Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Sunrise: Day 50 (At Sea)

Today marks the halfway point of our season at sea, and we have been talking about how that feels. I anticipated that we would be dismayed, as in "I can't believe it's already half over". Instead, the feeling is quite the opposite. We feel that we've had such an amazing time...and now we get to do it all over again!
This Christmas cruise had (we got the official count) just over 400 kids on board, and it wasn't bad at all. Kids are kids, and there have been meltdowns in the dining room and pranks throughout the ship (removing room service breakfast orders from doorknobs, and switching the Privacy signs on cabin doors to instead read 'Please refresh my room'). But it's been fun to see the many little ones in strollers, and all the activities geared to kids and families.
This next cruise has 650 kids. This surprised me; I thought that many kids would have to start back to school before it ends on January 7th. Hopefully, it will be just as uneventful.
We were up early today, and caught this beautiful sunrise directly off the back of the ship. Unlike yesterday, today the sun wasn't blocked by any clouds, and we decided to enjoy some time by the Terrace pool, and so ate breakfast from the buffet while sitting in loungers with exactly that sunrise view. We changed into swimsuits, and G headed to the hot tub while I lay in the sun and listened to a book. It quickly got very hot, and before noon we both came inside to shower and go to lunch in the dining room. We love the sun, but are adamant that we not get burned again, and so have to take particular care in the early afternoon. Unless we were in the water, it really was uncomfortable to be in the sun. The noon report from the bridge stated that the weather tomorrow in Fort Lauderdale is forecasted to be sunny, but only 66 degrees. Is that possible, given how hot today is? We'll see...