Touch You Last

The first day at sea, like most days at sea, was laid back and lazy. The kids spent most of their time in the Fun Factory, we swam again (I think?), we browsed the stores, some of us gambled, and some of us napped. So rather that add detail to those exciting events, I'll just write about the kid's friends and post a cute video. At the Fun Factory, Teddy became immediate best friends with Eamon from California, who I thought of as Little Boy Tarzan. He was a handsome little dude, Teddy's age, with long, long hair. (Apparently Veronica had never seen hair like that on a boy before because up until the last day, she insisted he was a girl.) Veronica's friends were Summer and Sophia, from Ann Arbor. Super lovely, very tall girls who looked like twins but weren't (they were actually a year apart in age but almost exactly the same height.) We chatted with their parents a few times through the cruise and they were also lovely. That's all for now abou...

As far as the other guests go, it’s been an unusual cruise for two reasons. One: there are a lot of newbies on board. People wandering around more or less lost, not knowing what’s free and what costs extra, not really even knowing the perks of things they’ve actually paid for. Second, there’s also a lot of folks who just don’t like kids, or at least don’t want to see them on their vacation. Nobody’s really horrible about it – the most we really get is cut-eye in the elevators or snark at the buffet – but it’s a different experience then we’ve had in the past. On a typical cruise, two out of every three people we run into smile or chat with our kids, or they tell us about grandkids at home that they’re missing. But this time it’s the two thirds that are gritting their teeth when we walk by, or saying things like, “Better you than me, man!” I’m not even offended, it’s just… peculiar. I love traveling with my kids. And (if you can pardon the platitude) I love how it lets me see t...