June 27, 2010--Day at Sea

We decided to have breakfast in the dining room.  Amanda was happy with cereal and a chocolate muffin.  I had French toast made with raisin bread.  Matthew had pancakes and sausage.  Dan had eggs, sausage, and bacon which was brought instead of hash browns.

We dropped the kids off at their camps.  We decided to give Amanda sign out permission so she could do the scavenger hunts.  She would be in a group with a counselor and not by herself.  But, we would still pick her up.  Today, Amanda was on Deck 4 and Matthew on Deck 11.  Amanda's group moved to different locations.

I went out on the balcony for a little while to write.  Dan came back from exploring and told me to check out the Serenity area since it's not windy.  So nice!  It is adults only.  I took some video and a couple of photos.  No chair hogs at 9:30 as evidenced by the open chairs and no books holding spots.  All the clamshells and hammocks were taken.

We came back down and Rai was cleaning the cabin.  Dan wanted ice cream so we went up to Lido.  We were joined by a nice couple from West Virginia.  He retired from IBM and was located close to East Troy for a while.  They live in Huntington which we passed through last summer.  They were 1st timers traveling with family and friends.  Group of 20!

Went back to the cabin to do some more writing and wait for Heather to call with their plans for the morning.  She splurged and got a pedicure.  Dan went up to find a lounge chair for a little while.  I enjoyed the peace and quiet and chilled to the iPod.

 At 11:30, we picked up the kids.  We decided to get lunch and bring it back to the balcony.  Another advantage of being on Deck 9.  One flight up and we have food and ice cream!

After lunch, we went back up to Lido for the the ice carving demo.  The kids didn't know what to expect.  The chef started chopping away.  Amanda and I thought it was going to be a ship at first.  Then someone behind us said it was a face turned upward.  We quickly saw it.  We decided it could be Abraham Lincoln.  Then, he started chopping lines where the hat would be.  It was an Indian chief.  Very fitting since the Blackhawks just won, but he had too many feathers.

We then had a quick dish of ice cream before meeting with my Cruise Critic friends.  Amanda met another girl, Ella, her age.  The group spotted us easily since the kids were with us.  Dan asked one of the servers to take a group photo.  Then, a group of boys on a scavenger hunt asked if he is an uncle.

Dan took Matthew to camp for show practice and I took Amanda down for Deal or No Deal.  We discovered that the elevator bay by our cabin was right by the Chambers where many of her camp activities would be.  Very convenient! And, we didn't have to wait for the elevator.

At 3:00, we went back to the aft bar for the carnival meeting.  Cindy and Art were there.  We made plans for Amanda to play mini-golf with them Monday evening.  I tried a virgin Hurricane wave, half hurricane daiquiri and half banana daiquiri.  Delicious!!  And very refreshing since the aft bar was very humid.  We may try the Atrium bar with the piano for ambience.

Picked the kids up at 3:30 to relax before photos at 5:00.  The kids decided not to do the Fun Force show.  I was glad they at least tried it.  We saw another Carnival ship not far away.  It looked to be the same class as the Glory.  It must have been on a different itinerary because it was going the other direction.

We had Matthew take a nap before photos.  We got cleaned up and went down to Deck 5.  I found a couple of backdrops that I liked and we had some photos taken.  Right behind the first stop was our captain.  I had the kids stop and meet him.  And, he let me snap a quick photo.

We then went down to dinner.  We had to wait a few minutes in the stairwell.  Soon, Heather and her gang arrived at the table.  Tonight Heather and Calvin had stuffed mushrooms, Dan and Alec had the strawberry bisque.

I ordered fruit cocktail to share with the kids.  For dinner, lobster and shrimp was the top choice.  Calvin had prime rib.  The kids had cheese pizza.  Matthew tried Dan's lobster and liked it!

For dessert, Heather, Calvin and Dan had cherries jubilee, Amanda had carmelized apple puffed pastry and I had melting cake but with 2 ice creams.  Matthew had orange sherbet and Alec had a banana split.

After dinner, we had a group shot taken.  Then, we went to see Get Ready, a Motown show.  We found seats in the couches on Deck 4.  Dan and I knew these were good seats.  We had some quality family time and enjoyed it very much.  The male lead was amazing!

We then turned in before our busy day of underwater reef viewing and shopping in Cozumel!