Cruise Day 14: Sea Day

Ah....Day 14....a relaxing day at sea!  What better way to represent a day at sea than with one of Disney's most famous sea characters-----Ariel, the Little Mermaid! (Also one of my favorite Disney animated films).

Days at sea are, if I haven't mentioned it before, just wonderful-----no getting off the ship...no pressure to do anything (sure, even in ports we "choose" to go and do excursions, etc.....but we've paid in advance for those things so even if you've applied the pressure to yourself you still feel kinda like you HAVE to go and do it).  On sea days, the ship creates a pretty elaborate schedule of activities you can choose to do throughout the day.....OR, if you prefer, you can also just lay around-----swim, sunbathe, play games, watch TV and relax, eat all day, take a nap....or any combination thereof!! It's really wonderful and why sea days are probably one of our favorite parts of cruising!

On this particular sea day, we woke up a little later than we had been (around 9am) and ventured out for breakfast....then got showered and took a look at the "Personal Navigator" (that's what the ship calls the daily schedule of events they leave  for you in your room nightly) to see what would be fun.  The morning looked pretty light on activity, so we decided to go out on deck and play shuffleboard.  I absolutely suck at this game----but it's one of those things that I think you're supposed to do when you're on a cruise ship (or in a retirement village LOL), right? LOL

Then we went up onto a higher deck to play ping pong....but the tables were all in use---one of them by GOOFY:

....so we went out onto the front of Deck 10 (the top deck on the ship, for those not familiar with the Disney boats) to just hang out and enjoy the weather (which was AMAZING) and the calm seas (which were also amazing).

Before lunch we decided to join Kimberly, our tablemate, at another drawing class.  This time we drew the characters Stitch and Donald Duck.  I really enjoy these little art classes.....they're fun and you end up with a free souvenir of your trip!! (and if you're clever, you can get them signed by the characters themselves later on during the cruise, too-----which Kimberly did!):

Then it was time for lunch and to go to the first installment of "Desperate Shipmates."  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures at this event (this day or any of the subsequent days)----but I'll describe it just so you have a sense since I know I'll mention it in later blogs.  Desperate Shipmates is a multi-part, multi-day "whodunit" acted out by the cruise staff.  On this first day they introduced us to the primary characters (there are about 8 or so) and the "crime" (a "scientist" who has invented a hi-tech new navigation system for the ship has been kidnapped, along with his invention)....in subsequent days they leave clues, have more acted out scenarios (they tell you where and when to be there to see them and they also play them back on a channel in your stateroom)....and you're encouraged to try to figure out who the culprit is.  It's very reminiscent of a murder mystery dinner kind of thing...but it's also very fun, so we definitely signed up to participate!

When Desperate shipmates was over, we decided to head down to the movie theater and catch another 3-D film....another we hadn't seen yet, "UP"----and we really loved it, too.  So sad and sweet and funny at the same time.

Then time for a little bit of down time in the room before dinner.  Jason played video games on his ipod on our balcony.  I wanted to also include a couple pictures of the weather and the sea....I mentioned it was calm earlier in the day...but tonight while we were in our room it was unbelievable.  There weren't even any RIPPLES in the water hardly....in fact, we've been on nearly 10 cruises at this point and we have NEVER seen the water look like this ever, anywhere....the Atlantic Ocean was literally like a swimming pool with no movement in it....pretty breathtaking:

...while I read a little and worked on some of my backlog of blog posts (by that point I was probably just writing about Rome!! LOL).  The sunset that evening was also lovely just before we headed down for dinner:

Peter Pan was scheduled to be out for photos that day, so we wore our matching Tinkerbell ties.  Here are some pictures:

When we got back to our room to turn in early (we had a pretty active day the next day in Madeira and wanted to be rested), we were met by our cute towel animal:

"Sea" you all in Madeira!!!!