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Trans-Atlantic Cruise, Day Eight: Losing Time

Trans-Atlantic Cruise, Day Eight: Losing Time

Last updated on: June 4, 2015 at 9:45 pm by Nancy French

Trans-Atlantic Cruise, Day Eight: Losing Time 2015-06-04T21:45:17-05:00 Nancy French

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We take long vacations for a reason. Our youngest daughter, Naomi, is adopted from Ethiopia and does not adjust well to change. She digs her heels in (figuratively, thankfully) any time her circumstances change suddenly. Living on a boat, outside of her normal routine is not a recipe for fun for her… even if Mickey and Minnie say it should be.

That’s one of the main reasons why we take these looooong vacations. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it takes her five or so days to get settled back into her normal personality.

Well, I’m happy to say we’ve reached that point. For the past few days, she’s been a jewel – joyful, grateful, kind, and sassy as ever. She has been such a joy on this vacation, for which I am thankful every time I pass a bickering family. Yes, this ship is full of angst-ridden families… If you have conflict at home, you’ll have conflict on vacation when everyone believes he or she is entitled to the best days of life. (“I’m on vacation! I shouldn’t have to…”) To combat this intra-family conflict, we began by making rules… Don’t correct each other unnecessarily. Don’t criticize. Don’t compare your sibling to excrement in any way. Finally, after the number of rules got too large, we settled on just one rule: the Golden Rule.

That is working out pretty well.

This is the Disney Navigator, which is delivered to your room every night with the next day’s activities. We do practically none of these activities. However, it’s nice that they exist if we ever get bored. (Our housekeeper asked us if we were all still in school after seeing our stack of books!)

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We also reached the point of no return on our smelly laundry. Thankfully, there’s a laudromat just feet away from our cabins. (We got two cabins because we have five people.) The fresh smell of detergent wafts down the hall at all hours. Also, if you are ever lonely, go to the Laundromat, where everyone is super helpful as they wait for loads of laundry to stop.

Here’s the bad. The very very bad.

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One of the less publicized features of the eastbound Atlantic Disney cruise is that you literally lose an hour every day or so. For example, last night we had to move our clocks ahead (again) and we have to do it tonight as well. It is getting more and more difficult to get up in the morning at a decent time due to the time change. (I can’t complain, though. I met a woman in the stairwell a couple of days ago from Seattle who was already six hours off her home time.)

After a rough start this morning, we had yet another amazing day at sea. We lounged by the pool all day – another warm day! – reading and talking while Naomi swam. The weather has been just amazing. Today, they served sushi for lunch and lobster tail for dinner, which was fun.

One of our favorite things to do is to watch movies on the boat. Last night, David, Camille and Austin watched “Tomorrowland.” (Everyone disliked it so much that I decided not to catch the showings today.) Here are the types of movies that show:

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Camille, Austin, and I watched Casablanca in the theater today, and later dissected its plot structure while walking a couple of miles around Deck 4. (It’s fun to have a daughter who is well-read, because she can help me brainstorm the book idea I got yesterday!)

I’m sitting out on my balcony right now while David and Austin watch Predator in our room, thankful for another blessed day on the Disney Magic and dreading that lost hour in advance.

Read more in this series:

Day One, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Anchors Away

Day Two, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Medical Evacuation

Day Three, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: College Admissions Conversation?

Day Four, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: The Gut Punch of New York

Day Five, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Day at Sea

Day Six, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Nova Scotia

Day Seven, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: “I Didn’t Know Cinderella was Real.”

Day Eight, Trans-Atlantic Cruise: Losing Time

Day Nine, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Three Racial Moments with Naomi

Day Ten, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Frozen’s “Freezing the Night Away” and Internet Withdrawal

Day Eleven, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Birds

Day Twelve, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Not Living Up to Vacation Demands

Day Thirteen, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: It’s Not Over Until Someone Passes Out

Day Fourteen, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: Meeting the “Genie-Soul” of Copenhagen

Day Fifteen, Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise: The End, the Numbers, and a Final Word

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What's it like to go on a Disney Cruise

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May 22, 2015

Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise, Day Seven: "I Didn't Know Cinderella was Real."

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May 24, 2015 Trans-Atlantic Disney Cruise, Day 9: Three Racial Moments with Naomi

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