It’s the fourth day in a row that the
clocks have gone back and it’s taking a toll on the kids. Even Teddy – who bounds
out of bed most days – tells me to go away when I try to wake him. But I know
the kids will holler at us if they’re late for kids’ club. And they are late.
And they do holler. During the day, the kids’ club has these short windows of
operation: 10am to 12pm, then 3pm to 5pm. I can admit this far into the cruise
that those hours kind of suck. Celebrity at least had three-hour chunks of time
(along with the many other ways their programming seems to be better). On a day
like today, it’s almost not worth dropping them off as they’ll be in there for
just about an hour. As a parent, that’s time enough to do exactly one thing. Read
for a bit, sit down for a leisurely coffee, have a real quick nap – pick one of
those things and watch the clock the entire time (naps are especially
unrestful).
It’s getting colder as the boat heads
further North. Sarah gets the hero award for taking Susannah and Veronica on
the waterslide. Teddy, Nonna, and I do a round of minigolf. Veronica joins us
for the second round, shivering in her wet bathing suit, and between putts she
lies out on the nearest rock like a sea lion, catching whatever heat she can
from the sun.
After lunch, we take the kids to see a
pianist in the theatre. The performer’s name is Brooks Aehron, a British gent
who I’d place somewhere in his sixties. He has high energy and lightening quick
hands, and he plays Chopin and Bach and tells entertaining stories about the composers
before each song. (Chopin could only grow hair on one side of his face – but it
was the side facing his audience so he didn’t mind. Bach’s first job was
writing arrangements for hymns at church – and he was selected by the hiring
committee because their first choice wasn’t available.) The kids like the show
enough, but they quickly tire of the between song banter. Susannah: “Why does he
keeps saying stuff that KIDS DON’T UNDERSTAND?”
Off to dinner. We’ve booked our second specialty
dining meal of the cruise, this one at Giovani’s Table. It turns out to be not
that special an experience. Despite our reservation, we have to hang out for
ten minutes until the table is ready, then service is sloooooooooow. If it’s not
the slowest service I’ve ever experienced in a restaurant, it’s at least in the
top two. And the food isn’t the best, at least for us. Sarah’s dad has osso bucco
and her mom has a gorgonzola gnocchi, and they enjoy it. Sarah has a very mediocre
filet mignon, and I have fettuccini carbonara with a sauce that is 99% egg
yolk. I go from absolutely starving to painfully full in a single course. When
it’s all done, our server apologizes for the wait and then – either because he
feels bad or because he’s fishing for a tip – he pours a half bottle of wine
into Sarah’s glass for free. We pick the kids up from Adventure Ocean, and
because of the time change, they all do the curly shuffle in their beds for
about an hour before falling asleep.
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