My Mini Me: Caribbean Cruise

Navigator of the Seas

We just got back from our wonderful cruise on Saturday. It was awesome and we all had a blast. Here are some of the highlights from the trip.

Day 1
Got on the ship. Getting on the ship took a little while and Skylar was so excited about getting on the ship she was getting a little impatient. I have no idea where she gets that from. We checked out our room then explored the ship. They have the kid program called Adventure Ocean and we went and checked it out. It is basically a program designed for the kids so the parents can enjoy some adult time as well. At first I was like this is weird to leave our child in here with a bunch of complete strangers but Skylar kept asking if she could go to her class. So I took her the next day.... We went to our first dinner and they asked us if we could change tables and sit with a family. Originally it was supposed to be Jonathan, Skylar, Buck, Nicole and myself but they needed to fill up a table I guess. We agreed and were fine with it. Ha ha, it was a very interesting family. Much much much older than all of us and most of them were retired. It was a little awkward.

Day 2
BURR! It was very chilly and windy. I did not pack a jacket so I had to borrow one from Nicole. We just explored the ship some more and I took Skylar to her little class from 9-12. She had so much fun and each day she went she got a little prize and they did a really cool project they got to take with them as well. The security and teacher background was probably better there than her own school so I felt good about leaving her there. This was a very interesting night at dinner. Dinner started at 6:00 and we showed up around 5:45 ish I believe. So there were 5 people in our party and the other family had 6, we show up to dinner and they had split the table with how they were sitting. So the night before our 5 all sat together on one end and they all sat together but for some dumb reason they all sat in the middle of the table leaving 4 seats available on one end and 2 available on the other. You do the math. Not enough for all of us to sit together. So our friends Buck and Nicole sat down on the other end. It was a very awkward dinner for sure. It felt like it lasted 7 hours. I kept giving my friend Nicole the look. Needless to say we made it to dinner every night after that at 5:30, right when the doors opened. We made sure to beat them there.

Day 3- Cozumel, Mexico
We got off the ship around 7:30 ish and explored a little in some of the shops then went to Playa Mia which is a private beach and spent our day there. It was really nice and great weather. Finally felt warm and sunny out. The ocean and pools were still a little chilly but Skylar of course did not care about that.I also discovered the coolest store ever, Del Sol. It is amazing! Their clothes and everything in the store changes colors when it gets in the sun. Nicole and I even bought the nail polish. You paint it on blue and it turns pink when it gets into the sun. AWESOME!! I went a little crazy in that store.

Day 4- Georgetown, Grand Cayman
We decided to do our excursion in Grand Cayman. Surprisingly enough they did not have a lot of options for Skylar's age. I have always wanted to swim with dolphins and the others wanted to see the sea turtles so we found a really cool excursion that we were able to do both. Skylar was super excited about the dolphins. So we get to the place and our guide speaks not so good English and he sends me and Sky out first. Skylar was supposed to do the "belly ride" first and I was supposed to ride the boogie board. So Skylar and I swam out to the end of the pool and tried to listen to the non speaking English man give us directions. That was funny. So the dolphin comes to get Sky and she tries to hold onto her fins and I am too, it was a disaster. She got scared and starting crying so we were unsuccessful. Probably was not the best idea to send the four year old first. She just sat and watched the rest of the time but we all had a good time. It was awesome to finally be able to hang out and swim with a beautiful dolphin. And the sea turtle farm was ssssoo cool. We actually got to pick them up and hold them. Then we went to Margaritaville for lunch, also fun! That island was so pretty, the water was crystal clear and we had to take a tender boat from the ship because there was not a place to dock. One of my favorite days and places of the trip!

Day 5- Falmouth, Jamaica
Ya Mon! We were actually quite lazy this day. We slept in and watched The Lorax on tv. I have been to Jamaica before and it was not anything special. So I did not care much about getting off the ship, but decided to anyways to get a few souvenirs. Jonathan was lazy and took a nap so Skylar and I ventured out without him. It was not bad and when we got back on the ship in the elevator I said to Skylar and other people listening, "Well glad no one got kidnapped today!" It was kind of funny and made a few people chuckle. We played mini golf once we got back onto the ship. It was a nice relaxing day.

Day 6
We were back at sea so stayed pretty chill on the boat, we did a few activities and went swimming for a while. We went ice skating which was fun and swam in the pool for a few hours. I was pretty excited about playing volleyball in a tournament they had and got all ready and was pumped but then it was way too windy so I did not get to play. I was a little bummed about that but I knew it would not have been fun with all the wind.

Day 7
Heading home. It was way too cold and windy to do anything so we just stayed inside and packed all of my 27 bags up. Got off the ship the next day around 7:00 am.

We had a great time even though the weather was a little chilly and windy. One of my favorite parts was the towel animals they make for you each night. It is always so exciting when you walk in your room and see them made and dressed up with your accessories. The whole staff treated Skylar like a queen. They absolutely loved her. We got to know a few of them and just love them. We already miss them. It was nice because there were only 100 kids on board so it was not crowded with kiddos, however there were a lot of older people. But it was a good mix. Skylar enjoyed the ice show, acrobats, comedy show and variety show. She was very very good. Glad to be home though. Although I miss people waiting on me at dinner and making my bed and cleaning my room, but that's okay. I just have to do it myself I guess.