Half Moon Cay

February 16, 2013
Jacob was assigned to do tender tickets this morning, so it was my job to go to shore and run the activities on the beach for the kids. The Westerdam was in port with us, so their Club HAL people should’ve been there too. I was alone though, none of the kids came even. As I was getting ready, I looked at the weather info on the TV and it looked like it’d be cloudy and rainy, so I didn’t pack sunscreen or a book because I figured I’d just go back to the ship once our activities were over because of the rain. However, it was sunny. After walking around the kids area for an hour waiting to see if anyone would come, I went down the beach to find a spot and soak up some sun for a while. It was really nice spending a few hours relaxing on the beach :)

I headed back to the tender to get on the ship around 1. It took a while for the tender to get there, so I stood in line talking with some of the passengers, all of whom were happy to talk with someone to pass the time. Back on the ship, I showered and changed in record time to get up to lunch then up to Club HAL for our afternoon session (2:30-4 since all aboard time was 2:30).
Two of the crew kids, one of the young girls (4 years old) and her cousin (a great older girl) came up in the afternoon. I pretty much just gave them free time since the schedule was kind of more for the older kids (on the expected list, it was mostly tweens, but with all the crew kids being in the 3-7 range, and the family acting as if they’re in the 3-7 ranger, it’s been difficult to do those activities). We played some foosball, we made stuff with glitter glue, and generally just hung out.

The evening session went pretty well, although it was long since the three relatives stayed in after-hours for at least an hour. At least I got them interested in something. “Lights, Camera, Action” night isn’t the easiest one to extend out. None of the kids wanted snacks-chicken nuggets- so there went a good time-killer. They made their ‘celebrity stars’ quickly. Then, I introduced Celebrity Heads. I’m so grateful they took to it right away. We played it for an hour until the two other kids left and it was just the family. They then had my full attention, and Jacob’s since no teens had come by. So, we blew up a balloon and tried to keep it off the ground for as long as possible and played sardines in Club HAL. Their parents were frequently up there to ask questions, so we ended up taking them down for ice cream at 10:30 since the parents had all but demanded that they get food (they don’t eat our snacks, nor drink our water-they have to have their own bottled water or directly from the machine in the Lido). Jacob let me leave at 11 so I went to bed, exhausted.