It wasn't hard to wake the boys up today because we are driving to Ft. Lauderdale to board the largest cruise ship in the world and this is what they have been looking forward to the most all summer. The three hours and forty minutes to Ft. Lauderdale couldn't go by fast enough for them. They were also excited because Jack's best friend, Ben, is going on the cruise with us along with his dad and his dad's girlfriend and her 4 year old daughter. The boys have had a great summer, but I know it has been hard for Jack not seeing any of his friends for the past four weeks. We dropped our rental car off at the airport and one of the car rental guys was nice enough to drive us across the street to the cruise terminal so we didn't have to unload our stuff into a taxi. When we got onboard Bill, Ben, Sarah and Thea met us in our room then we went upstairs to the Windjammer buffet to eat lunch. After lunch we parted ways to get ready for the mandatory safety drill. When we first started taking cruises, the safety drills were in front of the life boats and you had to wear your life jacket to the drill. On this boat your life jackets aren't even in your room and they have you meet in places like the theater, night clubs and skating rink. After the drill we went to the Sail Away party in the Aqua Theater. This ship has characters from Dreamworks movies onboard, so Matthew was really excited to see Alex the Lion, Gloria and King Julien from Madagascar and Shrek, Fiona and Puss in Boots from Shrek. We met up with Bill, Ben, Sarah and Thea for dinner in the Adagio dining room. Jack and Ben were dying to go to the kids club so we dropped off all the kids (Matthew needed to be bribed), then the adults went to see the Oceanaria show in the Aqua Theater. After we picked up the kids we went to the Boardwalk to go on the carousel, but it was closed for the night. Matthew was pretty easy to put to bed, but Jack went into meltdown mode and didn't calm down until 12:30 am.
