a bit too fancy of cooking for me!

We then found Robby and Reagan in the observatory. The boys had been off playing ping pong and probably basketball. Then everyone went downstairs to put on their bathing suits. We all ate outside-it was pretty difficult to find a spot since everyone seemed to be on the pool deck.

I will say this though-gracious people dress all kinds of ways. Grown men should not wear speedos (really, no man should wear speedos), robes should only be worn if other people can tell that you have something under them, and really you should have to pass a test to wear a bikini (though I would hate to have the job of bikini judge.)

After eating, the kids swam. There was one old lady who hollered at Whitman for kicking his feet and then she also gave Graham an evil eye when he cannon balled into the pool. For the most part, the older folks on the cruise have been very nice. Though if I see one more person use their finger to count my kids, I might just get a bit crazy! Just a reminder, saying things like, “wowzers, what a big group” is really not a nice thing to say. Probably better to say though than “boy, you sure have your hands full.”

Anyway, Keaton wanted to go to the cooking show this afternoon so her, Grannymom and I went. We snuck out early since the menu was polenta and gnocchi and went to the flower decorating class. We watched the man throw together two beautiful flower arrangements.

We then walked upstairs to get Keaton some ice cream, of course I might have had some too. Then it was back to the room for a little bit. I napped but no one else in my room was still for any length of time. Campbell and Graham were probably the most restless, but eventually we did stir and head to explore a bit more.

We played ping pong a few times-it was kind of crazy playing on a rocking boat with crazy wind. I kept trying to excuse my ping pong skills on the wind and waves, but Graham did not agree. I chatted up a port guy who told me all about San Juan, and then we hurried to meet Robby and everyone else.

Grannymom and Grandpa had a fancy dinner tonight in one of the dining rooms so we skipped our fancy meal since they wouldn’t be there. Tonight was one of the Gala Nights so people are dressed up pretty fancy on this boat while we are walking around in our shorts and t-shirts.

We ate in the buffet and even it was a bit classier at night time. We all found something that we wanted. The kids’ club was calling Campbell, Keaton and Whitman. Graham kind of wanted to go, but this kids’ club doesn’t really compare to the Norwegians kids’ clubs so we urged him not to go.

Instead, he joined us and Reagan at the show. It was a fancy dancing and singing show. Don’t be surprised to read that both Reagan and Graham didn’t make it through the whole show even though it was just about 45 minutes.

Afterwards, Graham went to Grannymom’s room to sleep in there tonight. Next on the agenda is picking up the girls and Whitman from the kids’ club. Hopefully, things went better tonight. Tomorrow afternoon is San Juan so I am pretty excited about that!

No comments: