Friday 2.14.2020 – Abby’s final basketball game of the
season, so we didn’t leave until Saturday morning
Saturday 2.15 – Driving day!
Last minute packing [although the kids and I had done a lot on Friday]
and showering and whatnot. Left a few
mins after 10. Lunch at a Chick-fil-a
somewhere south of Atlanta. Easy drive,
no traffic trouble, made it to Grandma and Grandpa’s in Land O Lakes by 5:30 or
so. Yummy meatloaf dinner and the NBA
three point and slam dunk contests on in the background.
Sunday – in LOL – big breakfast, running, golf-carting,
biking for Ryan, etc. Cleaned up and headed
to Tampa to see Laura and family [grandma and grandpa had plans]. Lots of fun playing with cousins and Aunt
Lolly made a really yummy lamb gyro dinner followed by fried oreos! Nice visiting with them!
Monday morning – we left from LOL for the east coast! I-4 traffic is never fun, esp near Disney,
but we made it. I braided the girls’
hair while Coleson drove. We ate lunch
at Subway in Cape Canaveral, followed by a few minutes at Manatee Park on the
river. Love the east coast – felt like
home :) water, palm trees, beautiful weather.
Then it was time to head to the boat!!!
We parked and had a great view of the ship out the parking garage. It was easier than I thought to get everyone
on board [birth certificates for the kids and I, but easy peasy]. And apparently since we booked a suite, we’re
VIPs, so we got to go in the short line.
We got to our awesome room at 1:30.
Carnival is probably a little lower on the totem pole, if you know what
I mean, but we were able to get our junior suite with a balcony for less then
an interior on other cruise lines. And
our room was worth it! We explored the
boat and stood up top to watch our departure from Port Canaveral. All you can eat ice cream!! Putt putt.
We dressed up for dinner in the dining room. It was open seating, but we requested Rico
every time, he was great. We came back
to our room to our first towel animal – a duck.
Our room stewardess was Nia and she was wonderful and I was amazed that
she always remembered our names [well, except for the more-often-then-not mix
up for Abby and Chloe, but hey we all do it from time to time, hehe]
Tuesday – 2.18 – fun day at sea. Yummy breakfast – all you can eat everything
was fun. We went to a Dr Seuss parade,
but it was only so-so, so we broke away from that. The kids put on bathing suits, and they did a
couple of the smaller slides. Ryan and
Abby made it about halfway up the spiral staircase for the tall one before turning
around. They love water slides [Great
Wolf Lodge three months ago!], but they said it was crazy windy. And cold.
We didn’t last long before cleaning up and putting on dry clothes. 80* is great until you are trying to swim in
an unheated pool with insanely high winds!
We walked the boat some more, ventured into gift shops, rode the glass
elevators, ate food. This was the only evening
we didn’t eat in the dining room – it was formal night and that just didn’t
happen for us. Packing those types of
clothes and accessories for five people to wear one night just didn’t seem
worth it. We ate pizza instead! And Coleson and I took turns in the fitness center. I was really bummed there wasn’t a running
track around the top of the boat, and we were all bummed there was no
basketball court. We watched two PG
rated comedians – well Coleson and Chloe only watched the first one before she
went back for bed.
Wednesday – the Dominican Republic! This was nice because we didn’t arrive until
11am, so we were able to leisurely get up and eat breakfast and watch our
arrival from the top decks. The Dominican
Republic is beautiful!!!! So gorgeous as
we arrived – mountains and tropical rainforest and pretty beaches and even
those new fancy windmills that make you think you are in Oklahoma. The mountains do apparently make frequent rain
showers and we experienced one as we ran off the boat. But it didn’t last more than maybe ten mins. We went straight to our Monkey Land
tour. Our guides were great, everyone we
came across was really nice. Monkey Land
was amazing. Poor Abby worked herself up
and was pretty scared of the monkeys, but the rest of us loved every minute of
it. There were about thirty of us in our
group and we sat along a bench inside the monkey park. The guides gave us fruit dishes for the
monkeys to come eat out of. And then
they put sunflower seeds [a yummy treat!] on our shoulders, in our hair, etc. So the little squirrel monkeys were jumping
all over us and from person-to-person. I’ll
give Abby that it was a bit overwhelming, but I loved it. There are maybe two dozen monkeys and if I
remember correctly eight more babies.
The babies were the best – they’d hang on their mommys’ backs. One was even sleeping the whole time that
Momma was jumping around. It was such a
cool experience, and yes, we even got pooped on. Despite not liking the living monkeys, Abby got
a stuffed monkey souvenir that she proudly and lovingly wore around her neck
the rest of the trip :) She named him
Cocoa after the cocoa beans that they grow in the Dominican, and we also
realized later that it doubled for our port/ Mommy’s hometown- Cocoa Beach! Great name, Abs!
After the monkeys, the second part of the excursion was some
sort of taste of the Dominican thing. Almost
like a living museum, complete with a staged house and outdoors area. It was a little odd, and I’ll confess, a
little boring. But we got to sample
quite a few things including coconut water, sugar cane, Dominican coffee, and
some sort of mamajama alcoholic thing that tasted a little like wine and a
little like cough syrup and I never really decided if I actually liked it or
not. The ride back to the port was so
beautiful. I did enjoy that we at least
got to see a little of the countryside and the cities, even if it was from our
huge, charted, air-conditioned bus. Everywhere
we went, I felt catered to, and I didn’t enjoy that feeling, I wish that
somehow we could have truly experienced more of the countries we visited,
instead of feeling like an awkward rich white American the whole time. But it was all good and the monkeys were cute
and it was safe and kid friendly and all that stuff. The ports are these fenced-in touristy traps,
but we explored our Amber Cover port for a bit after the bus returned us. Some pictures and souvenirs and a few minutes
at the fun little waterpark area. The
kids rode some great slides, and I got my hair braided. then back on the boat. A new cute towel animal and we dressed up for
dinner in the dining room with Rico. Abby
and Chloe ate a lot of chicken nuggets and spaghetti, but Coleson and Ryan and
I did a pretty good job of being adventurous.
Coleson had steak, pork chops, that sort of thing a couple of
times. Ryan ordered off the adult menu-
ribs, lasagna, etc. I had fish
twice. And Coleson and I both had the
special port of call meals a couple of times – local yummy food, usually chicken,
rice, beans. And appetizers and desserts
of course.
Wednesday is still going – after dinner we went to the
Hasbro Game Show show. Super proud of
our brave and confident Ryan! The announcer
said he would be picking contestants that did something unique and caught his
attention. Ryan jumped up and started
doing the floss [a dance that’s all the rage with the cool kids]. He was the first one picked! He participated in a connect four basketball
game. Unfortunately his team lost, but
it was so much fun to watch him and I think he really enjoyed it, he said he wasn’t
nervous or scared at all to be up on stage like that. I wish I had pulled out the phone in time to
video his floss, but I did get everything else on video, love it. [and I loved that my phone was nothing more
than a camera the whole trip. That and
the Carnival app. Nothing else worked,
the phone was on airplane mode the whole time].
Thursday, 2.20 – Turks and Caicos – this was an earlier port
time [maybe 8:30?], so we watched the arrival from our balcony room, ate a
quick breakfast, and ran out to meet our snorkeling excursion group. Lots of sunscreen and then we boarded a small
boat with three guides and maybe 25-30 of us.
We rode out about ten minutes before our first snorkeling stop. Abby may not have liked monkeys, and Chloe sure
didn’t like snorkeling. One tour guide
in particular was awesome with her – his name tag said Happy although he always
referred to himself as Handsome Happy. And
he was great with the kiddos that weren’t doing so great. Chloe had a thin little life vest thing [we
all did] as well as a pool noodle and clung to Happy’s life ring thing. Poor thing wouldn’t even try to put her head
in. Abby LOVED it! Ryan took a couple of minutes, but he got the
hang of it and was really enjoying it.
We snorkeled around for about half an hour I think, before climbing back
on the boat and riding a couple of minutes to a second spot where we snorkeled
for another half an hour probably. This time
we made Chloe come stay with us instead of Happy, and we took turns keeping one
hand on her pool noodle while snorkeling.
It was fun – but it sure is different snorkeling as a parent. This was one of those times when I felt like
three kids definitely outnumbers two parents.
I was counting to three a lot :)
Abby’s bright red shorts helped a lot.
It was nice that both our snorkeling boat and the Monkeyland bus the day
before had beverages – I was worried ahead of time that I’d be thirsty, but
there was lots of good water everywhere we were. And usually coffee and juices too. On our way back to the port, we saw dolphins. Extra cool since Chloe had recently informed
us that she now loves dolphins. One of her
Turks and Caicos souvenirs is a dolphin keychain for her back pack. Once we were returned to shore, we walked for
a few minutes and Chloe played in the pool area. We got back on the boat to change into dry
clothes and eat some lunch, before returning to shore for some walking and
shopping. And a Starbucks coffee for me. A new sting ray towel animal, Daddy flying
the kiddos down the stairs, a full rainbow over the port as we pulled away – perfect
view of it from our balcony, more ice cream, putt putt, wine on the balcony at
sunset, “sunset heart hands!!” We
dressed up again for the dining room and even went to several of the photo
spots on the boat for photo shoots. This
was fun, at least for Mommy, and in the end we bought two awesome
pictures. I don’t think we saw any shows
this night – probably just hgtv, hehe!! It
was definitely nice having a bigger room.
We could regroup and rest in there.
The kids played hide and seek quite a few times. Watched hgtv.
Coleson and I would read on the balcony.
I actually finished a whole book!
Friday – fun day at sea
- Green Eggs and Ham breakfast for the girls and I! This was an extra, but totally worth it. And I actually ordered the green eggs and
ham, and they were really, really good.
And oh the coffee. So much better
than the free stuff that’s readily available at the drink stations. Good coffee, I had a lot of it :) Thing One and Thing Two were there, and then
Sam-I-Am and the Cat in The Hat. Abby
was funny – the eggs are just food coloring.
And Thing One and Thing Two are really leaving because the people have
to change into Sam and the Cat. Based on
the two other groups that we shared a table with, I think this meal is all for
my generation!! The four of us that were
parent-aged seemed to really enjoy it.
The kids were fine, but I think a little bored, and I even overheard the
other girl say the same thing Abby did about it was all just food
coloring. And the grandma in the other
party couldn’t have cared less.
Interesting to me. I remember
thinking the same thing at Disney a few years ago – I think they cater to our
generation [probably because we’re the ones paying!]. I love that Disney has so many rides and experiences
based on the movies of the 90s – Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the
Beast. Anyways, shocker I know, but I digress. Back to the boat! Daddy and Ryan ate breakfast and went to a
paper-airplane making event while we were at breakfast. A heart shaped towel. Puzzles – we would pick up the daily crossword
and sudoku and those were fun to work on.
Ryan took a ton of pictures on my phone.
More hgtv. Another run on the
treadmill for me – this time it was daylight so I could watch the waves. Coleson took the kids to the putt putt area,
but it was so windy they had brought the supplies inside and actually made them
leave shortly after they go there. We
dressed up for dinner again, and Coleson and I splurged on real drinks this
evening – a margarita for him and Bahama Mama for me. They were really good. Alcohol and Cokes were extra. Oh and there were two violinists who played in
the atrium lobby every evening. They were
really good, very upbeat, electric. We
thought it was quite humorous that they were playing the “near, far, wherever you
are” theme song from Titanic as we left the dining room this evening. Really, who plays that song on a cruise
ship?!! We went to the PG comedians
again this evening. Chloe promptly curled
up in my lap and was asleep before the first one even started, so that was nice
and we stayed for both shows [until almost 10?]. It was the same two guys as a few nights
before. We all really enjoyed the Cowboy
Comedian. He was funny and down to earth
[maybe because he’s a southern redneck and more relatable to us?!] and best of
all he had new material. The other one,
Dennis Gaines, repeated his show from the night before. Seems odd to me that you only do two PG shows
the whole week to pretty much the same audience and you do the same show. He had some funny stuff, but we also thought
he was pretty condescending. Oh well. And then we hit the waves! Oh my goodness. Somehow Chloe, who wakes up for everything at
home, slept through it all. We were
rocking and rolling. Nobody threw up or
anything, thankfully, but it was awful.
Coleson looked it up later – the waves were 16-20 feet high that
night! And we were about an hour and a
half late getting to Port Canaveral the next morning because we had to slow
down so much to compensate. And it was
windy! It took us awhile to fall asleep
and then none of us [except Chloe] slept well.
I was so happy to be back on solid land the next morning.
Saturday, 2.22 – Port Canaveral. We arrived quite a bit later than expected because
of the waves the night before. We ate
breakfast on the Lido Deck again, and of course all the buzz was the waves. We packed up and eventually headed off. Again, it was great being a suite/vip – we got
to leave early, woohoo. Once happily
back to our car, we were free! We went
to Ron Jon’s first and spent a pretty penny there. I love Ron Jon’s – even though I don’t have a
lot of memories, it’s my hometown! And speaking
of hometown, after Ron Jon’s and some real coffee at a Dunkin’ Donuts, we drove
by our Covina St house. It looked surprisingly
good. I was brought home to that house
and lived there until I was five. I’d
love to see our Palm Bay house again sometime soon too, but it was about 45
mins away in the wrong directions, and we just didn’t have it in us by
then. We started the journey across the
state, stopping at a service plaza in the middle of the turnpike for just a little
food/lunch. Waaayyy too much to eat all
week on the boat! And oddly enough, the
boat itself never really bothered us, so I don’t know if was the storm or just
a normal adjusting to land again, but boy or boy were we dizzy and rocking. Everything was swaying. We made it back to Maya and Grandma and Grandpa
at maybe 3:30. Almost immediately, the
girls were taking out braids and then long, hot showers with lots of conditioner! Coleson and I walked dogs, running was out of
the question anyways for me and my sea legs.
Laura and the family came over, and the cousins played and played and we
ate a yummy dinner of burgers and baked beans.
My throat really started to hurt bad as the evening went on. And then Chloe ended up in our bed in the
middle of the night crying about her throat too. So that really worried me since we both had
the same symptoms! Fortunately, Chloe claims
to have been totally fine once she woke up and hasn’t had any more issues. My throat got better, but now several days
later, I am losing my voice and I cough occasionally and this morning I woke up
congested. Hopefully it’ll pass quickly!
Sunday – Coleson and Mom walked the dogs, Grandpa made breakfast,
we packed up, I made sandwiches, etc, before we hit the road about 9:15. Bringing lunches worked really well – they could
eat when they were ready and it saved time and money and all that jazz. We finally stopped at Carroll’s for the first
time and got three different types of sausages.
Gas, bathroom, coffee, nothing too major, and we were home about 5:15 or
so. And let me tell you – leaving sunny
and 80* and returning to dreary and 40s was NOT fun. Driving across Gaddis and that dead golf
course was just ugly :) I had hoped a few signs of spring would have appeared
while we were gone, but nope. I love our
community and our schools and the sports and the kids’ friends, but man oh man,
sometimes [mostly in January and February] I wish could just run away to a tropical
island. And thus coming back from one
was extra hard! But it’s all good, we
love it here! We unpacked, and I did a
million and one loads of laundry, and we ate pizza and frozen veggies for
dinner – no milk or anything fresh in the house after over a week. A decent bedtime Sunday night!! And back to reality Monday morning, not a lot
of recovery time. But what a great getaway!! I loved it and I have zero regrets. I’m not jumping up and down at the idea of
another cruise again soon, but I wouldn’t rule it out either. It was great to be together and try new
things and pet monkeys. And not having
to worry about cooking or cleaning up afterwards was AMAZING. I think I’d like to try an all-inclusive beach
resort type of thing with the kids sometime; that might be fun and maybe
provide a little relief from the rocking and the confines of the boat.
