Day 6 – Sea Day!
We managed to avoid being sunburned in Aruba, but that didn’t stop us from sleeping in a little to recover! Today was also the day that we were hosting the scavenger hunt. The night before we left for the trip, Jill had me print about 40 copies of the scavenger hunt at work, because our printer at home was broken. I had to guard those papers with my life! If anything had happened to them, I don’t believe I would have made it on the cruise due to my many broken bones.
Luckily for me, the papers made it home that night and made it to the boat as well. We headed to deck 4, but it looked like our meeting place at Studio Sea was being used for something else. Jill and I setup shop outside between the Vacation Club desk and the new cruise bookings desk. Temptation rears its ugly head! Luckily some people showed up to do the scavenger hunt and kept us from exploring either desk. Since we moved to a different starting location, I had to go around and assalt, I mean ask, people wearing green lanyards if they were looking for the scavenger hunt. Most of them were not and move quickly away from my person.
Jill making the prizes while I try to find players for our game.
We didn’t have quite as many people participate as we expected, so we ended up with a lot of extra Hershey bars. That turned out great as we were able to give them to our room attendant and dining room servers.
After the scavenger hunt (thanks for all who participated! We hope you had a lot of fun!) we went to see Captain Ken Puckett, who was a pilot through the Panama Canal for 15 years. He gave a very interesting presentation about what would happen tomorrow and what to expect. I attended his previous presentation where he talked about the history of the canal.
After the presentation, it was time for lunch, and then it was off to collect the pins we ordered! Jill wanted just a couple of them but I suggested we get the whole set just in case we ever wanted to sell them. A form was delivered to the stateroom and we had to rank which pins we wanted. They then took everyone’s requests into account to distribute the pins. It was a lot better than the system we heard about on the 2005 cruise! We got all the normal pins plus the jumbo pins. They are pretty cool, and I’m glad we got the whole set.
This is a test. If you noticed the boxes of pins first, you are a true pin collector. If you noticed the booze first, seek help.
We then went on the Art of the Theme Show tour of the ship. It was pretty neat as the guide took us around the ship and showed us several places that were themed in a special way. The only problem I had with this tour is that there were quite a few people on it, so sometimes it was hard to hear what she was saying. It would almost be better if they could do it as a ticketed tour like the galley tour.
Then it was time to drink! Ok, in me and Jill’s case it was time to watch other people drink. The Champagne Girls were having their tasting. Jill was going as an honorary member, and I hadn’t planned to go at all. I ended up helping to take the group photo with the thousands of cameras thrust at me. While they went through the various types of champagne, I sat in the corner and worked on my trip report. After they had tried it all, I was offered a sip. I tried the Rosa Regal, and it was ok. I made Jill take a sip and I guess she wasn’t expecting something so dry because she started to choke! She swore she would not be drinking any more champagne.
The Champagne Girls (plus Planky!)
The honored guest Planky (sorry for the dark photo, he's flash sensitive.)
After that it was off to the show. Tonight was Scott Record who did songs and impressions, and I thought he was pretty good. We also saw him the night before in the cabaret show. Jill loved to do the pin trading after the show and before dinner, and there were quite a few people who were into it.
This evening we were dining at Palo. Our server was Sasha and he was great. I loved the portabella mushroom appetizer and lobster ravioli, while Jill was in shrimp heaven with a shrimp appetizer and grilled shrimp entrée. At the end the chef sent a complimentary drink of lemon sorbet and sparkling Italian champagne. Jill (after her bought with champagne earlier in the day) didn’t want it, so Sasha brought her a sparkling grape juice drink. I tried the lemon drink and told her she had to try it. She sniffed it, took a very small sip, and then drank the whole thing, plus hers! It tasted like frozen lemonade at the parks. I wish I had ordered another it was so good.
At the show, Brent announced that they would be showing a midnight viewing of the new Narnia movie. It was 2 hours and 30 minutes long, which means we wouldn’t get to bed until 2:30 in the morning. Jill was all for it, while I kind of liked the going to bed option better. Of course that means that we went to the movie.
Jill in the theater before the Prem"Ear" at Sea of Narnia
I thought it was pretty good, but it would have been nicer if they had stuck to the book more. Also I agree with Ian, the song at the end does not fit in very well with the movie as a whole.
After the movie we sleepily stumbled up the stairs to deck 10 to see what was going on. Before we went to Palo we could see a lot of other ships around us as we slowly made our way to the holding bay for the canal.
This picture proves there are other boats out there, Disney doesn't have the seas to themselves.
When we took a look around there were quite a lot of ships around. We went back to our room and set the alarm for 6:00 AM. That was around the time that we should be entering the first lock.
...look like you guys..had a terriffic cruise. 
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..hey..where's your ... grassy~skirt picture? 
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'bout...being..dragged..off [ 
" back! 
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..of that action? ]
