No Kids Allowed: Cruise Vacation, days 1-3.

Thomas turned 40 this year?!?!?! As is our tradition, I had to do something big.  And, by tradition, I mean we did big celebrations for each other’s 30^th.  But, a tradition has to start somewhere right?  And, it’s not our fault that we didn’t meet until after we had already turned 20.  For his 30^th, I planned a trip to Detroit to see the Baseball All Star Game, and associated festivities.  I knew there was no way I could top his favorite team hosting an all-star game in his favorite sport. But, I was determined to try; I decided a vacation with just the two of us was the way to go. The planning began in earnest in the Spring. On our Disney cruise, Thomas said his ideal vacation would be a cruise with just the two of us.  Of course, he has no recollection of saying that.  But, my mind is like a sieve, err steel trap, so I booked a cruise.  A cruise for two, but not until well-after his birthday.

Thomas turned 40 in July and we left for our vacation on August 30^th.  Why the delay you might ask?  Well, we could have gone in the summer, but that’s when lots of kids cruise.  And, who wants to cruise with other people’s kids when your own are at home?  Perhaps more importantly, we figured it would be easier for someone to watch our kids if  ¾ of them were in school.  We had our trusty sitter, Summer lined up for the job.  To keep Luke fully acquainted with Summer, we did date nights twice a month until the month before the cruise, when we bumped it up to once a week.

Finally, after months of anticipation, Sunday was the day.  Our cruise left from Port Canaveral and we decided to fly down the day before to avoid any major travel issues.  The week before we left, a tropical storm (Erika) threatened to thwart our plans, leading me to watch hours upon hours of the Weather Channel.  But, the storm dissipated, the clouds parted, and we left as scheduled.

It was hard to leave the kids.  I expected it to be hard to be leave Luke.  After all, he’s the only one who couldn’t understand what was going on, but it was also really hard to leave the older three.  On Saturday, Jack said, “If I had just one wish, I would wish you weren’t going on the cruise.”  Kara voiced concerns about our ship sinking and on Saturday night said, rather pitifully I might add, “at least we have tomorrow morning.”  Anna tried to convince us that parents aren’t meant to vacation without their children.  But, we left as planned.

Our flight to Orlando was relatively uneventful.  The remnants of Erika lead to a longer than anticipated flight path, causing us to arrive about 20 minutes late.  We grabbed our bags, jumped on our shuttle to Port Canaveral and were off!  About 15 minutes later, Thomas’ phone rang.  It was the airport.  One of the bags we had grabbed?  Not ours.  Back to the airport we went.  Our shuttle, which fortunately, only contained us, had to be somewhere else, so he let us out and we had to wait for the next shuttle.  The bags were completely identical—same unusual color, same cheap brand.  What are the odds?  Well, pretty good apparently,

It was an embarrassing mistake, but could have been so much worse!  Our next shuttle had 4 other people, I don’t imagine they would have been very happy if we had created the delay for them. The mistake cost us about an hour and we arrived at our hotel at 730pm.  We had a quick dinner and called it a night.

Our hotel was on the beach, so the next morning, we decided to watch the sunrise.  We did a 3 mile walk along the beach, had our free breakfast and left for the ship.

We had fun watching these little birds race the surf

A butterfly shell in the sunrise

We walked onboard Enchantment of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) around 12.  We had lunch and enjoyed walking around the ship.  Our immediate impression was that it did not appear as clean, well-kept, or friendly as the Disney Magic.  Although, in fairness, the Disney Magic had undergone a complete renovation the month before we sailed.  We really enjoyed sitting on the deck and watching the Ocean in front of us. We talked to the kids.  Dinner was next, the service was good and the dining room was nice, but the food was just okay.  The welcome aboard show was also just okay.  Overall, it was a good day and a nice start to our vacation.

Saying goodbye to Port Canaveral

Day 2 of the cruise (3 of our vacation) was a stop at Coco Cay, Royal Caribbean’s private island.  We had an early kayak excursion so we had to be on the first tender off the ship. We were both up by 7, dressed and ready to go. Breakfast was buffet style and we both enjoyed it.  They told us to muster at 8 for the excursion.  But, we didn’t get off the ship and onto the tender until almost 9, which was a bit frustrating (it got crowded and we were in a small, windowless space).

But, all of that was forgotten when we stepped onto the beach.  The kayaking was really fun.  We had a guided tour and learned a little about the Berry Islands.  We saw lots of fish and many huge stingrays.  One of the people in our group fell out of her kayak.  The guide spent tons of time helping her, so we got to have an extra-long trip.  After that, we got some snorkel equipment and saw even more fish.  The water was clear and it was really enjoyable. We had lunch on the beach, did some more snorkeling and got back on the ship around 2.  

We thought this would be a fun picture for the kids

It seemed like a good time to visit the casino.  I immediately lost $40 (I’m not going back!) and Thomas immediately won $15.  We thought a lot about Thomas’ grandmother and her love of casinos and the penny slots (which aren’t really 1 penny). We called the kids and were happy to hear their voices.  Summer has kept us up to date with lots of pictures and I swear Luke has grown.  As much fun as we are having, it will be nice to get home to the rest of our family.

We grabbed a quick dinner because we wanted to see an early pool side movie: Avengers, Age of Ultron.  Unfortunately, the glare on the screen was too bright, so we had to skip it.  We spent some time listening to an amazing band and some more time sitting on deck.  Finally, it was time to see the evening show.  During our muster drill on the first day, our muster captain was really enthusiastic and happy.  Thomas and I joked that he was in the wrong position.  We felt he should be on a Disney ship, cheerfully greeting the children with his overly peppy attitude. Lo and behold, he was one of the ships dancers!  It all made so much more sense. I felt like I was watching an old friend on stage. The show wasn’t great, but it did have some really good moments.  There was a female singer who sang some Whitney Houston songs and was absolutely amazing.  The theme was a walk through movie history, but most of the movies referenced were very old (Love Story, The Graduate, Body Guard, To Sir With Love, Beach Blanket Bingo, some Jazz movie, etc.), so it got a bit tiresome for us.  But, it was still a wonderful day!

That essentially summarizes the start of our vacation.