Caribbean Cruise

We just got home from the most wonderful Caribbean cruise. 

Seriously, it was such a fun trip. We loved it and we cant wait to go back.

We drove down to Houston on Friday, October 11th and stayed the night with our friends, the Thornocks.

We hung out on Saturday, played, chatted and then drove to the airport to pickup Mimi and Grandpa. The kids were so excited to see them. Benson was fighting a cold and was super tired from not napping, so he was a bit of a pill, but the rest of the kids were so thrilled. 

We drove down to Galveston and grabbed dinner at this delicious seafood restaurant.

Dinner was seriously amazing. Such good seafood.  And the kids loved the huge crab on top of the roof. 

The next morning we ate breakfast at our hotel and then drove over to the port to park and board the ship. 

This was our first cruise picture taken and I love it so much. 

I made us all coordinating shirt and the kids looked so cute. 

Once we boarded we were treated to an amazing brunch. The food was so good. Mimi and Grandpa had purchased a special perks package and this brunch was one of those perks. 

Sadly, by this point, after walking through security and checking in, Benson was exhausted and he fell asleep in my arms during brunch.

 I will say that this was our biggest struggle of the trip. Benson needed naps and that wasn't always possible. So we struggled with keeping him happy.
I spent this first meal eating with one hand so he could sleep. But the food was so good so it was worth it.

Then we found our stateroom and got our bags unpacked a little bit. We had a muster drill (to explain what to do in case of an emergency) that was mandatory and then we went to explore the ship a little bit more. 

At this point it was time to leave the port. 

The kids loved watching the ship pull away from port.

I had been feeling so nervous about having my kids on board and having all these irrational fears about them falling overboard. But once we got going, I felt so much better. The ship really was so secure and we were able to really enjoy ourselves. 

One of our first stops was the self serve ice cream. It was the first of may stops by this machine.

We ate so many ice cream cones during this week. 

We joined in on the departure dance party and had so much fun. 

Then we explored some more. 

Benson loved these circle windows all over the ship. 

Mimi and Grandpa had a great balcony room that the kids loved to hang out in. 

After a bit more exploring and relaxing, it was time for dinner.

After such an amazing brunch, we were so excited.

The food was amazing all week long and we couldn't get enough of it.

Our first dinner was so fun. We truly felt so spoiled.  

After our dinner, we went back to our room and got unpacked. All the kids were pretty excited about the bunk bed in our room though and took turns climbing up there to check it out. 

 It had been a big day and we were all a little worn out. But Tucker and Bailey weren't ready to call it a night just yet. So Tanner and Benson stayed with Dad and watched a movie in our room and Bailey, Tucker and I went down to the ice skating show.

They were so excited to be up late and getting to watch a show. 

I love these silly kids. 

 

The show was kind of amazing. 

Sadly, the kids were too tired to last the whole show, by the end of show both kids were snoring on me. I didn't mind though. Sometimes I miss my little babies and this was a nice reminder that they haven't totally grown up yet. 

The next morning (Monday) we woke up and got going pretty early because we had a priority time to try the flowrider. So we went down to our dining room and ate a big breakfast and then took Tanner over to the flowrider to try it out. 

Tanner thought it was pretty fun. He was definitely nervous at first but once he got going he enjoyed it. I love that this kid will try anything, even when he's nervous or out of his comfort zone. 

 

Meanwhile, Bailey (who was about 1 inch too short for the flow rider) decided to try out the tube slides. She loved it. She had so much fun

Then Tanner and Bailey got to go to a sushi making class with Mimi. 

They had so much fun making sushi together. 

While the big kids were gone to their class, the little boys and I played at the pool.

Prepare yourself for the ice cream cuteness. This was only the beginning of our multiple trips to the soft serve machine. 

I can't even handle it. The cuteness. 

Sadly, at the end of the class Tanner got sick and threw up. So Mimi brought Tanner back to  me and I took him back to our room. We took turns chilling with Tanner in our room while he slept the day away. We gave him some Dramamine for kids and it knocked him out for most of the day.  

At one point during the day I took Tucker and Bailey ice skating. Thanks to the awesome priority perks we had our own time to skate with only a few other people there skating.

Tucker and Bailey loved it so much. We skated for about an hour and they didn't want to leave.

 

 

I took both the kids to the kids club afterwards and then we got ready for our first formal night.

There were two formal nights on the cruise and Monday night was the first one. 

It was fun to get all dressed up and the kids looked so cute. 

And the food was delicious. 

Benson loved his life so much. He got a huge ice cream sundae and it was as big as him. He loved it so much. 

We were cracking up watching this silly boy. 

After dinner, we took our formal night picture. 

We also got to meet the captain of our ship 

Tanner felt sick again during dinner, but he really wanted to meet the captain. So he rallied, shook the captain's hand and then went back to bed. 

Captain John was so nice. But Tucker got very concerned when he realized the captain wasn't driving the ship. He asked the captain "If you are here, then who is driving the boat?".

The captain laughed out loud and reassured Tucker that he boat was in good hands. 

After dinner the kids went to the kids club and Mimi stayed in our room so Benson could sleep. 

Chris and I were able to explore the ship and go for a walk on the upper deck.

We found a nice quiet spot and were able to enjoy some alone time together. 

The next day (Tuesday) was my favorite excursion day. The ship ported in Cozumel and we got off to play and explore.  While we waited for our bus, we played around the port. 

 

 

 

 

We had a day at the Chankanaab resort booked and it was amazing. We had so much fun.

Mimi, Tanner, Bailey and I booked a dolphin excursion and it was my favorite part of the cruise.

Swimming with dolphins has always been a bucket list item for me so this was literally a dream come true. I loved it so much. My smile was out of control the entire time. I can't help but smile when I look at these pictures because it was such an amazing experience. 

Bailey ended up going first and I couldn't believe how brave she was. She rode 'belly to belly" first and did so great. You have to float with your arms out wide and when the dolphin swims by, you grab onto her fins and she pulls you on her belly. Bailey did so great. She loved it!

Then Tanner had a turn. He rode "belly to belly" and then on the boogie board while the dolphin pushed his feet. So cool!

I love this one. Look at the dolphin behind him!

Then Bailey rode on the boogie board. 

Next I got to play with the dolphin. Watch out for my huge smiles. They are out of control. 

And Mimi had a turn. She was a little nervous at first, but ended up loving it. 

After everyone swam with the dolphins we got to do some more interactions.

First up was Bailey.

Then Tanner had a turn. He wasn't super into kissing the dolphin but he enjoyed the rest of it. 

I got to go next. I LOVED it!

After Mimi's turn, we took a group picture and played a little bit more. 

After our dolphin excursion, we got to do a manatee interaction. Then we met back up with Dad, the younger boys and Grandpa and we all swam at pool. The pool workers kept bringing us virgin pina coladas and that made the kids so happy. They are big fans of pina coladas .

Benson fell asleep on Dad's chest while we played. Poor kid was missing his nap time. 

These kid had so much fun playing marco polo in the pool and swimming with Mimi. 

And then it was more pina colada. 

Then we went to watch the sea lion show. It was so cute. The kids loved it and had their picture taken with the sea lion afterwards. 

After the sea lion show we went to eat lunch. They had a yummy buffet prepared for us and everyone ate tons! We had really worked up an appetite. 

We snagged a picture by the "Cozumel" sign and then picked out souvenirs for each kid. 

And then one picture in front of the "Chankanaab" resort waterfall. 

Then we hopped the bus back to the port and boarded our ship.

We ate dinner that night in our dining room and then kids went to the kid's club after they finished their meals. That left us with some adult time at dinner. It was nice.

On our second excursion day (Wednesday) we had to tender into the port at the Grand Cayman Island. It was a beautiful island that is ruled by the Queen of England.

Here we are on the boat tendering into the port. 

Unfortunately, our tour group was delayed an hour and we spent an hour in the sun waiting to go on our stingray and star fish excursion. The kids were so tired and hot. 

It was rough for a bit.  Tucker took such good care of Benson and let him rest of his lap. It was pretty adorable. 

Eventually we got on our bus and made it to the dock where we got on a little boat that took us to stingray city. Sadly, because we got their late, it was super busy. We got to see some stingrays and pet them and play but it was very crowded. 

We loved these cool snorkling masks. The kids got to get an up close and personal view of the stingrays. 

We did snag a couple of group pictures. 

 Oh and I love this one of Bailey kissing the stingray. 

Then we got back on our little boat and went to "Starfish Point"

The little boys fell asleep on Dad's lap on the way there.

This place was not busy and it was pretty cool. 

The little boys loved playing on the beach too. 

All too soon it was time to get back on our boat and go back to the port. 

It was a bit of a long day in the sun.

We decided to get some refreshing coconuts at the port. 

Then we did some souvenir shopping and then tendered back to the ship. 

We were all a little tired after our day, but we made it to dinner and the kids wanted to go to the kids' club. Deveney kept Benson for us and let him sleep. It was so nice. She needed to do homework every night so while she worked on her computer in our room, Benson got to sleep. Benson did really enjoy the towel animals on our bed each night. 

So with Benson asleep and the kids at kid's club, Chris and I went to a variety show and it was amazing. It was just a juggler and he was hilarious. We were laughing so hard. 

 

We all passed out hard that night and slept really hard. 

Our last port day (Thursday) we docked in Jamaica. Because of a travel advisory, we hadn't booked any excursions here. But we did get off the ship and explore the port.

The kids each a souvenir and we bought Mimi some rum cakes.

We shopped the craft market and the kids found so many cool things there. 

 

Then I ended up taking the kids back to ship and we went to the pool while Dad and Grandpa explored the port some more.

The kids really loved the glass elevators on the ship. Every time we stepped on they were glued to the windows. 

 

Tanner spent most of his time playing with friends he had made and riding the tube slides. He's old enough that I felt comfortable with him running back and forth between the pools and the slides. 

That night for dinner, all the kids wanted to go to kids club and eat there. All except Tanner. Benson fell asleep at the daycare and slept most of the time. So Chris and I just took Tanner to the dining room with us and Mimi and Grandpa. 

He felt like such a big kid. He loved it. 

He also loved ordering off the adult menu. He was so cute  ordering steak and shrimp cocktails. 

After we grabbed Benson for the daycare and laid him down in our room with Mimi watching him, we took Tanner to a comedy show. The show was hilarious and it was fun to spend time with Tanner one-on-one. 

After the show, we picked up the kids from kids' club and we all went to bed. We had a great time together. 

Day 6 was just a cruising day. It was so nice though. We spent the day playing at the pool, doing tube slides and ice skating. 

We started off our day at the "Windjammer" restaurant and ate a big breakfast. Our table overlooked the water completely and it was so fun. 

 Then it was off to the pool. Oh and ice cream cones. Always ice cream cones. 

Tucker loved the smaller tube slides in the splash pad area. 

More ice cream cones. 

Benson loved wearing his goggles everywhere he went. lol. He had red rings around his eyes for half the day. 

We  grabbed some pizza for lunch and went back to our room to change and go ice skating. 

Benson was too small to skate so he and I just watched as Dad took the kids. 

We just love this man. He's the best. 

Then it was time for more ice cream. I'm telling you- these kids ate approximately 10000 ice cream cones a day. 

Benson enjoyed multiple brain freezes due to his high ice cream cone consumption. 

Friday night we got to have another formal night. I kind of loved these nights. I always love any chance to coordinate my kiddos, so this was fun for me. 

We took so family pictures together but didn't have any professional pictures taken. 

Here are some of the kiddos. 

And a couple extra of Benson because he looked so cute in his white pants. 

 

Didn't Mimi and Grandpa look so cute together?

So we took our pictures and then we dropped Benson off at the daycare so we could enjoy our meal without the chaos that is Benson. I'm sorry to say that it was fantastic. We all enjoyed our meal in peace and quiet. 

I love this picture of Tanner getting his lobster tail cut. He was so thrilled with his meal. 

 

Some more of our at our formal night dinner. 

Tucker loved the shrimp cocktails so much! He would asked for multiple cocktails each night. 

We didn't sit next to Christie's family at dinners, but we did snag a picture together on our last formal night. 

When I booked the cruise last year, I had told her we were celebrating Chris' 40th birthday so one night they  brought Chris a little cake to celebrate. 

I just love this man. He's the best!

The next day was our last full day on the ship and we did our best to make the most of it. 

We got up and got breakfast and then immediately went rock climbing because we had a priority time so we had the wall mostly to ourselves. It was awesome. 

I was so proud of Bailey and Tanner for being so brave. Tanner even scaled the entire wall and got to ring the bell. 

You can see how high he was in this picture. It was so impressive. I climbed that same wall and rang that bell and it was hard. I was tired afterwards and Tanner climbed it twice. 

Here are the pics of Chris and I rock climbing too.

 

We had so much fun. Chris and I were both so sore later that day. 

After a morning climbing the rock wall, we went to play miniature golf. 

It was fun. I mostly just took pictures and watched Benson. 

Sure love this cute family of mine. 

Then it was back to kids club and then later to the pool. We spent so many hours at the pool. 

That night we had our last dinner and then we went back to our room and changed into our swimsuits and went down to the pool to watch a poolside movie- "Toy Story 3" at the pool. 

We moved back and forth between the hot tub and the pool most of the time.  Benson lasted about 1/3 of the way through the movie and then I took him back to the room while Chris and the big kids stayed to watch the whole thing. 

It was the perfect way to end our night and our cruise.
We had so much fun. We literally had the best time and we can't wait to go back. Although we will wait until Benson is a little older, so that we can't get past nap time and have everyone be tall enough for all the attractions and excursions. 

But we had so much fun. It was such a great vacation. The kids loved it, we loved it, Mimi and Grandpa loved it. It was awesome. We will definitely miss the food, the service, having our every need taken care of and everything else about the cruise.