Day 2: At Sea

By morning we were moving at a pretty good pace to make up for the time that we had lost hanging out in Tampa so long. 

Day 2 was just a sea day, so we were ready to enjoy the ship. Although, some of us more than others. Mom got really seasick, because someone thought it would be a good idea to grade papers in a rocky boat. Anyway, because of our the delay they switched our first two ports, so were headed to Costa Maya, Mexico first. 

Asa took the same approach to drinks that the boys were taking to food. Try everything, because it was all included. He started out day 2 with  Bloody Mary. Turns out he still doesn't like them (Although this one was much better than his Disney one, more V8 flavored). 

We were a little too late for breakfast at Cagneys, a perk of being a suite guest, so we had breakfast at the Market Cafe, which was the buffet on board. I actually thought it had a much better variety than Windjammer's on Royal Caribbean. We did end up with breakfast at (and from) Cagney's twice, and I'm telling you, if you every travel in the suites eat breakfast at Cagney's every day. It's amazing. 

We took Hayden up to Splash Academy, the kids club on board, after breakfast. He loved it there, and spent a lot of his time playing games up there. The teen club was not as great. They had less structured activities, and the room for them wasn't open when it said it would be. It was just kind of weird. Peyton and Calib both made friends on the ship that they would go off with, but Peyton hung out with Asa and I more than Calib and Peyton (Really, I hardly saw Calib this vacation. He was off going to shows and presentations and game rooms and dance parties. He went to like every cruise ship scheduled activity he could.) 

So, family suite guests also got to go to Cagney's for lunch. We only went the one time, because the hours were very limited, but it was delicious. Mom missed out in favor of ginger ale and crackers. 

For lunch Calib had shrimp cocktail as an appetizer, 

while Asa, Calib, and Hayden all got prosciutto and asparagus with shaved Parmesan. (I couldn't believe we were eating only a few hours after breakfast, and skipped the appetizer.) Everyone loved the asparagus. It was steamed perfectly. The shrimp cocktail was pretty par for the course. 

I had a french dip for lunch. It was the best lunch I had on the whole ship. Again, the dip totally made it. (I'm telling you guys, the sauces on this ship rocked). 

Peyton got a swordfish burger, Asa and Calib got shrimp and scallop risotto, and Hayden had a burger. It was all well prepared and very good. 

Calib bailed to go hang out with his ship friends before desert, but Hayden decided to try the Banana Cream Pie. (Although he learned here, he wasn't a fan)....

...Peyton had a carrot cake with orange marmalade. He'd never had carrot cake before, because none of us like it. But, as it turns out, Peyton does. 

I went with the brownie and ice cream, because you can't go wrong with that combo. 

 

We took Hayden back to kids club and went off to explore the ship... 

...and we found penny slots! 

One of the scheduled activities that night was "Family Circus" in the Atrium. We got to try out all kinds of fun circus tricks. 

Hayden really liked the spinning plates. 

We had afternoon coffee thanks to our awesome coffee maker! 

And, I took Hayden to the back of the boat for the kids pool. (But the boat was super rocky it made the pool really wavy, which made me really motion sick, blah!) 

It was also super windy the first day, and the last day now that I think about it. Maybe that's pretty common out in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico? 

By now, it'd been a few hours since we ate, and Asa and Hayden were ready for snacks. (I for real don't know how they ate that much!) 

Our first day at sea we were invited to a VIP cocktail reception to have drinks with the captain. 

Mom was feeling well enough to join us, after spending a lot of the day sleeping off her sea sickness. 

We also discovered in the evenings they had a guy who made crepes, so that became a nightly stop. 

When we got back to our room, we discovered Made brought us chocolate covered strawberries!

And our steward left us our first towel animal. 

The glasses were a nice touch. 

Mom still wanted to answer some of her emails, so in an effort not to feel sick again, Asa read them to her, and she told him what to type back. I think she learned her lesson about trying to work on a moving boat. 

 The boys weren't too into our dining reservations for the night at Le Bistro, the French restaurant on board, so they went off to do their own thing while Asa, Mom and I went to dinner. 

Every restaurant had their own specialty drink, and Asa and mom took advantage of the offer. 

For an appetizer, Asa had escargot. Not that I've had it a lot in my life, but this was the best I'd ever had. 

Mom and I both went with soup for our appetizer. 

Mom had some Napoleon thing. It was a stack of vegetables an goat cheese and puff pastry. She gave me a bite, and it was like nothing I had ever tasted before. It was delicious, but rich. You couldn't eat this every night of the week. 

Asa had duck for the second night in a row, and enjoyed this one more than the night before. 

I got rack of lamb. It was cooked really well, and I loved it more than the lamb with the mint pesto and potato crunchies at the food and wine festival. 

For desert, Asa and I shared a fruit fondu. 

And for the second night in a row, mom got creme brulee. 

Asa finished up dinner with some coffee. I wanted to have some too, but it was like 9 pm and I didn't want to be up forever. 

We picked Hayden up from kids club and came back to our turned down room. 

And Mom and Peyton found the robes in the closet, and put those on. 

Asa wasn't happy with his drink count for the day, so we went and got one more. 

That was it for day two on the ship, notice my lack of pictures of Calib. I told you we hardly saw him on the ship. He'd come back at his "curfew" (it was more of a check in) at midnight, and ask to stay out later. For the first time in my life, I had to tell one of my kids to just wake me up when they got back, I wasn't waiting up for him! 

Next Up: Costa Maya, Mexico!