Life on the High Seas

One thing that did not work out very well was our room. While the room itself was great, it was located right under the BB King lounge and for about 3 hours every night (until midnight), the music was blaring. Apparently we were right under the stage and the room shook with every beat of the drum. One night we just could not bear it anymore. Stevie was so tired but he could not fall asleep until the music stopped. We contacted the front desk (at this point, we still had 9 days to go) and Steve negotiated a move to another room on the 4th floor. The trouble was that when we moved our stuff to the room, we realized that the couch did not open into another bed. So they let us have another room right next to it. We were not quite happy with the arrangement to have two rooms but at least it is quieter. The boys are in room 4107 and the girls are in 4109.

As we are passing through time zones, we have been adjusting our clocks by 1 hour. They move the time from 2 to 3 PM in the afternoons. As of today, April 9th, Hannah and I seem to have adjusted to the new time. Steve and Stevie are not quite there yet but I bet they will be all set by the time we get to Italy.

We have been going to the pool every day. Hannah is quite the celebrity as everyone is surprised how well she can swim. 

 

 Home school kids have it rough

Stevie doing a "spear throw"' water entry maneuver, by the end of the cruise he could swim the entire length of the pool underwater

Hannah the "social butterfly'' made a lot of friends on the cruise.  This is Kristy, her favorite

We expected to be bored during our time at sea but we are constantly busy. We walk on the promenade deck and play shuffle board. We have checked out board games from the library and Stevie has learned to play Sorry, Checkers and he is learning to play chess. Stevie also likes the Game of Life that he has been playing in the kids club.

The kids have enjoyed club HAL (especially Hannah) and they are making friends. There are 14 kids under 12 on the ship. It is much more structured than we expected, they change activities every 30 minutes so in a way, it would be nicer to have more free play. But it does keep the kids entertained.
I cannot say that the club HAL is ideal – they only have a small room and the two ladies that take turns watching the kids do not seem to be very “warm and loving”. One gets the impression that they are here because they want to work on a cruise ship and not because they love being with kids. They also call parents over every little thing. Once I was called because Hannah was crying (another girl pushed her or something like that). By the time I got there, Hannah was fine and wanted to stay in the club. There was really no reason to call me.

 

 

We attended a family karaoke night at the kid's club, it was a lot of fun.  I had a hard time talking Kat into singing in public.  A couple of drinks at the bar and she was ready to rock and roll.  A full version of this video is available for $19.95.  For this price you will get to see Kat swinging on a chandelier, punch another woman and we will throw in a ging-su knife set. 



One big thing I do not like about the club is that they do not have a dedicated bathroom for the kids. The kids have to go by themselves to a restroom that is outside of the club area, next to an elevator and next to a door to the outside deck. The ladies that watch them are not allowed in the bathroom with them (which is common practice) but the bathroom door is so heavy that Hannah cannot physically open them. It was also very scary for Hannah to be in the bathroom alone. We had to make sure that Hannah went to the bathroom before going to the club so she would not need to go later. I have seen the ladies stand in the door of the club watching the kids go to the bathroom but I have also seen a little girl going to the bathroom alone and no one watching from club door.

 

Another day of sleeping in,  it's a rough life but somebodys got to do it

 

Hannah could not control herself when her handsome brother suited up for formal nights

 

We had some excitement at the pool … an older woman was upset that there were children in the pool. When it was pointed out to her that there was an adult only pool on the back of the ship, she was not happy with that. She keeps coming to the family pool, acting rudely and pushing people around. The worst moment was one afternoon when she grabbed a 7 year old girl and smacked her in the face. Then she would not let the girl go. Other parents came to help and it all ended up in a yelling match. When we came to the pool the next day, we came in there just as the girl’s parents were again yelling at the woman, we were not sure what happened prior to that.

We spoke to another woman who was in the pool and the woman kicked her several times as well. After this, we have seen her in the pool but she was going around people rather than pushing and kicking them out of the way. Maybe someone from the crew spoke to her.

Our kids seem to be the center of attention all the time. We have gotten a lot of compliments on the kids’ behavior. We are very proud of them and they are wonderful but it makes me wonder what people expect the kids to expect to behave like.