Cruise Vacation

We went on a wonderful family cruise with Drew's side of the family the week before Thanksgiving!  We started our vacation in Cape Canaveral, Florida at a resort for the 2 days prior to the cruise.  Drew's sister and her family joined us for those two days and his parents joined us for the day before we boarded the ship.  We had a great time at the indoor play area!  Breanna was braver than I was ready for, and by the second day she was climbing to the top of and sliding down these slides all by herself.  (The sliding part didn't worry me, but she would get so excited to choose which slide she was going down that she didn't pay attention to how close she was walking to the edge of them.)

 We did get to see and enjoy the beach while we were there also, but it was a little colder than normal (for only the 2 days we were there of course) so we didn't really get in the water.  Breanna and Amy had a good time digging in the sand, chasing the birds, and watching the waves.

We cruised with Royal Caribbean, and they had a lot for the girls to do and see! 

They set up toys for their age group in the teen area each day (since the teens only use it at night) and Breanna and Amy were the only ones that used it. 

They also let you check-out toys to take back to your room, which we took advantage of and kept a stash in Grandma and Grandpa's room.  Since we had Drew's parents we never needed to use the daycare area, but it looked pretty great as well. 
Breanna was a lot braver than I expected and really loved all the Dreamworks characters on the ship!  I honestly thought she would be terrified of them, but she got excited when she saw them and had no problem giving them high fives, and she even gave Shrek a kiss!  So sweet!  We even got to have breakfast with the characters, which was fun for us all! 

Spotting one of the characters

 

Giving Shrek a kiss

The splash area for kids in diapers was small, but it was a nice place to splash.  The water was as warm as a bathtub, and it had a sprayer feature so Breanna enjoyed it.  We only had 2 "sea days" though, so we only used the pool one day for a short time. 

We went to 4 islands:  Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel.
Haiti had a fun area for the kids splash around in!  Breanna just kept running from one water spot to another yelling "more, more!"  We also got to enjoy time at their beautiful beach, which Breanna loved!
 

Jamaica was a pretty disappointing island, but Grandma and Grandpa did buy her a handmade maraca there that the vendor carved her name in!  When Grandma showed them to her for her to pick which one she wanted she tried to grab both of them!  She really likes it!  If we go back to Falmouth we would probably do an excursion there.

Grand Cayman was really nice, and we got to enjoy a great family excursion with all of us.  We did an island tour, went to the turtle farm, and swam with the stingrays.  Breanna LOVES animals, and the turtles were no exception!  They had a small box with tiny babies in it that you could pick up and she was all over them!  The worker said it was okay for her to pick them up b/c they were more resilient than the older ones, but I don't think he knew what he was getting himself into!  She tried to be as gentle as a 16 month old can be (ie not at all, haha!) and after about 3 or 4 of them I had to drag her away crying... literally. 

Thankfully there were lots of other turtles to pet and she got over it pretty quickly. 

 After the turtles they took us to stingray city.  We took a small boat to get to the area, so we made Breanna wear a life jacket.  We had practiced for several weeks leading up to this, and she always freaked out with it buckled and/or on for longer than approximately 5 seconds.  Thankfully she handled it like a pro on the real thing, and minus a small meltdown on the way back to the cruise ship (for only a minute or 2) before falling asleep (2 hours passed nap time) she was a happy camper on the boat!  She always seems to surprise me in situations that I don't expect to go well! 

The stingrays were awesome!  I didn't realize they would be so big (4-5 feet wide) so I was excited!  Breanna pet them a couple times and even gave one a kiss, but after a while she was happier just playing in the crystal clear waters.  The adults all got to feed them and hold them, which was incredible!  Our group only had the 8 of us and then an older couple that didn't want to get in with the stingrays, so it was like a private tour!  We were so happy we did the excursion!

In Cozumel we explored the island and then Breanna had some Daddy, Daughter time while Mommy went scuba diving with Grandma.  It was incredible, and I was so grateful she took me to go.  I haven't been diving in years!  I hope Breanna has the same sense of adventure when she is older!

As always, the food and entertainment on the ship was incredible!  Breanna ate her weight in fruit every day!  She also looked adorable in her dinner dresses (no big surprise) and we managed to get some good family pictures!

We can't wait for our next cruise... though I'm sure it won't be anytime soon!