Granted, I haven't updated this blog for awhile. But I'm here to do it today. Merry Christmas everyone! We just returned to Florida from an 8 day cruise to Cozumel, Panama and Costa Rica. The original plan was to go to Disney, but as time went on, and I heard the Christmas-Disney-crowd horror stories, we aborted and booked a last minute cruise.
We jumped in the van on Friday 12/18, picked the kids up from school early, and careened down to Ft Lauderdale. Here's an update on our trip, in case you're interested. If you're not, that's fine. Josh and Max will love to read this in 20 years. Pics in the album to your left.
---------------
The trip down in the car - about 12 hours total - was shockingly pleasant. The boys watched movies – Home Alone, Matilda, Power Rangers, etc. – and Gregg and I listened to music and a Stephen King book on tape (which had to be stopped the minute the movie was off, since it was so disgusting.) We drove til about 8pm and made it to north Orlando, where we crashed for the night and got up early the next morning to drive the rest of the way. It's soooo much easier driving with the boys now that they're a little older. Makes me hesitant to eschew all road trips now, as I have for the last seven years.
We drove to Mark and Sheri's house - and said hi to them and Ross and Jordyn, who just got home from school. Mark drove us to the port, which was a huge score because otherwise it would have been a big pain to park down there. And expensive.
Before we knew it, we were on board and exploring the ship. It was a good thing that we upgraded to a balcony since we ended up spending more time in the room than I would have imagined. Of course as soon as we opened the door, Josh – with disappointment - exclaimed, “This room is tiny!”
The rest of the afternoon was trying because the boys were out of control, flailing around the cabin, screaming, wrestling and hiding from us on the ship (NOT good.) There weren’t any real activities, so we had to find ways to occupy them until late-ish dinner. We had a snack and went to the kids club orientation. We couldn’t make it til the end of the program though, because Max was crazed and I worried he would inadvertently fling himself off the balcony during the presentation.
We had four days at sea - and three ports - which was great - the weather was gorgeous on all the sea days - the kids were crazy about the Kids Club (a fully staffed area sporting a non-stop litany of projects, games, contests, etc.) The ship was packed, which was a bummer only because it was difficult to find a quiet sunny spot to read, which is why we spent a good deal of time on our balcony.
The first stop was Cozumel - and the first time a ship I've been on was absolutely silent in it's approach to the dock. While we never managed to sleep past 7:30am any morning on the trip, it was nice to sleep through the 6am approach to the dock. But five minutes after looking out onto the port of Cozumel once we woke up, another Carnival ship - identical to ours - pulled up right next to us. So all the undressed, bleary-eyed people were staring out at one another.
In Cozumel we grabbed a horsedrawn carriage to drive us around town. We stopped a few times and had a great time. When a group of women tried to flag down our driver for a ride, we decided to jump out and walk the rest of the way back to the ship - which ended up being about a mile, longer than we thought.
Each night, the Kids Club had programs going until 3am. Unbelievable. The kids went every night, and loved it, but never stayed past 10 (Max) or 11 (Josh). They didn't complain since they were both delirious by the time we picked them up. Josh met a boy named Matias, who based on his accent, isn’t American, but who lives in Virginia. They proclaimed each other to be their “best friend.” A sweet notion, tainted only by Josh then asking “But you know what the bad news is? I’ll never see him again.” Aaaah . . he’ll do well at summer camp. By the second day, Max seemed to know every kid under the age of 6 who we saw around the ship - he was waving to and hugging them all throughout the trip.
The skies were gray the day we stopped in Limon, Costa Rica and we disembarked in the pouring rain. Immediately off the pier was a little market, and a town and a town center park with a little playground, a rocky ocean front and a local who pointed out some sloths to us in the trees - all of which was very cool. But within minutes, both boys were moaning about wanting presents from the tchochkey shops, Max said his shoe was scraping his foot, and Josh had to poop. Then Josh started crying because I wouldn’t let him use my (new) camera, and Max wouldn’t let Gregg carry him, nor would he walk. Meanwhile, it’s still drizzling, and now none of this is fun. So we dragged both boys back to the boat, where they had time out on their bunks, in silence, for 30 minutes. After a lecture, we went to lunch on the boat – and then Gregg and I went back to the town for beers while the kids were back in Kids Club (notice a theme?)
Panama was rainy too but we had a great day. The kids were really good throughout the excursion to the Gutan Locks on the Eastern end of the Panama Canal and Fort San Lorenz. The Panama Canal was amazing to see. Would love to go through it, since on this trip we only saw one set of locks as ships passed through. But it was still great to see. Unfortunately, the ship left at 4, so we didn't have a lot of extra time to check out the port area.
Our last two days on the ship were great as well – if you exclude the two knock down tempter tantrums Max had in 24 hours. One was in public which was highly embarrassing (until you reflect on the cast of characters on this boat, that is) – but involved kicking and screaming and sitting on the floor of the buffet area, and then biting my shirt (the good news? fabric vs. flesh.) I attributed that one to eating way too late (we were sitting down to lunch after 1pm) and being wildly overtired. The following morning, all was fine until we started getting ready to go to breakfast and he refused to put on his a) shirt b) shorts c) socks and then that was as far as he got. Josh and I left – and Max went wild in the room. We got some coffee and cereal to bring back and check on them and Max was still, 20 minutes later, wailing. And had bit a hole right through Gregg’s shirt!
Mama was right though - after some food and a three (!) hour nap - he was good as new.
In addition to all that, we did the usual other stuff - saw a few shows (which were much better than I was expecting - with a big band, dancing, singing, special effects, etc.), gambled a bit, ate too much, spent too much money, saw Santa, and met some nice people. It was the perfect amount of time – not too long and not too short - with a good blend of sea and port days. It was weird being off the grid - of course I had to buy a chunk of exorbitantly expensive internet minutes, I couldn't resist, but it was so difficult to get online it didn't quite count.
Now we're back, with still a good week + to relax until everyone is back to school and work.
Happy 2011!!
Recent Comments