Day 1 - Welcome Aboard
Day 2 - At Sea
Day 3 - Cozumel We all went out kayaking together, three in a kayak. Other than the jellies, we saw one school of tiny silver fish. We did see some cool tropical fish right off the port when we got off the ship. John swam back out to the inflatables with the older kids, who had a lot of fun doing that. And we made it back onto the ship before it rained.
Arthur wanted to see the princesses when John mentioned it, so after dinner we saw Ariel and Belle. Belle was wearing a beautiful Christmas dress.
Maggie is ordering every seafood item on the menu, and I’m enjoying my nightly Mickey bar.
Day 4 - Grand Cayman
We barely made it back in time to clean up for Pirate Mardi Gras dinner. Arthur was obsessed with Tiana at the restaurant. It was adorable. He was concerned that she lost a feather from her boa. She said to him, “What’s your name, honey?”
After dinner, we waited in line to meet Pirate Chip and Dale, and Pirate Mickey. The Pirate Mickey family picture is one of my favorites from the whole trip.
Day 5 - Jamaica
The other thing we did was take a chair lift up Mystic Mountain. It started raining in the middle of the ride. Fun times. Luckily we were wearing swim suits, and already drenched from the waterfall. We didn't have time to do any of the Mystic Mountain activities besides eat. We barely made it back to the boat in time as it was. John and Maggie did not. Their bus was over an hour late, and that was with a police escort.
We got to greet Santa and enjoy a brief snow shower. That night Arthur wouldn’t go to sleep. When John and I got back from working out/hot tubbing late at night, the room was a mess and the first thing he said was, “I ate Santa’s cookie.”
Day 6 - Christmas at Sea
We went to an adult brunch that morning, with all sorts of delicious things. I ate so much food. That afternoon we saw Frozen musical and Dalton went to the first of many magic workshops.
Day 7 - Last Sea Day
After the cruise, we spent a few days in Houston. We first went to the Texas City dike for look for sea glass. The beach was covered in trash, some of which was glass, some of which was frosted. Kind of disappointed. Nathan and Ashley came down and we stopped at Buc-ee's on the way to their house, for lunch and treats. We spent most of our time with their family binge-watching The Mandalorian, playing Boggle, and eating tacos.
One day John took the older kids to see Jumanji 2 with his brother, so Ashley and I took the little kids to explore downtown Houston. We went to Penzey's spices, a cool nursery, saw some murals and went to a fun park, after the kids voted against the aquarium. We also had more tacos (yes) and fancy ice cream.
The last part of our trip was spent with our good friends, the Walkers. It was so great to see them. We took a long walk, played Big Boggle, and stayed up way too late talking. The kids got along terrifically as well.
Sat Jan 04 2020 10:05 Caribbean Christmas Cruise:
Cruise Notes
The first day i had two Mickey ice cream bars.
We had the exciting opportunity to see the new Star Wars movie premiere on board! Our rooms were right above the main theater, so it was so close. The kids went in their pajamas. Arthur watched 1 1/2 hours of the movie, which was fantastic. he movie was great, but it was especially excited to see it on opening day.
Apparently the sea is rough in the Gulf of Mexico in the winter. We had scheduled a Disney junior breakfast. Sienna threw up. Luckily she got to meet Vampirina at least.
Maggie and i were also sick. But I had a fun afternoon sipping ginger ale and making up Disney ship names with Maggie on deck 4.
For our Cozumel excursion, we did a Beach break at a resort with inflatable water slides and obstacle course out in the ocean, pool with slides and tons of baby slides, all you can drink, and all you can eat, kayaking, and more. I carried Sienna on my back out to the inflatables, which she hated. Got dunked in the ocean on our way back, and then she got stung by a jellyfish. I think they were moon jellies. The paramedic sprayed it with vinegar and put some cream on it and the swelling and itching went away, and she had a strawberry daiquiri that helped the rest. Luckily, she freaked out a lot less about being stung than she did being worried about being stung.
We took it easy this morning, with breakfast at the actual restaurant, and a couple loads of laundry. Then we dropped the little two off at kids club and headed over to Grand Cayman Island. Unfortunately, the snuba tour we had scheduled got canceled. We were able to get on a tour to Stingray City, but we sat around waiting on the hot, humid sun for an hour in the meantime. I thought the stingrays were awesome. We took a bus, then a boat, out there. We stood around in waist deep water, snorkeling with them, petting them, and I even got to hold one. It felt like a heavy slippery dog trying to dance with me.
Christmas Even in Jamaica! We split up on this day, so John could take Maggie horseback riding in the Caribbean Sea. The younger kids and I went to Dunn' River Falls, where we climbed up a 160 foot waterfall that empties into the Caribbean Sea. Our group all held hands in a line and there was a guide (and some dads) to help, otherwise I never would have made it with Sienna and Arthur. It was so cool though, hiking up a waterfall in the middle of the jungle. Maggie and John also did that as part of their tour.
Santa came, of course, hiding the kids small presents around our rooms. After that we went to wait in line to see him. While we waited in line, John took the kids to gingerbread cookie decorating.
In the morning, we went to the pool and enjoyed the waterslides to ourselves before it got crowded. Then we saw Frozen 2 in the packed movie theater. John and I continued out gym/hot tub dates at night. So convenient.