Daniel's independence of the seas

The first 2 days have been spent at sea en route to Madeira. It has given us a chance to look round all of the ship's facilities which include an ice rink, 1500 seat theatre, 8 restaurants,, a shopping arcade, at least 10 pools and hot tubs. Kids clubs run all day until 2am! although I think we will struggle to convince the boys to attend that often. It may not be a problem as it has already turned out that the self contained and secure environment of the ship has brought out a level of independence in the boys we have not seen before. Daniel in particular has been taking himself off on little sorties in the knowledge that he can find us again easily. He normally checks back in every half hour with an update of the previous 30 minutes activities which generally comprise of visits to the pizzaria in the shopping prominade (or "downtown" as it is rather sweetly called by Daniel, referring to the kids shopping Mecca in Disney) or to the bar to top up his never ending drink of coke! Jake and Luke have enjoyed the freedom, but have not relished it to the same degree as Daniel.