Watsons Do The Cruise? No Way!...Days At Sea

Getting from the train station in Genoa to the cruise terminal was an adventure in itself. By then we were joined by our friends, the Grovers, so we had a total of six children and for adults, each with at least one piece of luggage. We walked for maybe five minutes and saw our huge ship in the distance. We weren't far at all...but we couldn't figure out for more than half an hour how to get across to where  we had to check in! Walking along a busy road with little kids and luggage was not fun AND we were all so hot from the nice weather. But the kids didn't complain. We just had to laugh as we walked in circles before finally figuring out a way to cross the road and get to the place where we dropped off our luggage.

The next part of our worry came when we realized we didn't really plan a meeting point with the Alleys who were driving from Germany and had Mark recorded as one of the passengers in their cabin, so he had to check in with their family. It was hard to predict what everything would look like so there was no way for us to know where to meet ahead of time. Simply miraculously my fear turned out to be unfounded. Not even five minutes of getting into the check-in hall, the Alleys walked in! It was truly a miracle--we were so happy to see them! 

We checked in, got our cards, found out that we did have 1st Seating for dining after all (6 pm instead of 8:30 pm) and made our way to the ship.  

My illegal copy of the picture taken right before we boarded the ship.

By then our luggage was all taken care of so we just had to go through security with whatever we had in hand. We found our rooms which were all in a row (with a balcony), awed at the size of the ship and went upstairs to the 14th deck to the buffet style lunch. 

The kids couldn't believe that it was all-you-can-eat-anytime deal. At first, of course, everyone went crazy with fries and other junk food. I had to stop the madness by telling them they were allowed to have fries only once a day. 

Lunch was a long affair. We had to try lots of things and we had lots of time to spare. Boys went upstairs to the 16th deck to explore even more facilities available, such as a soccer mini-field and a basketball court. That's our swimming pools in the background.

At 5 pm, our ship left this beautiful port of Genoa. It was Saturday, March 28th. The next time we'd see land would be in two days when we dock in Greece.

That night was our first experience dining at the restaurant. All these things we had to learn! If our official dining time was 6 pm, then it had to be by 6:15 that we had to be in the dining room (on Deck 6) or we'd be turned away. The first evening, lots of people were late, so they let us come in at 6:20 pm as no one exactly knew how to get to this place...the ship is so huge! In the dining room we were served restaurant style meals, but instead of just ordering one appetizer and one main or something, you could order however much you wanted. So many times I had FOUR courses-appetizer, soup, salad and main PLUS dessert-hahaha. The good news was that portions were much smaller than at a usual restaurant, so we didn't feel bad for trying all the dishes. 

On the first night, only we and the Grovers were able to make it to the restaurant for dinner. If you don't make it to the restaurant, you still get food, of course, but at the buffet on Deck 14. 

The following day was the day to explore the boat and eat. That's all we did. And play games. Just seven of the nineteen children that were in our group. 

At around 2 pm we passed a beautiful island of Stromboli. People live on the bottom of this volcano as you can see in the next picture.

The weather turned out to be beautiful, but not hot enough for me to get into the pool. Robert and the kids had a ton of fun in the outside and inside pools though while I read my book on the sun deck (wearing a fleece jacket).

The kids claim the slide was lame. And the age restriction (you have to be nine years old) was lame too since it made so many kids sad and it wasn't even a thrilling ride. 

Later that afternoon, we treated ourselves to a couple of fun smoothies. Our cruise package came with 24 free alcoholic drinks but they let us exchange them for non-alcoholic fun drinks, cocktails or smoothies, so that was a kids' treat..not that they needed any more sweets...

That night was our first formal night. There were a total of three formal nights when we got to dress up. I like dressing up, but the boys--not so much. 

Here you can see a glimpse of the fancy inside of our ship. 

This night, only we and the Alleys made it to the dining room. The kids got to sit at their own table (and actually behave well for the whole two hours that we were there).

Two great waiters helped us throughout the whole cruise when we came to the dining room. Edi, from Bali, newly married, cruise veteran of five years. 

And Roshan from Mauritius, a young kid who's been in this job for six months as a waiter assistant.

Somehow miraculously they managed to keep us all fed and kids happy, bringing our food promptly (all five courses for some:)), preparing kids meals first and even getting bowls of chopped up cucumbers for the kids(the buffet had very limited choices of fresh vegetables) and fries to share.

We had a total of two days at sea, not in a row. On the second day at sea (which fell after our intense excursions in Greece and before Malta), the ship was going super fast and we were a bit rocking. I had to take the seasickness pill just once and then take a quick nap, and all was fine. Kids didn't get sick at all, and Robert was wearing a patch for motion sickness. Our friend next door was not as lucky, and she was really feeling it.

That day all we did again was play, hang out, go to the gym (and we both did use the gym several times during the cruise!), eat some more, play again, swim, eat more.

Here are a few pictures from our balcony. So beautiful and peaceful although windy.

So happy we paid a little bit extra to have a balcony room. It was fun as all four of our rooms were connected through the balcony, so kids could walk from one room to another without using the corridor. And we also hung up an impromptu clothes line to dry our clothes as we washed them in the sink-haha. 

And such were our relaxing days on the ship...

Lyana.