Fun Days at Sea

The first day of sailing was dubbed by the Cruise Director our "Fun Day at Sea".  It was a fun day, but every time I hear that term it kind of makes me smile.  It's funny they had to come up with something to call the days when the boat sits in International waters so it is legal to gamble all day.  I am pretty sure that is how the cruise line makes all their money.  That and alcohol consumption.  They made nothing on the group of Mormons we were with.  Too bad.

Anyway, our fun day at sea consisted of eating, reading, playing games, eating, sleeping, church service, eating, playing games, eating, dancing, laughing, and eating.  It was super fun.

Aunt Donna, Uncle Terrell, Cousin Lorie, Cousin Nathan

John (Uncle Terrell's brother) and Geri, Aunt Diane, Uncle Larry

Friend Thea, Friend Veva, Aunt Denise, Uncle Dave, Aunt Della

Me, Mom, Dad, Friends Evan and Rhea (who are the parents of my bestest friend when I was in middle school.)

For the evening when they have the "Fun Day at Sea", they have what is called "Formal Dining Night".  We all got dressed up for dinner.  The people at the table next to us went so far as to put sweatshirts on with their jeans. ;)  But, for the most part, everyone was fairly dressed up.  They had photo backgrounds set up everywhere to get your picture taken and then sold them for $20 each.  Needless to say, I didn't buy any pictures.  Too bad, too, because my Sea Bands looked smokin' with my nice dress.  ;)

Dancing with Daddy

Mom and Dad

Dave serenading Denise

Della and one of our waiters

Thought the girls would love our little towel bunny from that night.  And our "Fun Times" newsletter with the schedule for the next day that was always in our room when we got back from dinner. 

On Sunday afternoon, we had a nice church service.  My uncle is a Bishop, so we were able to have an official Sacrament Meeting.  It was nice to take a break from all the "worldly" stuff going on all over the ship, and focus on the stuff that really matters.  Durell gave a great talk. 

We also met a lot of nice people on our cruise.  One of those was this friendly Catholic Priest whom we chatted with in the library.  He was from India and lived in New Jersey and came on the cruise with people from his parish.  He wanted his picture taken with some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I think he was kind of surprised we Mormons were normal, happy, Christian people.  :)

I thought I would read a lot, but I never had much time.  We played a lot of games on the ship.  Especially a card game called Golf that I taught them (although we didn't use these exact official rules).  Also one called Farkle.  Fun stuff. 

They had karaoke in the lobby atrium, which none of us ever participated in.  But I thought the big American flag they had strung up was neat.  Also, during the evening dinner, we had a moment of silence in remembrance of the September 11th attacks on The World Trade Center and Pentagon.  

 Every evening they had a show here in the theater.  After the first night's mediocre show, we rarely went back.  But, the hypnotist that came one night was very, very funny.

Instead of going to the variety show, we went a couple of nights to the comedy show.  Aunt Denise showed off her dance skills while we waited, and made sure to let the waiters know she had already had plenty to drink when they came by to offer more.  Of course, they had no idea that all she had had to drink was water.  :) We can make our own fun, that's for sure.

 

Somehow Dad would frequently end up at a table full of women--his wife, sisters and friends.

Every night, the waiters would do a little song and dance show for us.  They were very funny.  I wasn't a huge fan of the strobe lights, but it was fun.

Our crazy, funny waiter.

So, that was life on the ship.  And a sum-up of the first day.  Other than the fun days at sea, we did not spend much time on the ship.  Mostly, we would tour the cities we visited.  Super fun.  I'm exhausted thinking about all the adventures!