A Rainy Day at Sea

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Geo: 19.7234, -81.7902

Sleeping in until 10 today, everybody's up and ready for breakfast. It's just a simple matter of getting dressed. Our room has plenty of breakfast already here from room service but it's been sitting in Scarlett's room and it's cold. We sit and wait & wait for Queenie to beautify but by 11, it doesn't seem to be happening so Karen, Jonathan and I leave for the Windjammer breakfast. We arrive there and find it a perfect place for breakfast. Everybody's else is done already. We find a nice table, get our food and watch for Scarlett. For 45 minutes we watch. She finally shows and we leave her to eat in solitude while Mom goes down to the stores and checks out the sales.

Not much going on which is good for me. Queenie meets us here and we walk around some more. It's pouring down rain today so there's no activity near the pools. Everyone is either on the Boardwalk or in the Promenade mall. At 2pm we sit and watch the bellyflop contest in the Aqua Theater. It's entertaining for awhile and I watch, film and blog all at the same time. We checked out the ship photographer's pictures in the photo shop. There's a few good ones from formal night. We don't see the ones with Jonathan and I taken at the classic car but they perform a search, find them and add to our folder. We may buy some later on after the final formal night. We stopped for free hot dogs and basically just wandered around aimlessly until around 5 when we returned to our stateroom to get ready for dinner

This time we were right on time for our dinning room dinner reservations in the Grande Restaurant at 6pm. I had the tilapia and everyone else had pasta. Finishing a little after 8pm, Karen and I went to see the comedy show at 9pm. Jonathan couldn't go since it was for adults only so he went with Queenie to another kids show starring Barney and we met around 10 so we could all watch the disco parade on the Grand Promenade. There's lots of dancers and tons of great disco songs. This all finally ends at 11pm so we all head back to our rooms. The kid reminded us that the Barney show was "really stupid". OK.

There are lots of things to do here later in the evening but they're adult oriented. For most it's no problem since they have great kid programs on board. The children are divided by age groups with activities to match. The parents drop them off and they are in safe areas until retrieved. There's tons of young ones on the two decks but Scarlett won't release him and Jonathan is afraid to be away from her. They both miss out on so many activities matched to age. Oh well.

Back in the rooms we have problems. Both Scarlett and Karen are tag teaming me on tomorrow's activities. It was all acceptable until now. With only eight hours to our excursion time in Jamaica, excuses are flying for why they can't go. Mom was OK with it but Queenie is persuading her to cancel too. Scarlett's literally pacing the floor in a panic attack. "It's a foreign country. I'm not going in that water. Who knows what kind of bugs are there. These people will rob you. You don't understand. It's not a ship excursion? Oh, you're crazy. I'm not leaving my stuff in their van. No way am I riding with those people. You people can get killed if you want. I've traveled and I know."

The tour is already paid for, $400 including lunch. I decide to go myself if Jonathan can't go. This tour company, Real Jamaica Tours is rated #1 on Trip Advisor for our port. I did my homework and I was told by Queenie to "Book it, Dano" and I did. We'll see tomorrow. Mom has now decided she's willing to go again but she's afraid she won't be able to tube or walk and she is freaking out. All Queenie can say is, "I'm going but the bugs are going to get all of us. You'll be sorry. I'm not eating or drinking anything!"

Why? Why would we ever leave California?

Note: I'm having camera problems. My IPhone wants some password before it will talk to my IPad so I can't use it for taking pictures. My small compact waterproof camera has condensation issues, issues that I haven't experienced previously so it may be on the way out. My regular camera works fine but it's bulky, not waterproof and not the preferred method for casual photography. Lastly, my GoPro works just fine but I cannot download to my IPad. I need a laptop and conversion program, neither which I have with me. Jonathan was to have his laptop here but you know about that. Queenie has taken pictures with her iPhone but getting her to transfer some to me for the blog hasn't been successful. She's afraid of a virus or something ruining her phone. Expect fewer photos in the blog until I work this out. Thanks.

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