“Good morning, cruisers.” It was Jax. I sat up straighter to listen. “Hope everyone is enjoying the Pride cruise. Today’s activity will be held off the stern. That’s the back for those of you who don’t know ship directions. Access is behind the pool deck. There are three main platforms, including a trampoline. There will be two lifeguards on duty. One on the Starboard side for swimmers, stationed on the pool deck. The other will be on the lifeguard’s floating deck. Please do not hang on the deck. On the other side of it is the slide's landing. Access to the slide is off the dining room portside balcony.”
I turned around to see if I could see the slide. I couldn’t, but there were people in uniform out on that balcony, and some roped-off areas that weren’t there before. Wow-wee…that was going to be a long slide off the dining room level.
Jax’s announcement continued, “Please do not run around the pool deck. Only use the portside stairs to reach the slide. Obey the lifeguards on duty at all times. And have fun!”
“Yay!” I clapped and bounced, and Joey and Danny were clapping too.
Danny threw an arm in the air. “The slide is so awesome. We had that last time. Wanna go?”
“Yes-yes-yes! Daddy, can I go?” I grabbed Warner’s arm.
“It does sound like fun. Let’s clean this table up and get out there.” Daddy Warner started stacking his plates and bowls.
I grabbed his coffee. “I’ll help.”
“I see, you’ll jump in when you want to hurry me along, huh?” He winked at me to let me know he was teasing.
I grinned like a loon, because he wasn’t wrong. Quickly, everyone pitched in and put everything on the dirty dish table for cleanup or in the trash, then headed out to the balcony, where a line was already forming. That’s what the ropes werefor: keeping everyone in line and making sure people went down one at a time.
Daddy Warner went in front of me, so he could be at the bottom when I came down. He was always careful about things like that, but I was a good swimmer.
Down-down-down, Daddy went. I waved, then the helper had me sit on the edge. “Ready? Okay? Go!”
I pushed my butt off, and the flowing water pulled at me.Wee! My breath caught and my tummy flipped and then splash! I was at the bottom, underwater. Daddy hauled me up, and we swam to the edge of the platform. The only way to get out of the water was to climb up the side of one of the floating platforms. The one attached to the ship stretched across its length, with inflatable couches facing each other at either end, where people were already congregating. Attached to that platform was a second one, where most of the people were climbing up and then jumping off the other side. But at the very end of the platform chain was a trampoline.
“Oh, Daddy. I want to go on the trampoline.”
“Let’s go then.”
“Where’s Joey and Daddy Vince?” I looked around, wanting my friend to join in on the fun.
“Uh…” Daddy looked around, but then they were there, splashing up beside us.
“We’re going on the trampoline. You coming?” I asked Joey.
He nodded, head bobbing furiously. “Yes. I want to jump!”
“Jump-jump-jump. I do too. Let’s go.” We climbed up onto the platform. Daddy shoved my rear to get me up quicker before following. Then all four of us climbed up on the trampoline. There were a few other people there too, and we all bounce-bounce-bounced until I bounced super high and right off the side and into the water. I tucked my knees up, making a cannonball.
I bobbed up and looked around. Daddy Warner swam up beside me. “You okay?”
I hung on to Warner in the water. Thankfully, Daddy had strong arms and long legs for kicking. “I am. That was so fun. Let’s do it again.”
Back on the platform, Daddy Crow and Skyler were there. “Cody, I saw you jump off the trampoline. That looked like fun.” Skyler’s eyes were so big that I could tell he was eager to try it.
“So fun. Come on. Let’s do it.”
After we jumped a few more times, Jax brought out a bunch of floaties for everyone to use. While we were floating around, Skyler started a splash war. Splash-splash, splash-splash. Danny and Joey joined in.
Daddy Warner made me take a break and drink water, which was probably a good thing. But since I’d gotten out, we decided to go on the slide again, and that’s how the day went.
Splash and play, drink the water, slide down the slide. Jump off the trampoline. Swim and splash. Rinse and repeat.
Until lunch time.
Jax announced lunch would be in the dining room, but we didn’t all have to stop playing; we could take a break and eat whenever we wanted. I was already hungry, so we went up to eat.
Fancy sandwiches and stuff were spread out on the buffet table where the breakfast had been earlier. “All the food has been so good.” I looked over at everything. “But I don’t know what to get.”
