Day 2 - We see how we do at sea - in the morning, before the coffee really kicks in.
First, some thoughts about breakfast
On all 3 previous cruises, I gloried in my golden hour of quiet solitude, reading on my Kobo, from 6 to 7 every morning on Deck 9 (or 11), because Conor and Brian and just about everyone else (give or take about 10) were asleep. Not so with the time-change this time around - I had a buddy ... every morning.
Now, fortunately, Dude and I are used to mornings together, so I honestly (mostly) didn't mind losing my hour - as I got it back at other times, though it wasn't quite the same as the rest of the ship was always awake.
So, buddy and I were up at 0600. We grabbed our fleeces and headed up to deck 9 - oh my! It was DEFINITELY colder. Had I been more conscious (forgive me, but I CANNOT drink that liquid masquerading as coffee that comes out of the machines on Deck 9), I would have thought of this. Conor, apparently, forgot his Canadian genes and was going to freeze to death. I gave him my fleece which he wrapped around his legs, thereby ensuring that we could not walk anymore, got us both some hot chocolate, and, refusing to give into the elements, I (again) abandoned him on Deck 9 for a whole 5 minutes, huddled in my fleece, while I grabbed more layers from our cabin, failing miserably in my attempts not to wake up DH.
Once Conor was "sweat-panted-up", in his words, and "hot-chocolated-up", he was a willing companion to walk around Deck 9 with me (10 was too unsheltered) enjoying the sea air until Goofy's Galley opened up at 6:30 so we could get some quick breakfast items.
Which brings me to breakfast on the ships - I realized on this trip (since my buddy was up early every day) that it would be really nice to have a small breakfast station open a bit earlier than 6:30, since I'm quite sure that in lots of places on the ship, (I've seen them!) parents are up early with kiddos, who refuse to follow clocks. Yes, I could have ordered room service, but that would then wake up DH. (So, yes, maybe I should just not even pretend to let DH sleep in ... ?)
It's a minor thing, but I started my usual trick of taking extra fruit & yogurt & cereal from the buffets to make our own grab'n'go collection for mornings, which solved the problem for future mornings.
I will be fair- on early port days, Beach Blanket was open earlier, and most days, we would end up there after our "appetizer" from Goofy - usually to get more of a snack at 9:00 a.m. or so.
We also did the sit-down à la carte menu at Triton's once, and it was nice, but that only works if you have the time ... and if you're not going to Palo for brunch, as we were, so long-story-short, I made sure I had a light breakfast.
Having decided that we had conquered the outdoors (we got too cold...), we moved on to the truly comically bad attempt at "Anna's Chocolate Chase Scavenger Hunt". Yep ... THAT Anna. From THAT movie. That I have never seen, and that once made Conor cry. Why, do you ask, did we do this? Because....
Disney Sucks You In To Frozen Whether You Want It Or Not
The night before, there was a lovely letter from Anna on our bed that DH and I weren't expecting, so we couldn't hide it. It explained there was this game she played .... OK, I will admit, I have NO recollection of what the letter was going on about. Something about castles and chocolates and a prize at the end. All I saw was chocolate, so I figured I could put up with Anna for the sake of a scavenger hunt (which he would like) and chocolate (that I would like).
For the uninitiated, in the Navigator, for 3 days, there are 3 clues each day. You use the clues to figure out where to go on the ship, and then there is something there or nearby from Frozen. You write the locations and the images down each day, and then you win the prize.
Now, astute readers will probably foresee a wee bit of a problem ... we don't know Frozen. Or rather, I don't. Conor was, by his account, forced to watch the thing at an after school program or a camp (to be clear, he just goes off and plays quietly in a corner until the thing is over, but he watches out of the corner of his eye). So, I was banking on the fact that we could handle this. Ha!
Before we started, I made sure I had visited the Cove Café for my caffeine, so I (good grief, twice in an hour) left my kid sitting quietly by himself at a table, perusing a Star Wars magazine, right next to the adult area. I returned 10 minutes later (there was a line-up), to find him in ... the exact same place. He did tell me a CM had stopped to talk to him, but he didn't know if he should answer, so he didn't. This probably disrupted someone's trip, I'm sure.
So then, we started..
(SPOILER ALERT - I guess you should not read this next part if you want it to be a surprise... or maybe they change the clues?)
The first stop was the movie theatre - this was an obvious one, or so I thought. We looked around. We looked at the art. We looked at the doors. We looked at the popcorn stand. We even entered the 2 entry-ways, and nada. Nothing that looked even a bit chilly, never mind Frozen.
Before we all got too frustrated, we headed off to location 2 - the statue of Ariel in the Atrium in front of Triton's. Again, we checked the floor, walls, doors, and art. Not even a hint of frost.
At this point, I was wondering if they didn't have it set up yet... but I figured that Big Mouse was just messing with my brain- I mean, this is for kids - how hard could it be?
Finally, we went to location 3, which was the hallway with the art (can't remember its name) - and, as I turned to look for a place to put my coffee down in order to check something .... AHA!!!! Avast! There was this big oval - like 1.5 feet long big, so of course, VERY SUBTLE, on the port hole, with a carrot. Even *I* know that is Olaf's nose.
At this point, Conor jumps up and down and says.... "I saw something like that at the movie theatre!!!!" Really bud? Really? You didn't think to mention that when I was there thinking I had overdone the Bailey's the day before????
I then sipped my latté and remembered that, ahem, I was the grown-up, this was Disney, and Big Mouse was NOT going to get the better of me. I took a deep breath, and told him he was awesome for noticing that. (GRRRRRR)
We oh-so-casually decided to stroll BACK through the Atrium, just, well, because, and (ahem), we looked BEHIND Ariel (had escaped our notice before), and there was a big oval with some chocolates or some candy or other on it.
Then, of course, we just had to hit up the bathrooms near the theatre, where Conor (finally) remembered that the oval was on the ceiling near an entrance.
Here, we were a bit stuck. What WAS this thing? Conor told me it was moss, so I went along with that. Here it is for anyone who knows more than I do ... which would be... most of North America? I'm sure it has intense meaningful significance in the movie.
Having very cleverly solved today's mysteries (smooth, huh?), we ran off to wake up DH, all the while with me trying to figure out how we would get through 6 more of these clues. I figured I deserved a nice hot shower in exchange for A) the line up (yes, I keep track of these things) and B) the scavenger hunt/sleeping in part of things. Fortunately, DH didn't have the energy to disagree.
Up next - the sublime and the ridiculous - otherwise known as Palo brunch, followed by the dreaded Frozen meet.