Sailing the Middeterranean Sea and Saying Goodbye

Saturday, April 12, 2014 

   It is Saturday morning and the kids are still asleep. Since today is a day at sea and no rush to go anywhere, we are not waking them up. Steve is watching TV in room 4107 waiting for Stevie to wake up and I am playing with the computer in the girls’ room 4109 as the TV tends to wake Hannah up and I do not feel like straining my eyes to read the close captions.

  Yesterday water got in our underwater camera and the memory card got wet as well. We had hard time reading the memory card on the computer but once it dried enough, we could copy the pool videos from it. Of course, now we are suspicious of it and would prefer to use a memory card that never got wet. We had another card in our bag but it is full of pictures and videos from 2011. I moved them off the card so that it could be used.

   I also discovered only yesterday that there is WiFi in our room and that we can check e-mails from our room rather than going to the library. We still have to pay per minute but I never thought to check because I read that there is no ship-wide WiFi.

   Also talking to other parents on the ship, we are told that the Queen Mary 2 we will be sailing back to the US is much nicer than this. It is hard to imagine a nicer way to travel.

   Hannah went to Club HAL for a little bit before lunch and then both kids went after lunch. Steve and I have been gathering our things and packing. Steve also entered a Black Jack tournament but did not have much luck. When Club HAL closed at 4 PM for dinner, we met the rest of the families for a pool party. It was great, the kids loved swimming and playing in the hot tub. 

   Adriano drew a map for us of what to see in Rome and suggested a place to eat. He will also check if his dad has an apartment available to spend the night on Monday.

   We ate dinner in the Lido restaurant and then the kids went to club HAL while finished packing.    When we came to get the kids at 9 PM, they were glued to the TV watching Despicable Me. Steve and I went to Crow’s Nest and spent another 45 minutes visiting with the other parents. We all went to pick up the kids at 10 PM when Club HAL closes and they got to say their good-byes. Hannah and Kristy were especially sad parting their ways.