KerryAndGabe.com

I definitely prefer itineraries where the first full day is an “at sea” day. I do like the ports and excursions at times, but my favorite cruise days are sea days! Of course, if we did the same itinerary in the future, I’m pretty sure we would just pretend that Nassau was a sea day, but that’s another story.

The kids were restless at night again and we were all up around 6am. We had to be up early for the first of three DreamWorks character breakfasts (“Rise & Dine!”). The 8am start time is a bit harsh for all three at sea days, but most days we’re up with plenty of time to get ready anyway.

We had made our reservations weeks (months?) in advance. My parents had already gone in, and they were unsure of how many of our total 12 people were going to be at the table this morning. Because of that, they gave us two tables of 6. It turned out to be a great mix up because we had the best seats in the house!

The character breakfasts are also “chocolate breakfasts” with selections on the menu with and without chocolate as well as chocolate pastries. I felt a little guilty about the state of Cullen’s chair at the end of the meal, but then again whose idea was it to have a kids’ chocolate breakfast?

They don’t tell you ahead of time which characters are coming to each breakfast. We got the idea that there would be two Madagascar breakfasts and a Shrek breakfast. This was the first of the two Madagascar breakfasts, and Mort was up first. Our two tables were the best place to see each character arrive and dance. We were in this “island” area with only about 6 tables, so we felt pretty special indeed.

Our photos from the character breakfast didn’t come out so well. That didn’t stop us from taking a ton! Dad was the first one of us to meet Mort.

Cullen started to warm up to the characters at this breakfast, but he still wasn’t quite sure.

Next were the penguins!!! We took that opportunity to get a group photo of all of us (Melissa’s parents weren’t at this breakfast).

The penguins always had a lot of personality with their silly antics.

Cullen was excited about the chocolate laced pastries.

Gloria was the last of the characters at this breakfast. The kids tried to give her a big hug.

After breakfast, we headed to the Boardwalk where we thought we might ride the carousel a few times. It wasn’t running. We hadn’t yet figured out the schedule for the carousel, but I think it typically didn’t start until 10am. We spent some time at the play structure next to Rita’s Cantina.

The kids enjoyed climbing and sliding and climbing and sliding. As long as we had an adult at either end of the structure, it was fairly relaxing to let them climb and slide.

Cullen posed for some more photos.

Since the carousel wasn’t open, Debbie decided that she wanted to go and do the zip line! Our first mission was to find Mick. We knew he’d probably be somewhere on the pool decks, so we headed up to Deck 15. We searched for a little while and finally found him basking in the sun. When we got to the zip line, we saw Melissa’s parents and learned that Melissa and Jason were waiting to take their turn on the zip line! We had to wait a little bit, but we could see that the carousel was running again (since we were directly above it). Gabe and his mom took the kids back down to the carousel, and I took video of Melissa and Jason ziplining.

The zipline experience is very short (less than 10 seconds), but it’s a pretty cool thing to do. Melissa, Jason, and Dad were the only ones who ended up actually doing it. Debbie was ready to do it, but they closed the line RIGHT before she stepped up to wait her turn. She was disappointed! Some of the rest of us thought we might do it, but we never got around to it or made it a priority. Oh, well. That’s something to do next time, I guess!

The kids took a few spins on the carousel before the “Move It” parade.

We might have gotten our money’s worth for the cruise based solely on our rides on the carousel. Seriously, this was the greatest thing for the kids. They could have ridden it all day for 7 days.

Next up…the Move It parade and cupcakes and the rest of day 2 (maybe I can fit it in one more post? maybe?)…

It’s time to wrap up Day 2, finally! After we dressed in our formal clothes, we went to find the Madagascar photo opportunity. This was one of the designated professional photographer character meet and greets. They will not allow you to use your own camera for these, and this photographer did a great job to take a ton of photos of Maddie interacting with King Julian.

We had a tough time narrowing it down! We especially had a rough time choosing between Maddie kissing Julian and Maddie dancing with Julian. After a vote of our friends, family, and the ship’s photographers…we went with the kissing photo. She really had a great time interacting with King Julian.

Cullen wanted absolutely nothing to do with King Julian, but somehow we managed to get our best family portrait on the trip. Of course, that’s not saying much.

We then headed to our show reservations, Ice Games in Studio B (which doubles as an Ice Skating rink). After our last experience in Studio B with the muster drill, we didn’t have high hopes of being able to see the whole show. We weren’t able to get advanced reservations. Between meeting King Julian and the ice show, we realized we left the camera in the room. Gabe and Maddie ran back to get the camera, and Cullen and I headed to wait for them outside of Studio B. I really thought we weren’t going to be able to get into the show because we were pushing it very close! Gabe ended up getting there just in the nick of time, and we entered the theater at the last minute. We were thrilled to get in without reservations.

Cullen wasn’t happy before the show started, but fortunately we didn’t have to wait very long. Once the show started, both kids were entranced. This was Cullen’s first experience with any type of show or movie, and he did wonderfully! He seemed to love it.

The ship really started rocking quite a bit during the show. I was impressed that the skaters were able to keep their balance and perform all kinds of tricks. The show had a monopoly theme with the characters moving to different spaces on the board representing venues around the ship. It felt a little like an advertisement for some of the extras on the ship, but I thought it was pretty neat, too. We loved this show, and we were really glad that we were able to see it.

Cullen just stared at the skaters for at least 20 or 30 minutes. During that time, I looked over at Maddie, and she was looking at the floor, like she was sad about something. I went to ask her what was wrong and realized she was falling asleep! We couldn’t believe with all the music and flashing lights that she was able to fall asleep, especially considering that she rarely naps when she is with us. I guess that there was something about the comfortable seats, rocking of the ship, and the darkened room. She snoozed in my lap for the rest of the show. Cullen was a little restless towards the end of the 45 minute show, but he made it through and did great.

We headed to dinner and attempted to get a formal portrait of our family, but none of them turned out too well. Others had better luck with their portraits.

My parents had several nice formal portraits.

Melissa had many fancy dresses for the cruise. They took the opportunity of formal night to get their photo with the car. I’m not actually sure if this portrait was taken on the first or second formal night.

We made it to the dining room, and tonight our tables were joined together. It was nice to have all 10 of us together and not worry about splitting into two tables.

Cullen was restless through the meal and didn’t have much of an appetite. He played a lot of Monkey Lunchbox on the iPhone with his Apptivity case. We were thankful for the iPhones once again. He was starting to get really good at the minigames on Monkey Lunchbox. By this point, he could do almost all of them by himself.

We took the kids back to the room and realized that we had accidentally left our “do not disturb” sign on the door. We were able to easily find the stateroom attendant so that he could freshen our towels and clean the bathroom. I read stories to Maddie, and Gabe put Cullen to bed in the other room.

Gabe headed out to the casino for a couple hours with his parents and Jason. He came back in time for me to head to see Chicago with my parents and Jason and Melissa. Gabe played video poker with his mom, and they started out badly but ended up even. That’s a win in our book!

I thought Chicago was great, but I was very tired as it didn’t end until about midnight. The version on the ship was an abbreviated version of the Broadway show at about an hour and a half. It was the first time that I had seen any version of Chicago, so I am not sure how it compares to the original show or movie. I thought it was great, but wow, I was tired!

Whew, we had an incredibly long day. We weren’t terribly excited about Nassau as a port, but we still had a wonderful day.

Our favorites from Day 2:
Kerry: Ice Games
Maddie (according to her): the carousel
Gabe: Ice Games and playing poker with his mom
Cullen (my best guess): either Ice Games or playing Monkey Lunchbox on the iPhone

In addition to my incredibly long summaries that aren’t even half finished, I now have an incredibly long highlights video of our mediocre video footage. But, you know what? All of this stuff makes me happy, and I can look back and relive it through the posts and video over and over. The quality of the video suffered with the scaled down version uploaded to YouTube. Oh, well. You get the idea.

Video moments:
0:08 – My dad ziplining
0:23 – Jason ziplining
0:33 – Melissa ziplining
0:43 – Jason on the FlowRider
0:54 – Maddie dancing in Central Park
1:05 – Cullen dancing at breakfast
1:20 – Maddie dancing crazy in the Promenade
1:28 – Flash mob clips
1:55 – 70s dance party clips
2:04 – Belly flop finale
2:07 – Bartending Demo
2:10 – Qwest clips
2:24 – Italian night
2:31 – Cullen attempts the head waiter’s “mouse” napkin trick
2:48 – Carousel clips
3:33 – Parade clips
3:45 – Character breakfast clips
4:23 – Maddie dancing with Fiona
4:45 – Fountain shows

Every time I think I need just one more post to wrap up a day, I find that I have too many stories and photos that I want to document. So, back on the ship, Cullen was napping and Gabe was reading and snoozing in the room. We snapped a few photos before leaving the Boardwalk area (after discovering the carousel was not open).

We headed to the 2pm trivia which was an interactive trivia called, “Logos and Mascots.” Melissa, Jason, Mom, Maddie, and I ran into Melissa’s parents on the way. I grabbed some cookies to distract Maddie while we played the trivia. The interactive trivia is much like NTN/bar trivia with multiple choice questions (and a speed component to the score that we didn’t learn about until halfway through the questions). The questions were far too easy, even without the multiple choice options. The remotes didn’t always work (in a session later in the work, they barely worked at all). I can’t recommend the interactive trivia based on the ones that we attended. It was annoying to learn about the “fastest fingers” tie-breaker midway through the questions. We got all of the questions correct, but we weren’t the fastest. We did end up with the coveted keychains, anyway. Maddie was proud to have her own Royal Caribbean keychain. It’s still fun to identify the logos, but the whole thing would have been more fun with an open ended question sheet.

Next on the cruise compass was an opportunity to meet the penguins at the carousel. We hoped that we would be able to ride the carousel this time as well! We were excited to see the carousel running, so we hopped on for a few rides before meeting the penguins. Maddie rode a different animal each time.

The penguins showed up while we were enjoying one of our first few rides. We went to meet them, and Maddie was adorable. She hugged each one, and the penguins had great character.

Most of the character meet and greets had short lines on the cruise, and we usually had plenty of time to get the photos that we wanted.

After we met the penguins, we got back on the carousel. She rode several times with me and then rode different times with Nana and Melissa. Maddie loved it! I swear over half of the photos from our cruise may be carousel related.

Nana and Papa decided to get their photo taken with the penguins as well. This was one of the meet and greets that stated you should bring your own camera. They had handlers who would take your photo for you. Other character opportunities were official photographer events, and they did not allow you to take your own photos.

After our fun on the Boardwalk, we headed to the 15th deck for sail away. I called Gabe in between each activity, but he seemed content to stay in the cabin with Cullen. It was interesting to look down on the other ships. We could see the pools and mini golf and people on the top deck of the Carnival ship, at least 5 decks below ours. Allure of the Seas felt huge docked next to one of Carnival’s smallest ships. The Carnival ship looked so tiny!

Our ship left first, and once again I find myself taking photos of other people’s ships and wishing I could swap photos with the people on those ships.

We saw that maybe Nassau has some beaches and nice resorts, but I don’t think I’m going to be itching to explore Nassau again, regardless.

We spotted some of the landmarks that we visited and viewed from our walking tour. I pointed them out to Maddie. She also pointed out random things that we passed like rocks and smaller boats.

Maddie always has fun hanging out with Melissa and Jason. I think she also enjoyed doing some special things while Cullen was napping.

I called Gabe again, and Cullen was still snoozing. He was making up for his lack of nap the previous two days! Gabe still claimed to be enjoying his relaxing time in the room, so Melissa, Jason and I decided to take Maddie to the play area in Adventure Ocean.

The playroom was geared more towards babies and young toddlers, but Maddie had fun playing. Only one other child was in the playroom, and that child didn’t really interact with us at all. The dad was totally disengaged from us. In fact, at one point he was just sitting there picking his nose! Wow!

I thought that being on a ship full of children would mean more interactions with other kids and parents, but we didn’t talk to ANY families on the cruise (despite there being allegedly something like 1000 kids on board). I think that perhaps we got to know other families a little better on other ships because they were so few and far between. I remember one of our cruises had less than a dozen babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. As a result, we saw the same families all over the ship and would recognize them. They stood out in the crowd. We chatted with them, played with them at playgroups, and saw them around the ship. We didn’t see any Crayola Beginnings, Bedtime Stories, or Royal Babies/Tots organized opportunities on Allure of the Seas. The ship has plenty for the children, but not the small group type that gave us the opportunity to meet other families on other ships. It’s not a complaint by any means, just an observation of the differences in approach between the ships. The ship had more entertainment for the kids but encouraged less interaction between families.

We let Maddie play a little bit, and then Maddie and I headed back to the room to get ready for formal night. We couldn’t believe that Cullen was still sleeping! Cullen woke up shortly after our arrival, and we all got our formal clothes on and headed to the Madagascar photo opportunity!

Coming soon…photo ops, ice show, dinner, and evening activities…

After the Queen’s Staircase, we headed to another highlight of the walking tour – Fort Fincastle. Fort Fincastle was also built in the late 1700s, and it offered us the best views of the ship and surrounding area. Between the Queen’s Staircase and Fort Fincastle were more vendors and “tour guides.” The area has quite a few pushy people trying to get your money.

I was walking with Grandma and Maddie when both Maddie and Grandma paused to see some straw items. Grandma couldn’t resist getting Maddie a purse with her name on it and a hat with Cullen’s name. Both items were really cute. The lady stitched the names quickly.

You can’t see the name (or “Bahamas”) in this photo, but Cullen was excited about his new hat.

We took turns going up into the fort. I love the opportunity to see the ship when in ports, but of course our view was partially blocked by the other ships. Ours is the one in the back.

It’s hard to see how much bigger it is than the other ships from here, but it especially towered over the Carnival ship next to us.

We were amused that the cannons were pointed directly at the ships.

We weren’t going to take Cullen up into the fort, but he couldn’t stand that Maddie was going with Daddy and he had to stay behind. So, I ended up going twice so that Cullen could see what everyone was doing. I carried him the whole time as I didn’t want him running around up there! You can see Maddie’s new purse in this photo (it also had “Bahamas” on one side and “Maddie” on the other).

We continued on our walking tour after the fort, and Jason tried to steal one of our kids again. We really had to keep an eye on Jason! (In reality, Jason was a huge help throughout the cruise – we just enjoyed teasing him!)

We took more photos of random buildings that were listed on the tour, even if we didn’t know the significance of the buildings. “Jason, what’s the Unwalla House?” “Well, it’s a building called the Unwalla House.” “Oh, ok. We should definitely all take photos of this.”

We headed back towards the main part of town, and it was quite crowded. We got our free charms and necklace from the two jewelry stores and hunted down some bottled water. By this point, it was harder to navigate with all the people, and all of us were pretty much done with Nassau. My parents headed off on their own. The rest of us decided we should at least walk through the straw market. We passed by this building, and I swore I could smell the building as if it had just caught on fire.

It turns out that they had just had a fire the previous week. The fire had destroyed part of the temporary straw market as well as two historic buildings. They suspect it was arson. The straw market had suffered big losses in September due to the hurricane damage, so I’m sure that this was another devastating blow to their local economy. That might explain why we didn’t see as much in the straw market area as we had expected.

We headed back to the ship. All of us were quite ready to be back on Allure!

If I am on another cruise that stops on Nassau, I think I’ll take the opportunity to enjoy a less crowded ship. I may consider going on an excursion to Atlantis, but otherwise, I’ll pass on exploring Nassau.

We went through the vendor buildings again and through customs. We went straight to have lunch at the Park Cafe in Central Park. Seating was again a little bit of a problem, but we found a spot. After our tasty lunch, we headed back to the room to get Cullen down for nap. Maddie and I went back out with Nana to ride the carousel, but it was closed again. We were starting to wonder when the carousel was ever open!

Stay tuned for the rest of our afternoon on the ship while in port in Nassau…

We finally gathered our group and headed to “the city” with my parents, Gabe’s parents, Melissa, and Jason. We had to walk through several buildings and many vendors and “tour guides” trying desperately to get our money.

This was our first visit to the Bahamas.

We didn’t care too much about what we did in the port, but we wanted to at least walk around to say that we had been there! Melissa and Jason found a walking tour online, and we mostly followed the designated route. We got off track early and skipped a few things towards the end when we’d all had enough of Nassau.

The port has so many pushy people wanting to know if you want to get your hair braided or take a tour or hitch a ride to Atlantis and Paradise Island. We practiced our ignoring skills and “no thank yous.”

The first thing on our tour was to find a statue. I think that they were doing some construction work in the area, plus they had all these grandstands set up for a recent or upcoming parade. We found the statue and knew we were on the right path.

A little ways further, we saw a traffic cop guy that stands in the middle of the road, usually in a box on a platform. He wasn’t in his box, but we saw him in the box on the way back.

At about this point, Mick decided to go off and do his own thing. I think he might have just headed back to the ship. Given how impressed we were with Nassau in general, that wasn’t a bad choice!

We followed the walking tour which was light on facts but pointed out landmarks on the way. The library looked neat, and allegedly, it used to be a prison.

We were able to navigate the strollers along the sidewalks most of the time. A few areas were tricky. We saw more stands along the road.

We saw old buildings and didn’t really know what they were…but we all thought we should take photos of them. So, we all did.

One of the highlights of the walking tour (and of Nassau) is the Queen’s Staircase, built in the late 1700s. We had been warned that there would be people at the bottom of the stairs trying to charge you for climbing them. We were approached by several such people, but we continued without their help.

We weren’t sure how we were going to get the kids up the staircase, but there wasn’t really another way to get to the rest of our tour. We were grateful for two lightweight strollers, especially our newer one that folds up very conveniently.

The kids climbed every step by themselves, holding onto adult hands, of course. We were proud of them! I think Cullen was proud of himself, too.

We made it! We posed in front of the sign at the top.

My sweet girl was proud of herself as well.

Our group is a bit photo happy. We should have gotten one of Jason and Gabe holding the strollers they carried up the staircase.

Next up…the rest of our walking tour.

The kids didn’t sleep particularly well towards the end of the night. They were pretty restless from about 5am until our 7am wake up call. Maddie ended up in our bed at some point during the night, which has not been terribly unusual lately on trips. We got ourselves ready and coordinated with Jason and Melissa and Gabe’s parents. The eight of us headed to Johnny Rockets where they have free breakfast. They didn’t have any seating inside, so we pulled together a couple of tables outside. Well…it was windy. Mick and Debbie ended up going inside with Maddie while the rest of us put up with the wind.

Maddie and Cullen ate almost two full sized pancakes each, so they must have liked the breakfast. Jason had an omelette, and I had an egg, ham, and cheese english muffin. We were the only two adults who thought our breakfast was fine. Everything else was extremely mediocre. We declared that the free breakfast at Johnny Rockets left something to be desired.

We had some difficulties coordinating our group. We got our certificates for free charm bracelets, put sunscreen on the kids (and me), and lost Mick. The last part was frustrating since we had no way to contact each other while on the ship. Unless we’re in a US port, the roaming fees are extraordinary. All of us had our phones in airplane mode or turned off completely, so calling and texting each other was not an option. Debbie had his passport, so we weren’t sure what to do since we knew he wanted to get off the ship. Eventually, he made his way back to the cabin and was there when we called from the gangway.

One of the many neat things about this ship is that they have a gangway button on the elevator. The deck that you use to get on and off the ship can change from port to port, so you have to usually pay attention to figure out which one you need. On this ship, you just get in the elevator and press the magic button. It’s quite convenient!

We were getting antsy waiting for Mick, so Maddie, Jason, Melissa, and I exited the ship.

We were out there for a little while, especially considering that we thought Mick was coming right down. I always like to get photos in the port, and my parents are the same way. I’m not sure that everyone else really cared about it. Both Gabe’s parents and Melissa’s parents avoided the ship’s photographers any chance they had. I love having at least a few decent photos of ourselves, and I do like having the frames from each port.

We were standing around and waiting, and who walks up to us but Mick AND my parents (um, that’s not Mick in the photo below with my mom, ha!).

So, Jason went back onto the ship to grab Debbie, Gabe, and Cullen. Finally! We were on our way. Gabe and I insisted on getting a mediocre photo of our family. The kids were especially cooperative! Their expressions in this one cracked me up.

At least 3 other ships were docked in port with us. I was excited to see Disney’s newest ship, the Disney Dream. It looks so neat…who knows, maybe our next cruise will be on the Dream or the Fantasy!

The fact that our ship was so massive combined with the large number of ships in each port made it difficult to ever get a great photo of the entire ship. We tried anyway in each port.

Next up…our walking tour of Nassau…

We brought a bunch of little things to entertain the kids for the airplane ride and meals (and any time where they may get a little restless). We brought their crayon rolls full of Pipsqueak markers, small animal figures (some that they hadn’t seen yet), new Mr. Men and Little Miss books (perfect size for throwing in the diaper bag), and our iPhones with preschool games. We packed up the straw cups and entertainment options and headed to dinner.

When we arrived, we discovered that instead of a table of 10, we had a table of 6 and a table of 4. Considering that we were told we would be seated together, we were a little annoyed with the arrangement…especially considering that we booked our cruise a year and a half ago. Maddie insisted on sitting with Grandma, and since my parents were already seated at the 6-top, this resulted in splitting up my family. Cullen and I sat with Nana, Papa, Melissa and Jason. Gabe and Maddie sat with Grandma and Grandpa. It worked out fine, but I missed having my immediate family together on the first night. It may have been better to have the kids separated, though!

Cullen did great at dinner. He made it through the whole meal and only got upset at the very end when we were packing our things back into the bags. He spotted the books and wanted them, so he was upset until we made our way out of the dining room. Maddie had fun with Grandma and was especially excited about her chocolate ice cream and cookie dessert.

This was the only night they offered the gruyere onion tart, one of my favorite appetizers on every cruise! YUM!

Since it was the first night at dinner, of course the ship’s photographers made their rounds. Every time we’ve been on a cruise, they have taken our photos on the first night. This time was no exception, but most of our photos were individuals. The ones of the kids weren’t great, and none of the first night dinner photos made the final cut (for us or anyone else). We took a few photos ourselves, but they weren’t great either. I guess we weren’t too photogenic that night!

Our table finished early, so I took Cullen back to the room and got him ready for bed. Nana and Papa agreed to babysit tonight so that we could go to Ocean Aria and the 8pm trivia (we were a little late to that). Cullen went to sleep almost immediately. He was so tired since he hadn’t had a nap that day! Maddie was pretty good for Nana and Papa and fell asleep in our bed. It was easy to transfer her to her bed when we got back.

We played the Movies music trivia with Melissa, Jason, and Melissa’s parents.

The trivia was in a familiar place, The Schooner Bar. Since all of our cruises have been on Royal Caribbean ships, we were familiar with The Schooner Bar. It varies a little from ship to ship, but it’s neat to see a few places that we almost recognize.

We love the “name that tune” type trivias, so we had a lot of fun kicking off our first night on the cruise with this session. Some of the movie themes were quite challenging! We ended up getting 13 out of the 20 themes which was enough to tie for first place. We sent Gabe to do the face off tie breaker. Jason and Gabe were the most valuable team members, so we knew we had to send one of them. The tiebreaker song ended up being something that Melissa and I might have been able to get quicker – Flashdance. Oddly enough, we heard the song a few other times throughout the cruise as if the ship were taunting us.

We headed to the Aqua Theatre for Ocean Aria. We knew we had to get there early so that they wouldn’t give away our seats. We had made the reservations a couple of months prior to the cruise. The theater was already quite full. We had to wipe our seats off with a towel since it had been raining a little earlier.

We loved the show! Right away, we were impressed with the entertainment that Allure of the Seas has to offer. Almost every show that we attended was top notch and of a much higher caliber than any we have experienced on other ships. I’m glad we saw Ocean Aria on the first night because the water shows were canceled a few times during the cruise. Since we had carefully planned when we could have babysitters, we were really glad that our show didn’t get canceled!

It felt very much like a Cirque du Soleil show from the “clowns” that start the show to the acrobatic acts and the stage that is solid one minute and a pool the next.

We loved the diving and the trampoline acts. We were especially impressed by the guy who dove from one of the highest points on the ship. What an amazing and entertaining show! These guys reminded me of the contortionist brothers pair from Mystere. They did some impressive things!

The show incorporated a few fountain effects which reminds me of the Bellagio fountains (on a much smaller scale).

It was the best show we had ever seen on a cruise ship. If you cruise on Allure and skip the shows, you’re really missing out on some quality entertainment.

We needed to get back to our room shortly after the show, but we went by the casino for just long enough to take a look, learn that they had real live poker (not just the electronic tables) due to the poker tournaments going on, and to lose $20 in video poker. We were probably there less than 15 minutes. That’s how most of my casino experiences went on this trip! Fortunately, Gabe had a bit more luck.

We were amused by the “secret” staircase from the Promenade level into the casino.

We headed back to the room to relieve Nana, looked over the next day’s Cruise Compass, and wrote up the trip report!

Day 1 Favorites:
Gabe: Ocean Aria
Kerry: Ocean Aria
Maddie (according to her): Special Treats at dinner with Grandma
Cullen (my best guess): maybe the watermelon gazpacho he had at dinner?

We decided to take advantage of the balconies across the hall from our cabins for sail away. We split our time between Jason and Melissa’s balcony and Mick and Debbie’s balcony. We wished that their cabins had been next to each other as we noticed what seemed to be removable partitions between adjacent balconies. Instead, they had two balconies between them, so we shouted past the newlyweds next door (who polluted our air with their smoking, so we’re even, right?).

At least 3 or 4 other ships were in port with us, and we watched other ships depart before it was our turn. I always wish that I could get the photos from the other passing ships when I’m on cruises. I get nice photos of their ship – you would think we could work out a swap.

We’re almost on our way!

The kids enjoyed the balcony.

They liked watching the cruise ships and the coast guard boats.

We’re moving!

Now, it’s time for a few moments at Mick and Debbie’s cabin!

Maddie was enjoying time with Grandma!

We couldn’t believe some of the huge houses that we passed on the way out of the port. Are these personal residences? They seemed huge!

This one even had a Flow Rider type surfing simulation next to the house (complete with someone showing off their surfing skills). Wow!

Goodbye Fort Lauderdale! We’re off to explore better places, see ya!

Next up…our first evening on the ship and the favorites summary from the day.

We gathered the people on our floor (everyone except my parents who were already exploring the ship) and headed to Deck 15 to see the pool and the view from the top of the ship of Fort Lauderdale.

Everyone was quite impressed about the amenities around the ship. Some of us grabbed soda packages, and others grabbed some fruity welcome beverages.

We looked down into Central Park.

It was quite windy on the upper decks, but we loved the views (of the ship features as well as the ocean and Fort Lauderdale).

It was difficult to stick together with so many people, but we did explore a little of the ship together.

We checked out some of the pool decks. We looked down onto The Boardwalk and Aqua Theatre and saw the zip line, mini golf course, and flow riders (surfing simulations) on the sports deck.

And then…we ran into my mom! And she told us that we JUST missed Dad doing the zip line! I can’t believe we missed it, and only by a few minutes. Darn! The zip line was shorter than I expected it to be. The “ride” was less than 10 seconds. My mom caught it on video, and I’ll have to put it all together when I get the cruise footage sorted. We have video of Dad, Melissa, and Jason all doing the zip line (at different times, of course).

Cullen and Maddie checked out the little kid mini golf.

It’s a very cute area right next to the regular mini golf course (which has 9 holes). The kids had fun playing around on it. We really thought we’d get back here with the kids, but we found a million other fun things to do and never got around to it.

…which is too bad, because they really did enjoy it!

And while we were playing on the sports deck, a beautiful rainbow started to form. If you’ve ever tried to take photos of a rainbow, you know that photos do not do it justice. It was just amazing.

The rainbow was just starting to form when we got this photo but was already very bright.

Our turn to be photographed under a rainbow!

The rainbow just continued to get bigger and bigger and became a complete, brilliant, double rainbow. It was just about the most amazing start to a wonderful cruise vacation. Again, the photos do not do it justice!

…and with the rainbow came the rain, so we had to cut short the kids’ fun with minigolf and head for shelter. We thought it was almost time for the muster drill, so we headed back to the room to unpack a few more things. It turned out we had a bit more time than we expected, but we were nice and unpacked beforehand.

I’m glad we decided to ditch the stroller before the muster drill. Our muster location was Studio B which was crowded (and it wouldn’t have been easy to take the stroller in the theater).

Along the way, one of the crew members put their “Assembly Station Team” vest onto Cullen (on the back, it said, “Assembly Station Team, Ask Me”). He was quite cute walking around in the vest.

By the time we arrived at Studio B, Cullen was starting to get cranky. He was tired since he hadn’t had a nap (we still didn’t have a pack-n-play in our room by this point). He did not want to be in the drill area. We temporarily made him happy by letting him play Monkey Lunchbox on the iPhone. Then, we were told that we had to put away cellphones and entertainment devices. Cullen was extremely mad about that. In retrospect, I would have let him continue to play until someone told me personally to turn it off so that he stayed happy a little longer. Everyone in the (ice) theater knew we were there! They were late getting started with the drill, and it was a miserable wait for us (and everyone else, I think!). That boy can scream.

If we had had an actual emergency, I would have been screwed as I had no idea what they told us during the drill. I think we would have all been able to pay attention much better if the one year old could have played with the iPhone!

We walked through the casino on the way back to our room, and I told Cullen all about slot machines, table games, and roulette.

Next up….sail away!