Vangrizz

Multi part post because I can't  sleep. Rain, lots of it,   is called for our coco cay day as of right now. Pray to the sun gods for me!!!
 
What an amazing day.
 
The other 9 did a catamaran excursion. Me and the wife got the day to ourselves. We did the St Maarten bus tour. Very interesting but odd at the same time. St Maarten is hard to explain,  beautiful and sad at the same time. The last hurricane did a number and parts of it seem too poor to rebound. There were also 6 ships docked so or was jamming everywhere. 
We were the biggest but a couple of these werent small.


Iguanas of the seas.

Yeah... mountain goats visible from the port exit!


 
After that we rushed back to do our vow renewal. I had to sit in the suite deck while they all got ready. I reread my vows, and madE a few last minute adjustments at the bar with vodka on the rocks. The  loft attendants and concierge helped out with some decor and a cheese plate. It was amazing! My sister in law did an amazing job officiating the vow renewal in the suite. Most of those pics will have to wait as we used a better camera than my phone. Our daughter was the flower girl and my wife came down the loft stairs in a beautiful dress and we had a beautiful ceremony. We were about 15 minutes to late for a sunset back ground. we made up for it with pics around the ship! We even got a pic with the cruise director Mark right when they finished taping a show.




 

Really enjoyed following along with this. Thanks so much for all the updates.

No more pics today but saw 1887 it was great!
The shows have all been amazing. 
Since we stuffed ourselves at Jamie's at lunch we skipped the mdr. Went to Windjammer to go with a small meal... yeah i had 2 plates of Mongolian. Good thing I haven't been queasy half the day!  
 
Tomorrow is the 10 year Anniversary!  First we have  St. Maarten, we have a tour booked just me and the wife. Daughter is going with nana (aunt) and grandma and the other 2 families.  This will be the first time we can actually spend just the 2 of us. 
 
Then the vow renewal in our suite! Followed by 11 of us at the habichi table. 
 
Going to be a great day!
 
 

Just watch out for the infamous drop bears when you're in Sydney, Twangster. Those things are vicious...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-13/uk-journalist-pranked-into-holding-a-drop-bear-during-bushfires/11863942

@Lovetocruise2002 I hear your pro tip about blogging solely from my phone. Here is an elderly tip:  I can barely see the damned thing!??

To celebrate my Mother in Law’s birthday this year, we’re taking her on her first cruise! My FIL passed away a couple of years ago, and then she had a really hard time selling her home of 40 years. She’s finally settled in her new place, and my husband and I thought she was overdue for a getaway...or maybe we are just using her as an excuse to YOLO go on another cruise. ?‍♀️ Either way, we are boarding Enchantment of the Seas ON HER BIRTHDAY for a 5 day Western Caribbean cruise! I’ve been sending her videos, photos, reviews, menus and the like just about weekly since we booked, and it seems to have become all we talk about. She is so excited!

I'll post all the specifics over the coming days as I get a few minutes of free time. In my typical fashion, I've crammed as much as possible into this last full week at home - 4 client meetings, orders to fill, doctor and dentist appointments for everyone, hair appointments, plus our regular school and evening activities... at some point I'm really just going to learn to clear my calendar the week before and after vacation! 
Here are a few of the details to get us going:
DH, the kids, and I haven’t really changed from our September cruise on Liberty. Well I have purple hair now, but otherwise, we’re the same! My mid-life crisis included drastic hair coloring and buying a bicycle ?‍♀️ - I figure it’s a lot less expensive than a new sports car! Here’s a link to my post from Liberty a few months ago. In case you want the short version, DH’s a VERY early riser and a type A personality who likes to relax and do nothing on vacations. I’m a night owl, and much more relaxed in our day to day lives, who wants to do it all when we travel. Sounds like a sitcom, right? Did I mention he’s 6’4” and I’m barely 5’? I homeschool the kids on an almost year-round schedule, so this will be one of our two spring breaks. My DD is 11 and on the Autism Spectrum, and my DS is almost 8 and made of rubber. My MIL (Mimi) will be turning 7… Well I’m not going to say exactly, but DH (who I have no problem ratting out) is 47, so you get the general idea. She broke her ankle a couple of years ago, and we have tried to be sensitive to her walking long distances and on shifting beach sand in our planning.
MIL and I get along really well and we’re all staying in a 2 Bedroom Grand Suite (8052) similar to the one we stayed in on Liberty. Besides squeezing in another person, we’re on the side, not an aft this time, so the balcony is sadly going to be much smaller. The two aft 2br suites were both booked already, so we're in one of the remaining two that are directly under part of the Windjammer. From deck maps, it looks we pretty close to the very front of the WJ annex though; hopefully there won’t be too much scraping of chairs above us (and gnashing of teeth in our cabin).

Day 2
Who needs sleep anyways?  Seeing that we paid for that Bayview we slept with the curtains open.  Not a big deal really but we live in the "country" with total darkness outside so the lights from the city are bright for us.  I did fall asleep but woke up around 2:15a to watch the first ship come in, then back to sleep until around 5a to watch the others come in.  I was not positive which ship was coming in at 2:30a but knew it was an Oasis class, when it made its turn in the basin to go back to the dock....WOW it is huge.  I failed to mention it is extremely windy out and being on the 17th floor with a patio above us it sounds like the roof was gonna fall in at any moment.  We loved this room even with the additional noise from the wind. 
Ships in port today:
Carnival Conquest, Carnival Horizon, Norwegian Escape, MSC Seaside, Empress of the Seas and Symphony of the Seas.
Scott finally woke around 7a and asked why I was sitting on the sofa and how long I had been up.  Without glasses on or contacts in I explained I was just watching the little blurry ships come in to port all night.  He claims I have issues.  I'm a morning person and he is not so I jump in the shower and tell him I am heading to Publix to Starbucks, he of course wanted to join me as it is Publix so now I wait for him to get ready, so I will just sit and watch the ships...I can see now as I have contacts in.
Again I love the convenience of Publix to grab stuff while at the Hilton.  So I went to Starbucks and got a real coffee with Splenda and egg white bites and honestly I have no clue what Scott had for breakfast, I sure you he ate as remember a hungry Scott is a hangry Scott.  Oh wait thats right we got 4 donuts from Salty Donuts last night so he had donuts and coffee.  If you like overpriced donuts, Salty Donuts is there for you, Scott said that Publix donuts are better....well darn I tried. At least the box is cute.  
About 9a we head to Bayside Marketplace as we bought a Groupon deal for a water tour.  Again we took the MetroMover that is right next door to the Hilton the the Marketplace.  Quick, easy and free transportation.  I am amazed at how efficient it is and that there is no charge.  It is limited to the downtown area but you can get a lot of places.  We checked into the podium at Bayride Tours and were placed on the 9:30a tour....awesome but I thought the first tour was at 10:30a, no biggie.  Around 9:30 we boarded the vessel with about 20-30 other people and did out tour around Jungle Island and saw all the celebrities homes.  One of the homes we saw was the old home of Madonna.  This made me smile and warm as she is my sisters favorite performer and I lost her this summer to lung cancer.  The tour was great and lasted about 90 minutes as advertised.  If you want to do a tour in Miami I would check out Groupon as they have some good deals and usually buy 1 get 1.  Here is the Symphony ? 
 
After the tour it was lunch time and Scott wanted to eat at Chili's at the Marketplace.  Wouldn't be my first choice but I suppose he can have some say.  It was a lackluster meal but his tank is full.  We walk around the marketplace and find a Starbucks so I do the mobile order and get my coffee.  We also find the Disney Store, remember we are Disney gays and it is just like every other Disney store....cramped and packed to the rafters.  It is now around 2p and Scott now declares it to be nap time so we head back to the hotel.  During the nap I hear a horn and out of bed I go to watch a Carnival ship leave, then I watch them all leave.  It is now 6p and I pounce on the bed to wake Scott from his sleep coma, I get in trouble for not waking him to watch the ships leave...SMH I can't win.
For dinner we wanted Tacos so we went to Tacomiendo which is a Taco Truck in the Midtown Garden Center in Wynwood.  We arrive and were a little worried but just do it anyway.  Having this little truck tucked into a corner of the Garden Center is beautiful with all the foliage and flowers around you.  They have plenty of tables and you can see even more tables across the way.  The waitress explains the tacos and Scott gets 2 chicken tacos and I get 1 fire brisket taco and we order chips and salsa to share.  My brisket taco was amazing and lots of meat, easily as large as both of Scotts tacos put together.  It was 7p on a Saturday and we were the only ones there but the food was really really good and we would definitely go back, Scott would get the brisket instead though ?  The waitress explained that it is BYOB so next time to bring a bottle of wine or a beer to drink with dinner.  After dinner we head back to Publix to get some more water for the room and then head back to the Hilton for the night.  Time to get repacked and ready to head out on the Oasis of the Seas tomorrow.

Like, on a phone?