May 8, 2014 – Dayspring Disciples

Contrary to his nature, Nigel was up EARLY on our day at sea. He and I snuck out of the stateroom for some early morning roaming, fuseball, photos,

and pre-breakfast snack. (We take sunscreen seriously.)

Around 8 AM he and I ducked into the theater to catch a DisneyNature film called Bears. It worked out so well that pretty much the majority of family entertainment was on Deck 5, as our staterooms were Deck 5. I sat with him a while then decided I’d go back to the room and see what everyone else was up to. John was finished up his shower and the older girls were dressed. I walked them to the theater and sat them in with Nigel (and the maybe 6 other people taking in an early morning movie), and I headed back to the stateroom to help get Katriel and Johanna up. Stewart was sound asleep. Around 9 A.M. I headed back to the theater to check on the kids and I saw the second Princess Gathering gathering. This one was a mob scene. Golly I’m glad we went on Tuesday.

By 9:30 the movie was over and I helped John herd everyone to, yup, Cabanas for breakfast. All but Stewart. I dawned on me that he might be tired… but that he would be really disappointed if he slept through the last full cruise day. At 9:44 A.M. I told him he was welcome to continue sleeping but I wanted him to know that it was 9:44. He SHOT out of bed and moved rapidly on his own. He did NOT want to miss any more of his day. When he learned that Nigel had already watched an entire movie he was in disbelief!

We didn’t take a lot of photos this day. I was busy doing “stuff”. The kids visited in and out of their clubs and swam. We grabbed lunch from all kinds of the on board food areas. Sandwiches, salads, hot dogs, pizza, etc. Later, I hung out with the little girls on Deck 9 while John and the kids went back to the theater to watch the Muppet movie once more. John had left early the last time with Katriel. Johanna opted to play in her club and Katriel opted to play with her shoes. Actually – Katriel made friends EVERYWHERE we went. The Cast Members (staff) at Disney parks have always been quick to engage children while parents eat, shop, etc., and it was no different on the ship.

Nan, Kelly, Katriel, Johanna, and I took a walk all the way around Deck 4. It was so cool to see ocean EVERYWHERE as far as the eyes could see.

There was a “dance party” in the Atrium that confounded Johanna. She didn’t want to dance with the characters. She really wanted to hug them. When she realized there would be no one-on-one bonding, she was done.

We swam some more…

And headed to our room before the show to dress for dinner.
Of the four evenings at sea, three nights had stage productions and one had a comedian. We skipped the first stage production because of the content (Villains), and we skipped the comedian. The other two shows, “Twice Charmed,” (a twist on the Cinderella story), and “Disney Dreams,” were both nice productions. I found them O.K. but the kids all liked them to varying degrees. They did do some cool special effects and it is no high school production. It was very upscale. I’m just not that into Disney. (Really.)

After the show we did our nightly ~~torture~~ privilege of taking photos.

Including the sisters who didn’t want to pose because she wasn’t on the bottom step.

Katriel walked right up to these officers and just stood there facing them at first waiting to be picked up. She does this with a lot of people. They came down to her level instead.

The non-Butler on the left was our Main Server, Genesis. Yup, that is REALLY his name and he is a Christian. He is from the Philippines. On the right is Sorin, from Romania. He was our Head Server. (Over the whole dining room.)