Man, I have got to get going on this! Even my (lurker) husband is asking why I haven't updated! Oh, he also wants me to stress that the lifeboat drill was
very hot and
very uncomfortable, and the sun was in his eyes.
Episode VII - The One with Formal Night
We had zero plans for the day, and so we chose to sleep in.
While it was still dark out my internal clock woke me enough so that I could tell the boat was not rocking anymore. "Yay!" I thought, "DH will be so happy!" But alas, when I awoke again a few hours later the rocking had returned. It wasn't as bad as the night before, but it was still noticeable. I wasn't just dreaming the still waters either, other guests confirmed that it had been smooth sailing in the wee hours.
After cleaning myself up a bit I wandered up on deck to get coffee. I then returned to the cabin and tried to sit out on deck and enjoy the view. It was okay, but kind of boring. I'm used to sailing with land at least somewhat in sight. Endless ocean waves doesn't really do it for me. After a little while, Bee got up, and sometime after that her daddy as well. My parents came back, then, from an enjoyable breakfast at the Royal Court. They raved about the food again.
Knowing that the Royal Court was no longer an option, and that the remainder of my family could not, like me, survive on coffee alone, I decided we would head up on deck and catch the end of Cabanas breakfast. However, looking at our Navigator I noticed that there were some interesting folks scheduled for meetings in the atrium. We had missed a bunch of friends sleeping in, but Woody was on the schedule, so I thought we should go try for him. We headed down the stairs, and ran into someone else on our way.
This was Bee's official first character meet. However, I didn't really have my camera ready and the lighting was poor. Bee was happy, though, and got her first autograph! Then we got in line to meet Woody. During our wait, Bee acted very excited about meeting Woody and seemed happy to be there, but the
second it was her turn to go up, that changed. She became afraid of Woody and had to be carried. She also, refused to smile. The picture came out terrible.
In retrospect, look how freaking tall Woody is! That is not a child's plaything! I can understand why Bee was intimidated. Regardless, now DH and I were worried that she would react this way to all non-face characters. Still, maybe it was just that she needed some food in her stomach.
It was definitely warm enough to sit outside, though a bit windy.
After that it was time to get our bathing suits on and try out the pool. On our way back to the cabin Bee admired this mosaic mural and insisted I take a photo of her in front of it.
(I swear I'm a better photographer than this series of photos would lead you to believe. At this point I had NOT figured out the lighting of the ship yet!)
Despite the fact that it was close on to noon we were able to snag several chairs close together on the main deck. We all then took turns shepherding Bee around to the different water areas of the ship.
Nemo's Reef was pretty cool, and Bee enjoyed playing in the various water jets. However, she did not like the stingray slide, which is odd because she usually loves slides. I think it was because of how slippery the floor was in front of the slide. She fell down on her way to it, and then slid across the floor after going down the slide. That was it; no more stingray for her.
As many others have commented, the pools are extremely crowded on sea days, but in all honesty, I didn't think it was that bad.
DH and I got in the pool with her, while her grandparents stayed dry.
We grabbed lunch and ate at our lounge chairs. Then we decided to check out the other water play area. I don't know if its because its sort of hidden behind the aft funnel, or what, but we almost never saw anyone in this water play area. Those kids we did see tended to be older and unsupervised, but it's a perfectly good place for toddlers to have fun as well.
Bee had fun playing with the water spouts and trying to plug them all. She also met a little boy who had a brand new set of water toys he was playing with. Bee obviously wanted to play with them, but I didn't want to interrupt the boy. Then his mom noticed and suggested they play together, so they did. It was very sweet. I found out they were form Michigan too, so small world.
After that, we were pretty much done with water and Bee was ready for a nap (whether she liked the idea or not). My mom reiterated the request she had made to me earlier - that we be ready to go an hour before showtime that evening so we could all have cocktails and cheese together in their room. I told her that of course we would do that. [FORESHADOWING!]
So, we got back to our cabin, cleaned Bee up in the shower (Have I mentioned yet how much I like the showers? Well, they're excellent.), and got her regretfully into bed. At that point, DH and I decided we needed a rest, so we both laid down for naps of our own. I could have sworn I set the alarm, but apparently I didn't because I was woken up by the sound of my dad knocking at the door between our cabins to see if we were ready for cocktails yet as it was after 5pm.
Oh. Heck. No.
Cue me racing around the cabin like a madwoman. I got Bee up and into her adorable formal night dress in record time. I knew that her presence in my parents' cabin was the most important thing, so I tossed her through the door and ran to get my own clothes on. It took me, literally, less than 5 minutes to get my gown on and hair up, and then I could enter my parents' cabin looking halfway prepared. Then I finished with Bee's hair and my own makeup, and of course all of this before DH manged to finish getting up and putting his suit on. My mom was super impressed at how fast I had gotten my hair in place.
So, everything was together, and after sharing some more of our bountiful cheese plates, we headed up to see the
Aladdin show. I had heard that this was the one not to miss. Bee is usually good about sitting for movies and the like, but she's never seen a live show like this. We had explained to her that, if she could sit and was quiet throughout, that we would consider taking her to a show at the theater near where her daddy works (something she had expressed interest in), so she knew what her job was for the evening. I will say that she performed marvelously!
Outside the theater we ran into yet another new friend, but without our autograph book!
Afraid we might have a repeat of the Woody incident from earlier in the day, I started coaching her while we were in line. I asked her what she was going to ask Minnie when she got up to her. I don't remember what she actually said to Minnie, but having a job to do seemed to make the difference! She was not afraid of characters again the entire trip.
Bee loved the show. She especially liked all the streamers and stuff that rained down on the crowd from time to time. Although she'd never had much interest in the Aladdin movie before that evening, it's now become one of her favorites.
There was a loooooonnnnnggggg line for photos at the staircase, and our dinner was to start fairly soon, but we decided to wait anyways because, darnit, I was going to get one nice picture of everyone in their pretty formalwear. I also sent DH back to the room to get Bee's autograph book. This was useful as we also decided to get our picture with the Captain. I had left special room in the book for officers' signatures. There were free drinks and live music during this time, so we were at leatst entertained during our wait. Bee danced with her grandpa.
And here's the finished product!
I think it was worth it.
Despite being late to dinner, we were not nearly as late as some other folks. Also, Rita and Frano were forgiving. This would turn out to be the only dinner in the Enchanted Garden for DH and myself, and I don't think we missed much. We saw the lights change, but it wasn't a big deal or anything. The food was good, but no better than at the other two main dining rooms on board. At the end of the evening, Frano made Bee's menu into a flower, which was cute (you can see it in the photo below). Then we all headed back to our staterooms to remark over our new towel animal and get some rest.