An (early) Birthday Cruise, Days 1-2

Kara turns 16 next month and to celebrate we decided to take a cruise. She chose to go on a 4-night in January as opposed to a 3-night closer to her birthday. She had a couple of reasons for this: 1) 4 nights are better than 3; and 2) a January cruise would not interfere with lacrosse (or baseball or track).

Initially, it was just going to be just me and the girls. But, then Luke really wanted to go. And, Thomas felt a little left out but didn't want to leave Jack home alone. Then, Jack agreed to go and it turned into a mini family vacation.

The cruise let on a Thursday. I worked for a few hours that morning and Jack went to school to take a test. It was supposed to be two tests, but one was postponed. We only live about 45 minutes from the cruise port; we left our house around 10 and walked on the ship around 1115. Easy peasy.

Our ship was Voyager of the Seas. It was a new-to-us ship and smaller than the ones we usually go on. But, it worked for our schedule. And, I actually enjoyed the smaller ship. You don't have to reserve entertainment and it has a more laid-back feel. Of course, we missed some of the big ship amenities, but overall we were happy. Anyway, after we got onboard, we did our muster and then went to the Windjammer for lunch. We explored the ship a bit, including playing mini golf. The boys also played 2 v 2 basketball with some other boys. It was a cold and windy day. So no pools for us. Although Anna and I did go into one of the hot tubs later in the day. 

We had dinner in the main dining room and then the boys, Thomas and I went and saw the welcome aboard show, which included a funny comedian. It was a good start to our trip. The teens all went to the teens club. Anna said it was more middle schoolers than high schoolers and I’m not sure they will go back. 

Friday was our CocoCay day. I LOVE Perfect Day at Coc Cay. Unfortunately the weather was not really perfect. It was overcast and a little chilly. Normally when we go to Cococay, we are among the first off the ship, but as we knew it was not going to be the greatest weather day, we were in no hurry. We had breakfast around eight and then came back to our rooms and changed and were off the ship around 930. We went for a nice little walk around the island through a really cool vegetation area. I don’t know how to describe it, except it felt like we were in an island jungle. Of course, we were on a nice sandy path. Eventually, we settled in at the Chill Beach area, and even though the water was a little bit chilly, Luke and I decided to go for it. Jack came in as well and we played monkey in the middle with a football for a while. We love the giant lagoon pool, but it was just too cold. Although Luke did dunk his head in to see if the underwater speakers were working. They were.

We lounged on the beach for a bit before heading to lunch. Lunch at CocoCay is among our favorite meals on a cruise and it did not disappoint (at least for me).  After lunch, Anna, Jack and Thomas went back to the ship. Luke went and played on the kids' play structures, where he ran between buckets of dropping water. While he played, Kara and I sat and listened to some talented singers. After another hour or so, we came back on the ship, everyone showered, and we rested a bit then got a snack. The Icon of the Seas was in in port with us at CocoCay and we enjoyed walking around the top decks and looking at the ship. It is massive and looks like so much fun. We are debating whether to try and book it for next spring break. Some of us played mini golf. Some played shuffleboard. Thomas, Luke, Kara and I went ice-skating. 

We had dinner in the main dining room. Then Kara, Anna, and I went to a silent hush party, which is always fun. They played some fun oldies that most people tuned into like Livin on a Prayer and YMCA. After that, Thomas, Anna, and I listened to karaoke. Anna did not last long, remarking that she didn’t understand why I liked it. There were a couple of really good singers, a couple of really bad singers, and several in the middle. Kara went to the teen club. Jack walked around a bit. All of us except Kara called it a night around 10 PM. We walked over 20k steps and Thomas and I each climbed 38 flights of stairs!

Unfortunately, we had the worst neighbors we've ever had on a cruise. It sounded like about 10 people were in the room next to us and they were loud and kept opening the door, then letting it slam closed. I finally got mad and banged on the wall, at which point, one of them aggressively banged back multiple times and started screaming and swearing through the wall, telling me to open my door and face him and how we was prepared to spend the night in the brig. He was fighting with the people in his room too and they eventually yelled at him to leave. So, I did open our door. I thought if he saw a middle-aged mom, maybe he wouldn't try and break into our room and murder us. I told him I was sorry I banged on the wall, but I just wanted to sleep. He responded that he had just lost his father and went down the hall yelling again about how he was ready to go to the brig. He eventually came back and then the fighting resumed (not with us, with his family). At one point, his mom was in the room and he was yelling at her too. I estimate he was in his 20s. It was crazy. And, I literally did not sleep the entire night. We should have called security.