April 8th Aruba

Today was one of the days I was looking forward to the most. We don't dock until 1pm so we had half the day on ship to find fun things to do.
 Our day started with coffee room service. I am definitely getting used to having room service for sure! We always thought why bother with room service and we would just go get coffee on our own. Well, that works well when we travel without the kids. We can get up and go in no time. The kids on the other hand drag feet and it literally takes a half hour to an hour to leave the room.
 When everyone was up and ready to go we headed up to the lido deck for some breakfast. I love the croissants on the ship. They have them under the warming lights and they are so soft and warm. I also grab some of the passion/guava juice they have. That stuff is incredible, and I can not find it here in the stores. At least nothing close enough to quench my craving.
  When everyone had their fill we grab some lounge chairs on the aft pool deck. There are still plenty of chairs left. The pool and hot tubs are all open and no one in them so we try the pool. The kids got right in and promised it wasn't bad. So I hop in for a few minutes until my body decides no way its too cold to enjoy so I head to the hot tub. The hot tubs on the ship are not really hot. They're just very warm.
 As I soak in the hot tub I try and savor the moment. Its freezing back home and I want to remember this feeling. Warm salty air, soft Caribbean music playing and plenty of sunshine. I think, this is the life and if I were a millionaire I would own a yacht and cruise like this all the time. Nah! I'd probably get board with it and not appreciate it like I do now.
 Before we docked in Aruba we showered and had a light lunch. Our excursion has all inclusive food and drinks.
 Docking in Aruba brought back memories of the last time we cruised here. Then we did the whole island tour and saw everything. This time we did the DePalm Island Tour and snorkel. The waves are a bit high so I'm guessing snorkeling will be out of the question.
Once inside the terminal building at the port we met with our guide that put us on the bus to the ferry. It was about a 15-20 minute drive to the ferry. Once there, they give you your armbands and you board the ferry to the small island. The ride was 15 minutes and very nice. The water wasnt bad here, but the current you could tell was strong.

On the island we found some chairs under umbrellas and loaded up on the sunscreen.  The waves were high and snorkeling is definitely off the agenda today. The neat thing about the beach here is that they have giant boulders acting as a barrier all around. So, the water was wonderful right on the beach. I took some pictures of crabs, fish, a pelican and an eel. We all had a great time on this beach. The food was edible at best here, and the drinks just O.K. I drank the beer and was hoping to have the local Aruba beer but they only had Amstel (dutch island) oh well- beer is beer--sometimes.

 When our tour was over and back on the buses we headed back into town but the traffic jam had our bus at a stand still for almost a half hour. Some people were getting off, as the pier was only a few block distance and there was shopping all around. So, we did that too. We saw a neat shop that was called FantaSea! No kidding! That's my travel agencies name. It was closed for the day already. Too bad I would have bought stuff! We didn't end up buying anything and we were back on board the ship by 6pm

 We were still hungry as the island food was not so good. I had a slice of pizza (One of the major food groups in my opinion!)
 The two youngest went  to bed and Mike, Courtney and I went to the piano bar which on this sailing I never saw the piano being played. There was a guy playing guitar and was not all that good. So, we headed to the Karaoke right next door for a bit.
 We kind of wanted a midnight snack so we grabbed some pizza and brought it back to the room to share.
 In all today was a really fun day. I love Aruba. It's a desert in the ocean. Its always warm and windy. The people are friendly and you do not get harassed by street vendors. I could spend a week here, relaxing and seeing all the sights again.

April 7, 2014
 Sea Day

 We tried room service for breakfast for the first time. We ordered coffee only for 0600. This gave me the wake up I need and I didn't have to run to the lido deck for coffee and drink while we walked. I liked it a lot better.  We tried walking around deck 5 today, but because of high winds the deck all the forward was closed. The seas were pretty calm though. We decided to go to the gym instead and walked on the treadmill for a while.
  After grabbing the younger girls from our cabin, we headed up to the buffett for breakfast. We used the one by the Aft pool. no lines! Those that wanted an omelet went inside to get one. Those lines usually arent too bad.

chess

  We changed our clothes to swimsuits for some swimming. We hung out on the Aft deck again, Its not very crowded and the hot tubs were empty. One hot tub seemed to be too hot(all week) so we ended up in the one closet to the bar(handy!) We hardly saw any guys walking around for bar service(all week) so we ended up getting our own. That kinda sucks because you have to get out of the water and and sit soaking wet at the bar waiting to be called on. After being thoroughly wrinkled from the water we dried off by resting on one of the lounge chairs. The sun was out and strong. It felt so good after the winter we had. Once dried we put on our shirt/shorts over our suits and headed back to deck 5. The girls were teasing each other about who could be the chess winner.
 Later I took my oldest(18) to the casino as she had never been old enough to play. We started out with $100 to share and left with $156. Good deal!

appletini

  We all met in the area they were hosting Karaoke by the Taste Bar. Nicole was brave enough to sing a song! She did really well. A lot people partcipate in the Karaoke and it is surprising that people are very supportive. No one laughs, and everyone gets applause. Its a lot of fun to watch and participate.  They have it everyday either in the area they have the Taste Bar or in the comedy lounge.

  Instead of dinner in the main dining room, we had pizza and watched a movie under the stars. Hunger Games was playing. The pizza place, "Pizza Pirate" is pretty good. Its all made fresh to order. You can only choose from a few selections. Some people were upset they didn't offer sausage and acted a little foolish over it. I loved the pizza actually. I ordered the prosciutto and some kind of greens on it like Arugula. Yummy!!! Pepperoni is also good.

 It gets a cool on deck when the sun goes down. At the towel hut you can sign out blankets. They were really nice and soft and warm. They also serve popcorn. Its not very buttery and kind of dry. Make sure you have a drink to go along with it. We all had fun watching the movie.
 We went to the comedy show after the movie. The comedy show is located all the way aft. The comedian was a no show so the stand in guy was the host. Jeff, the fun guy. He was okay. He repeated a lot of the jokes throughout the week. I laughed a few times so it wasn't a wste of time.

Tomorrow is Aruba. We don't dock until 1pm. Yeah. It was a great day.