Christmas Cruise

I have wanted to go on a cruise since I was in high school and my parents would come home from their cruises with awesome pictures.  Well, 20 some years later...my cruise dreams were finally able to come to fruition.  Last February, I found a great deal for a cruise the week before Christmas and booked it!  We looked forward to our western Caribbean trip all year long.  

Finally, the day had come, and we started our road trip to Tampa.   It sure is handy having family that lives in a port of call!  Papa drove us to the port in the morning and we set off exploring the ship for hours before it even left the port.  It was so fun!

Here are some random masks that came in a Wendy's happy meal on our trip down.
  We spent the first 2 days on the boat, playing, exploring and having a great time.  Here are the random pictures of our first days on the boat.




 We loved dining in the main dinning room and had a table to ourselves.  The kids love steak and ordered it most nights.  We also spent lots of time in the casual buffet.  Food, food, everywhere! 

The pool was cool and they had lots of fun games, dances and belly flop competitions pool side, which we enjoyed.  Haley even won one of the minute to win it games.  
 




Our room was the cutest.  It was like living in a tiny mobile home for the week.  I chose an interior room in the middle of the boat because I am prone to sea sickness and mostly because it was cheaper.  The top bunks pull out of the ceiling and we actually all slept really great in our tiny, dark room swaying back and forth.  We didn't spend much time in the room, and it fit our tight budget, so it was a real win!
The kids loved trying the rock wall over and over.  It was on the top deck at the back of the boat so you were super high up there.  



Something was always going on in the center lobby - lots of live music and dancing.  Here is Grant line dancing.  There was always about 5 different fun things going on at different places on the boat and we had fun just roaming from place to place.
The room attendants were awesome.  Their towel creations were the cutest.  
Although Haley and I woke up feeling a little green the next morning, the motion sickness pills worked great!  We took them every morning and didn't have any problems after that.  The weather was so warm - in the 80's and sunny the entire week, including Tampa.  It felt so, so nice.  It was only 20 degrees when we left Lexington.  Brrrr!  I quickly realized that those jeans and jacket I packed just in case were silly.  Also, the amount of shoes I packed was also silly! Next time we will know...

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