Preparation for a cruise is significantly different than the moho trips, usually I'd be stocking up the van with the world of snacks because not enough food could mean the difference between a happy time and a super hangry experience. Instead as I finish work on the Thursday evening we're being invited to the next social BBQ or birthday celebration as the holidays have already started and my fomo means the time I should be packing I'm instead partying then rushing to get a spray tan, eyelashes, eyebrows and nails done! There's also the matter of the formal nights so rather than spending nearly a month happily casual, I need ball gowns and tuxedos for us all. Anyway with 1hr to spare we're all packed and pampered and heading to the ship.

I have managed to pass my love of puzzles on to the kids and as Robert is heads down in a murdle mystery logic puzzle Liliya is doing a crossword. As we can board from 11.30 we left before having lunch, if there's one thing a cruise will guarantee to have plenty of it will be food. The check-in process is effortless however in a mad dash to pack I realised I might need some scissors to cut our hair glitter and threw them into the hand luggage. Yeah turns out you can't take sharp objects of a certain size on board so perhaps it was better they were in the hand luggage rather than the suitcase scanners picking them up and then them having to open and go through my neatly packed frocks. I was happy for them to be confiscated but it took 3 members of staff and a ruler to check they were out of bounds, ok I get it can we please move on, not without taking my cabin number it turns out so I'm probably on some watch list now 😬 Always up for a group photo, especially in our matching ice dye t-shirts that Al and the kids made, we allow the onboard photographer to take one, we asked Liliya if she was sure she didn't want a retake as the grumpy face was in full force but no.

10 mins later however with a plate full of food in her she admitted that she may have been suffering from hanger and was feeling much better now. I'm hopeful it won't take too long for them to realise that they aren't going to go hungry and not to try eat every single thing that looks delicious on day one which seems to be the case right now.

As we've got the drinks package it would be rude not to make a start on getting our way through the cocktail menu so we both start with a frozen pina colada. Shortly after lunch our cabin is ready although we have to wait a little longer for our bags to arrive. The kids are desperate to get into the pool and had I been smart thinking I should have packed a walk on with their swimmers. Not too worry though as we've still got plenty of the day left by the time they do. I'm already a handful of cocktails in by the time we've even left Southampton! The kids are mega keen to get signed into kids club so we take them to look around the rooms and get to try out some of the games, unfortunately Liliya is just 6 months too young to be in the 8-12s with Robert but hopefully she'll manage to make some friends in the 3-7 group.

With the bags having arrived the kids head straight to the pool and I'm enjoying some sun bathing and more cocktail tasting. I hadn't appreciated how international the passengers would be. Sky princess is an American ship so I'm not sure what the proportions are but the demographic isn't what I was expecting either. We find out there's only 75 under 18s on the whole ship which for a middle of school holiday cruise is very few. I do love the American vibe though, very friendly and can jump in with both feet when required, which brings me to the colourful matching t-shirts were seeing on board. We didn't realise it would be a thing! So many people have been busy making their own designs or just hunting out matching tops, fair play 😁

At the bar whilst deciding which drink to try next though I meet Jen from Utah she's here with her husband and 2 girls, slightly older than mine but also going to be heading to kids club later on. We get comparing notes on the various cocktails we've tried so far and we end up having a baby Guinness ( except as a friend pointed out it's more toddler sized!). It seems they haven't made their way over to the US but Jen is a fan.

Each bar has a slightly different cocktail menu so we estimate there's around 100 to try make our way through although when we speak with a waiter he tells us there's a combination of 2,036 drinks listed so that makes things a little harder! Before the end of the night I've worked my way through the following:

• Pina Colada
• Margarita
• Tequila Sunrise
• English Mojito x2
• Baby Guinness
• Mojito
• Rum Cocktail
• Strawberry Daiquiri
• Strawberry Fields Forever
• Dirty Banana

The English mojito scored highly with a caramel rum flavour but you can never go wrong with a margarita either. The evening meal was lovely, Liliya ended up getting food envy after seeing my prawn cocktail starter so charmed the waiter into bringing her a second starter.

Tonight's show is just a singer and actually we're enjoying just exploring the ship without kids so don't bother to go see him. After another 'midnight' snack Al takes Liliya back to the room whilst Robert and I go in search for a nightcap. At the bar we get talking to a lady and as we're telling our stories we realise she was the lady we've already met who took our family picture. Karen is travelling solo and we introduce her to the dirty banana cocktail. Robert's favourite mocktail is a key west cooler but he's soon regretting his life choices by having all evening snack as he realises he's actually really full and now his tummy hurts. Hopefully he'll soon learn not to over eat.