August 14
Our first full day aboard ship and the first of two days at sea. To be honest, I love full days at sea. Being in port and going on an excursion is fun, but spending the day on the ship offers so much to do and the opportunity to do as little as you want. I do both … take part in activities and chill out on a deck chair all on the same day.
This day begins as all our days cruising do, with breakfast in our room. Though there are many places to go for breakfast, we have always enjoyed the benefit of room service and have breakfast in the room - or on the verandah - relaxing and watching the ship cut through the water - while preparing for our day.
This morning we will make our first trip to the Rainforest after breakfast. We check in and get our wristbands and our scrubs (Sandy gets lavender and I get orange if anyone is actually interested) and we head into the locker rooms to leave our belongings. We head into the Rainforest and check out the three saunas and pick one for this morning, followed by a visit to one of the four showers. I choose the one marked Thunderstorm and choose a tropical thunderstorm. It starts out as a warm mist and then randomly gets heavier and even heavier, and cycling back to a mist … alternating three strengths and temperatures. Next we head into a hot tub in the section that protrudes from the side of the ship. Very relaxing looking out on the Caribbean while in the hot tub. The Rainforest is quite empty at the moment so there is no one waiting to use a hot tub (there are only two here and they both accommodate only two people) so we get to enjoy our stay as long as we want. Finally we lay out on one of the hot stone lounges. (On future visits I bring either a kindle to read or my phone to listen to music.) Needless to say this has been a very relaxing way to start the day.
After a while we head back to our room to change back into our normal (?) clothes. We have agreed to watch Brooke for a while today and soon Iris shows up and we head to the Atrium and into Royal Court for lunch. Jason joins us here shortly. Unlike last night where Brooke was tired and cranky, the thought of lunch excites her and she has the first of many nice meals. Over the course of the cruise she not only has the traditional kids meals (mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, etc,) but tries - and likes - many new things. She enjoys eating and is anything but fussy! The only thing she actually rejected on this cruise was a mini-marshmallow!!
After lunch, Iris and Jason go off for a few hours on their own, and Sandy and I walk around the ship with Brooke. We head to the nightclub area and discover a crafts session for the kids. They are making animal masks. Sandy and I grab some materials and proceed to “help Brooke” make two masks. (Okay - stop snickering!!) Armed with mask pieces, a brush and some glue, we each make something that sort of looks like animal masks. Brooke seems rather unimpressed! We head back out and continue our walk around the ship.
We passed through the art gallery and then Shutters, the place where you can look at the photos which have been taken throughout the cruise. I knew at the end of the cruise I would buy a digital package … which one would depend on how many pictures (mostly with Brooke) we will have taken. At this point the only picture in our folder is our Welcome Aboard picture.
Our walk next takes us past a place to get a pastry (which we did) and then out on Deck 4. We get deck chairs and let Brooke out of her stroller to have the freedom of the deck. She quickly crawls over to the railing and stands up to watch the water, fascinated by the ship’s wake. Then she does her exercises then sits down to flirt with everyone who walks by. She does love the attention.
Not too long later, Iris finds us - thanks to the DCL Navigator app which gives us the ability to stay in touch on the ship - and we take Brooke to the nursery where she will get her first taste of shipboard daycare. She will spend a few sessions here throughout the cruise. Today she will be here for just an hour.
Unlike last night, I will be going to the show in the Walt Disney theater tonight where the show is Aladdin. The productions on DCL cruises are typical Disney theatrical productions. Tonight’s show is no exception, and we enjoy the show thoroughly. Then it is time to change for dinner.
Tonight is formal night, and the first cruise on which I no longer own a tuxedo, so it’s a suit for me this evening. Our dinner rotation tonight takes us to Animator’s Palate. Different from Animator’s Palate on our cruises aboard the Magic and the Wonder, the screens tonight show the underwater world of Finding Nemo. At one point Crush appears and has a conversation with my son-in-law about sports. (Think Turtle Talk with Crush in EPCOT) Brooke is enjoying the entertainment, and is her usual happy (and hungry) self during this meal. Thanks to DeJan, her meal is waiting for her as we arrive and she happily digs in.
After dinner we walk through some of the shops and look at the merchandise. Earlier in the day I spotted a plush Doc McStuffins. After Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, that is Brooke’s favorite TV show. I considered buying it, so while we were with her tonight, I took one off the display and handed it to her. She got excited and grabbed it. Now I knew I would buy it for her and tried to take it from her to pay for it … NOT HAPPENING! She had a death grip on the doctor and wasn’t giving her up for anything. No problem … one of the remaining Doc’s was scanned and Brooke got to keep holding her new best friend.
As we left the store and was heading to the elevator back to our rooms, a short queue was forming. It seems that Peter Pan was about to do a meet and greet so we decided to wait - photo op! Brooke has met characters in the parks before and enjoys meeting the fur characters since she knows most of them. The face characters, not so much. Her turn comes and Peter sits down on the floor with her and then the “formal” picture.
So ends our first full day on the Fantasy and the first of two days at sea.
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