IslandBoundMama

Just an update to say my first day back at work was torture and I'm already in cruise withdraw.  That is all.

Our door decorations and a gorgeous sunset and rare full family pic...
 

I love the wall of door knockers.  They instantly reminded me of that movie the Labrynth with David Bowie.  Anyone else a fan of that movie?
 

We took an Uber to the beach here in Ft. Lauderdale. My crab phobic son decided to snorkel again.  He saw fish and even a stingray! That made his day.  For some reason stingrays are on the okay list. ?‍♀️
The water is just BEAUTIFUL!!!!! We swam/snorkeled for a couple of hours, then went to have pizza right across the street.  Best pizza crust ever and I’m not a crust eater.
Now we are taking Lyft back to the hotel to swim some more. Looks like a storm is rolling in.

Our fish is still on n the water.  He made a little friend the same age as him.  He’s shy so it’s only because she talked to him first. ☺️
They’ve been playing for a while, then she just asked him to go to the hot tub with her.  Everything is happening so fast. ??
 

Oh my sweetness!!! Now that I have access to my email I’m seeing some of the Blue Lagoon pictures.  They don’t want to cooperate good on my phone.  I think I can download better on a pc, but here are a few:
 

Mariner was docked beside us and we also had Norwegian Dawn and Carnival Liberty with us. We disembarked to meet our tour group.  After what seemed like forever, we were finally on our way to Blue Lagoon.
The boat over was a pretty subdued atmosphere.  The tour operators and most of us hadn’t had enough coffee apparently. 
We enjoyed the view of the mansions on our way over. Once there, we had some time to kill on the beach before our encounter.
There was a jellyfish warning posted, but the water was so clear I wasn’t concerned about not seeing it first (hopefully). 
Lil guy was still traumatized from his crab encounter and then he heard someone mention the jellyfish and he was outta there. Ugh...
Hubs finally convinced him to let him take him out on his back.  A little later he was asking for his snorkel mask and was back to himself.

It's almost time!!!!  Wishing you a great trip!

This is so exciting!!!  The sky isn't looking too friendly, but who cares...it's vacation time!!! 

I ordered the nutty bitch, the wife got a sausage egg and cheese.  Not sure what everyone else has.  Lots of people in here, so it must be good stuff!
 
*edit It was good!

It’s cruise day!!
 
We arrived in Seattle yesterday around 10 AM and hopped the link light rail ($3.00 per person) from the airport to the University Street stop which was about a half of a mile walk to our hotel which is very near the Public Market area.
Arriving prior to check-in, our room understandably wasn’t ready but we were able to drop our bags off at the hotel, and were given several restaurant recommendations for lunch.  We settled on The Virginia Inn for  some comfort food and a decent local draft beer list as well.   After lunch we walked around the Pike Place area.

Some really good people watching down by the water...

As a frequent customer of their franchise locations, of course I had to visit the original Starbucks location.  There was a line to get in and when I arrived it  was about 15 people deep, but it went fairly quickly.

 
After a bit more walking around and exploring we met up with Polly and Sheri at the Edgewater Hotel for happy hour in the lounge which had great views of the sunset last night.
Yesterday was a lonnng day, having woken up at 3:30 AM to catch our flight and losing 3 hours to the time change, we were completely zonked our by 8:30PM local time.  
Now it’s time to get ready, grab a bite to eat at a place near us called “The Biscuit Bitch” (How we not try that?) and Uber over to the Port!  We’re aiming for a 10 AM arrival.  Will update more from Pier 91!

I'm in my dry dock phase after having our vacation last month.  We don't know what our plans are yet for next year and it's oh so depressing.  Take heart in knowing your blog is keeping me alive! lol

Alert!!!! Alert!!!!
We should’ve had an interior room and were upgraded to a bay view just in time to watch departures!  I’m in love!!!!??
I already know why @Love2cruise2002 loves this place!
 

Our furry baby we are leaving behind....this is her signature pose all of the time.

@Biggiojr @WAAAYTOOO
For any survey related emails you get from or for Royal, make sure to at least look at them-don't delete until you check it first. I got one about Cococay. They requested that I take some pictures and describe our visit there. In return they gave a $75 Amazon gift card. My information to them was due no later than the day after we returned and I had the gift card less than 7 days after that. It was well worth the few minutes spent....and Cococay was magnificent.

Loving your review!  That cathedral is breathtaking!!!  I'm always fascinated by old structures and architectural detail....I could take pictures all day!  I'm also a huge GOT fan!!!  Tracking those places down would have me side tracked all day. 
Following along.....

I know you are over the moon excited and counting down!!  We just had a 3 year dry dock and thought that was bad....you beat us with the 8 years.  Enjoy every minute and can't wait to hear all about it!

There’s an old saying, “When in Kotor, do as the cats do”.  Ok. Not really...but I think we should make it a new saying.  Naps are always a good idea.
??

Just an update to say my first day back at work was torture and I'm already in cruise withdraw.  That is all.

Last port stop was Labadee.  It was a normal beach day, beautiful day with no rain. Hubs and lil guy did the aqua park and we somehow managed to miss the bbq.  I was waiting for them to finish the aqua park.  We walked over at 2pm and everything was gone already.  We stayed in the Columbus Cove area.
Since we’ve personally last been there, they added beach swings and some more cabanas.
 

????

Hello!!!! Welcome to my semi-live blog! 
Background:  My hubby and I have saved up our vacation time at work since early 2018(despite unexpected and serious medical issues) to be able to take a consecutive two week + 1 day trip.  Yes...that extra day counts too!!! ?
This trip will be myself, DH and our 9yo son. This is our son’s first trip w/o any of his other siblings. He is a huge fan of cruising just like good ‘ol mom and dad.
The important stuff:  First week we are on Navigator, second week we are on Allure! We fly out of Baltimore to Ft. Lauderdale tomorrow morning, then head to Miami. I feel like we’ve waited forever for this trip. Since March of 2018 to be exact. Our itinerary will be:
8/10  Miami (Intercontinental)
8/11 Miam
8/12 Board Navigator 
8/13 Coco Cay
8/14 Nassau
8/15 Sea Day
8/16 Ft. Lauderdale (Renaissance)
8/17 Ft. Lauderdale
8/18  Board Allure
8/19  Sea Day
8/20  Sea Day
8/21  St. Maarten
8/22  Puerto Rico
8/23  Labadee
8/24  Sea Day
8/25  Hollywood (Margaritaville)
8/26  Fly home ?
We have two excursions booked. We are doing a dolphin encounter at Blue Lagoon in the Bahamas and we are doing the Rain Forest Drive in Puerto Rico.  Both excursions are through the ship this go round. 
This will be semi-live because to be honest...I can’t wait to not have phone service for a while.  It’s been a rough year and we desperately need to disconnect. I’ll be live until I lose my phone service and will update on our land days and in Puerto Rico, etc.
 
 
 
 

Our next port was Puerto Rico which is one of my favorites.  We did the Rainforest Drive excursion.  We had an excellent guide and the Rainforest is breathtaking.  Guess what???? I even had time for my pina colada at Barrachinas!!! 
Hubs and lil guy continued back to the ship while I browsed for souvenirs.  Suddenly a torrential downpour came and I was soaked.  It was so heavy it was hard to see. 

Yesterday was our first port day.  We chose to take a taxi to Mullet Bay Beach.  I was going to go to the beach at Holland House, but after hearing talk of the water there failing toxicity tests I didn’t want to chance it. 
Mullet Bay Beach was absolutely gorgeous.  The color of the water there is something out of an advertisement.  
We ate at Rosie’s snack shack there.  Two chicken and rice platters, an order of fries, a beer and a soda cane to $24.
Some catamarans came and anchored for about 30-45 minutes.  We scored free rum punch from their staff because their people weren’t swimming out to where the cooler was. That was a win!!
We snorkeled and saw a few different kind of fish and some crabs.
We have only had one other ship docked with it’s there...MSC Seaside.

I also love the little hidden treasures throughout the ship. If you look down into the telescopes you find scenes such as this: