SleepingUgly

Day 4 – St. Thomas (cont.)

I forgot to mention that there is a charge to enter Magen’s Bay - $5 per person, and children under 12 were free.  So we had to pay a total of $20 at the entrance to the beach for the five of us.

We left our beachside retreat a little before 1 pm so we had time to return the loungers, get our deposit back and walk to the right location in the parking lot to meet our taxi driver.  Again, we had to drag our own loungers back across the sand, which proved to be a bit more difficult than earlier in the day since there were more people in the way and I don't think they would appreciate dh scraping rusty metal across their legs.  I don't know, just a guess on my part.  Anyway, dh was the one who did all the hard work while the girls and I just wandered along behind him.  Hey, why else do you think I keep him around?

We got back to the shop and left the loungers outside.  While dh was handling the deposit return at the counter in the shop, the girls and I looked around.  As expected, prices for things such as sunscreen were outrageous.  An 8-ounce bottle of sunscreen was selling for around $13.  I had bought four bottles ahead of time on Amazon for about $20.  So make sure you get certain, essential provisions ahead of time ... which was emphasized when we went out in search of Motrin that afternoon.

Once dh got his deposit back, we walked out into the parking lot.  It was 12.55 pm by this time so we sat and waited for the taxi driver.  And waited.  And waited.  He never showed so, at 1.10 pm, dh walked over to a gentleman in the parking lot who was asking folks if they needed a taxi.  We told him that yes, we in fact did need one, and he directed us to a driver who was looking for a few more people to fill up the rest of his open-air bus.  We quickly walked to his bus; apologies to the passengers who had to sit there and wait for us, especially the impatient gentleman who was yelling at him to just get going.  They may have already been sitting there a while, which is why he was so eager to get on the road.

The trip back afforded some great opportunities for photos.  Dh sat in the back with the kids and was able to get some good pictures.  I was stuck up front, squashed between two women who didn’t speak much English but who were super nice and kept smiling at me.  Hey, I’ll take smiles over scowls and frowns any day … or worse, agonizing, I’m-doing-my-best-to-hold-in-this-gas-that’s-dying-to-get-out look.  Especially when I’m stuck in tight quarters right next to these people.

Dh had to get this picture of some dude ... ahem, having a private moment in a courtyard right by the road.  Yes, this is the classy, refined, renaissance man I married.  Aren't I a lucky one.  Stand back, ladies ... he's mine!

The bus dropped off about half the people in the downtown area and charged them $8 each for the ride.  They wanted to do some shopping and then I guess they will either walk back to the ship or take another taxi.  We stayed on the taxi, which continued onto the port.  We were charged the agreed-upon $10 per person for the trip back.  We also saw our driver from that morning in the parking lot, who was standing next to his van.  He saw us and commented (nicely) that he had sent someone to pick us up.  Well, if we don't know what the heck the guy looked like, how were we to find him?  Oh, well.  No biggie.  We still made it back to the port with no problem.

We slowly dragged ourselves way back to the ship.  We had forgotten how much the sun can drain your energy.  The walk from the taxi area to the ship is not bad at all – maybe an 8 to 10-minute walk at a leisurely pace without stopping – but it just felt long to us.  At least we had a special welcoming committee to greet us.

It was a relief to see the ship and its official “welcome back” set-up of cool towels and different types of cold water at the entrance of the ship.  These ended up always being a favorite of both dh and the little one - dh because I think he really needed to hydrate, and the little one because she just thought it was cool to be served cucumber water after being outside in the sun.  She better not be getting any ideas in that little head of hers for how the service can be improved at home after this trip.

Entering the ship through the plebian line, because we aren’t one of the elites or even sub-elites or anywhere close on this ship.

54 minutes ago, ipeeinthepool said:

 

Thanks for the update.  Hopefully the chair hogs won't be there for the February 1 cruise.  We are looking forward to some serious pool time.

What may also help is that you should have less families on your cruise.  We traveled over the holidays so there were a lot of families and large groups onboard, and if / when they saved chairs, they would save a lot of them.  Hopefully, that won't be the case on your cruise!

Linda

Day 4 – St. Thomas (cont.)

When we had gotten to Magen’s Bay and after we got our loungers, we had a decision to make – head to the beach on the right or head to the beach on the left.  We decided to turn right and, while that ended up being a good decision for us, the left side definitely had a lot more space and was much more expansive.  We didn’t find this out until dh and I took a walk along the beach later on that morning.  To get to the far end of the left side of the beach from the restaurant / shop, it was probably a 20-minute, easy-paced walk.  To get to the far end of the right side of the beach, it was probably a 10-minute walk at the same pace.  So, if you are late arriving to Magen’s Bay when there is more than one ship in port, you may want to head to the left of the shop / bar area as there should be more space for you to spread out.  If you don’t bother renting a lounger, you can go way past the crowds to the end of the beach, where you may end up having the beach to yourself. 

This is near our section of the beach, which you can see got quite busy by midday

This was the view from our loungers.  Those are dh's Fred Flinstone feet, not mine.

This is taken from the far right side of the beach, with the busy section in the back

Here is another view of our section of the beach, and it got even busier as it got closer to midday.

Dh and I walked all the way to the left of the beach, where you can see there wasn’t anyone else around.  This would be a very nice area to lay down your towels and just relax with no noise or disruption from others.  Of course, you are far away from the facilities, including food and drink options, but if you don’t need those, then this would be a great place to hang out.  No one is in the water out here, as you can see, much different from the other end of the beach.

To finish up, just a few more shots of the scenery around us and the girls enjoying the beach.  What a great way to spend Christmas Eve!

Day 4 – St. Thomas (cont.)

The ride to Magen’s Bay was unexpectedly hilly and windy (that's "windy," with a long i, as in twisty and turny)!  You go up a mountain / hill, and then down the other side to the bay.  Magen’s Bay is on the opposite side of the island; we docked on the south end side in Charlotte Amalie, and Magen’s is on the north side, directly on the opposite side.  I thought it was interesting that, even though we were in the US Virgin Islands, we drove on the left side of the road.

During the drive, we passed another port that was closer to downtown Charlotte Amalie; a Carnival ship was docked in this much smaller port.  We had to kind of guess where we were going and what we were passing as the driver offered no narration of any kind during the 15-20 minutes it took to get to Magen’s Bay.

We arrived at our destination at around 9.30 am.  The driver asked when we wanted to return.  We and another family said we were interested in being picked up around 1 pm so he agreed to pick us up then, and to meet him at the same place in the parking lot. 

We walked towards the beach from the parking lot, and went to the little shop / bar area where you can rent loungers and umbrellas.  We decided to rent just two loungers; they were $8 each, along with a $5 deposit for each.  Dh paid for these inside the store, then we went out to grab the loungers, which were all piled on top of each other.  He showed someone the receipt that indicated we had paid, grabbed two loungers and went to look for a spot.  It kind of sucked that we had to drag our own loungers through the sand, and this later proved to be uncomfortable for late-comers who then had to find spots on their own to place their loungers, and some people would plop their loungers smack dab in front of other people who had been there already all morning, enjoying an unimpeded view of the water, and disagreements would thus ensue.

The beach was already filling up pretty fast when we got there but we were able to find a good spot right next to the lifeguard station, which meant that no one would be seated on one side of us as the lifeguard needed a clear bath in the sand to the beach, in case of an emergency. 

We set up our loungers, and the girls got into the water straight away!

5 hours ago, Decpl said:

Thanks for taking the time to do your report. Your 12th grade teacher would be proud of your writing,

Keep up the great job, looking forward to next instalment,

We leave on Silhouette in February 

KandJ

Thank you!  I'm sure you're excited about your upcoming trip; hope you have a fantastic time!

Linda

13 hours ago, shofer said:

Really enjoying this.  It took me from Thanksgiving to write and post my review on our TA cruise that left on 11/3.

I will have to go check it out!

Linda

14 hours ago, ipeeinthepool said:

Thanks for your review, we'll be on the Silhouette starting Feb 1 for a B2B.  Did your family spend much time at any of the pools?  We're the pools crowded? 

The pools were quite busy on sea days, as to be expected.  If you need more than two loungers together and right by the pool, you should probably set your stuff out by around 8 am or so.  I'm not advocating saving chairs, but I don't think it hurts to set your things down and then go to breakfast at the buffet and be back in 30 minutes or so.  If you get there between 8.30-9.30 am or so, you can probably still find chairs, but not poolside.  After 10 am, it will be nearly impossible unless someone decides to leave midday.

If you are not traveling with children, I suggest you definitely check out the solarium instead.  It's indoors but much quieter and relaxing than the pool deck, with almost a spa-like atmosphere.

They do leave these little cards on chairs, reminding folks to not save seats and that their personal belongings may be removed if they do not return in 30 minutes.  However, we never saw anything moved by ship personnel so don't think they followed this, but at least they did set out these "warning" cards.  I'm not sure how much good they did because we saw plenty of seats that had stuff on them but remained empty for a couple hours or more, sometime.

HTH, and hope you have a great cruise!

Linda

16 hours ago, Sheal said:

I'm still here too!  Just came in from a quick 5 minute walk with my dog.  My eyes are watering it is so cold out there. 

It is freezing here today!  Are you supposed to get any snow in RI?

Linda

Day 4 – St. Thomas (Christmas Eve!)

Let's start with the Celebrity Today for today, shall we?

We also received this reminder about kids' Seapass cards.  I thought I was able to determine who had purchasing power on my family members' Seaspass cards when I checked in, but maybe I was mistaken.  Anyway, not sure if this is provided to everyone on every sailing, or if there had been issues during our cruise, but always a good reminder.

We woke up @ 7.10 am today, which is super early – at least, super early for vacation that doesn’t involve hunting, fishing or torturing yourself.  Dh and I went out on the deck to watch as we pulled into St. Thomas.  It was ridiculous to think that it was Christmas Eve, and we were standing around in our shorts in 80 degree temps before 8 am.  Oh yeah, we had shirts on too.

We got the kids up soon after that.  There were no death stares that morning because everyone was excited to go ashore.  We went up to the Oceanview Café for breakfast around 8 am.  We decided to sit on the side of the ship facing the port.  The other side faced Serenade of the Seas, which was the only other ship in port with us that day.  It actually was not too tough to find a table right by the windows for all of us, and we enjoyed the view while dining on delicious, nutritious, non-artery-clogging fare.

Since this stop was planned only two days prior, due to the captain’s last-minute (and much-appreciated) decision to not port in Punta Cana due to poor weather conditions, we had nothing scheduled for this port.  We couldn’t find anything that we liked from the ship’s excursion offerings and, besides, I was afraid the excursions may be packed since no one had any chance to plan independent trips.  So we just decided to hang out at the beach for a few hours that day, and maybe finish up with some shopping, since isn’t that what St. Thomas is famous for?  Oh, woe is us, to have to settle for a day at the beach.  Why must my life be so tough???

We left the ship around 8.40 am.  Got our photos taken and also took a few of our own, especially with the Silhouette as the main backdrop.  She really is a beautiful ship, and was always stayed obligingly still for our photos and posed like the good sport that she is.  I really appreciated that.

Jumping for joy that we're back on land!

You tell me what's going on in these here pictures because I have no friggin' clue.

We walked out of the port area and went to a local tourism kiosk and approached a taxi driver and told him we wanted to go to Magen’s Bay.  He told us to follow him to his van so, like we’ve always taught our children, we followed this stranger whom we’ve known for less than 10 seconds to a van with blacked out windows that offered hopefully-not-tampered-with refreshments inside.  He told us it would be $10 per person – each way – to Magen’s Bay.  We got in the van and … waited.  I totally forgot that taxis in the Caribbean operated differently, that they weren’t all private and we would have to fill up the van before departing.  No biggie – we waited less than 10 minutes and were soon on our way! 

OK, I've been watching Bird Box with dh and the two older kids for the past hour or so, and I really need to focus on the ending so logging off for the night.  To be continued this weekend!

56 minutes ago, snow bunny said:

Still reading and enjoying your commenarty!  So looking forward to boarding in just over 4 weeks.  

 

snow bunny

I hope you are able to enjoy great weather like we did!  It is supposed to snow anywhere from 2-4" in the DC area this weekend ... and mass chaos has ensued all across the DMV.  And, no, that is not fake news.

Linda

2 hours ago, mkcurran said:

I'm glad I stumbled upon this review. so far it's killed at least 30 minutes of time while the 5-day hostage situation called the work week grinds to a slow halt. I'm hoping for early parole soon.

I hope you were able to get released early for good behavior!

Linda

1 hour ago, tompeter said:

Just in case you are keeping track...Loving every word of your review! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you!  Really appreciate your taking the time to read and passing along the compliment!
 

Linda

1 hour ago, Still Dreaming said:

Enjoying your review!  We leave Feb 1st.   Love to read recent cruise reviews and ones, like yours, that are informative and funny!

Wow, that's coming up!  Hope you have a great trip!

Linda

2 hours ago, SandyKnits said:

I’m thoroughly enjoying your trip narrative!  So much fun to read while we anticipate our Silhouette cruise in 4 weeks.  Thanks so much for providing us with such a detailed trip report.  By the way, you have a beautiful family!

Thank you!  I hope you have a fantastic time on your vacation!  And appreciate the comments about the fam - they aren't bad.  Most days. 🙂

Linda

8 minutes ago, helen haywood said:

I"m still here!  I loved the show Cosmopolitan and especially the three guys that sang the song when the Rome/Italy segment was done.  Do you by any chance know the name of the song?  I'd love to get it....

I loved that performance!  The original song is Wicked Game, by Chris Isaak:

I found this Italian version by Il Divo, which is what was performed on the ship, I believe.  HTH!

Day 3 – Sea Day (cont.)

After the show finished, we walked to the other side of the ship for dinner, stopping in a few of the shops.  When we passed the Martini Bar, it was hopping but we thought we’d stop and grab a couple of drinks to take to dinner with us.  We found a recently-vacated seat and I sat while the kids played with the ice surrounding the bar (I’m sure the Martini Bar enthusiasts sitting near us really enjoyed that).  We sat and waited … and waited … and waited … before noticing that – hey! – why was no one working behind the counter?  Come to think of it, why was there no one behind the counter, period.  And why was there water all over the floor behind the bar?  Why were there buckets filled with water behind the bar?  Hmm … I’m not sure about you, but in my opinion, any signs that there may be a leak or any sort anywhere on a ship usually is not something one wants to see.  But who am I to say?  I just want a chocolate martini, dammit!

Anyway, we figured something was up, which is why no one was being served.  But since no one also looked terribly concerned and the ship was not tipping sideways and we didn’t see Leonardo DiCaprio rushing about like a mad man trying to save Kate Winslet, we figured this wasn’t anything to worry our pretty little heads about. Besides, by then, it was 8.30 pm, so we made our way into the MDR.

I remembered to take pictures of the menu that night!

I had the braised beef to start, and then the flank steak.  I was feeling caveman-y so decided to go with my all meat diet tonight.  The flank steak was cooked incredibly well – the perfect medium rare – and it melted in my mouth.  It was almost – not quite, but very close – as good as the Kobe steak I would have at this amazing Japanese restaurant in Hong Kong when I used to travel there all the time for work – it literally melted in your mouth, it was so tender.  This steak was pretty close to that.

Sorry, was halfway through my entree before I remembered to take a picture ... #amateur

That night, we noticed the table behind us – a couple who reminded me of Statler and Waldorf from the Muppet Show; you know, the two grumpy old men who were always ragging on the other muppets from their perch in the upper balcony, except the couple sitting behind us were a man and a woman, but they had that same sour, fed-up-with-the-world, everyone-just-go-away expression on their faces pretty much all the time – had a giant plate of olives.  Now my husband and kids are lifelong members of the ILove Olives Club, so he inquired about that with Joseph, our waiter.  Joseph said you have to ask for that in advance, so my husband asked if our table could also have a plate of olives for the next night.  Joseph was happy to accommodate and he felt so bad about not being able to provide us with a plate of different olives that very night, he brought out a GIANT plate of black olives for all of us.  The little one was delighted, and she must have eaten at least a dozen olives on her own, if not more.  However, a humungous plate of olives, to me, was the equivalent of a nightmare on a dish, but if Joseph could produce pretty much anything from the kitchen, I thought I’d try my luck and ask if he may be able to procure me a pair of Christian Louboutins – Size 7, please – by maybe tomorrow evening?  Alas, Joseph was not able to assist with my request.  Oh well, his loss.  There goes his “10” rating on our post-cruise survey for him.

Some more pictures of the little one at dinner that night ... Drinking her VIRGIN pina colada

Joseph serving her soup as her starter (that's Dexter in the background) 

Doing her Bob Ross imitation ... yeah, I'm confused too

We do not advocate that our children dine like this ... well, at least not while in public and clothed

For dessert that night, I got the chocolate lava cake.  Or, was it the chocolate lava nibble?  I’m not really sure … you tell me …

After dinner, which finished around 10.20 pm, the middle child went to the X Club to meet up with her friends.  We went to the photo gallery to check out pictures of us that had been taken the night before – and to check out other people’s pictures and, yes, make fun of them … c’mon, you know we all do it – and somehow got talked into purchasing the package that includes digital and print copies of all pictures taken by the ship’s photographers.  The “special” was $300 for the package, which ended up being a good deal for us because we got @ 90 prints in the end – along with the digital copies – so that came out to be around $3 per picture.  And, with kids, this was a good deal as now I can make a fun scrapbook with all the pictures taken of them, posing by the ship in each island.  You know, similar to that scrapbook that I did for our first Disney World trip back in 2005 … which has yet to be started. 

After that, we went up to the Sky Lounge for the 80s Dance Party that night.  The Sky Lounge allows everyone in before midnight; after that, only those 18 and older were allowed.  So our little one was allowed in at 11 pm, although I’m sure we got some disapproving looks for having her out so late, in such an inappropriate setting.  But, oh well, it was dark in that lounge so I didn’t really see any nasty looks thrown my way.  Then again, I was busy staring at the bottom of my Martini glass most of the time. #keepemcoming

We found a spot near some chairs next to the windows so the girls could dance without getting in anyone’s way.  The little one was in her element – free rein to dance however much she wanted??  She’s so there.  We let them shake their groove thang for a short while – all G-rated moves, no worries – and then left the Sky Lounge around 11.30 pm and headed back to our cabins.  Tomorrow would be our first port day and we were all excited to be on land again, but it would prove to be a busy (but always fun) seven days in a row.

5 minutes ago, rages100 said:

Really enjoying this, thank you for taking the time to do it. 

Thanks, and it really has been fun!  Appreciate your taking the time to read!

Linda

26 minutes ago, Blockschip said:

Great writing style!

Thank you, and I owe it all to my AP English teacher from senior year of high school, Mrs. Walker.  🙂

Linda

43 minutes ago, bluewhite said:

Absolutely love your sense of humor. Also your story telling. If I  may call your terrific posts that.

Happy to see the casino is paying out a bit.

Please keep the stories coming.

 

Linda

Thanks, Linda!  It's been fun reliving the cruise so glad I can share.  This is a nice way for me to record my memories so I can re-read later on myself!

Linda

56 minutes ago, parrothead33 said:

Still following along.  I love the way you write and the pictures are great!

Thank you for hanging in there with me!

Linda

1 hour ago, RealBatman said:

I agree with 'chamima'! Not only am I reading your review, I'm reading a second time, aloud, to my DW who is enjoying it as much as myself. Keep going! The chapters are flying by! 🙂

Thanks, Batman!  I will try to include some tongue twisters and alliterations in my posts to make it more interesting for you to read out loud. 😉 

Linda

1 hour ago, chamima said:

I'm still reading (and loving) your trip report.

I haven't finished the latest post but wanted to let you know you have an audience!

 

Finished!

Waiting with baited breath to see the fortune your family ends up winning on this cruise.

Thanks for sticking it out with me.  We've got a long ways to go still, I'm afraid.  And no more big winnings for us on this trip, unfortunately, but we had fun playing on Celebrity's dime and breaking even in the end.  That's good enough for us!

Linda

Day 3 – Sea Day (cont.)

So that evening’s show was put on by the Silhouette’s own production company.  It was called Cosmopolitan, and the intro talked about how the show would revolve around the many different cities around the world.  Except, the show really was more about different regions of the world because, last time I checked, Japan is not a city.  Then again, I’ve been on a ship and disconnected from the world for two days so perhaps things have changed in the past 48 hours?

We took some pictures of the show, all on my husband’s new iPhone XS, which takes amazing pictures.  Honestly, the pictures may indicate the show to actually be better than it really was.  While it was entertaining overall, the singing was really off from some of the performers, and the dancing was pretty bad from a few of them.  What the heck was going on with that belly dancer girl?  Was she actually trying to dance or having an epileptic attack?  And who came up with that idea of the dance routine with jump rope that took place in New Orleans?  What the heck was that all about?

Once again, our eight-year-old really enjoyed the show, while the two older ones would have been fine if we had stayed in the room and watched Food Network for another hour.  Our oldest has done classical ballet / modern dance for the past 14-15 years, so she watched with a more critical eye; while she did enjoy the performance, she also thought a few of the performers could do themselves (and us) a favor if they found other career paths.  We all enjoyed the songs, though, as they ranged from classic hits to more recent songs.  And the singing for the most part was OK, with the exception of a couple of the female singers.  All of the male performers were quite good though, in my opinion.

Anyway, here are some pictures of that night’s show.

These aerialists and another pair were really amazing to watch!

These three gentlemen probably had the most talent of all the performers, especially the one in the middle

The grand finale

Day 3 – Sea Day (cont.)

So is anyone still reading this?  I feel like I am talking to myself most of the time, but since I'm probably the only person who finds me to be as entertaining as I like to think I am, I guess that is OK then!

After lunch, dh went back to the casino to see if his lucky streak will continue and the middle child went to the X Club. She ended up making many new friends on this cruise and hung out with them a lot, which was nice for her as she is quite social.  As for our oldest and youngest – they preferred to hang out with each other (as my oldest one told me, “I don’t need any more friends.  I already have three.”), which invariably meant they were hanging out with us.  Yet something else I can’t and shouldn’t complain about because what’s the point of going on a family vacation if you don’t spend time with your family?  This is what I was looking forward to the most.

Anyway, our oldest was intrigued by her father’s casino winnings that morning so she wanted to go try her hand at gambling as well.  On the ship, the minimum age to play in the casino is 18 so, at the age of 19, she is not old enough to lose her savings in Vegas but was old enough for Silhouette to take all her (parents’) hard-earned money.  So we decided to visit the casino for the afternoon.  However, we still had the little one with us, so what did we do?  After all that talk of spending quality family time together, we sent her off to the Fun Factory, of course, where someone else can deal with her for a couple of hours.  #ParentoftheYear

We stopped by the ATM (e.g., my husband) to get cash from him.  He gave us each $40 – whoo!  My monthly allowance all at once!  The casino was pretty empty so we had our pick of machines.  We sat down at two machines and she watched me for a bit … because, you know, it takes a while to learn how to push a button.  Guess they're not teaching that to her in college.  All those flashing lights and music can be distracting, you know.  Anyway, I was up for a bit and then down, then up again.  She finally got the concept (after asking a million and one questions along the way) and decided to try it out herself at the machine next to me.  I got a running commentary from her at her machine of each spin and any bonus she got and how she was THIS close to winning the jackpot.  Seriously, does that child ever stop talking?

Anyway, after about 20 minutes, she turned her $40 into this …

Way to pay us back for all the tuition, kid!  Meanwhile, I was still playing on my first $20 and was up to around $200.  She ran off to show her father her cash-out receipt and came back with an extra $20 from him.  Oooh, Mr. Generous has shown up today.  She decided to venture more than two machines away from me and went to play on her own. 

Twenty minutes or so later, she came running over to me and showed her latest cash-out receipt …

Woo-hoo!  Now that’s what I call beginner’s luck.  Meanwhile, I was at around $180 so I decided to cash out too.  Not too bad of an hour’s work for us.

Around 3.30 pm, we went to pick up the little one from the Fun Factory.  She had made friends, of course, but when she saw us, she could not get out of there fast enough.  Were they cooking children in there or what?  Not sure why she didn’t care for the place – and I’m sure the counselors were fantastic with all the kids – but she went back only once more during the cruise and that was more than enough for her.

Well, it was now time for bingo, which is the real reason we were doing this cruise, of course.  To yell out “AND AFTER” when they call out B4.  Which they never did so that was a fail on our part.

We got three cards for $49, rather than pay more for more cards.  If fate wanted us to win, we would win.  There were quite a few people getting their bingo cards (or “boards,” really) and we all stood outside Celebrity Central, waiting to enter around 4 pm.  Once we were let in, the little one wanted to sit in the front row, of course.  So that’s where we sat.

The first game was regular bingo, and two people won (not us) and each got around $90.  The second game was four corners, and the winner (again, not us) got $275.  The third and final game was blackout, and the winner (do I really need to tell you if we won or not?) received $380.  All in all, bingo took about 45 minutes.  When it was finished, the little one looked at me accusingly with a look that said, “Is that ALL?!?”  Yeah, like it was my fault we didn’t win. #blamethemom #wealwaysdo

After that, we went to the buffet to grab a quick snack to take back to the room with us to eat.  We sat on the balcony and enjoyed the wake view and sounds, and also rested a bit before that night’s show and dinner.

Day 3 – Sea Day (cont.)

So after we escaped the hell that was the Destination Presentation, we decided to head over to the Grand Foyer, where they would be setting up archery for the kids to try.  Earlier, they had an officers vs. guests archery competition, but now it was time for the amateurs to step aside and let the pros take over.  Our little one has been begging me for an archery set for months now, so when I saw this activity listed in the Daily, I figured this would be a good opportunity for her to try it out and see how she likes it.  Being the good, encouraging mother that I am, I was hoping that she fails spectacularly and ends up hating the sport so much that I never have to hear again about how she doesn’t have an archery set and how she doesn’t have anything and how she never gets anything she wants, waaaaah.  Grey Goose, take me away.

We got to the Grand Foyer as things were still being set up so we took some pictures of the Gingerbread Stairway.

First up was a kid who looked like Barron Trump, but I’m pretty sure he wasn’t Barron because his dad wasn’t a 6’4” Oompa Loompa.  The dad, however, was griping about how they didn’t put the wrist guards and goggles on his son right away, and complained to a staff member that they needed to be more diligent.  To which the staff member replied, “Well, they’re on him now so we’re all good.”  Yikes, kind of a snarky response, if you ask me (although I was laughing about it too because there’s nothing I love more than a good, snarky comeback).

Anyway, this kid had some mad archery skills so staff members may take care to not talk too much smack to his dad.  Then again, the arrows had foam at the end of their tips, so maybe they don’t have that much to worry about. 

Next up, was our little Kitty Cat, who looked ready to take on the world, but in the end, took on only maybe a small corner of Delaware. She tried her hardest but didn’t have enough arm strength to pull the arrow back far enough to make it go any further than maybe 2-3 feet in front of her.  She gave up after a few tries and – do I hear angels singing from above??? – didn’t cry or whine about it.  Just shrugged her shoulders and was like, “OK, I did that.  Let’s go to lunch; I’m starving.” I was so proud and relieved.  It’s the little things, really.

Making sure those wrist guards and goggles are on, so we don't get yelled at

Her big sister is always ready and willing to help her out

Dh met up with us at this time; he was able to catch his little girl fail in her attempt to be the next Robin Hood (it’s OK; she doesn’t look good in green anyway).  I asked him how the tournament went and he said he didn’t sign up but just played at the tables instead.  He was up @ $850 after just a couple of hours of play, thanks to three Full Houses in a row, so he was happy.  We never gamble to win but more to just have some fun, but if now he can play on the ship’s dime for the rest of this trip and we end up only even at the end ,then we consider that a win in our books.

Like the little one said, it was time for lunch.  She wanted to try the MDR for lunch and the rest of us didn’t have any preference so the MDR is where we went.  It wasn’t too busy and we were seated right away at a table for just the five of us.  The woman working at the check-in stand already recognized us from two days ago when we showed up for boarding-day lunch in the MDR.  It really is kind of nuts how quickly they remember your faces.

Lunch was decent, but nothing to write home about.  So I’ll just write about it here.  I had the cream of mushroom soup to start, and then the spaghetti Bolognese.  Our youngest had the chicken satay as a starter, and then the smoked turkey pesto panini.  My oldest had some seafood with rice plate.  The little one had to order off the regular menu as there is no children’s menu at lunchtime in the MDR, but really, I’m not someone to encourage my child to chow down on only chicken tenders and grilled cheese for all their meals anyway, so this worked out fine for us.  I had the Strongbow Hard Apple Cider with my lunch as well.  Really refreshing, although I still prefer Stella Artois’ cider much better, but they didn’t offer that on the ship.