Date: 17th August 2010
Second day at Sea

Today was a very lazy day. We slept in until after 10, then David was off to Camp Carnival while the rest of us...

(coming back to the laptop the following day)
...did whatever - I can't rememberOh, that's right. Ruth wanted to use the rubber ring to make a life-raft for her baby doll, Isabelle...
We watched a lovely sun-set...
And David found a towel-elefant on his bunk!

Date: 16th August 2010
First day at Sea

Room service delivered drinks & fruit at half-past eight. What a lovely way to start the morning. Once we were properly up and dressed we went down to the restaurant for something more stubstatial: eggs benedict for Geoffrey, omlette for Ruth, and pancakes for David & Chrissy. (Chrissy got gluten-free)Geoffrey checked the children into Camp Carnival, then finished writing up yesterday's diary while Chrissy took a walk with Patrice. We tried to watch the ice-carving demonstration up on the lido before lunch, but it was too crowded to see.

After lunch, we were lazing on the balcony when Chrissy spotted some odd splashes in the water. After a few more were seen, we realised that they were flying fish. We spent a while watching them, seeing several dozen. Geoffrey tried to take some photos but none of them came out.
Everyone except Geoffrey went for a swim in the afternoon. Geoff & Peter took the children to the waterslide. Unfortunately, Ruth was too scared to go once she saw it, and David was barely too short to be allowed a ride. Peter took a ride and very much enjoyed it.

Tonight was formal night. David went back to Camp Carnival, rather than join us in his fancy outfit. Ruth very happily got dressed up with Chrissy, and the two of them looked lovely.
For dinner, we had strawberry bisque, stuffed mushrooms, lobster & tiger-shrimp, and cherry jubilee. Ruth had a greek salad instead of the soup.After dinner Chrissy and Ruth went to the show, while Geoffrey & Peter went for a walk on deck 3. While walking, we noticed that the starboard engine was running at a much higher power setting than the port engine.

The show was a bit loud for Ruth, so we left slightly early, took her up to Camp Carnival, then met up with Peter & Patrice at the comedy club.

After that we went dancing for a bit, then adjourned to the lido for drinks & chat before collecting the children and going to bed.

Embarkation, Baltimore
Date: 15/08/2010

We all slept in 'til 11:00, which was the time Patrice had wanted to be at the cruise terminal
for, and didn't get out of the house until 12ish.

Getting on board was fine - a brief delay over the UK passports, but no problems.

After getting on board, we went up to deck 9, the lido, for a late lunch. The kids had pizza, Chrissy hit the deli counter, and I had chinese. The chilli-beef was very good.By the time we had gotten down to our cabins, gone through and done some unpacking, it was time for dinner. For some odd reason, we were on two different tables. Peter, Patrice, Chrissy & Ruth were in a booth, and David & I were on a two-person table across the walk-way. Patrice intends to get us onto a 6-seat table for tomorrow.
After dinner, we signed the children up for Camp Carnival, and took them to the welcome disco. Ruth was too shy to dance, but David did some very acrobatic dancing using the rails at the side of the dance-floor.
After that, I collected some sushi from the little stand just forward of the casino, and then we put the children to bed.

We played a few hands of bridge in P&P's cabin, then called it a (late) night.

And they're off! (29th July 2010)

Today, Chrissy and the children set off to America for their summer break. We got up at 3 a.m. to set off for the airport, and had a nice clear drive. We even got there early enough to have breakfast together before I set off back to work.

I'll be heading out to join them in a couple of weeks.