Where to begin!? Our Disney Caribbean cruise is the type of trip we don't take very often. We loved it, and we will probably do it again...but not for a while.
It was Anika's first time on an airplane, and she was a little nervous. My arm ended up numb from her squeezing it so hard during take off and landing.
The ports we stopped at (Grand Cayman and Cozumel) were probably the favorite part for everyone. But on the ship, I think everyone had different favorites. For me and Jon it was the amazing dinners and the shows.
We ended up sitting with a family from Chicago with 3 girls (the youngest being 12). We got along really well with them. For some reason politics came up every dinner, and luckily we had the same views on everything discussed....but it led to some very bored kids!
The lady that served us drinks was really nice and thought it was quite funny that Jon ordered chocolate milk every night. Not the typical alcoholic drinks every other adult enjoyed.
Our head waiter was....different. He was from India and VERY difficult to understand. I don't think he appreciated our kids love of plain food. Yes, they ordered plain noodles or cheeseburgers every night. But they're KIDS. Who cares? Apparently, he does. Oh well.
We really liked how Disney does their dinners. We got to rotate between 3 different restaurants. One was called Animators Palate. The room started out black and white. There were drawings all over the walls, and paint brush pillars. As the dinner progressed, more and more color showed up in the drawings until it was all in color by the end. Another restaurant was Parrot Cay, which was a fun sort of sailor theme, and the other was King Triton's, a French restaurant. Jon and I were brave and tried escargot that night. Not as bad as I thought, having the taste totally overpowered by a garlic sauce. Definitely not something I would pay to eat any other place!
Tanner's favorite thing was the sports court. Older teenagers and adults took over the basketball courts, and left the soccer court for the younger kids. Nathan and Tanner made friends on the ship and played handball every chance they could get. It was fun to see them walking through the ship and having kids stop and say hi and talk about when they were going to meet up for another game. Nathan had fun there, but also loved the tween hangout. At first he really didn't want to try it, but when he finally did, he discovered it was lots of fun. They played gender wars, lots of X-Box, had scavenger hunts throughout the ship, etc. He made lots of friends, and met up with them a bunch of times to just hang out. No adults allowed, and no younger siblings allowed.
The first night we were out to sea, Jon told the kids they could stay up as late as they wanted...thinking that they would be totally exhausted by about 10:00 or 11:00. Nope. 12:30 or 1:00 we were dragging them off the sport court.
Anika's favorite part was definitely the pools. Every chance she got, she was in the water. If she wasn't in the water, she was asking us when she could get back in. We tried to get her to go to a kids club with Tanner one day, where they were making flubber. They called us a few minutes after it started, saying she wanted to be picked up. We totally forgot about her weakness to certain textures. Flubber was one of those textures, and she was gagging just thinking about it (she HATES the texture of balloons, sticky hands, etc--they make her throw up.)
A side note here: Tanner was so excited for the cruise because he could swim, get out of the water when he was hungry, get a slice of free pizza, and get back in the water. He didn't swim as much as I thought, but he did eat more food than I expected. If you wanted to find him, you just had to park yourself near the pool. Within five minutes you would see him with either a slice of pizza, or a soft serve ice cream cone in hand.
A side note here: Tanner was so excited for the cruise because he could swim, get out of the water when he was hungry, get a slice of free pizza, and get back in the water. He didn't swim as much as I thought, but he did eat more food than I expected. If you wanted to find him, you just had to park yourself near the pool. Within five minutes you would see him with either a slice of pizza, or a soft serve ice cream cone in hand.
Each night they had movies playing at one of the pools on a big screen. The boys never wanted to stop playing handball to watch, but Anika enjoyed a few shows.
Because we were off doing our own things so much of the time, we insisted that we sit each night as a family, drink some hot chocolate, and play some cards or just talk about the day.
The kids enjoyed getting to the room each night after dinner to see what towel animal was made for us.
Pirate night was lots of fun. They had a "Pirates IN the Caribbean" show with Mickey fighting captain hook. We made sure we brought lots of glow sticks for the night, and had a great party, complete with fireworks and great music.
The ports were our favorite part. It was great to have the whole day as a family, and not having the kids want to run off the do their own thing. Our first stop was Grand Cayman, which is British owned. It was Anika's first time being out of the country. It was fun to see the kids faces as we drove on the wrong side of the road (the boys don't remember that from living in England).
Waiting for the fun to begin!
We took a trip out to Sting Ray city. It's a sand bar out in the ocean where fisherman used to dump their fish remains. The sting rays started gathering every time they heard the boat motor. Now it's a big tourist place where people go to swim with sting rays. Nathan and Anika were really hesitant about the whole thing (because the Crocodile Hunter died from being stung by a sting ray.) Tanner LOVED it. He was out there giving them kisses. I got a "back massage" from one of them (the guy that took us out held one up and had it flop its fins on my back). After we finished there we went out to another spot and snorkled. I couldn't believe how clear the water was, and just how many beautiful fish we could see.
Anika was pretty scared of the sting ray experience, and ended up hyperventilating. Then she threw up off the side of the boat, and was fine after that.
The kids really loved just riding on the catamaran. We ended up being with a big family group from Saratoga Springs, and Grace Idaho, of all places!
After snorkeling, they took us one a little tour of the ocean front properties. I loved seeing all the beautiful homes, each one with different architecture. They had little water streets with each home having a dock that connected to the ocean.
After our adventure, we went shopping for some souvenirs. Nathan found a hand stitched Michael Jordon jersey for less then half the price that it goes for in the U.S. He was so thrilled and wore it the rest of the cruise.
Our next day was in Cozumel, which is a little island off the coast of Mexico. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. Last year Jon and I went to Cabo, and I was expecting to see the same thing. Desert, dirty, and poor. I was pleasantly surprised. It was very clean...but still the same. I had a blast watching the kids faces as we walked through the market and had people calling out to them trying to barter. "You like, you like? $10. Ok...for you $5" They thought it was great.
Here's the front of our ship. In the water just below them, right before this picture, we spotted a 5 foot long barricuda. Did I mention how amazingly beautiful and crystal blue the water is in the Caribbean? So beautiful and WARM.
We wanted to take the kids to see the Mayan ruins. But the excursion to get to the big ones on the main land would have taken hours of traveling to get to. So we decided to go to a smaller temple on the island. Still Mayan ruins, which they thought was cool. Real Nephite/Lamanite buildings.
Tanner's favorite part was all the lizards and iguanas roaming free everywhere. Yes, he took about 100 pictures.
It was interesting to listen to the tour guide explaining what all the buildings were for at the temple. The men and women sat separated with the women on the left and men on the right.
They had a special spot with a calendar and believed that one day their Savior would come back and they would look for him coming in the sky from the East. hmmm.....everyone is standing looking looking East and watching....
After the temple, we took a ride around the island in our bus. It was interesting to see how the island changed as you got farther from the port. Houses got smaller and smaller until you got to small shacks. The entire island was jungle...but not the type of jungle you picture from movies. The trees were very dense, but also short, brown, and very dry.
On the other side of the island was a beach club that we spent a few hours at. The kids had a great time climbing a huge inflatable iceberg, riding paddle boats, and paddling a kayak.
Overall, we had a great time. We definitely had less family together time than I thought we would have, which is both good and bad. The kids will never forget this trip. We all missed Calla like crazy. Sorry Calla! You'll go with us next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment