June 21, 2025: Sea Day

(Written by Brian on June 22nd)

We finally slept in, and it was glorious. Unfortunately, what was not glorious was Devri’s chest congestion and constant coughing and a plugged ear for me that had started the previous day, gotten painful just before bed, and fortunately cleared up for the night. However, it came back as soon as I woke up, so I decided to finally go to the on-ship doctor. After a short visit, they confirmed it was not COVID or Influenza and that it was indeed a sinus infection just like I thought. My right ear was getting pressure from the sinuses and was infected, and apparently my left ear was working on getting infected as well, so that’s nice. The doctor prescribed some antibiotics and I went happily on my way.

Sea Day Brunch

Sea Day Brunch

Sadly, there wasn’t much to do for Devri since it’s mainly just coughing junk up all day, so she stayed in the room reading. It was a day at sea so it worked out to do absolutely nothing. I doom-scrolled on instagram for awhile, then ended up playing a game on my Steamdeck for awhile (nice to finally play it since I’ve been lugging it around the whole time), and then finally went out to find something to eat around 2:30 since Devri was still asleep (from her nap). Funny story, she woke up maybe 5 minutes after I left wondering where I was, so I had a burger from Guys (seriously so good) and then headed back to the room.

Meanwhile, our kids were running rampant. This is the least supervision we’ve ever given them for sure. I was keeping tabs somewhat to make sure they ate lunch and were alive for the most part, but I hadn’t seen Michael at all and I hadn’t checked in with Gabe for awhile. Finally, around dinner time we all found each other again and headed to dinner. At dinner there was definitely some food. Probably some ice cream. I think the most note-worthy thing to happen this entire day was that Gabe actually ordered something besides a burger (with extra ketchup) for dinner. He had a chicken breast instead.  And though I think he regretted it, I’m proud of him for breaking tradition since I believe he’s had a burger for dinner every night on the last 3 cruises we’ve been on. And I do mean EVERY night.

Rachel found a cruise duck

Afterwards, Devri and I were still wiped and headed back to our room. Gabe headed to the kids club for a bit and then bed. Michael made some friends at his club and hung out with them, I think he ended up in the hot tub with them. Rachel went to the comedy show with her friend where she ended up in the front row in the middle and somehow the comedian started asking her about our dog, Gracie, and she was talking about her. I still have no idea why. Devri and I ended up watching the end of a rather sad movie (The Vow) and then watched a rather ridiculous movie (Blended), both of which we’ve seen before but hey, it was something to do together. In short, it was a perfect day besides not feeling great. But it was really great to relax and do nothing, and turned out to be warmer than I thought it would be - probably around 75 degrees. That wasn’t to last, however, as we headed further north in the British Isles.