Wednesday April 4th

5 am wake up? What the?

Well let's type up all of yesterday's events and read half a novel. Drift back to sleep for a bit and then up and out the door at 7. Off to the gym - nibble to eat and onto the elliptical for half an hour followed by a thousand crunches. Well that got everything moving. Literally.

Upstairs to check on Krista and she's still asleep. Back to the gym for some weights and tried out the treadmill. Not a lot of calories burned in 30 minutes but every runner I see is so fit that maybe I need to reconsider it. Will have to see if the trick knee can hang in there though the week. Put too much strain on it on Sunday doing squats.

Back up to the room and Krista in the shower. Guess it will only be another 30 minutes and we can go eat before I starve to death.

We tried to go to the dining room but of course missed the 8-10am times. We headed to the Windjammer and had a quick but nice breakfast before heading into deck 15 poolside with our friends. It was overcast for 15 minutes and even rained a bit odd and on but then the clouds burned off and up to 35 degrees celcius it went.

We spent some time in the pool visiting with our Michigan friends and then settled in to our beach chairs for some reading while we ssizzled away in the Caribbean sun for the rest of the afternoon.

I took a break from the heat at 1pm and headed to the 3rd floor dining area to try the buffet lunch. We hadn't tried it yet and I think we may have been missing out.

They had two sides- one for a la carte and the other for the buffet. The a la carte menu was a little dull but the buffet was spectacular. It started with a salad station where chefs would take your order from numerous assorted greens and tons of vegetables and meats to add into the bowl. At the end they would dice everything up and put it into a proper bowl.

After finishing that, the main buffet included a pasta station with tons of options also. I tried some sweet and sour chicken and meatballs but saved room for the chocolate fondue station and 10 different cakes. The strawberries were by far the best as was the chocolate caramel cake. Tiny portions and everything in moderation may hopefully mean not buying a new wardrobe for work next week.

Back to the pool for a few hours followed by a failed beer tasting, a successful bourbon tasting with Rick and a fun 5pm trivia game at the pub.

Krista and I watched the first hour of Wonder at the outdoor water theatre before heading back to our room to get ready for supper and formal night number 2.

The boys rolled in last minute and showered and got ready while Krista and I had photos taken on the balcony and enjoyed a glass of vino with the neighbours.

We made our way across the 5th deck through endless well dressed families and hordes of photographers shooting every stairwell and backdrop. We lined up for a bit and then were seated and started ordering from the menu.

Soups, salads and seafood appetizers to start followed by main courses of prime rib, strip loin and tonight's special treat of LOBSTER TAIL!

I started with the steak and soon after, lobster tail number one arrived- butterflied and ready to be pulled out of the shell and devoured! Warm melted butter on the side and after several moments, nothing left on the table but lobster tail carcasses everywhere! My favorite expression of the night from our waiters- 'sir-would you like another?' Well most certainly I would! Heck - keep em coming!

4 lobster tails later I called it quits as I was bursting at the seams.

We tried some baked Alaska and a few other desserts. We enjoyed the music pumping through all the dining halls as all the kitchen staff,waiters and executive chef danced around the halls as we waved our white towels in the air in celebration of a truly fine meal!

We made our way back to our room and the boys went off in different ways to take part in llate night teen activities and sports. Krista and I read for a bit and then headed back down to the Royal Theatre to enjoy a 1 hour musical called Columbus. Great music and a humorous story line took us to midnight while I tried desperately to keep my eyes open through the show. Off to bed after midnight as we had an a busy day but even more so tomorrow as we docked in Cozumel Mexico at 8am.