The biggest thing that I learned today was to pace myself! On a freestyle cruise, there are 60 OSA (organized staff activities) each day. After making plans to do more than I actually did today, my new strategy is to just pick three things – one each for the morning, afternoon and evening. We can always add more if something catches our interest. The rest of our family life is so scheduled that it’s important that we have as much free, flexible time as possible.
I had planned on going to a special cooking demonstration that started at 10am. That didn’t work out since I didn’t wake up until after 9:30. Instead, I enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast with my guys. We could feel the motion of the ocean today. Sean got nauseous and vomited after breakfast, but then he was fine. Personally, the motion primarily made me sleepy.
After washing Sean off and changing his clothes, we all looked around the boat a bit. There was so much to see. We looked at some of the art, took a stroll past the casino and checked out some of the onboard shopping. Then, Reggie and I dropped the boys off at “Kids Crew” for a couple of hours so that we could spend some time together alone. It was lovely :-).
The boys had so much fun at the Kids Crew. We dropped them off during Freestyle Free Play, because that is when siblings in different age groups can play together. (Normally, it is split 2 – 5 years; 6 – 9 years and 10 -12 years.) We had to sign them in separately, but we told them to meet each other at the central area inside. However, I guess that they needed some time away from each other too…because they stayed with their separate age groups anyway! “Some brothers and sisters came out of the separate rooms and played together,” Michael shared “but we didn’t…” They were safe and had fun, so all went well. Note: registering the kids and signing them in can take a while – parents enjoy those breaks! A few enjoyed it a bit too much. I overheard one mom (who had come to pick up her kid 30 minutes after she was paged to pick up her crying child) say, “I told you not to cry…I was in the spa!” Alrighty then. Anyway, we thought that it was worth the wait – the kids had fun and we had a little break. We plan on using the free service again when we are at sea all day on Friday and Saturday.
I interviewed Jenette McCurdy of iCarly and Ciara Bravo of Big Time Rush later in the day. (I will post the videos next week when I get back home. Both young ladies were so sweet. Jenette shared about her upcoming music single and her Nickelodeon movie “Best Player”. (She also shared her recipe for spaghetti tacos – a big thing for iCarly fans.) Meanwhile, Ciara shared how she was in Amish country when she found out that she had caught the interest of the “Best Player” producers.
After seeing the movie premiere of “Best Player” with my family, we had a quick dinner, danced a bit and came back to our room. Both Michael and Sean said that the movie premiere was their favorite part of the day. (That is not a big surprise since video gaming was at the center of the plot. “They should make that a real video game,” Michael suggested.) My favorite part of the day was seeing Michael and Sean dancing with reckless abandon on the dance floor. Dancing is especially one of Sean’s favorite things, so it was only fitting that he would spend the last night of “3” dancing his little heart out. I love it!
(P.S. Follow me on Facebook this week to see photos. I will update these blog posts next week when I get back home. Thanks!)
This was a “press trip + 1”, so I only paid the normal cruise price for 2 family members (since everyone insisted on coming along).
