Chapter 7 - Sea Day

We slept in, didn't have to be anywhere until 1:00 pm. When we were all up we went to breakfast at Summer Palace. It is a main dining room, but to be honest - I liked the service better than in the suite dining place. :D

After breakfast we walked around the ship a bit. . .the girls saw the shuffleboard game, and said they always wanted to play. . .so we did.

After a bit, we head back to the room to get things ready for the Cruise Critic meet & greet. We were suppose to all bring one regional sports item to exchange among adults. I also made gift bags for all the kids that were listed, so needed to get those together. They had things like waterproof cameras, Texas coloring books, a Texas theme deck of cards & chapstick. I put the girls chapsticks in little lipstick purses. I wasn't sure about the other kids, but I knew the M&Ms would enjoy them.

While I put the gift bags together, the girls finished sorting & cleaning the shells they got at GSC, and got them into their Treasure boxes. They were quite pleased with their haul.

We went to the meet & greet. The man who organized it's name was Jim, his wife Claire,and they have a 9 year old daughter Gwynne. Jim & Gwynne had a small part as extras in the movie Dolphin Tale, so they were instant celebrities to the M&Ms, especially Maddie.

Several of the officers from the ship showed up.

My DDs were partial to the cruise director - Julie (hear the them to love boat?).

The gift bags seemed to go over well, as did the coasters we brought. Klaus, one of the crew - gave a nice speech. We also got the direct phone #s to each of the staff that came, and were told not to hesitate to call with questions/problems - and the head of the bars was there and said he would buy anyone a drink if they called him. Didn't know until later that Jim pretty much called them daily, as he bragged about all the free bottles of wine he managed to get.

After the meet & greet we were so close to Cagneys, we went ahead and had lunch there. John had a hamburger, I had some kind of bruchetta that was wonderful. The girls had their usual pasta. We also ordered several desserts (banana pie, macademia nut ice cream & brownies) and all shared. John got drunk. Like, loud & embarrassing drunk. I couldn't wait to get him out of there. He doesn't get drunk often, so I was surprised. . when he gets drunk he thinks he is the funniest man on earth - and is loud so everyone can enjoy his cleverness. Yuck.

When we did leave I told him to go to the stateroom, and I took the girls to the kids club. Gwynne was there, so the girls were tickled to get to play with her.

When I got to the stateroom John was out - thankfully. And the butler had dropped off yet more food.

I sat on the balcony a bit, and watched The Help, while John slept off his lunch. When he did get up, we got ready & picked the girls up for dinner at Teppanyaki. Their favorite. :D Marie was working here tonight and took great care of them. Even at dessert time, we didn't care for any of the desserts on the menu- so she went over to the Lotus Garden and brought the girls something else, not on the menu.