monday. Day 2. Where the heck is Queensland anyway?

Today we got up around 845 and headed to breakfast in the dining room at 915.

We got a table right next to the window.  Steph and I had omelets and shared French toast.  They also brought around baskets of pastries and a plate of chocolate stuff.  Then we went to the gym and worked out for about 45 minutes, then went back to the room and changed for lunch.  We went to the Mexican restaurant, Rita's Cantina which is on the boardwalk and had lots of chips and guacamole and beans and rice.  Also, yesterday we bought an unlimited soda package, and I think I'm on my tenth soda... 1-2 pounds a day...

After lunch we went to the pool, swam and sat out for a while.  Its so interesting how there are a lot of attractive people here, and a lot of disgustingly unattractive people here, and everyone wears bikinis and speedos and really doesn't care.  After that, me, Steph and the boys went to a movie quote trivia thing, where we got 19/20, tying with 6 other teams.  Unfortunately, the Australian woman running the thing decided the tiebreaker would be to draw a map of Australia and identify Queensland.  We did not win.

The ship is huge.  There's always so much going on and so many different places to go, that nothing is ever too crowded or crazy (except the buffet).  It really is amazing.  Its not like being on a cruise, just a massive resort where there's always stuff going on and stuff to do.  So far all the food is really good, nothing that's like 'this is the best pizza/cake/french toast I've ever had,' but its just great that almost everything is included and available everywhere at any hour.  Pizza, five varieties or choose your own toppings, whenever you want it, free.  Doughnuts, or crumb cake, or sandwiches from the cafe, free.  1-2 pounds a day, easy.

Also, lots of Jews and Israelis.

Soon we'll shower and change for dinner.  Tonight is formal night.

For formal night, Steph wore a black dress, and I wore my black suit with a black bowtie. We had dinner in the dining room, which was a little rushed since we had a 730pm reservation for the ice show. Dinner was good. The boys got the kosher food, which they said was okay. Steph and I had the same thing: caesar salad and broiled salmon with veggies. After dinner we went to the show, Ice Games, which was kind of like Monopoly on ice where the board is based on the ship. It was cool. They fell a couple times, but as Steph said, "they fall in the olympics," so I guess it was okay.After the show we went to the Royal Promenade where we saw the captain give his welcome speech, then had coffee and cake at the Promenade Cafe. Great coffee cake, lots of crumbs. Next we headed to deck 4 for the Honeymooners Reception in the jazz lounge, where they gave out free Champagne and mimosas (which sucked since we couldn't have it). They also had a raffle (we didn't win anything), and a really good vanilla cake with great white vanilla icing that tasted like iced cream. They also had chocolate strawberries. After that we went up to the Viking Crown Lounge on deck 17 at the top of the ship. We didn't get a drink but we sat for a while watching the people below at the pool, yes even at 1045pm.

At 11pm we went down to the Dazzles club for the '80s party,' which wasn't really a party, but actually an all Filipino band doing 80s songs. It wasn't great at first, but got better as it went on. We danced for a while on the dance floor, which was packed. At midnight a dj came on and continued the 80s music. Around 1215 we left and went down to the promenade and got some water and soda because we were thirsty. Then we headed back to the room where we found our maid Cheryl had left us a towel rabbit wearing my sunglasses.Then we slept.