Day 5 - Another day on the high seas

Day 5 - Another Day on the High Seas

One of the most special parts of this cruise is the EIGHT sea days. While visiting foreign ports is exciting, it is also exhausting. This is a vacation, right? That is what the sea days bring; rest and relaxation. DCL offers countless opportunities for busy-ness, but I think our family enjoys the chance to just rest.

And rest we did . . . we woke about 9 AM; or rather I woke about 9 AM and attempted to convince the rest of the family to wake up. With the curtains closed in our cabin, it is difficult to tell what time of day it is. I've been insisting that the curtains be open before we go to bed so I'll have some feeling of the time in the morning. It still doesn't really work that well . . .LOL.

For breakfast we have a choice of going to Topsiders up on the top deck aft (on the back of the ship) for a buffet with no extra service or to Parrot Cay with a buffet and table service. Topsiders tends to be very noisy any time of day and it takes longer to get through the lines. We prefer to Parrot Cay for breakfast because it is a bit quieter and because of the table service for drinks. Both location have about the same food . . including those freshly made omelets that Ken and I have each morning. I'm not a breakfast person, but I've found if I eat that omelet I'm less tempted to eat a lot of junkie food during the day.

The boys were off to the kids clubs. Ken and I returned to the room to spend some time on the laptop. It was so cool to be at sea and still be able to pay bills online.

At 2 PM, fellow wenches from our DIS board group were getting together for a Scrapbook Swap. I love scrapbooking, but find I don't have as much time to do it as I'd like. I didn't sign up for the exchange b/c it was so insane before I left I home. However, I wanted to see what amazing pages the other ladies had come up with.

There were about 20 ladies in a Category 3 cabin. It was cool just to enjoy the inside of a much larger cabin! Many of the ladies had terrific creations which they shared. It was also great to put more faces together with names we'd been chatting with online for 18 months! I was overwhelmed by their generosity. Many of them had extras and offered them to me even though I hadn't signed up to participate. Thanks to them, I have a great head start on my TOAL scrapbook!

Ken and I had discovered that the Quiet Cove (the adult only pool) was nearly empty each day around 5 PM. Since we were in the late seating at 8 PM, we took advantage of the quiet and enjoyed the pool.

After an hour or so swimming and sitting in the hot tub, I headed down to our room to pick up Peter and start getting ready for dinner. As soon as a sweaty Peter jumped into the shower (he had been on the sports deck playing dodgeball again), I headed to the Rainforest.

DCL's Vista Spa has a wonderful, relaxing hideaway called the Rainforest. It consists of two hot steam baths, a dry sauna, a number of aromatic showers and those warm stone chairs. It is some oasis! A few cruises ago, I discovered that it is nearly empty around dinner time AND that I could get my shower THERE while the rest of the boys got ready in the room. Since I"m the only girl in our cabin, it just makes things so much easier. I return to our cabin completely refreshed and ready to head to dinner.

We were having another casual dinner tonight at Lumiere's. We were counting the number of roses in the ceiling lights. There are four.

Tonight we celebrated Kaleb's birthday in style! We had promised him a special celebration since things were so busy at home for his birthday this year. The servers in Lumiere's gathered round and everyone sang Happy Birthday to Kaleb. DCL prepares a special cake for celebrations. Kaleb was excited to eat the huge chocolate birthday sign on his cake.

After dinner, Kaleb and Ken went to play ping pong again, Peter headed to his club, and I headed to the movies. Tonight we got to see Swing Vote. Ken joined me after dropping of Kaleb. It was fun to get to see a movie together. We enjoy going to movies, but don't seem to have the time lately. DCL's onboard movie theater seems to get more crowded, but it's great to see first run movies for free.

After another exciting day, we retired by 1 AM so we'd be ready for Acapulco tomorrow.