“Forgive me for saying so, but you’re too young for cruising” my work colleague quips a few weeks before our departure. On the contrary, I rather wish we had discovered this way of travel long before now.
We’re on our first day at sea travelling from Warnemünde, Germany to Tallinn, Estonia where we will dock tomorrow morning. Most travel days are rather tiring and somewhat dreary. Take Friday when we flew into Copenhagen from Dubai. Bags packed the night before we were up at 4am to make the 8am flight. The iPads were fully charged, stocked with new downloads, there are activity books to lug around and other games and challenges (both for their sanity and ours!) along the way. Sufficient snacks and water must be brought and packed to ensure they are on hand when the most inconvenient hunger and thirst appears and treats on hand for the odd bribe when we’re in a hurry. After a long flight there is waiting in customs lines, dragging bags and tired children through the airport, more waiting in taxi lines and when we finally arrive at our apartment accommodation in Copenhagen, we lug our 4 heavy suitcases up as many flights of stairs in a final act of bravery! Twelve hours of transit and I sigh, grateful for the cup of coffee that awaits as I sink onto the sofa.
Today’s travel is a little different. We start our day at sea on the Norwegian Breakaway with a shower, followed by a 3 course breakfast. I select spiced peaches with blueberries to start, followed by eggs benedict and a pot of tea. I finish with a grapefruit juice and an apricot danish.
After breakfast, we debate what to do first and eventually head to the rock climbing. I’m not as agile as I once was (despite what my work colleague thinks) but I do manage to ring the bell at the top of the wall on both the medium and easy courses. The boys both have a few turns each, Jasper reaching the top without much fuss, he’s done this before. Harley practices the moves with a few tips from the professionals.
Next is the bungy trampoline. “Can we, can we please mum?”, “Yes, go!” I reply and watch them run off to line up. They don’t have to wait very long for their turns. They get about 5 minutes each and by the end on his turn, Jasper has done enough front and back saults to wind the rope right up and mostly unwind it again. Also enough to make me a bit dizzy just watching. It’s pretty incredible being able to do these type of activities on a ship.
While they are waiting for the bungy trampoline there’s a spider web climb to keep the action happening and amusement going. The spider web is a series of elasticised straps woven together to form a web. They’re fashioned in a sort of vertical tunnel with five or six layers of ‘web’ to climb through. Jasper master it pretty quickly buy Harley is smaller and not quite as strong and it takes him a bit of maneuvering to work out his ideal strategy. Once he’s got it though, he’s hooked and does several laps up and down (via twisty slide) before he’s ready to move on.
Now that they’ve warmed up on the slippery slide the boys decide it’s time to hit the water slides. These aren’t the kiddie pool slides that we found pretty fantastic whilst cruising the Mediterranean last summer. These are fully fledged water slides worthy of Lego Land (water park) or the like. There are two twisty slides that look fairly tame. Mr 4yo and Mr 7yo cajole me to the top and I experience a sinking feeling when I realise they are now braver than I. Jason does the vertical drop slide which I certainly haven’t yet plucked up the courage for. I do manage a couple of turns of the twisty slides, Harley insisting that I at least try both colours and once I’m wet I figure I might as well make the most of it. The boys have a few turns and I’m slightly relieved that they’re not yet big enough for the drop slides as at least now I have an excuse.
After the slides we hit the hot tubs for a bit. Jason brings me a Pimms & lemonade – it’s holiday time after all and the bar is open so we figure it’s fair game. This doesn’t last long though as the boys want to swim in the pool. They’re too good at swimming for the baby pool so I leave the bliss of the hot tub and go into the big pool with them, more for the fact that the others in the pool don’t get concerned about the 4 year old swimming around by himself than for any other reason. Thankfully it’s heated and is actually quite pleasant. We swim, float and play for a bit and when we get out and are lazing about on the deck chairs, someone brings along icy poles. After this, we dry off and change and head to lunch, having worked off our three course breakfast with a morning of at sea activities, it must be time to eat!
After a buffet lunch (I lose track of the courses!) the checkers comes out and we play games for a while before deciding to move down to the Atrium Cafe for a coffee and the afternoon quiz.
Our afternoon at sea is filled with the 9 hole putt putt golf course, the obstacle course, ice creams, more games and dinner followed by a 7pm performance in the theater of Burn The Floor, a ballroom dance extravaganza.
There is also a shuffle board, a library, an arcade, bingo, the spa, various talks and lessons, a casino, an art gallery, a whiskey bar, martini bar, an Irish pub, giant chess board, dance parties, single meets, wine tastings, a basketball court and a Spiegeltent.
I can think of worse ways to amuse the family on a travel day. Far from having nothing to do, we are spoiled for choice with options and in fact, there’s just not enough time to have a go at everything.
We return to our state room in the evening. There is a lobster folded on my bed, the children have a dog waiting for them. I guess the towel folding demonstration will have to wait until our next day at sea…
Would I Return?
Yes. ASAP!
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