Sunday, Sea Day 11-22-15

It was every man for himself this morning.  Teresa and Pat went to the gym and the Kramer's were up and had breakfast before we were ready.  Carnival has a new thing on sea days.  Brunch is served in the main dining room from 8 AM until 1 PM.  The menu has everything from your typical breakfast fare to steak or bacon mac and cheese.  The kids and I went to brunch.  Paige had French toast coated in Frosted Flakes...it sounds sickening sweet but was actually quite good.  Lindsay had a bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon, tomato, onion and capers and it was also delicious and I had the eggs benedict which was cooked perfectly.  I can't remember what Chris had and that could be because it was gone before I had a chance to see it.  We prefer breakfast in the dining room since you are served instead of doing the buffet and having to juggle your food and find a table. 

We climbed the stairs from deck 3 to deck 7 where our cabin was.  This cruise I was determined to help preserve my weight loss and take the stairs as often as physically possible or as long as the knees would hold out.  Our cabin was in a great location on the starboard side just off of the aft elevators and stairs.  Two decks up was lido and two down was the main promenade area with the bars, casino, shops, etc.

We all purchased the new Carnival Hub app for $5 for the entire cruise you could text anyone else on the ship that also had purchased it which was a great way for us to find each other.  It only worked with the kids when they took their phones with them.  This app works in airplane mode so no charges from your own carrier...very nice.  It also had the daily activities on it so you could look for something to do and if you flagged it, it would notify you when it was time to go there...very cool.  It also had your account information on there so I could keep track of what the kids were spending since I gave them charging privileges this time.  It would tell you what time you had to be back on board on port days and what the ship's time was.  It was very impressive for $5 (well $20 for me and the kids) and we used it a lot.

The kids took off after meeting up with the Kramer's kids, Teresa and Pat went to the pool Serenity area which is adults only and very much quieter than the main pool with screaming kids.  I tried to clean up the clothes in the cabin and went and pressed their formal clothes for tonight.  I met up with the adults around lunch.  We all had Guy's Burgers again and a cocktail although Daina and Bryan were way ahead of us in the cocktail category.  The other gown ups went to play bingo and/or trivia and enjoyed more cocktails.  I went to the slot tournament but didn't even get enough points to get on the board...bummer!  I played for awhile but didn't manage anything but did have a notice in my room about free drinks.  I took it to the casino desk and they gave me a card and it was free drinks for me while gambling...very nice except I was only in there a couple times the whole cruise.  Now that I don't smoke, it was icky to be in there and you had to walk through the middle of it to get from the back of the ship to the atrium.  The kids walked through it all the time to get to the video arcade as well as the shops. Ran into the adults and it appears that Daina has lost her cell phone.  That tends to sober one up very quickly.  I told her not to worry that someone would turn it in to Guest Services and lo and behold that is what happened.  Geez, in two days we have lost a car and a cell phone...what would be next?

We got back to start getting ready for dinner since it was formal night.  It takes awhile for 4 of us to get showered and dressed in limited space.  I got the girls dressed and they went across the hall and mom fixed their hair.  Chris usually loves being dressed up but since the Kramer boys weren't wearing suits he wasn't too happy about it. My first hint that having friends on board was going to change the dynamics of the cruise with Chris.  The kids all dressed and out and the girls went to go get their photos taken...they love doing this when they cruise and usually Chris will join in.  He was off with the boys and wasn't interested.  We did all get together in the atrium area to try to get some group photos and Chris was not smiling and generally not happy.  Needless to say the group photos did not turn out well and the ones with Chris and the girls either but the girls had great ones taken.

We had a wonderful dinner with almost all of us getting lobster and some more than one.  It was fun and the wine was good, the warm chocolate melting cake even better!  After dinner we went and changed into more comfortable clothes.  Chris went off with Kevin and Lindsay and Samantha went off together while Paige, Pat, Teresa and I went to the Alchemy bar area to listen to Deja Vu.  We had a great time there.

We text the kids and tell them to be back at 11:30PM and they all showed up on time...amazing!  Day 2 is now in the books.