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We both got another good night of sleep last night. Returning to a Midship stateroom has been interesting as there is NO vibration and no docking noise (likely also related to being up on deck 9 instead of our more typical Deck 6 or 7. We’re also normally Aft, hence we’ve come to expect vibration).
Sadly, we awoke to the devastating news of another school shooting out of Texas. While neither of us does Internet at sea, we get enough notifications that come through. We at least have an idea of what was going on in our worlds and this news is, yet again, devastating.
We sauntered up to Cabanas for breakfast, planning to stay on the ship again today.
However, after seeing the dedicated cruise plaza, we did an impromptu - “let’s get off the ship and wander a bit in the welcome plaza”.
So, after breakfast we headed back to the stateroom to gather our IDs and a bit of spending money and headed down to the gangway on Deck 1. We disembarked quickly and took the requisite pictures in front of the Welcome to Falmouth sign.
We wandered through some of the shops in the plaza area. While they were all really nothing but the usual touristy stuff that you see everywhere, Kara was on a bit of a quest for a lightweight swim cover up, She was able to find one she liked in the second or third store we stopped in, so a nice functional souvenir of our trip - a swim cover from Jamaica.
We probably wandered for about an hour and then headed back through security to reboard the ship.
It was a nice day with plenty of breeze so we donned our swim suits and headed up to Deck 13, Aft to Satellite Falls. We both slathered up a bit with sunscreen and then got in the water. There was plenty of wind which meant we were constantly getting a nice mist off the water too. (It was actually so windy, it was spraying outside of the pool to the point crew ended up turning off the sprayers. It was much more quiet & enjoyable after that!)
Kara wasn’t feeling 100% so she headed back down to the stateroom around 1pm and then we met back up for lunch at the Pool Grills around 2pm. We topped off lunch with what has become our room service standard for this cruise - chips and cookies (#Team Sweet and #Team Salty - You can hear more about this in an upcoming Bonus Episode of the DCLDuo podcast!).
We decided since we’d neither one been in the Vibe (the teen hang out) that we’d take advantage of their Open House. What a fun space for teens. (P.S. Kara couldn’t work the television in the pods and the kids were kind enough to try to help her out. It turns out the one she picked was down for the day, so her “tech cred” is still intact!)
Eventually we watched the Royal Caribbean ship sail out while Kara chatted with her dad and her puppy Kona back home.
Since we had some extra time before dinner, we decided to also go check out the Oceaneer Lab, which was also having an Open House. We both took a couple of turns at the boat steering simulator and both decided to steer the Magic. Gayle backed out of Castaway Cay and I navigated through some canals. We took a few other pictures including trying out the cool kid hand wash stations.
Gayle: The ship simulator, while pretty basic, was super fun for someone who was always into racing games (& sometimes her own car)! We laughed at being careful in having to backout from Disney Castaway Cay, since one time that very issue had us stuck there for an extra 24 hrs! Once I was clear of the lane poles, I did the equivalent of “flooring” the ship - LOL! For the future, I wish it was more interactive, like telling you how bad you damaged the ship! LOL!
In the Atrium, we observed the comings and goings and princess line-up from Deck 5 before making our way downstairs for dinner.
Tonight was the Captain’s Gala dinner in Royal Court, which means LOBSTER! We had tiger shrimp first and then we had lobster tail.
If you note our preference for seafood, it’s because we each live in Indiana, which makes having high quality seafood is a challenge. Thus, we get as much as we can on cruises. Plus, who doesn’t love having their lobster tail deshelled for them tableside?!
We both topped off the meal with mint chocolate chip sundaes.
Then we headed back to the room for a quick change before heading to O’Gills Pub for 90’s music trivia (if you know, you know). We had a more respectable score than in past gos, but it still came down to a tiebreaker between two groups with perfect scores.
After trivia, Gayle returned the picture she bought earlier in the week and then we took a quick spin out on Deck 4 - where it was too warm for both of us. At 7:30p.m. In the dark. (This doesn’t bode well for Disney Castaway Cay day.)
We split up for 8:45pm activities - Kara did Animation (Sorcerer Mickey) in D Lounge and Gayle went back to O’Gills Pub for Movie Quotes Trivia. Animation was fun - Movie Quotes, not so much.
There is a bit of ship motion tonight, more than we’ve had at any point on this cruise. And we have to change time back to Eastern time tonight, which isn’t terrible given we have a sea day tomorrow. So with that, good night.
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