Royal Caribbean, Another "Ship" Day

We spent our 3rd day of our cruise on the ship relaxing again instead of exploring Marseilles. Doug and I have both been to Marseilles and don't love it as much as the rest of France. The girls didn't want to give up their hourly desserts.

Doug and I both woke up early. Doug went for a run and I went to Central Park for my morning coffee. The girls continued to sleep until I got hungry and Doug wanted to shower, so we woke them up and then went to breakfast in the main dining room. The next few days will be buffet breakfast for us as we have early departures from the ship, so we took advantage of the service in the main dining room today.

Central Park - viewed from above

Heading out for our morning....
relaxation?

Doug's run - funny path since he ran on a moving ship.

After breakfast we came back to change and put on sunscreen before heading separate ways. Doug and I went to find a spot to sit and read in Central Park and the girls went to swim. Central Park got too sunny so we relocated to an upper deck in the shade, which was then too windy so we finally found our home in the shade on the other, less windy, side of the ship. The girls reported they were having 2nd breakfast.

The view from our temeperate, shady, not windy seats.

I tried to read, but I'm actually pretty terrible at relaxing on vacations so I went to explore the ship a bit. I wanted to get information on other routes Royal Caribbean goes on. I found what I was after and then came back to see Doug. (Hint: there are a lot of fun bucket list routes, including Norway, Arctic Circle, Holy Land, and repositioning cruises!)

All morning they were doing crew drills, which meant piercing horn noises and even worse, the totally and completely unintelligible loud speaker with apparently the captain speaking. Honestly if there is an emergency on this ship and you are outside, you will not know what to do. It is a little better inside, but its shocking how terrible the sound is. And how loud. Mercifully when I got back after exploring a bit the drill ended and our ears could recover. I think by this time the girls had had first dessert and although I was hungry for lunch they were definitely not hungry. We all hung out in our quiet, shady, not windy lawn chairs until such time as both parents decreed it was time to eat again and we hit the buffet.

Relaxing in our perfectly chosen chairs.

After the buffet, Elisabeth, Charlotte, and I came back to the cabin to rest from our extremely taxing morning. We hoped for another movie like Mr. Poppers Penguins but all we found were Glee re-runs which the girls weren't crazy about. So they each picked a show to watch on their own device while I watched my favorite brown bears on Explore.org.

buffet lunch

That's me on the rock wall! In the pinkish
sweatshirt. Not looking up, down, or sideways.

After our rest, Charlotte wanted to go see if any kids were in the kids club (they weren't) and then set out with Doug to find more dessert. Afterwards, we decided to climb the rock wall. I haven't ever done that before and although the course I chose was not very hard, it turns out I am more fearful of heights than I knew. I will try again and hopefully make it to the very very top. I just can't look up, or down, or sideways really. Just straight into the wall. And maybe a little up to see what I can grab hold of.

After the rock wall, Charlotte found some kids in the kids area to play with and Elisabeth met up with two friends she met in the teen club. They both had a really good time for about an hour before we all headed to dinner. Dinner was disappointing. The menu doesn't change much from night to night. I had the beef short ribs, which were fine but hard to cut for some reason. E and C had steak (shocking!) and Doug had chicken - which he said was quite good.

Dinner - tropical night.

Dinner selfie - its our thing.

We then went to a magic show called Hector is Magic, which was really, really good. The entertainment on this ship has been great. Very entertaining. Hector seamlessly did the show in both English and Spanish and did magic none of us could figure out.

After the show it was definitely time for more dessert so we headed to the buffet to fill that need. From the window we could watch the aqua show from last night again, and the sunset. The sunset got to be too beautiful so I had to go get my real camera and get some actual pictures.

Sunset over the southern coast of France

While watching the sun set, there were dolphins next to our boat. Some jumped. There were lots of them and they look much smaller than the ones we see in the States. I think they are "striped dolphins" which seem to be small and appear in groups and are the most commonly seen in the Mediterranean (according to Google). Exciting to see a new animal!

This was from last night, American Outlaws,
 Royal Caribbean Chapter.

Today we are heading off the boat to Cinque Terre! I think that this is the stop I've been most looking forward to. I hope the heat and crowds don't severely detract from it.

always, always, always dessert.