Vacation Day 7: "Bravo, Bravo, Bravo"

Here is the continued story about our recent family vacation on a cruise. WARNING: This is a LOOOONG and very exciting post…please bring food and drink J. . .

(4/20/12) Friday

When I woke up this morning, everything hurt. My sunburn is still smarting after two days spent on the islands. My neck and back are very stiff from yesterday’s surfing incident. I can’t turn my head in most directions. I especially can’t look up and down.

I think that my new favorite color is blue!

I loved the patterns of the water coming from the jets as the ship chugged along.

While the rest of us went to get breakfast, Dad and Ben opted to exercise. I was going to go with them, but I was far too sore this morning. To change things up a bit, we went down to the Boardwalk to the donut shop. I had a great strawberry frosted donut.

Then we met our Grandparents up in the Windjammer Café for some real food. J I had toast with a fried egg, a hash brown, yogurt, bacon, cantaloupe, watermelon, OJ, hot chocolate, and a mini cinnamon roll (not pictured.) Getting back to normal-sized breakfasts is going to be hard!

Once the boys got back, we all went putt-putt golfing together. We split up into two teams (guys and girls.) I must confess, I had never played mini-golf before. Yes, I’m in high school and I’ve never played before! J It was a lot of fun (although I did NOT have the lowest score, that’s for sure. J)

After our round of golf, we went to the Aqua Theater for the backstage tour. They had a Q and A session first. It’s amazing how much attention is paid to detail during the shows!

After the discussion, we went backstage and got to see the dressing rooms and everything else. It was narrow.

This is the view from the stage at the Aqua Theater. Do you see the traffic light at the very back wall and the two lights on either rock wall? During the diving shows, the divers look at those lights to see whether or not they should dive (Green means go and red means wait.)

After the tour, we met up with the rest of the family and everyone went on the zip line. This time, both of our Grandparents went, and my Uncle J, pictured above. It was fun watching them all go!

After the zip line, we stopped at the Wipeout Café on that same deck. I had a burger and fries for lunch.

Next, we went to an ice show themed after the movie, “How to Train Your Dragon.” It was good, but I definitely liked the Ice Games show better.

Photo Credit: Roma.

Then we made another stop on our bucket list: the Cupcake Cupboard! They had the biggest cupcakes I have ever seen! They were literally the size of softballs. I got a double chocolate cupcake and it was the BEST and richest cupcake I have ever eaten. There was no artificial taste to it at all. It was GOOD!

After eating those monstrosities—I mean, cupcakes—we had to burn off some calories (and energy.) Everyone went rock-climbing again. I stayed on the ground, and had to point my camera up to get the pictures. Yes, my neck was that bad!

When we returned to our rooms later on, we heard a lot of yelling and commotion coming from the other balconies. Someone was shouting that they had seen dolphins. We rushed out to our balcony to see. But this was no dolphin: we saw whales!

Here is a closer picture of the whale. It was a really neat experience to see them!

We got dressed up for the formal dinner, and then we relaxed and did some journaling.

Photo Credit: Roma.

Here is a small view of our stateroom. To the right of the photo is a couch that you can’t see. Mom is standing at a mirror, and Rubia is coming out of the bathroom that is to the right behind the closet pictured. It was small!

Photo Credit: Roma.

Friday night is the busiest night in the dining room. It’s the last formal night, and lobster was on the menu!

I had fun playing with my Aunt’s 50mm camera lens. One of the appetizers I had was a mini poppy-seed roll.

I then enjoyed a delicious peach soup for my first course. It was cool, smooth, and refreshing. Roma and I also shared a small bowl of hot asparagus soup that was excellent!

Since it was a special night, the waiters brought out a drink made with Sprite and apple juice, garnished with a strawberry. It was good!

My dinner choice was quite easy tonight! I ordered the lobster tail with herbed butter, shrimp, broccoli, and carrots. I had never had lobster before, and it was quite good!

For dessert that night I ate warm Cherries Jubilee. It was very good!

I’m sorry this photo is blurry, but we wanted to get a photo with our head waiter, K (center) and his assistant, M. They have been so sweet to us this week, and we’re really going to miss them.

Photo Credit: Betsy.

After dinner we stopped by guest services to see if there was anything going on that night that caught our interest. While the grownups discussed choices, the kids had fun watching the fountain in the lobby.

J enjoyed playing Angry Birds on his Mom’s iPhone. Normally he isn’t allowed to play for very long, but it was doing a good job of keeping him occupied!

Occupied that is until he saw the dog! There was a gentleman on the ship who had a little terrier with him, and the kids asked if they could pet him. He was definitely a highlight for them!

While we were standing in the lobby, we felt a rumble beneath our feet. I imagine it’s what a small earthquake feels like, but since I don’t live in California I can’t confirm that. We were wondering what happened, since we were not pulling into a port or anywhere near land for that matter.

Over the PA system we heard, “Bravo, Bravo, Bravo.” Our Dad instantly knew what that meant. It is a coded message for the crew, that there is a fire somewhere on the ship. Our ears perked up as we listened to see what was going on. Within a few seconds, we saw several crew members disappear from the Guest Services desk. A few moments later, the Captain came on over the loudspeaker and said that there was an issue in one of their engine rooms and they were investigating the matter. You could have heard a pin drop on the entire deck, it was so quiet. Everyone was concerned, and the ship had come to a stop.

Some of us really needed to use the restroom, and decided that perhaps we should go ahead and go in case we were called to our muster stations.

As I was standing in the ladies room waiting for the others, a man stuck his head in the bathroom and said that the alarms were going off and that they were closing doors.

We were a bit frantic for a few moments, because we were separated from the rest of the family. Mom, Aunt C, J, and I were all in the women’s bathroom while Uncle J, Ben, and E were in the men’s bathroom on the other side of the ship. All the rest of the family was still on the Promenade Deck. We didn’t want to be split up, so we gathered up J and rushed back towards the lobby.

As I stepped out to the hallway, I could smell smoke. I started praying under my breath as we made our way through the curious crowd. They had indeed started closing heavy steel doors leading to the corridor we were in, but we made it through in time.

Once we were all united, I felt much better. We gathered together, held hands, and said a prayer while we waited for the Captain’s next announcement. One lady sitting nearby noticed us praying and joined us, saying, “I want to be part of this!” When we finished, she asked if any of the men in our group was a preacher. My grandmother explained that no, they weren’t , but we were all Christians and we believed in the power of prayer. The woman responded that she was glad to be sitting with Christians!

Some of the family members thought it would be better if we made our way towards the lifeboats in case they called us to our muster stations. As we were walking that way, we heard the Captain’s voice over the loud speakers again. He assured us that the small fire had been extinguished and that they were working to clear the smoke as quickly as possible. Everyone was quite relieved!

Since we were out on the track already, we walked around a bit. You can see some of the crew on stand-by to the left, along with the lifeboats on the right.

We walked around the ship for close to an hour. We went up in the Aqua Theater and back to the restrooms again. Some of us were really tired and wanted to sit down.

So we went into one of the lounges to rest. We relaxed in there for awhile and chatted.

We ordered some pineapple juice and peanuts while we sat. Finally, around 9:00 p.m. we went up to our rooms.

Daddy was curious to see the smokestacks on the top deck, so our family walked up there. By this time the ship was moving again, and the left engine was not running. But the ship was still able to run on full capacity.

When we got back to our rooms we found more towel animals! This time there was an alligator in the girls room . . .

. . . and a monkey in the boys room!

Just to be on the safe side, we set out our shoes and jackets in case we needed to get up in the night to go to our muster stations. But we really felt safe, and agreed that the situation had been handled very well. We made it to bed a bit late, but we’re looking forward to another day of cruising tomorrow! It will be our last full day on the ship. L This has been such a fun, amazing trip!

Vacation Day 1: Traveling to Florida

Vacation Day 2: Boarding the Ship

Vacation Day 3: The Bahamas

Vacation Day 4: Cruising

Vacation Day 5: St. Thomas

Vacation Day 6: St. Maarten