MorganMichelle2001

We are in the single digits!! T-minus 9 days until we leave for Miami!! Luckily, we are so busy the next few days that I’m hoping time will fly by: Kindergarten Orientation, basketball and dance lessons, early birthday parties and celebrations for my son, and of course last minute shopping and packing!
Speaking of packing, I started about a week ago, pulled out all the kids’ summer clothes, made them try stuff on to see how many new outfits I need to buy, set aside my kids’ formal night wear, started folding and organizing my clothes, and organized all the little “extras” we need for the cabin:
 


 
And here is my husband’s packing progress:

It just remind me of this funny meme ? How true it is!!! 

We are in the single digits!! T-minus 9 days until we leave for Miami!! Luckily, we are so busy the next few days that I’m hoping time will fly by: Kindergarten Orientation, basketball and dance lessons, early birthday parties and celebrations for my son, and of course last minute shopping and packing!
Speaking of packing, I started about a week ago, pulled out all the kids’ summer clothes, made them try stuff on to see how many new outfits I need to buy, set aside my kids’ formal night wear, started folding and organizing my clothes, and organized all the little “extras” we need for the cabin:
 


 
And here is my husband’s packing progress:

It just remind me of this funny meme ? How true it is!!! 

3 more days until we leave for Miami!!! And just in time too, it seems. Thank goodness we decided to fly out a day early, Minnesota is expected to get major weather starting around Saturday night into Sunday. I just hope and pray for all of the spring break travelers' safety and hope no one (including us) miss their vacations! 
I have another secret/tip to share! We booked a Central Park Balcony room which came with certain "perks": bottle of wine, lunch for 2 at Giovanni's, and a "Casino Lesson". Well, hubby and I are already knowledgeable Blackjack and Poker players (we don't play other casino games other than Roulette which is easy peasy), and we have the Deluxe Beverage package, so we didn't really care about the wine. On a whim, I Facebook Messaged Royal Caribbean back in October and asked if there was any chance they could switch our perks to what the Boardwalk Balcony gets: Lunch for 4 at Johnny Rockets, 2 Soda Packages , and a family Rock Climbing session. They needed to check with a manager, and after a few days wait, much to my surprise, they said YES! They did say it was a "one time exception" which I take to mean I probably can't ask this of them again in the future (understandable). I just wanted to share my experience and suggest that if you too want to swap your "perks", it can't hurt to ask! You might be pleasantly surprised! 
Royal's Facebook team is great! I have used the message feature about 10 times when planning this trip. Someone gets back to me right away, usually within minutes! I needed to reach out to Royal the week before my trip to confirm that our perks-swap was logged with the ship, and I just used Facebook Messenger to do that! They contacted the ship, made sure the swapped was logged (and I specifically asked for the soda packages to be assigned to my kids), and they messaged me back to confirm all was set and ready to go! I used a Travel Agent to book, but Royal's Facebook team was like a second, often more helpful, vacation assistant! Can't say enough great things ?

#sorrynotsorry
Ideally, you come on vacation to unplug, but I have 21st century kiddos! Hubby and I enjoying a drink and some quiet time at Bow & Stern while the kids stay entertained on their Kindles! 

3 more days until we leave for Miami!!! And just in time too, it seems. Thank goodness we decided to fly out a day early, Minnesota is expected to get major weather starting around Saturday night into Sunday. I just hope and pray for all of the spring break travelers' safety and hope no one (including us) miss their vacations! 
I have another secret/tip to share! We booked a Central Park Balcony room which came with certain "perks": bottle of wine, lunch for 2 at Giovanni's, and a "Casino Lesson". Well, hubby and I are already knowledgeable Blackjack and Poker players (we don't play other casino games other than Roulette which is easy peasy), and we have the Deluxe Beverage package, so we didn't really care about the wine. On a whim, I Facebook Messaged Royal Caribbean back in October and asked if there was any chance they could switch our perks to what the Boardwalk Balcony gets: Lunch for 4 at Johnny Rockets, 2 Soda Packages , and a family Rock Climbing session. They needed to check with a manager, and after a few days wait, much to my surprise, they said YES! They did say it was a "one time exception" which I take to mean I probably can't ask this of them again in the future (understandable). I just wanted to share my experience and suggest that if you too want to swap your "perks", it can't hurt to ask! You might be pleasantly surprised! 
Royal's Facebook team is great! I have used the message feature about 10 times when planning this trip. Someone gets back to me right away, usually within minutes! I needed to reach out to Royal the week before my trip to confirm that our perks-swap was logged with the ship, and I just used Facebook Messenger to do that! They contacted the ship, made sure the swapped was logged (and I specifically asked for the soda packages to be assigned to my kids), and they messaged me back to confirm all was set and ready to go! I used a Travel Agent to book, but Royal's Facebook team was like a second, often more helpful, vacation assistant! Can't say enough great things ?

We are in the single digits!! T-minus 9 days until we leave for Miami!! Luckily, we are so busy the next few days that I’m hoping time will fly by: Kindergarten Orientation, basketball and dance lessons, early birthday parties and celebrations for my son, and of course last minute shopping and packing!
Speaking of packing, I started about a week ago, pulled out all the kids’ summer clothes, made them try stuff on to see how many new outfits I need to buy, set aside my kids’ formal night wear, started folding and organizing my clothes, and organized all the little “extras” we need for the cabin:
 


 
And here is my husband’s packing progress:

It just remind me of this funny meme ? How true it is!!! 

Beach day! I gotta say, this is a nice way to come down from such an amazing cruise. Deembarkation went well, they Key service was pretty nice I’d say. I’ll do a longer review when I get back. Today’s plan, enjoy one more day in the sun before reality strikes tomorrow.

I don’t know if it can get any sadder ? Kidddos went to Adventure Dining so hubby and I had a nice relaxing dinner to ourselves. Now packing and getting ready to leave the ship. Without a doubt, this has been the best vacation of my life! 
Tomorrow, Miami Beach!!

You MUST meet the Fairy Godmother of your cruise ship! She wa so happy!

We finally found a use for all that silverware!! Son played “Wolverine” at dinner yesterday!
Formal night #2 was poor service once again. Our head waiter is sure trying. I realize we don’t have a true “waiter” or assistant waiter, we get different people everyday. I’ll do a longer review when I get back. It’s not letting us down too much, but it is a bit frustrating when you see tables getting extra special service by who was supposed to be your waiter, and you get nada (our assigned waiter hasn’t been to our table since night 1). Food was good and as you can see, we enjoyed ourselves! 
My daughters Adventure Club group did a little Pirate Play! She LOVED it and it was so cute to watch! 

Of course I needed a Labadoozie! My husband was very confused when I told him what to order and didn’t think the bartender would know what he was saying ?

 
The sand at Columbus Cove was so pretty and perfect, very small waves and nice and shallow for my 5 yo.

 


 
Yes, Mommy went on the inflatables! 5 yo only lasted about 20 minutes, then the boy and I did some major climbing, jumping, and sliding. More fun than I’ve had in long time!

Beach day! I gotta say, this is a nice way to come down from such an amazing cruise. Deembarkation went well, they Key service was pretty nice I’d say. I’ll do a longer review when I get back. Today’s plan, enjoy one more day in the sun before reality strikes tomorrow.

Beach day! I gotta say, this is a nice way to come down from such an amazing cruise. Deembarkation went well, they Key service was pretty nice I’d say. I’ll do a longer review when I get back. Today’s plan, enjoy one more day in the sun before reality strikes tomorrow.

Beach day! I gotta say, this is a nice way to come down from such an amazing cruise. Deembarkation went well, they Key service was pretty nice I’d say. I’ll do a longer review when I get back. Today’s plan, enjoy one more day in the sun before reality strikes tomorrow.

Thanks! They really did have an amazing time. Most mornings my son would crawl down from his bed and give us big hugs, saying, “Thank you for taking me on the cruise.” I’m surprised just how well they did, it was so nice and relaxing for us and so fun to spend over a week together, all day every day, as a family. It’ll be tough getting back into the swing of normal life on Tuesday ☹️

I don’t know if it can get any sadder ? Kidddos went to Adventure Dining so hubby and I had a nice relaxing dinner to ourselves. Now packing and getting ready to leave the ship. Without a doubt, this has been the best vacation of my life! 
Tomorrow, Miami Beach!!

You MUST meet the Fairy Godmother of your cruise ship! She wa so happy!

Vacation traditions coming to an end ? Before dinner, we hit the pub for 2 IPAs, 2 chocolate chip cookies, and a Coca-Cola! It’s vacation people!!!!

We finally found a use for all that silverware!! Son played “Wolverine” at dinner yesterday!
Formal night #2 was poor service once again. Our head waiter is sure trying. I realize we don’t have a true “waiter” or assistant waiter, we get different people everyday. I’ll do a longer review when I get back. It’s not letting us down too much, but it is a bit frustrating when you see tables getting extra special service by who was supposed to be your waiter, and you get nada (our assigned waiter hasn’t been to our table since night 1). Food was good and as you can see, we enjoyed ourselves! 
My daughters Adventure Club group did a little Pirate Play! She LOVED it and it was so cute to watch! 

Of course I needed a Labadoozie! My husband was very confused when I told him what to order and didn’t think the bartender would know what he was saying ?

 
The sand at Columbus Cove was so pretty and perfect, very small waves and nice and shallow for my 5 yo.

 


 
Yes, Mommy went on the inflatables! 5 yo only lasted about 20 minutes, then the boy and I did some major climbing, jumping, and sliding. More fun than I’ve had in long time!

We met the Trolls! It’s sad RC is getting rid of the Dreamworks Experience, my daughter is really enjoying meeting all of the characters. 
Darn it, didn’t get a pic of the MDR menu Night  5...but here was the after dinner shot: Ameretto, butterscotch schnapps and Baileys, yummy! Food was only ok. Kids wanted to go to Adventure Ocean so we did My Family Time Dining. It went much smoother this time: we let our waiter know right away and he got their food  out right away and we checked them into kids club at the lobby of the restaurant at 6:40! I’ll do a longer write-up/review of the kids club when I get back, let’s just say my kids are enjoying much more than I expected!
After dinner hubby and I hit the casino for an hour of blackjack (won about $100...not bad!) Then grabbed the kids for the Headliner Show. My son didn’t want to leave so we let him stay at club and had a parent/daughter date w the wee one! Honestly, she probably would have enjoyed staying at club more than the show, but mom and dad enjoyed it. 
 
Also, on Night 4 we decided to just go to Windjammer with the kids. After dinner we went to the Parent Trap Show in On Air and the kids really enjoyed that! 

San Juan! We hiked our way through the city to El Morro. The kids were not big fans of the long walk in high heat, but enjoyed stopping every so often to feed the pigeons ? The castle/fort was very neat and the kids loved exploring all of the rooms and details. Although it’s further away than San Cristobal, I’m glad we we went to El Morro (we chatted with another couple at the Headliner Show and they said San Cristobal was only ok, El Morro much neater.) 
We didn’t stay long in the city, the kids were super hot and desperate to go swimming, so we walked back to the ship (me giving my 5 yo a piggy back ride the whole way back...made for a very sweaty mommy!) I heard about the umbrella street and we just so happened to pass it on our way back! I thought it was so neat that the umbrellas were all pink, I told my kids they did it special for us (our last name happens to be Pink!) 

Ok, I’m having a heck of a time w that last post. I tried to edit so I could include notes as well as delete the video (I think it uploaded twice) and not having much luck. Oh well! Onward and upward!
About last night...kids decided they wanted to go to Adventure Ocean Dining, so hubby and I had a meal to ourselves. MDR was much less hectic last night and tho we did bring our own wine into dinner, our wine “refills” were much faster too! 
BTW, we were in Shooners Bar before dinner and I had a pretty full martini I was sipping, and I ordered my Kim Crawford for dinner and the bartender said no, since I already had a martini. I was like, “um, excuse me? I can’t order a second drink ??” He said, “how are you going to drink wine and a martini?” Apparently he doesn’t know I’m a pro at double fisting wine and cocktails ? I explained the MDR wine fiasco and he agreed to get my wine. Still, I thought that was kinda weird that I had to justify ordering a second drink! 
Oh, and the pic of the table was to show how much silverware they give us. Hubby and I both ordered something that needed a steak knife, and when the waiter dropped it off, hubby said something funny like, “just what I thought this table needed, more silverware!” 
We grabbed the kids after dinner then headed to On Air for family karaoke. We had a blast!! My 5 yo daughter was desperate to go on stage (budding Diva she is) but none of the songs she knows were options in the karaoke book (no ABBA Mamamia? No Greatest Showman soundtrack?! No Toto Roseanna!? Yes, those were all options she suggested ???) So I decided to pick something I thought I could sing relatively OK and she just bounced around w the mic and danced. She loved it!!
After we got off stage, my husband proudly announced he took a video of our performance...turned out to be an 8 sec clip, 1 sec of us on the stage then the crowd. LOL, bless his heart, he tried!! 
St. Maarten today, beach excursion! Just finished breakfast on our balcony, now time to lather the kids in sunscreen! 

DD8F5D36-2AA5-47B5-B443-0EB14AE56388.MOV DD8F5D36-2AA5-47B5-B443-0EB14AE56388.MOV
 

Sorry for my “hand shadow” in the pic. Night 2 MDR Menu. I had the beef carpaccio, lobster bisque, seafood linguine, and peach shortcake. Hubby had Cesar salad, shrimp cocktail, NY Strip and carrot cake. All tasted great! Wine service in MDR is pretty poor. First night I ordered Kim Crawford sav blank and my hubby ordered a cab. They brought 2 Kim Crawford’s.  Took until dessert for the cab to arrive. Same thing but opposite yesterday, hubby ordered cab right away, I had a cocktail still so I waited until I placed our order to ask for Kim Crawford. They brought 2 cabs and my wine didn’t come until dessert ??‍♀️. Today we will bring wine in from a bar and make sure to order more wine right away.
Also, I’ll try to do a My Family Time Dining review. Hopefully we will try it again tonight and have a bit smoother experience.