Cruise Day 3: No Coco Cay

 Because we had to cancel the stop at the private island, we slept in a little bit. It was hard to sleep with the people next door running around. But Tanner took Jack to get breakfast and we all got ready for the day. The kids put swimsuits on under their warm clothes and we grabbed a bite to eat at the Aqua Dome. That’s when we lost Ray. She went to the bathroom and we never saw her again. We looked and looked and had to finally get security involved. She was gone for over 2 hours- completely MIA. Of course I’m used to this but my mind still wanders to the worst care scenario. Tanner and I had to cancel the spa treatment we had just booked. But he found her. When she left to go use the bathroom, she didn’t know where it was so she asked someone. That all took a longer time than we anticipated waiting for her… so we left. We looked around for her by the water slides but then decided to go back to the room and see if she was there. She was not. And when she went back to the Aqua Dome to find us, we weren’t there. She came back to the room but we weren’t there because we went to Adventure Ocean. We left her a note but she didn’t see it. She knew Tanner and I had a spa appointment, though, so she went there TWICE looking for us before she decided to just go back to the water slides. And that’s when we found her. We were literally like 2 ships crossing in the night. I had a lifeguard helping me search the pools and slides but eventually I met Tanner at Guest Services and they dispatched a security team to locate her. After 45 minutes, Tanner found her and headed back to our room where another security guard was patrolling. They came in and gave Ray a pretty serious lecture. If a child is lost for any minute longer than an hour, the captain is informed and the whole ships stops. Then literally it’s all hands on deck looking for that child. Yikes. She cried and felt terribly but honestly, she did the right thing. WE were the ones who left the restaurant and didn’t wait for her. She looked ALL over for us but then decided to stick to the plan to ride the slides. Tanner was furious with her and said a lot of hurtful things to her. We took some time to calm down and comfort each other. She is safe and we are together and that’s all that matters. Now we have a better plan for if we get separated again. Communication is key. But man, that was scary.

We went BACK to the slides so the kids could play but it was 55 degrees and they didn’t last long. We grabbed some tots and chicken fingers and of course, Miami Vices.

We went back to the room to change and then had the pleasure of seeing Back to the Future the musical! It was pretty much identical to the one we saw on Broadway in NYC and we LOVED it! And it was awesome for Jack because last time he was so sick, slept through most of it, and threw up on the seat. Poor guy. We LOVE Back to the Future and it’s cool that the ship has all 3 movies playing on repeat all day long on the TVs in our room. The show was fantastic and we had a blast.

We grabbed dinner from the Windjammer and then I forced everyone to go on a mile long walk with me around the jogging track. 20 minutes later, we were all ready to settle in for the night. We took showers and I read a chapter of Project Hail Mary to them, we rotated  beds (so each kid gets the opportunity to sleep on the top bunk) and I hope we all sleep a little better tonight. Oh and guess what? I finally started my period (my last one of ALL TIME) today. The first full day of our cruise. Ugh.