ice skating on the sea

In my first post, I showed you the ice rink on our ship. This area is called Studio B, and is used for 4 production ice shows during the week. The ice can also be covered up and Studio B becomes a game show theater.


We did see a showing of the ice show, which was pretty neat, but our favorite time spent in Studio B was open skating held one afternoon.

Olivia really wanted to skate, but her mom is pregnant, and her dad is too tall to comfortably skate with a 5-year-old, so all fingers pointed at JuJu to go with her.

I was ready and willing. Until we got on the ice...

The last time I went ice skating was probably 9 or 10 years ago. Olivia had been once before, but that didn't mean much. Our first lap was very wobbly and very frustrating. I was trying to skate beside her and hold her hand/arm, but that didn't work out too well. We pretty much made our way around by hanging onto the outside rail.

When we made it around to the side where the rest of the family was sitting, they suggested I hold her under her arms and push her along as I skate. I was a little skeptical, since I was wasn't all that confident in my skating abilities, plus 40 pounds hanging on me, but that's what we tried.


It worked a lot better, and we became more comfortable with each lap we made. It killed my back, though! After several laps of me holding her up, Olivia said she wanted to try on her own.


Off we went, me skating along beside her, trying to lead her through the mass of skaters on the ice. She did a fantastic job! We were all so proud.

Occasionally she would start to lose her balance and reach out for my hand, but as soon as she felt stable she would yank her hand away. She was determined to do it by herself.

She fell a few times, when I was skating with her and when she was doing it by herself, but she always got right back up. We had been skating for about 35 minutes when she fell and slapped her hand hard against the ice. The tears started flowing. Her hand and wrist were fine, but that signalled the end of our skating.

As we were taking our skates off and drying the tears, a man came from the audience to talk to us. He had been sitting beside our family watching his wife skate, but I think he spent more time watching Olivia skate. He even told mom one time, "I can tell she's going to be a good skater when she grows up". He was wearing a medal around his neck, the kind you get from the ship when you win a contest or trivia. He gave it to Olivia for being "the bravest and fastest skater on the ice". You better believe her tears disappeared immediately and she wore the biggest smile for the rest of the day.

I will always remember that sweet man, and our ice skating experience.