I woke up, fresh and rejuvenated for the upcoming activities we had planned. Instead of eating at Windjammer, we brought food up to our room and devoured muffins, coffee(one of the rare times my mother permitted me to drink coffee every day)croissants and juice. Yes, we drank juice and coffee. For today, we had planned to go for a napkin-folding class, watch a duo performance by Victoria Stryker(violinist)and Oleg(guitarist), play foosball in the Seaplex, an indoor stadium, go for a bumper car ride(also in the Seaplex), and then I would visit  the Living Room, which was apparently a “bonding place for teenagers”. My sister would also visit the “Aquanauts”, which included fun activities for children of her age.

The first place we headed to was the uppermost deck. We spent a few tranquil minutes gazing at the sea(which my parents did while me and Em yelled at them to hurry up), and then headed to the napkin folding class. The instructor’s name was Andy, and he was hilarious. He had us all guffawing and rolling in the aisles. He taught us how to fold a napkin into a flower, a Christmas tree, and a heart. The tree and the heart looked good but the flower…well…in short, it was a disaster. The ending was impossible where we had to attempt to fold the napkin into a petal. I gave up almost immediately, my sister sulked in her seat, staring at her napkin, which she had scrunched into a towel ball, my dad managed to turn it into something completely different from what it was supposed to be(I have absolutely NO IDEA how) and my mum’s was the only close-to-presentable looking one, as usual. I spent the next 10 seconds unfolding all her hard work.

Next, we headed to the performance of Victoria Stryker and Oleg. It was a soothing symphony, the amalgamation of the violin and the guitar. Honestly, violin had become my favorite instrument by now.

We headed back to our room before our next stop, for Em, the Aquanauts, for me, the Living Room and for my parents, I had no idea where they were going to wander around in peace. I peeked into the “Aquanauts” room, and I immediately sensed fun. The  kids were engrossed in several activities and Em instantly loved the teacher. She hopped in and joined them, never ever bothering to wave me a proper good-bye. How rude!!! Well, after this was my turn. Now, honestly speaking, I am reluctant to meet new people. I argued with my parents as I was hugely unwilling to go to a place where I would meet teenagers, who might not even BE my age, or share the same interests as me. Also, I would only meet them once, then never see them again, which is why I was convinced that this was unnecessary. However, my father being a master convincer proclaimed that it would be a great opportunity for me to meet people of different interests, and… and…and…Oh god! Ok! I reluctantly headed to the room.

The minute I entered I saw three boys playing video games and I was completely ignored. I did not find anyone who I could talk to. However, the lady who was the person-in-charge there was amazing. She was friendly and incredibly nice. I sat there for around 30 minutes, doodled, solved crosswords, chatted with the lady, and then exited. I found my parents waiting outside with Em. She had a ginormous hat circling her head, which said “Happy Birthday!”, in multicolored letters. If you are pondering whether it WAS her birthday, it wasn’t. It was actually Inky’s birthday, a blue octopus stuffed toy which she was gifted. I have no idea how she managed to develop a close friendship with a toy octopus that wore too much lipstick, but I didn’t comment as I was guilty of talking to stuffed toys when I was alone(I absolutely love them.)

After a delicious lunch, we headed to the Seaplex for a foosball game. It was the biggest indoor stadium with multifarious sport facilities.

It was the most enjoyable experience I ever had. Me and my dad were occupied yelling at each other to discourage the other from scoring a goal. I laughed so much, I ended up with a stitch in my stomach. I think I surprised myself when I managed to beat my dad in the game. If it was real soccer though…

My mum filmed us yelling and we watched the video more than a thousand times. My sister was busy supplying the tiny ping-pong sized ball time and again as it ricocheted off the sides of the board. I think it hit my spectacles more than once☹. Long story short, I won, and my dad absolutely REFUSED to admit it. The game was highly entertaining, especially for my mum and Em who were our bystanders.

We idled around the place, waiting for the bumper cars ride to begin. It was a long queue and unfortunately, it was only 4 minutes. For the first 2 minutes, the only action I performed was spinning round and round in circles because I could NOT figure out how to maneuver it. Eventually, when I realized how to, I had buck loads of merriment, crashing into other people’s cars and rebounding😊.The minute I started enjoying, it ended. I seriously feel that they should increase the time limit.

As it was approaching the evening, we gathered at the 16^th deck to watch the sunset, which painted the sky in hues of vivid crimson, fuchsia and magenta. We had a LONGGGGG photo shoot there, and snapped over a thousand pictures(No, I’m serious. I counted😉).

Before heading to dinner, I even met one of my best friends from class. I had asked her before the cruise about her room number and the deck floor she would stay on. I was ecstatic when I found out that she was on the same deck and only a few rooms away! We chattered with each other about the cruise for an endless amount of time, and our parents also chatted animatedly. They left for the magic show while we spent another half an hour strolling on the deck.

We stuffed ourselves for dinner, devouring a distinctive cuisine in yet another grand dinner session. We waddled back to our room, and I couldn’t help feeling slightly gloomy as tomorrow was the last day on this wonderful vacation. I vowed to spend tomorrow the best as I could as I drifted off.

Signing off…