May 30, 2025: Sea Day

(written by Devri on May 30, 2025)

Everyone had a lazy morning.  Everyone slept in….except Gabe. Of course, the one morning that he could have slept in, he did not. We made him read his Kindle until we were ready to get up and go get breakfast. I would have gone with him sooner except my motion sickness medicine had worn off over the course of the night, and I was waiting for the new dose to kick back in. 

Brian, Gabe, and I found my mom up at the buffet, and Brian headed off to the gym after eating a little snack. Mom, Gabe, and I had breakfast together. Afterwards, Gabe wanted to head to the kids’ club, and Mom and I headed back to our rooms to have some much needed down time. 

I was a bit of a frustrated frazzled thing by this point, and I realized that I had been neglecting some pretty crucial routines that I can’t afford to neglect on this 5 week marathon of a trip, namely some meditative spiritual resetting. We missed out on being able to go to our church on Sunday due to it being stake conference in Paris, and walking through Notre Dame during a mass doesn’t really count as feeding my soul, even though I did try to take a moment and reflect on my own sacrament covenants while they were administering the Eucharist. So, today, I put in my AirPods and played one of my favorite religion podcasts while I did some drawing on the balcony. I also read a chapter in the Doctrine and Covenants while lounging in a deck chair, and listening to conference talks when I took a shower and got ready for dinner. It felt so nice to feed my starving spirit! I went from being super irritated at everyone to laughing when Gabe accidentally locked my mom and I out on our balcony (which I realized after he had left the room and when I really needed to use the restroom! Thankfully, Brian sent Michael down with his key to rescue us!)

Brian spent a good chunk of the morning reserving deck chairs for people. Gabe spent most of the morning in his kids club and trying to find Brian so the Brian could sign the waver for Gabe to go down the slide. Gabe then spent the rest of the day going down the slide and playing in the pool with a friend he met in the kids’ club. This same kid’s dad even got Gabe a gelato at one point. 

Michael and Rachel took full advantage of our sea day and slept in. When they finally got up, breakfast was closed, so they ended up waiting with Lara, Greg, Nana, and Papa for the lunch buffet to open at noon, since all of them had missed breakfast as well. Luckily for them, the ship shifted time zones and moved up an hour. Greg played a game with them where he would pick what they would eat and they had to eat it. From what I heard, they were champs about this game. Rachel started with dessert. The deal was that Michael got to pick Greg’s appetizer at dinner. 

Rachel spend some time it the pool and some time hanging out in the room with Grandma and Michael. Michael spent a lot of the day hanging out in his room. We didn’t do a ton of activities together besides dinner because we all just needed some alone time to regroup. 

So, there was some small group gathering and talking, but nothing really noteworthy other than just time well wasted. 

A few notes on the atmosphere of this cruise. I knew upon booking that we needed to think of it more as a floating hotel. I think this helped the kids be prepared for not being able to have unlimited soft serve ice cream whenever they wanted and for the lack of fun things to do on board. Aside from some of these things, I think the European factors gives it a different mix. The announcements are given in Spanish, English, Italian, and German (if not more). There are a lot more speedos and much fewer children. People cram into elevators more, and so many people disregard the smoking sections; they just smoke wherever they want to when they’re outside. It’s a little frustrating. It feels harder to connect with other passengers, but I think that is mostly do to all the language barriers. 

We had our first elegant night at dinner, and I think my mom and Rachel were the most elegant among us. I curled Rachel’s hair, and my mom wore the dress she wore for my wedding. Rachel also wore her newly acquired Venetian jewelry. I realize that I should have taken pictures of these two, or really any of us. 

Rachel's selfie before dinner

Greg is the entertainer extraordinaire for our kids. Gabe adores him and insists on sitting next to him at dinner. Tonight, Rachel even sat between Lara and Greg so she could finish working on a number puzzle with him. Apparently, they had checked out every shop earlier looking for a pencil. If I had known, I would have let them borrow one of mine; I brought three (though I found out this morning that one doesn’t have any lead). 

After dinner, we sent Gabe down to get pajamas on and brush his teeth, and then I went to our room and read a chapter in Percy Jackson. Brian left to go find Rachel and get her some gelato since she was the only one he hadn’t gotten gelato for today (and promises were made). I’m not sure what else he did. 

Gabe and I watched the sunset from our room, and it was spectacular. 

Brian, Devri, & Gabe's Cabin

 We’re excited to head to see our first stop in Greece tomorrow.