Day At Sea

Dec 8, 2011 - Caribbean Sea

The winds really picked up overnight and the ship was rocking all over the place. In 2005 we sailed around the edge Hurricane Wilma and were rocked around a lot. Other than that, all our time in the islands have been peaceful. Wednesday night was bad, and it continued all the way into Thursday afternoon. I have only been seasick twice: on that 2005 cruise and on this one

Pro to being sick: it was a sea day, so it’s not like I’d be missing a port. Con: there were a ton of things to do on the boat and I didn’t want to miss anything!

I took my Bonine and waited for it to kick in, and I laid in bed until it was time for the final art auction. We had no plans to buy anything (although there were a couple pieces that were SCREAMING our names) but we really wanted to see our cool art friends again! When it was time for the auction I was feeling a little better, but still not great. I swear our auctioneer friend used my sickness to his advantage because suddenly one of the pieces we liked was up next! He looked right at us and said “This is the Scuba Diver Special” (he knew we’d gone diving). He also lowered the price that we’d initially discussed, then got the crowd involved to cheer us on. Chris was on Champagne Glass #4 and in my seasickness, I told him “Don't care... do what you want.” Long story short… we are now considered “collectors of art.” In all seriousness, we’re very happy with what we bought. Both pieces are whimsical and will go very nicely in our den, which doubles as our boys’ downstairs playroom. Most importantly, both appraised for much higher than what we paid. It also cost more than our entire vacation, including the airfare.

Eventually my seasickness wore off. We attended the special holiday show that featured not only the singers and dancers, but also the kids who were part of the Camp Carnival program. The teenagers did a dance and the younger kids walked up on stage and decorated a Christmas tree with handmade ornaments. Suddenly I missed my kids and my eyes welled up. The kids all gathered around a fireplace on stage where the cruise director read Frosty the Snowman, and Santa showed up for the finale. It was a wonderful show.

We headed into the big atrium where they were playing Christmas music, and then it started to snow! They had a snow machine going several times throughout the evening and it was so magical. I wish our boys could have been there to see it. We’ve always cruised in October for our anniversary, but now I’m starting to think that December is more fun! Not many people can say they saw snow while sailing in the Caribbean Sea!

We had dinner and then it was time for the farewell show. As always, the performers were fantastic and put on a great production. It’s such a nice way to end the cruise.

We went up to the Lido deck for ice cream and took a final stroll around outside. We took some ice cream to our art friends and stayed for an hour to chat. We’ll miss them, although we’ll keep in touch. Soon it was time for sleep!