Tropic like its hot

It was hot yesterday but not completely miserable in my opinion. AC isn't really a thing in the resorts we've visited and Royalton Splash is no exception. I don't mind but I noticed it most yesterday morning at breakfast at the buffet on the Royalton Punta Cana side and last night when we hit up the buffet on our side (Splash) for extra dessert. Hunter and Native 2 both get warmer than Native 1 and myself so they were probably a little miserable but didn't complain. We took advantage of the first full vacation day and just tried to scope out everything. I think we probably annoyed poor Edwin because we were all over the place and he couldn't connect with us. We didn't really need much (anything other than dinner reservations) so it wasn't a big deal. We had to pick up a coupon book they didn't give us at check in so that took some time. Native 2 was already in a mood (and it never went away, eyeroll at parenting while trying to vacation). Breakfast was at the buffet on the PC side. It was fine, not great. We went to Nickelodeon a few years back and I think so far they've had the best buffet/breakfast of the places we've tried. I think there's a mango shortage or something because for all of the promises I've made of all you can eat mangos to the Natives, I've seen nary a one. Tons of papaya so I'm a happy camper but I was expecting a better selection of fresh fruit overall. Hunter has noticed a lack of smoked fish (only salmon and no capers which we both find annoying). Native 1 got his own plate and that fool basically loaded a plate full of bacon with a side of bacon. He ate about half and learned his lesson, so he now understands the concept of what you care to eat not what your eyes want.

After breakfast we rolled over to the (overly crowded) waterpark. There were no chairs so we grabbed a few towels and plopped our stuff down and hit the slides. I think there are probably about 8 slides for our Natives size and a wave pool. We did about half the slides each and the Natives seemed more interested in the wave pool so we decided to try the pool area over at PC. We found a spot near a quite(ish) pool and settled in. Well Hunter and I settled. The Natives spent the next few hours acting like wild Natives. If you saw me lecturing my heathens by the pool, I apologize, a break in schedule is difficult for them and they were just at each other all day. We tried lunch at the Grazie buffet. It was okay. We were sat near a broken speaker playing music a bit too loud. Native 1 ate pizza and rice (more eyerolling) Native 2 was a bit more adventurous. I liked it but wasn't totally impressed. We are going to try the sports grill and other lunch buffets and I'll let you all know if those seem better. We went back to the pool for a bit. I saw a Royalton dude walking toward the beach with some workout stuff and asked what activity was starting. The answer was fitness challenge and it peaked my interest. So at 2:30 I headed over to the beach with Hunter and the Natives for said challenge. Now what I thought was going to happen was stations set up and just do a little workout on the beach, but apparently what I did was sign my dumbass self up for an actual fitness competition. Hunter in solidarity signed up as well. There was a men's and women's we all did the same stuff, and they timed you while god, everybody on the beach, and your kids with a camera filmed and/or took pictures of your butt hanging out your suit while you carried a tire in the sand. I came in second and was only beat by what I can best estimate was a 16 year old kid so I felt pretty good about myself. Still irritated I didn't make myself hit a gym for a lift but I did get the 4 mile run in so I guess it was okay.

Edwin got us a reservation at 8:30 at the seafood restaurant I want to try but we were trying to make the 9pm show so I asked he he could try for anything earlier. He got us in at Grazie (which is different for dinner) at 7:30 which should have worked out well. We got to Grazie and they were short on English menus, we tried to fuddle through the Spanish menu, but ended up asking for an English one when it became available. Service was a bit slow, 30 min before we got drinks. I took a bit for our order to get in and once it was in, it took a longer than I would like for each course (apps and then dinner, nothing crazy) to arrive. I do try to remember I'm on island time, but this was a bit more like glacier time. They were out of one of our apps so we just doubled up on one option we thought the Natives would like (they didn't) and one pizza we ordered as an app came out with our entrées. Hunter and Native 1 liked theirs (I have to admit, I tried both and I was glad they enjoyed because I didn't think they were great). Native 2 liked his pizza but ended up eating the rest of Hunter's dinner and Hunter ate 2's pizza. They were out of tiramisu and brought out...rice pudding, our least favorite dessert from night 1. I think we may just need to avoid Italian themed restaurants while in the Caribbean because we've not had much luck.

While we were eating a torrential downpour came, actually it started leaking all over our table which was fun (unavoidable, we weren't bothered by it, we just sort of adjusted). What was slightly annoying was that even though we were there at 7:30 we didn't get out until 9:15 so we missed the show anyway. Should have stuck with the seafood reservation I guess. We tried desserts at our buffet and thought everything was just "okay". We headed to the room to relax and read but damned if it wasn't loud again. I'm not happy with our room location but I'm also not someone to complain about that sort of thing. I'd rather be in the building actually for Diamond Club as it is away from the noisy plaza but whatever. We've decided to hang out at the more social pool by the beach for the day and I think not bouncing from spot to spot will make for a more relaxing day.