thanks!
I tried to post it and upload pictures but I was having connectivity issues. My computer wouldnt connect to the WiFi. It was weird. I finally gave up and figured Id come back to the room later and give it a try. Matt returned I got was lucky enough to hear, in detail, all about his basketball struggles as of late. 
After The Anatomy of Matts Shooting class we headed up to Cabanas, the buffet, for some breakfast. Let me tell you, it was crazy up there- this was at about 10am. Honestly, I dont care for their new layout versus the older ships. On the older ships theres one line, everyone gets on it and is headed the same direction. This new way is these little stations all over the place, which in theory is nice because, say you want another piece of toast, you dont have to wait on the entire line just for some more toast, you just go to that station and grab it and go. However, maybe it was because it was the first morning and everyone was still getting used to the flow, or lack there of. It was crazy! People were coming from every direction. You turn to walk away and you nearly have a head on collision with someone coming from the opposite direction, I missed some food. Theres no rhyme or reason to the stations, so if one gets really crowded, theres no clear way to line up so its just a wall of people. Very strange. Now, Im gonna give it the benefit of the doubt and see if things calm down some as the trip goes on. The food selection was okay. This is my first breakfast buffet since eggs are a no no for me, so that was sad and it didnt leave a ton of options. There were no waffles, which is what I was craving. They did have french toast and pancakes, regular & blueberry. I went with a piece of bacon and sausage, the blueberry pancakes, a bagel, a glazed jelly-filled donut & raisin bran cereal. It was a carb fest basically. It was all very good. Matt had all kinds of good stuff that I dont really want to talk about. 
We decided to go one level above the pool, since the pool area on this ship is basically in total shade. The next level up has a bunch of pool chairs, surrounding a little 2 foot deep wading pool, Funnel Puddle with this little fountain in the middle. Perfect for cooling off while still getting some sun. I was under the impression that this area is also adult only & I was throwing a little tantrum in my head as I watched this 6 year old girl running laps splashing her way thru the little pool. She basically took ownership of the entire thing. I decided that I was going to say something to one of the workers, but decided I should totally be sure it is in fact still adult only, since were one floor above the adult only pool. I read the pool rules sign and there it is, Children 12 and under must be accompanied by an adult.. This annoyed me. The adult only pool has like maybe 20 loungers on its deck and non of which are in the sun. If you want sun you go the next level up. I dont get why Disney doesnt make this area adult only too. Its not right and this is another thing about the new ships that I dont really care for. Tomorrow well check out another area, I thought was adult only, but now Im not sure. Its all the way forward, Satellite Falls. Another area full of lounge chairs with a small wading type pool with water features. So we stayed in the Funnel Puddle area anyway. I decided putting on sunscreen was probably a good idea so I took out my brand new bottle of moisturizing sunscreen. This sunscreen was the same type that I used for my honeymoon and I really liked it. Its not the exact same one, the packaging was slightly different. It said it offered a nice sun shimmer. Since they were out of my one, I went with it. How different could it be? Apparently VERY different. I start to put it on and Im suddenly covered in glitter! 
ixiedust: Nowhere on the bottle did it indicate that it has glitter in it. I looked like a Justin Beiber loving, teeny bopper. I was completely covered in glitter, from head to toe. Worse yet, I forgot Matts sunscreen. I should of not said anything and slathered it all over his back as payback for the egg fiasco at dinner. I decided against it, so Matt headed down to buy himself sunscreen. He got 70spf which for me if I use I wont get any sun. Thanks a lot Mr. Super Cautious. Now Im stuck with my glitter fabulous sunscreen. Now not only am I covered in glitter, but everything I touch gets contaminated too! Glitter everywhere! Matt made fun of me pretty much all day. Once we were all sunscreened up & glitterfied, I laid in the sun for a bit while Matt went in the pool just down stairs. He came up and laid for a bit, but like I knew he would, he got board and wanted to move on. The guy cannot sit still. So I decided Id run down quick while he stayed with our stuff and try at the internet again to post my blog, then come back up to the pool & then he would head to the gym while I laid in the sun. I was able to get on the internet this time, so I posted and headed back upstairs. Matt spent about 30 minutes in the gym while I sparkled in the sun. It was like a scene out of Twilight. 
Matt rejoined me at just the right moment, cause I was hot! So we headed down to the pool, which now had sun on it, all the loungers down there are still fully shaded. We sat in the pool for a while and then we saw these ominous clouds come rolling in. Literally in like 2 minutes it went from a gorgeous day to crazy weather! You looked out to the ocean and all you could see was white. Looked like we were on an airplane in the middle of a cloud & then boom, it was pouring and the wind was nuts! I thought we were on our was to Oz. Theres no place like home... Matt ran upstairs to get our stuff while I took cover by the pool. What a guy. The crazy mini tornado thing lasted for about 5 minutes. Matt had taken shelter upstairs, so I waited for him to come back downstairs. We decided to go into the hot tub since they are covered, basically almost indoors, if you will. The hot tubs are awesome and I had never heard about them. They hang out over the side of the ship and the floor has a large piece of glass so you can look down to see the ocean below. Freaky and cool all wrapped into one. The one problem with hot tubs on a cruise is theyre a trap for talkers. Matt is a talker. So we spent the next 20 minutes, correction, Matt spent the next 20 minutes talking to everyone who joined us, while I did the smile and nod every 2 minutes or so thing. I did have to join in when Matt told the people I was also a DVC member. Great! Its not that I dont like people, I just hate small talk and am really not too good at it. Thankfully, Matt knows me enough to know, that even though my head was above the water, I was suffocating, so he did the whole, wed love to stay but we gotta go eat trick. Nice! We told them it was nice to meet them and headed out of the hot tub to dry off and get something to eat. One problem, these were DVC members. I think there some unwritten rule somewhere, that I of course dont follow, that DVC members must be super friendly, because these people followed us to our seats and continued to talk to us (Matt!) for an additional 15 minutes while we kept trying to go eat!! 
Finally, we broke away from them and headed for some fast food by the pool. That area was crazy, loud & chaotic! I got a bacon cheeseburger, of course, and Matt got a mozzarella, tomato & basil panini. Tonight we were going to see the stage show, Aladdin, at 6:15. It is formal night tonight, but I decided to shower and get ready before the show, but put on a track suit for the show and then after the show come back and put on my dress. Im on vacation...I want to be comfortable. Matt did the same, but thankfully put on a suit rather than a dress. 
Before we made it to the show, however, we had a show of our own. On the first day I had read on the pamphlet that the smoke alarms are sensitive to steam, so to be sure to shower with the door shut. No problem. So tonight I got in the shower first. I came out and was putting on my make up while still in a towel while Matt got in the shower. Matt showered pretty quick and upon opening the bathroom door after his shower this alarm starts whaling!! I look over and can see the seam around the smoke detector so right away I know what it is, poor Matt has no idea. So I yell to him to shut the door, so he got back in the bathroom and shut himself in. The thing is still blaring and our phone rings. Its an automated call saying, Youre smoke alarm is alarming... No kidding genius. ...call 911 and evacuate your room immediately. What?! Im in a towel, Matts in a towel locked in the bathroom not having a clue whats going on. So I realize that cruise ships are serious about fires. If a ship catches on fire, theres serious issues since youre in the middle of the ocean. Im thinking that theyre gonna be at our door any minute. So I yell to Matt to get out here & get some clothes on quick. Im trying to throw on anything, but like the OCD person that I am, everythings put away. So I grab a t-shirt & sweats and as Im pulling on my clothes the phone rings again. Its the bridge! They told us our alarm was going off. What do these people think were deaf? So I cut him off and say I think the shower set it off. So he says ok and tells me that hell reset it. Thats it? Hes just gonna take my word for it? I was surprised. I thought for sure theyd want to inspect the room or something. Then I realized with a smoke alarm that sensitive, if it was an actual fire it would just go off again. I was a wreck after that. I was glad I already had my eyeliner on because my hands were shaking big time from the adrenaline. I for sure would have poked my eye out on that attempt. Matt & I laughed at the whole scene that just took place in our room. We didnt need to go see Aladdin after that, we create our own entertainment. I finally stopped shaking about 10 minutes after the Steam Fiasco of 2012. I think tomorrow, Matt will wait like 20 minutes in that tiny bathroom before he comes out. So we finished getting ready and headed to the theater. The show was really good. I was impressed. Matt was disappointed that it wasnt Robin Williams playing the Genie but other than that he loved it. 
So Im choking & tearing, but on the inside Im laughing hysterical at the irony. This is the first time Ive seen the guy since I insisted the eggs in the bread wouldnt harm me. Im still choking after quite a while and Matt is on the same train of thought as me. The guy is stand with his back to me but extremely close, since the tables are super close together. Matts whispering eggs! the eggs! in an evil laugh and Im dying. Again, on the inside hysterical laughing, on the outside choking, but Im also starting to get a little nervous cause I cant stop coughing & I dont know what this guy is thinking right now. He finally walks away and our head waiter, who I love, but have forgotten her name again, comes over to ask if Im okay. I squeaked out wrong pipe and she was cute telling me how she hates when that happens & to take my time and not to mess up my make up. She took Matts order and by the time she got to me, I was finally getting my voice back. So I gave her my order and took a drink of more water. Dinner was great, other than that. Our assistant waiter had a little mind game trick that Matt figured out. He was so proud. Matt had buffalo wings AND a philly cheesesteak sandwich, both he really liked. About 2 minutes after my last bite, I was out. I know, real healthy. Matt stayed up watching a movie until I dont know when.
After that it was time to head back up to the buffet for our dessert. The big hit for Matt was the Mango Panacotta, which I agree was very good, and my favorite was a Peanut Butter Cake (?) which was like a light fudge almost. It was amazing. After that we headed to set Matt up with an appointment to try his hand at the sports simulators they also have up there. Hell be doing that on Thursday at 2pm. Next we decided to put on our detective hats and try to figure out who stole the Muppets props for their big show. This is a new feature only on the new ships, where you search all over the ship for clues as to who stole the props. Each clue is received from a pieces of artwork throughout the ship that magically come to life when you hold your detective badge up to it. It was awesome, but exhausting! They have you walk all over the ship. Clues are on every deck and sometimes at multiple locations on some decks. We didnt quite finish the game because we were headed to the movie theater to see Brave, which we had not seen before. We really enjoyed it and I was surprised the theater was packed. I figured everyone had already seen it and would want to be enjoying the sun. Once the movie was over, we went to finish our detective work. Apparently, theres different versions so you can play again and again. We may try at it again since it really was a lot of fun. I mean its the Muppets. Whats not to love?! Still very well done and very impressive but it followed teens afraid to grow up and they go on this magical journey as their big wish. We did enjoy hearing some of the classic Disney movie songs that were a part of it, but next time wed definitely skip it. After the show we went and sat on my favorite part of the ship, the Promenade and looked at the stars and watched an INCREDIBLE lightning show. We walked the whole deck and then decided to head to the sports bar to see if theyd be showing the Yankees game later. They were showing the Cardinals vs the Nationals game and they kept talking about the Yankees being in a rain delay, so there was hope, for Matt that hed get to see the game after dinner. Yay! We sat for a little bit watching the Nats game and a couple came to sit with us. The seemed interested in the Yankee game, so Matt asked the man who was his team, his answer, You dont want to know. So my thoughtful husband said, Oh, youre a Mets fan?. Ouch, Matt!! You couldnt of just said another team first. I mean come on. Why when you speak to a suffering baseball fan, your thoughts automatically go to the Mets? The more painful part, he was right. The guy was a Met fan. 
So we sat and talked about our pain. He was a partial season ticket holder in 2007, the year of the great collapse. I told him how my brother and I were full season ticket holders that year. We shared how we both were at some of the same memorable games that year, like when Lo Duca got ejected and flipped out throwing his gear onto the field or when Glavin blew it for us in the first inning of the must-win last game of the season. Ugh. 
Okay, enough of that, Im on vacation! 
We had been friends on facebook but he had to close his account and open a new one, so we lost contact. He spent the rest of the night coming over to our table and hanging out whenever he could. He even came and did a magic trick for us. On our trip he would surprise us each night with a lemon carving of some sort that got more impressive each night. One night we had two mice made out of lemons. He even introduced them to us and told us their life story. So when he came over tonight he told us that hes way past lemons and how thats kids stuff and moved on to magic. I asked him if he was still an assistant waiter and he said, Yes, cause I like to talk and Im not carrying trays around. So if youre headed on the Fantasy request Ronaldo from the Philippines. You wont be sorry. I couldnt believe the odds of finding him on board and then he told me that he just got back on the same day as us from vacation. What are the odds?! So we hung out with Ronaldo catching up and then it was time to go see if Matts precious Yankees were on tv. We told Ronaldo wed go to breakfast at Enchanted Garden tomorrow morning where he was working so he could serve us. 
Hes too much. Enchanted Garden is a buffet for breakfast just like Cabanas but you order eggs from your waiter. Matt ordered an omelet while I secretly sulked and filled up on donuts, potatoes, sausage & bacon. Oh, well. The place he dropped us at was Sexy Fruits The guy there offered two cushioned chairs, an umbrella, wifi & two drinks for $14. It was a really good deal, but me being the prima donna that I am, I wanted to go to the fancier side of the beach, to the left. We told him he wanted to walk around and check it out first. So we headed left and ended up almost at the end to a much nicer looking restaurant that at the moment I cant really remember the name of. Something like Kaliki Kaluki. 
It was much nicer, they offered two chairs & an umbrella for $14 but no drinks. The restaurant was a lot better looking. In theory we could have stayed at the other place, then just walked to a nicer restaurant for lunch but, primma donna here, 
and Im on vacation. I dont want to walk up and down the beach with all my stuff to go get lunch, so we stayed at there. We had a nice day on the beach. For lunch we ordered a pizza and chicken caesar salad. They both were very good and very large. They served it with a basket of French bread and everything. The total was $30 something. I charged it on my Visa and there was no where to tip, so I assumed since it was the French side that there was no tipping. Hope I didnt mess up there. 
It was so nice to sit in such comfortable chairs and have your lunch brought right to you. We had carried our bottles of water from Matts gift basket, so we didnt buy drinks. At 3ish we started to get our stuff together and head back to Sexy Fruits, seriously, thats what the guy decided to name his place. We got there early and were waiting at 3:30pm. The owner of Sexy Fruits (the more I type that the more ridiculous it sounds) saw us sitting and waiting and asked us who we were waiting for. We told him and then he said you can wait or just take another taxi & pointed to the taxi about to leave. So we said how we didnt know if we should do that since our guy was coming back for us & that we didnt mind waiting. Then I dont know what happened but the next thing I know they owner is telling the taxi thatd were coming and that hes let our taxi driver know that we got another ride. Oookay. Then as the owner is calling our guy he starts giving us this speech about how people screw over taxi drivers and tell them a time and then leave earlier and make the taxi driver take the trip for nothing. He was really angry at us. So I said that we were fine with waiting, again. This guy was nuts. He came to us, pushing us to take another taxi driver and then when we finally, reluctantly said okay, he flipped out on us. 
This guy was getting on my nerves. So we head back towards the beach and after a little bit our driver shows up. He lets us know hes there and tells us well wait a little for the other couple and if they dont show, well head out. So Matt and I were just hanging out and then we can see that the owner is now heading to our taxi driver, arms flailing, yelling. Matt & I look at each other and we knew this guy was now trashing us, when we were the ones who kept saying wed just wait. So my wise guy Matt starts walking over and Mr Sexy Fruits (false advertisement) suddenly changes his tune and starts praising us and telling our driver that hes not talking about us and that were a good couple who waits. What a whacko. The couple never showed up but we lucked out and got a family of four so our price went down to, I think, $6 per person. The ride back is a lot faster, I guess they use different roads. Once we were back on the ship, Matt went to play basketball while I took a nap in the room since tonight was pirate night and I wanted to be able to stay up past 9pm. They had Muppet Treasure Island on the Funnel Vision (the giant screen by the pool) so it went quick and we got to watch all the people in their pirate gear. People REALLY get into it. It was impressive and a little creepy all rolled into one. The show wasnt as good as the old ships, but apparently you could see that version earlier in the night, minus Mickey on the zip line. The later show was for an older crowd which was good but it was a miss in my book. It was basically a bunch of pirates chasing Capt Jack around a tiny stage. The fireworks were better than I remembered actually. We watched the fireworks and then headed to the Pirate Buffet. We both were feeling really fat, so we didnt want to eat anymore. We, instead headed to bed since we had to be up really early for our excursion tomorrow in St. Thomas. I was trying my hand at snorkeling again. Fingers crossed its a lot better than my awful experience on our honeymoon. 
I'm home now & I am planning to finish it, but it'll probably be a little bit longer. This coming week I have jury duty, my birthday & a funeral. It seems everything is hitting at once. I promise I'll be back at it & with all the pictures. 
The picture of you two in your jersey's is super cute. I love it. Is that your wedding (or grooms) cake to the right in your signature? I'm just taking a wild guess here...you two love baseball? 
