Luly

For Christmas we prefer to give our kids experiences instead of random gifts. Either we're on a cruise on Christmas or we give them a trip as their gift. This year they got a Quantum Vision of a Christmas gift: TWO cruises, Southern Caribbean on Vision March 31-April 10 and Alaska on Quantum May 29-June 5, hence this is Part 2. If you're interested I also did a live blog on our Vision cruise. Hubby and I have been on two Alaska cruises and after sailing on Ovation just after the restart we decided we should finally take the kids. We've been on two Quantum class ships, Anthem and Ovation, and are excited to experience Quantum of the Seas. 
Who's sailing: Hubby and I and our 4 kids: D16, S12, S8, D5. D16 has minimal time to enjoy Diamond benefits as she'll be relegated to Emerald when she turns 18 next summer, as I understand it. S8 is technically still S7, but his birthday is on embarkation day. This is not considered a birthday cruise, it was just the least expensive time to go to Alaska without missing school. Also sailing are MIL and FIL, as well as MM (my mom) and MD (my dad). We are all on deck 11. The adults are all in balcony rooms, and kids are across from hubby and I in an inside room with virtual balcony. We have cruised with parents before, but never both sets of parents at the same time. MIL loves warm weather Disney cruises and snorkeling all day every day. They just returned from B2B Southern Caribbean sailings on Disney on Saturday and snorkeled 10 days straight. So she's really unsure about this cold and rainy cruise and I can't wait to show her the beauty of Alaska and all of the fun stuff on a Quantum class ship. 
Where to: Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Victoria.
If you weren't aware, all of Quantum's visits to Skagway were cancelled this season. Some were moved to Icy Strait Point, others to Ketchikan, and some to Sitka, I guess it depends which ports were on your original itinerary. We got switched to Ketchikan. We're taking it in stride, but I am quite bummed. Our favorite excursion ever was in Skagway where we took a boat to a remote area and along the way saw lots of wildlife and waterfalls. We then canoed to Davidson Glacier where we got to touch the glacier and it was just really amazing and the college age tour guides were hilarious. They live in this remote area with no electricity and no cell service and in their free time make up skits using boxes. We had the three older kids as well as MIL, MM, and MD signed up for that. D5 isn't old enough so we were going to take her on the train with FIL, then a bus ride back down to see sled dog puppies and many other sites. Bummed to miss such exciting excursions but especially bummed my kids didn't get to see a glacier up close.  Mendenhall glacier is just too far away. So instead hubby and I are going to wake up early in Ketchikan and do a 5 mile hike, MM and MD are doing an ebike and hike excursion, and MIL and FIL are going to stay with the kiddos and meet us for the 12:45 lumberjack show. Then we'll look for a delicious crab lunch. Good news: saved a ton of money...or so I thought. Last week Royal FINALLY released the excursion that allows us to get off the ship directly onto a boat in the middle of the Fjord. I figured since it hadn't been released at 30 days out that we wouldn't see it, so was surprised for it to appear less than 2 weeks before sailing. The ship will continue to Juneau arriving around 1 and we will meet it there at 2:30. This is one pricey tour, so no money saved by hubby and I in the end, but yay for my kids being able to see a glacier up close after all. However, MIL and FIL did have to cancel their helicopter tour in Juneau in order to go with us. I think FIL was relieved, he gets motion sick easily. MIL decided that she would be super disappointed if they got to Juneau and the helicopter flight was cancelled due to weather and so then they had no excursion at all plus she wants to be with the grandkids. 
Getting there: We were going to drive to Seattle, but then I checked Air2Sea and the flights were....drumroll.....$137. Roundtrip. Nonstop. First Class. On our preferred airline. It'll be the kids' first time in first class, but shhhh they don't know yet. I thought for sure this was some Royal IT glitch, but nobody has called me to up the price or return my money. I've never used Air2Sea but for this price I couldn't resist. The flights showed up on the Delta App within hours for us to make our seat selection. We fly out on Sunday!
 

For Christmas we prefer to give our kids experiences instead of random gifts. Either we're on a cruise on Christmas or we give them a trip as their gift. This year they got a Quantum Vision of a Christmas gift: TWO cruises, Southern Caribbean on Vision March 31-April 10 and Alaska on Quantum May 29-June 5, hence this is Part 2. If you're interested I also did a live blog on our Vision cruise. Hubby and I have been on two Alaska cruises and after sailing on Ovation just after the restart we decided we should finally take the kids. We've been on two Quantum class ships, Anthem and Ovation, and are excited to experience Quantum of the Seas. 
Who's sailing: Hubby and I and our 4 kids: D16, S12, S8, D5. D16 has minimal time to enjoy Diamond benefits as she'll be relegated to Emerald when she turns 18 next summer, as I understand it. S8 is technically still S7, but his birthday is on embarkation day. This is not considered a birthday cruise, it was just the least expensive time to go to Alaska without missing school. Also sailing are MIL and FIL, as well as MM (my mom) and MD (my dad). We are all on deck 11. The adults are all in balcony rooms, and kids are across from hubby and I in an inside room with virtual balcony. We have cruised with parents before, but never both sets of parents at the same time. MIL loves warm weather Disney cruises and snorkeling all day every day. They just returned from B2B Southern Caribbean sailings on Disney on Saturday and snorkeled 10 days straight. So she's really unsure about this cold and rainy cruise and I can't wait to show her the beauty of Alaska and all of the fun stuff on a Quantum class ship. 
Where to: Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Victoria.
If you weren't aware, all of Quantum's visits to Skagway were cancelled this season. Some were moved to Icy Strait Point, others to Ketchikan, and some to Sitka, I guess it depends which ports were on your original itinerary. We got switched to Ketchikan. We're taking it in stride, but I am quite bummed. Our favorite excursion ever was in Skagway where we took a boat to a remote area and along the way saw lots of wildlife and waterfalls. We then canoed to Davidson Glacier where we got to touch the glacier and it was just really amazing and the college age tour guides were hilarious. They live in this remote area with no electricity and no cell service and in their free time make up skits using boxes. We had the three older kids as well as MIL, MM, and MD signed up for that. D5 isn't old enough so we were going to take her on the train with FIL, then a bus ride back down to see sled dog puppies and many other sites. Bummed to miss such exciting excursions but especially bummed my kids didn't get to see a glacier up close.  Mendenhall glacier is just too far away. So instead hubby and I are going to wake up early in Ketchikan and do a 5 mile hike, MM and MD are doing an ebike and hike excursion, and MIL and FIL are going to stay with the kiddos and meet us for the 12:45 lumberjack show. Then we'll look for a delicious crab lunch. Good news: saved a ton of money...or so I thought. Last week Royal FINALLY released the excursion that allows us to get off the ship directly onto a boat in the middle of the Fjord. I figured since it hadn't been released at 30 days out that we wouldn't see it, so was surprised for it to appear less than 2 weeks before sailing. The ship will continue to Juneau arriving around 1 and we will meet it there at 2:30. This is one pricey tour, so no money saved by hubby and I in the end, but yay for my kids being able to see a glacier up close after all. However, MIL and FIL did have to cancel their helicopter tour in Juneau in order to go with us. I think FIL was relieved, he gets motion sick easily. MIL decided that she would be super disappointed if they got to Juneau and the helicopter flight was cancelled due to weather and so then they had no excursion at all plus she wants to be with the grandkids. 
Getting there: We were going to drive to Seattle, but then I checked Air2Sea and the flights were....drumroll.....$137. Roundtrip. Nonstop. First Class. On our preferred airline. It'll be the kids' first time in first class, but shhhh they don't know yet. I thought for sure this was some Royal IT glitch, but nobody has called me to up the price or return my money. I've never used Air2Sea but for this price I couldn't resist. The flights showed up on the Delta App within hours for us to make our seat selection. We fly out on Sunday!
 

For Christmas we prefer to give our kids experiences instead of random gifts. Either we're on a cruise on Christmas or we give them a trip as their gift. This year they got a Quantum Vision of a Christmas gift: TWO cruises, Southern Caribbean on Vision March 31-April 10 and Alaska on Quantum May 29-June 5, hence this is Part 2. If you're interested I also did a live blog on our Vision cruise. Hubby and I have been on two Alaska cruises and after sailing on Ovation just after the restart we decided we should finally take the kids. We've been on two Quantum class ships, Anthem and Ovation, and are excited to experience Quantum of the Seas. 
Who's sailing: Hubby and I and our 4 kids: D16, S12, S8, D5. D16 has minimal time to enjoy Diamond benefits as she'll be relegated to Emerald when she turns 18 next summer, as I understand it. S8 is technically still S7, but his birthday is on embarkation day. This is not considered a birthday cruise, it was just the least expensive time to go to Alaska without missing school. Also sailing are MIL and FIL, as well as MM (my mom) and MD (my dad). We are all on deck 11. The adults are all in balcony rooms, and kids are across from hubby and I in an inside room with virtual balcony. We have cruised with parents before, but never both sets of parents at the same time. MIL loves warm weather Disney cruises and snorkeling all day every day. They just returned from B2B Southern Caribbean sailings on Disney on Saturday and snorkeled 10 days straight. So she's really unsure about this cold and rainy cruise and I can't wait to show her the beauty of Alaska and all of the fun stuff on a Quantum class ship. 
Where to: Ketchikan, Sitka, Juneau, Victoria.
If you weren't aware, all of Quantum's visits to Skagway were cancelled this season. Some were moved to Icy Strait Point, others to Ketchikan, and some to Sitka, I guess it depends which ports were on your original itinerary. We got switched to Ketchikan. We're taking it in stride, but I am quite bummed. Our favorite excursion ever was in Skagway where we took a boat to a remote area and along the way saw lots of wildlife and waterfalls. We then canoed to Davidson Glacier where we got to touch the glacier and it was just really amazing and the college age tour guides were hilarious. They live in this remote area with no electricity and no cell service and in their free time make up skits using boxes. We had the three older kids as well as MIL, MM, and MD signed up for that. D5 isn't old enough so we were going to take her on the train with FIL, then a bus ride back down to see sled dog puppies and many other sites. Bummed to miss such exciting excursions but especially bummed my kids didn't get to see a glacier up close.  Mendenhall glacier is just too far away. So instead hubby and I are going to wake up early in Ketchikan and do a 5 mile hike, MM and MD are doing an ebike and hike excursion, and MIL and FIL are going to stay with the kiddos and meet us for the 12:45 lumberjack show. Then we'll look for a delicious crab lunch. Good news: saved a ton of money...or so I thought. Last week Royal FINALLY released the excursion that allows us to get off the ship directly onto a boat in the middle of the Fjord. I figured since it hadn't been released at 30 days out that we wouldn't see it, so was surprised for it to appear less than 2 weeks before sailing. The ship will continue to Juneau arriving around 1 and we will meet it there at 2:30. This is one pricey tour, so no money saved by hubby and I in the end, but yay for my kids being able to see a glacier up close after all. However, MIL and FIL did have to cancel their helicopter tour in Juneau in order to go with us. I think FIL was relieved, he gets motion sick easily. MIL decided that she would be super disappointed if they got to Juneau and the helicopter flight was cancelled due to weather and so then they had no excursion at all plus she wants to be with the grandkids. 
Getting there: We were going to drive to Seattle, but then I checked Air2Sea and the flights were....drumroll.....$137. Roundtrip. Nonstop. First Class. On our preferred airline. It'll be the kids' first time in first class, but shhhh they don't know yet. I thought for sure this was some Royal IT glitch, but nobody has called me to up the price or return my money. I've never used Air2Sea but for this price I couldn't resist. The flights showed up on the Delta App within hours for us to make our seat selection. We fly out on Sunday!
 

For the few followers on this live blog, the second half of the kids Christmas gift, the Quantum sailing is in just a week and I’ll be live blogging that as well. I’ll start a new post for it soon. Also, somewhere in this blog I mentioned I was trying to convince hubby to let me book the 11 night sailing on Explorer over Christmas 2024. I did it! TA Kelley booked it for us a few weeks ago along with both sets of grandparents and hubby’s siblings and their kids. Now I just need to find something between our quantum sailing this year and our quantum sailing September 2024. Hubby’s not worried I’ll find something, I always do. Kids are dying to go on Icon but I’m more of a let’s go on lots of cheap cruises instead of one super duper expensive cruise to places I’ve already been to too many times.

For the few followers on this live blog, the second half of the kids Christmas gift, the Quantum sailing is in just a week and I’ll be live blogging that as well. I’ll start a new post for it soon. Also, somewhere in this blog I mentioned I was trying to convince hubby to let me book the 11 night sailing on Explorer over Christmas 2024. I did it! TA Kelley booked it for us a few weeks ago along with both sets of grandparents and hubby’s siblings and their kids. Now I just need to find something between our quantum sailing this year and our quantum sailing September 2024. Hubby’s not worried I’ll find something, I always do. Kids are dying to go on Icon but I’m more of a let’s go on lots of cheap cruises instead of one super duper expensive cruise to places I’ve already been to too many times.

For the few followers on this live blog, the second half of the kids Christmas gift, the Quantum sailing is in just a week and I’ll be live blogging that as well. I’ll start a new post for it soon. Also, somewhere in this blog I mentioned I was trying to convince hubby to let me book the 11 night sailing on Explorer over Christmas 2024. I did it! TA Kelley booked it for us a few weeks ago along with both sets of grandparents and hubby’s siblings and their kids. Now I just need to find something between our quantum sailing this year and our quantum sailing September 2024. Hubby’s not worried I’ll find something, I always do. Kids are dying to go on Icon but I’m more of a let’s go on lots of cheap cruises instead of one super duper expensive cruise to places I’ve already been to too many times.

Just want to clarify, water and lemonade aren’t just served with meals. You can always get water on the ship. There are stations on the pool deck that are always open. You could also bring a refillable water bottle. You just need to use one of their cups to refill your water bottle, you can’t put it directly under the spigot. 

And I just got an email from Royal. Sitka has been moved back a day and Ketchikan is in place of Skagway. 

People on the May 15 roll call on Facebook are reporting that royal has cancelled their skagway excursions. 

And I just got an email from Royal. Sitka has been moved back a day and Ketchikan is in place of Skagway. 

I miss the fruity soup appetizers that tasted like a smoothie. I also miss getting the dessert menu AFTER dinner was over. I like ordering later based on how full I am. I miss the teen club cruise compass. It seems like there used to end more late night entertainment. I used to be up until midnight seeing a comedian or late night activity and now I’m content to be asleep by 9:30 knowing I’m not missing anything. The only thing I stayed up late for (besides waiting for my child to come back from teen club) throughout my entire 10 night cruise a few weeks ago was the Quest. 

I miss the fruity soup appetizers that tasted like a smoothie. I also miss getting the dessert menu AFTER dinner was over. I like ordering later based on how full I am. I miss the teen club cruise compass. It seems like there used to end more late night entertainment. I used to be up until midnight seeing a comedian or late night activity and now I’m content to be asleep by 9:30 knowing I’m not missing anything. The only thing I stayed up late for (besides waiting for my child to come back from teen club) throughout my entire 10 night cruise a few weeks ago was the Quest. 

Day 5
Today we had a tour with Bernard Tours in St. Maarten. It’s the one called Adventure Tour 2 on their website. This was the special day when S12’s BFF was in the same port on Harmony.  His family is mom, dad, and three kids. Despite the detailed instructions to find the meeting area we had to ask two people for directions. We were supposed to meet at 9:30 but our gangway didn’t go down until 9:20, which was actually ahead of schedule. I had emailed the tour company to let them know we may be late. 
This was mostly a driving tour with a few brief stops and one longer beach stop. We had a few stops to take pictures and we crossed between both the French and Dutch sides. 
We stopped for the kids to feed some wild iguanas. It was free with a requested tip afterward. 
For the beach we were given a choice between Orient and Grand Case beach. We chose the more family friendly Grand Case beach. Our tour leader dropped us off at Captain Frenchy’s and gave us 90 minutes. There were still some topless women but better than full on nudity. We paid $16 for two chairs and an umbrella on the beach. Had we known lunch would take so long to come out we would’ve ordered as soon as we arrived. Between our two families it took nearly 45 minutes for all of our food. Lunch cost $103 for my family. Their burgers were delicious as was the Captain Frenchy’s salad. Because we waited so long for our food we ended up being there for two hours and you could tell it was stressing out the driver. Anyway, the kids loved playing in the waves and D4 snorkeled in the crystal clear water. Hubby stayed right by her but she did amazing snorkeling without a life vest.
The next stops had to be cut short due to our long stay at Grand Case. The next was 15 minutes at a shopping area in Marigot. Hubby and I went to a French pastry shop. We are real suckers for good local food. The kids bought some bracelets and a sculpture thingy crafted from a local tagua nut that resembles ivory once cut. 
Our final stop was Maho beach for 35 minutes where you can see the airplanes land and take off. We barely missed some big planes landing by 10 minutes. We saw a tiny plane land. We saw two big jets take off. One took off facing away from us so we could feel the jet blast and the other took off coming toward us so essentially as close and loud as landing. The kids LOVED this and if we come back again would like to come back to that beach for a couple hours. It really was an incredible experience. 
We were ready to go back to the ship when we got back to Philipsburg at 3 but this was our friends’ first cruise and they wanted to go to the shopping area. I hate the shopping aspect of cruise ports but went with them anyway because I wanted to get a picture of the boys in front of their respective ships afterward. 
We got back on the ship with enough time to shower before dinner. I think we may have left two people behind. They called for them a few times but they never came running to the ship and the gangway went up. 
Tonight was Caribbean night. The coconut shrimp was delicious and the buttery tiger shrimp were pretty good. The sugar free blueberry cobbler was meh. Hubby got the jerk chicken, he ate it but didn’t rave about it or anything. The pineapple cake was also meh. Dinner was over all good. 
The show was ventriloquist Mark Merchant. He had some funny moments but a lot of the jokes went over the younger kids heads. They were really looking forward to him so that was a little disappointing. He also had some minorly inappropriate jokes that also luckily went over the kids heads. 
We went to Dance with the Stripes game in the Centrum which was entertaining and had a huge audience (pictures below).
S12 has been loving the teen club. Despite my plea to the kids last night to go to bed early and setting a 10pm bedtime we finally had to go on the hunt for him at midnight. His phone had died so he hadn’t received any messages I’d sent and who needs to be on time when your parents can’t reach you? Tonight I made it clear he has a 10:30 curfew. My initial blog post I had voiced concerns about the teen club. The app indicated it was only open 8pm-midnight. They have had day time activities randomly throughout the day along with night time games and a Nintendo switch. S12 is extremely extroverted and always finds friends on our cruises so I’m glad he’s enjoying his independence, just wish he wanted to go to bed. 
Tomorrow we’re in St. Kitts and this is the port I am most excited about. I have loved monkeys since I was little and this tour always has Peaches the monkey on it. I can hardly contain my excitement to spend a few hours with a monkey. The monkey population is higher than the human population so monkeys are often killed for eating crops so Peaches was an orphan. 

Learned last night that I have zero issues uploading images if I go to the centrum. I tested the wifi speed in the room and it was 8mbps download and .86 upload. Screen shot included when I’m in the centrum. 
We had a beach bungalow on Columbus Beach in Labadee today. I didn’t check the price on Black Friday so don’t know what could’ve been but a few weeks before the cruise I got it for $350, then a few days later it went down to $328 so I cancelled and rebooked. Next day it was $447 and never went down. 
I had read it’s best to get bungalows 3, 4, or 5 so I headed off the ship as soon as the gangway opened at 8 and everyone else went to the windjammer. I’m not a breakfast person so this was fine by me and I got an hour alone at the beach in bungalow 4. 
The bungalows are so close to each other I don’t think it really matters which you choose. It was nice to have cold water bottles, towels, and floating mats already in the bungalow and to have a shady place to veg. The bungalows are very close to the lunch buffet. There are a ton of chairs for this private part of the beach and only those with wrist bands can use them. I haven’t decided yet if it was worth the cost. With just one small ship in port there are so many chairs available. I did like this area for the young kids because the ocean was so calm. A bungalow would definitely would be nice if there was more than one ship in port or if you’re on a larger ship. Our all aboard time was changed from 5 to 3:30 so we didn’t have as long to use it as I’d planned.
After everyone arrived D16 and I went on the hunt for hair braiding. We made the mistake of going through the market. I had read about it but it is so bad. I hated walking through there being hounded rudely by everyone, many even just yelling “HELLOOOOO?!?!l” as I continued to pay them no attention. We found the hair braiding and I’m sure I overpaid despite the signage but I know D16 will leave it in her hair for at least the rest of the trip if not longer and it’ll make her life easier. She has incredibly thick frizzy hair. S7 and D4 snorkeled for about 5 hours straight. There weren’t many fish but since they’ve never snorkeled they were thrilled and came to tell me every time they found a fish. “Mom we saw a big fish!” As they held out their hands about 3 inches. 😂 We loved the virgin Labadoozie drink. This was our second time in Labadee and some side by side pictures between Christmas 2019 on Anthem and now are included below. 
Once we got back on the ship the kids showered and decompressed in the room and hubby and I went to the fitness center. 
Dinner tonight was taste of Mexico. Hubby and D16 got the tortilla soup and said it’s good. I got the shrimp cocktail. Very tiny but the cocktail sauce was delicious. Hubby and I got butter chicken (not Mexican, but I’m so happy they put their amazing Indian dishes on the menu) and shared the pork enchilada. We really enjoyed the chicken. The enchilada was good but incredibly spicy with the sauce. D16 got the carne asada and said it needed more seasoning. S12 got chicken tenders and S7 and D4 stuck with the spaghetti with cheese again. I’m not sure they’ll eat anything else for dinner the entire cruise. I would never allow that at home but we’re not at home so enjoy your carbs kiddos! For dessert everyone ordered the warm chocolate cookie which is a new favorite. It was fresh and gooey. I also got the sugar free coconut cake and it was superb. I love royals sugar free desserts. Hubby also got the tres leches and said it was “pretty good.”
S12 has made friends with the employees in the Park Cafe. When they see him walk up they get him his pepperoni pizza and chocolate bar and off he goes quickly so as to not disturb any more Karens offended at his presence. 
As of last night at 11:11pm he’s had 9 pieces of pizza, 5 chocolate bars, and 4 ice cream cones. He’s keep tracking in his notes app. I haven’t received tonight’s update; he’s in the teen club  while I stay up writing this trying to stay awake waiting for him. I’m sure he’ll show up with some pizza some time before midnight. 
Tonight’s show was “Oh What a Night” by Jersey. I had read this was a show not to be missed and they were indeed fantastic. S7 said if he falls asleep to wake him up to go to the later show also. They said they’ve finished their contract on Vision and are getting off the ship tomorrow in San Juan. They are heading to Australia to tour.  
Then we went to the Guess My Lips game show in the Centrum. Once again family friendly. It took a while to get to the point but ended up being quite entertaining.  
D16 and I sat and enjoyed some live music until the Hush! Silent Party. S12 joined us when he heard about it and while they didn’t go on the dance floor they really enjoyed it from a distance (pictures below). If you’re not familiar, everyone gets some headphones and can choose to be on the blue or green channel to listen to music. They turn off all other music in the area and it’s fun to watch everyone sing and dance in silence, especially when they all break into song and dance like with YMCA or the Macarena. 
Side notes: we’ve been using the free chat feature to keep in contact with the kids. I read varying reports of some getting notifications and some not. In our experience whoever is signed into the single device Voom we paid for does get notifications. Nobody else gets notifications.  
Speaking of the Voom. I had a hard time uploading pictures on Day 1. I learned last night if I go to the centrum I have no problem. I went from 8mbps download in the room to 90mbps in the centrum and .86 upload in the room to 6.6 in the centrum.
Tomorrow we’ll be in San Juan. We’re planning to do a walking tour on our own from some maps and other links I’ve saved. 

Day 2: Sea Day.
Things I forgot to mention yesterday. S7 and D4 needed a snack before dinner so we went to the windjammer yesterday. S7’s roll was hard as a rock. I thought he was exaggerating when he tried to bite it but then I hit it against the plate. D4’s slice of bread was the same. What reminded me of this is that the kids informed me that the pancakes this morning were more of the same, rock hard. We usually eat breakfast in the MDR but it didn’t open for brunch until 9:30 and my kids thought they’d starve to death by 8.
I convinced the littles to go to AO for 75 minutes this morning so I could go to the fitness center. Along the way they found two hidden ducks, one of which was Jasmine so D4 was just thrilled. They had fun at AO but were ready to leave when I picked them up.
Lunch took us to Chops. Again, first time here. I shouldn’t have read people’s reviews because I had grand things in my head. They couldn’t find the kids menu and it wasn’t on the app so littles ordered from the regular menu. As I was ordering the food I had to ask if we could get something to drink which I found odd. I got the blueberry nojito which was delicious. I got the mushroom soup and everyone got the beef carpaccio (me too). Both were delicious. I already knew I loved Royal’s beef carpaccio so I wasn’t surprised I enjoyed it. Everyone except S7 got the 8oz filet which were all over cooked but by the time we got them we had been waiting so long, I was wet from S7 knocking his Shirley temple into my lap, and it just wasn’t worth saying anything. They were still tender and delicious. S7 got the steak burger. It was huge and while tasty, not anything special.  For dessert between all of us we tried all of the desserts. None of them were all that great.  Overall the meal was good, and with the Black Friday deal I got the price couldn’t be beat for just the 8oz filet. However we were there for 2 full hours which was way too long for young kids.
By this time S7 was getting very hard to get along with so we made him go to the room for a nap. Letting him stay up for last nights comedy show was coming back to bite me in the butt. He snuggled between hubby and I and zonked (as did we) while the other kids watched TV or shows downloaded on our iPads in the other room. D4 had been dying to go to the hot tub but I just couldn’t stay awake. I woke up an hour later and guiltily went to get her to go to the pool and found her and D16 asleep. No wonder she stopped bugging me. She woke up later and we headed to the pool deck for 45 minutes before we had to get ready for our first formal night. At the pool hubby ordered the tropical crush which we found super tasty but not quite with the caffeine count we hoped for since they only use a portion of a Red Bull can and supplement it with sugary juice to try to make Red Bull taste good. He later tried the Red Delight, also Red Bull based. They didn’t cover the Red Bull taste that time. Yuck. 
Side story: S12 had his first “Karen” encounter. I warned him that when he gets pizza in the Solarium this might happen and what to say. Sure enough a woman said “you can’t be in here, you’re just a young boy!” He told her he was just getting pizza then would leave. She told him he still wasn’t allowed and needed to leave. An employee stepped over and informed “Karen” he could indeed get pizza as long as he left after. She gave him a final glare and walked away.
Dinner the rest of the cruise will be in the MDR. The menu tonight was “a taste of France.” It was a lot of meat options and since I ate my entire steak at lunch none of the options were appetizing. My family really got a laugh when I ordered the grilled cheese. I also got the calamari and dark chocolate chip cookie which was just a regular chocolate chip cookie. I thought the dough would be chocolate. All of the kids got spaghetti, two with sauce and two without. My littles were thrilled they could order pasta with butter and Parmesan cheese. I had read on a forum that the MDR staff wouldn’t entertain custom requests like this anymore but since spaghetti is always on the kids menu I simply asked for pasta with no sauce and Parmesan cheese on the side. Hubby got the warm apple cobbler but said it wasn’t as good as the old apple blossom before the menu change. D16 got the almond cream puffs and said they were good. 
The show tonight was your typical song and dance from royal. The singers and dancers were some of the best I’ve seen on a cruise ship and the kids were entertained. Then D16 and I went to Finish the Lyric in the Centrum. I’ve really enjoyed all of the entertainment/activities we’ve seen in the Centrum. It’s been so kid friendly. We also watched a salsa dance class earlier today and at 10:15 they’re having a dance party (SO glad we didn’t get those rooms by the Centrum). 
Tomorrow we’re in Labadee. I’ve reserved a beach bungalow for the day and D16 can’t wait to get her hair braided. 

Disembarkation was a breeze. No fumbling through all the passports, just the nice facial recognition software. We were group 25 so enjoyed breakfast in the MDR and then waited only 15 minutes or so to get off the ship. No tears were shed. Instead we get to count down the days to to joyful things like D4s upcoming bday and 49 days until our next cruise. Our cruise was out of Port Everglades but we flew into Miami due to scheduling and price. We took a Lyft to Miami where we waited 3 hours in the hotel lobby for our room to be ready. Luckily there was a big comfy couch and tv with Nick Jr. With it being a school day at home we had what we call a “remote learning day” for the kids to catch up on their school work online. Then we had a late lunch/early dinner, took the littles to the pool to burn some energy, and everyone was asleep by 6:30. S12 actually fell asleep at 4:30. We have to be up at 4am for our flight and then the kids are all going to school when we get home. We’re headed home to mid 70s weather! Better than the 8” or so of snow that I posted pictures of just a week ago. 
 
What a wonderful and memorable family vacation. Thanks for reading!

We’ve completed our final sea day and we’re all packed. Tonight D4 asked “mom, can we play a secret and find somewhere to hide on the ship?” Last night S7 cried that we have to get off. 
AO had an Easter craft to make a bunny ear crown to wear to the Easter egg hunt later today. Easter egg hunt was a loose term. Some kids showed up with baskets. It was a “treasure” hunt with clues to go to a few different locations until you found the Easter bunny. It was quite poorly executed. Every station ran out of candy so probably only half the kids got any. The only egg to be “hunted” was the one you got after taking a picture with the creepy Easter bunny. That was the extent of the Easter festivities on board. I was a little disappointed because Christmas is such an all out display and celebration on board. I get that Easter isn’t a whole holiday season like Christmas but there wasn’t a fun cake in the Windjammer or anything. 
S7 participated in the paper airplane contest. S12 went to the teen only climbing competition and got 4th or 5th place. D16 discovered she got a free Diamond WiFi day to herself and didn’t have to share so she did nothing. Hubby competed in the adult speed climbing contest and got a medal for getting 3rd.
Dinner was Bon Voyage. I got the seafood cake and it was good but I wish it came with more sauce. I got the spaghetti bolognese. I had ordered this before the menu change and didn’t like it but nothing else sounded good so I tried it again. This time around it was quite good. For dessert I got the Spanish custard dessert, which was like a creme brûlée but not as good. I also got the cherry chocolate tart. It was good but I really miss the cherry’s jubilee dessert and was hoping maybe it would have hints of that. It didn’t. Hubby got the Indian main dish and said it was good. 
We were sad to say goodbye to our waitstaff. I asked Fortunate for a picture with Josie and she also wanted one on her phone.  
The show was comedian Michelle Balan. She was funny and family friendly for the most part. 
Then it was back to the room to finish packing so we could get our luggage out by 10. I’m sad this cruise has come to an end but miss my puppies (pictures includes because they’re adorable). I also really miss my own bed, my own pillow, and my children having their own bedrooms. 
Stray notes:
S12 says his pizza count this cruise isn’t high because the park cafe is too far away. He hopes for a higher number on Quantum where there’s a centrally located Sorrento’s in the Promenade. 
I think I’ve said this before but forget. The teen club “fantaseas” was a pleasant surprise. The cruise planner listed it as being open only 8pm-12am. I don’t know about port days because we were never here to check, but on sea days they had activities throughout the day. 
I so wish royal would fix the chat function to always send notifications. S12 never checked them and going to find him at midnight (or later) was very frustrating. He was more the “have fun now ask for forgiveness later” type kid and never came back at our agreed upon time. My mom brain was always certain he’d gone overboard when he wasn’t back.
This is my first cruise that AO didn’t require reserved times or limit entry so I was never worried that we’d be turned away. The littles are attached to me at the hip so getting them to go to AO was always a fight but they always ended up having a lot of fun and recognized new friends throughout the ship. 
I have really enjoyed this small ship. I felt like it was in really good shape and so well taken care of for its age. It seems like they have more activities, trivia, and fun competitions than any other ship I’ve been on. Since there’s not as much to entertain yourself with, like water slides or a Seaplex, they take the time to entertain you. I would happily do something similar; however, consecutive ports is really exhausting. 
Our flight doesn’t leave until Tuesday morning so we have one of the later departures off the ship. If I come up with any other thoughts I’ll post them here as well as a quick post about how disembarkation went. 
Otherwise consider this a wrap until part 2 of “A Quantum Vision of a Christmas Gift” when we get on Quantum of the Seas to Alaska on May 29 (S7’s bday). For that D4 will be D5 and S7 will be S8. We’ll have both sets of grandparents with us then so lots more opinions on the food, ship, ports, etc. 
Thanks to so many of you with your kind encouragement on my first live blog! I’ve really enjoyed doing this and hope someone finds it helpful. Detailed info about ships, food, and excursions is what I spend hours scouring and there just isn’t much about the smaller ships. 

Today was a sea day and we finally got to sleep in! But I woke up at 6:15 anyway. At 6:35 S7 was asking for food claiming to be starving. Nothing was open and after much huffing and sighing he finally went back to his bed and fell asleep for an hour. But then D4 came in also starving. I finally ran up to windjammer and grabbed them each a bowl of cereal to hold them over. Finally an hour later we filled their tummies and sent them to AO. 
We went to Harry Potter trivia then to Giovanni’s for lunch. I got a deal for it on National pizza day even though they don’t serve pizza. 
We got seated at 12:30 and didn’t get our drinks until 1:20. We were worried we were in for another 2+ hour meal but we ended up being done within 90 minutes. And I actually remembered to take pictures of some of the food today!
Beef carpaccio was way better in chops. D16 and S7 got the chicken noodle soup. D16 has been sad it’s no longer available on the kids menu in the dining room; she’s always ordered it every dinner in the MDR. She was so excited to get it and it was everything she remembered it to be. I got the mozzarella tomato salad. The mozzarella was more like burrata and I love burrata. S12 got the kids pizza appetizer. It was focaccia with some red sauce and cheese melted on top. He liked it but I wouldn’t call it pizza. 
Four of us got filet mignon. When you make a reservation online it says kids have to order from the kids menu but we’ve had no problem with them ordering from the adult menu. S12 and D4 got the spaghetti with butter and cheese. It was more like butter with a little spaghetti. So much butter. They didn’t seem to mind. S12 then tried S7’s filet and then kept it for himself when S7 decided he was full. The filet in Giovanni’s was much better than the one in Chop’s. It had more seasoning and they were all cooked perfectly. Nobody was a fan of the sauce but the steak didn’t need it at all. The sauce in Chops was better and the steak was better with it because it wasn’t seasoned well in the first place. The broccoli on the side was very good. The potatoes tasted like those powdery flakes you just add water to so nobody ate them. Next time I’d order the filet with extra broccoli and no potatoes. For dessert we got cannolis, panna cotta, and flourless chocolate cake. The cake was only on the kids menu for some reason. I mentioned before that the lava cakes are never lava. These were lava. I was jealous of all the kids cakes and ordered myself one. The cannolis were meh. You could tell they’d been cooked and stuffed this morning so they weren’t crispy. The panna cotta was surprisingly good. That chocolate cake was SO good. I would definitely eat here again especially with it being cheaper than Chops but with better filet. 
Then we all completely forgot about the egg drop challenge that I’ve been looking forward to all week and fell asleep! I was so mad at myself when I woke up but man that nap was nice and very much needed. 
After waking up it was already time for dinner! Tonight was formal night. Everyone split before I could get my pictures. Gr. So D4 and I got professional pictures. Since we get a free picture as a Diamond benefit I’ve really been wanting to get a family picture with the photographer but they’re never ready at 5:30 and everyone goes separate ways after dinner. 
Anyway, I was still so full but needed that lobster tail. Tonight was Welcome to Royal night. I got the shrimp cocktail again. Hubby got the Citrus avocado and melon salad. Seemed weird but he ate it and didn’t complain. D16 and hubby ordered the tortellini. I took a nibble of half of one and it was very good and very garlicky. Hubby, S7, and I got the lobster. It was delicious and not as rubbery as usual. For dessert we had the warm chocolate cake and the sugar free strawberry shortcake. The chocolate cake was strangely bitter. S7 took one bite, made a nasty face and had to gulp water. Hubby said it was fine with some ice cream to tame it. The strawberry shortcake was fine, nothing special. 
Then it was time for the show. It was Boogie Wonderland and was a disco show. Again, the singers and dancers on this ship, as well as the orchestra, are phenomenal. 
D16 and I went to family feud which was not family feud at all. I thought it would be funny between families like it’s supposed to be, but it was just anyone come to the microphone to answer so no winning or losing team or anything. 
No other plans tonight except to wait for S12 to come back from the teen club who knows when. 
Side notes:
I had read with the menu changes that the wait staff was reluctant to allow ordering more than one dish to minimize waste. That has not been the case for us. It’s never been an issue to order multiple items.
Pretty much every employee calls D4 a Princess. Admittedly they’re not wrong. I mean look at the picture of her. You can really tell our assistant waiter, Fortunate (what an amazing name!) really misses her daughter. She hugs my little girl and dotes on her. The littles look forward to telling her about their day. I have really loved the wait staff this cruise. Since the restart we’ve had very mediocre or less than mediocre wait staff with dinner taking upwards of 2 hours and no interaction or getting to know our names or chat. This is the first cruise I’ve finally felt like things are back to normal. Antonio does all sorts of fun tricks for the kids after dinner. We’re usually done with dinner in 60-75 minutes. 
Tomorrow is our final sea day and I am so sad. Hubby is antsy to get home but I could cruise forever as could the kids. He’s fully aware come retirement this is what we’ll be spending our time doing exploring the world. Hopefully they’re still doing world cruises in 25-30 years. We have two more cruises planned over the next 18 months but I’m trying to convince hubby to go on an 11 night southern Caribbean cruise to different islands than this one over Christmas 2024 on Explorer of the Seas. Wish me luck!

Today we were in Antigua. Royal Caribbean only offered an excursion to Stingray City, but we wanted to to the Stingray City and Laviscount Island combo tour. The stingray city only excursion was sold out anyway. Stingray city wouldn’t book me directly since I’m on a cruise ship and wanted me to book through the cruise even though they don’t offer that tour. Frustrating loop. So I found a third party tour agent called AskIba. Iba took a few weeks but was able to book what I wanted AND my transportation. He charged $5 more than booking directly and requested a tip when I made the deposit but it was worth it.
We were some of the first passengers off; they didn’t even have the towel table setup yet. Gangway was originally supposed to go down at 8:30 but we were supposed to meet the driver at 8:15 for a 9am reservation. Luckily we were early and we were able to meet him at exactly 8:15. It’s Good Friday so the roads were nearly empty and there were hardly any people begging me to use their services. 
Upon arrival to stingray city I had to show proof of deposit and ended up having to activate my cell service to do that. So be aware if you go this route to take a screen shot. Iba had told me they would have my name and my balance due so I didn’t think I’d need that info. 
We took a small boat about 8 minutes to the middle of the ocean. I generally do research and try to steer clear of anything where humans are using animals for profit. They explained there is a rope with buoys but it’s to keep the humans in. There is no fence going down from the ropes keeping the stingrays in, they come and go as they please. 
We took a picture with a stingray, fed them some squid and then were free to explore and ask questions. We had 45 minutes there. I loved being in the water with the stingrays and having them rub against my leg as they swam by and did not want to get out. 
Then we took the boat back 8 minutes to Laviscount Island. There they have rescued tortoises. One was a tripod, others had disfigured shells, another an injured leg. There were probably 50 tortoises. We got a quick drink of fruit punch and instructions then got to feed them carrots. Afterward we got to hold baby tortoises. If they find them when they’re babies they keep them safe here until they’re 5 and then release them. They also had some rescued birds that came to them sick or injured as well as nearly extinct breed of iguanas on Antigua. There are only 4 that they know of on the island and they’re trying to breed them but have been unsuccessful thus far. We were there another 45 minutes. 
Then we took a 30 second boat ride back to the main island to look at our stingray pictures. I thought the pricing was surprisingly reasonable. $15 for one and $5 for any additional ones and they just airdrop them. I paid for 2 and he sent me 4. Fine by me. 
Afterward we asked our taxi driver to take us to Devil’s Bridge. This has a sad history. Slaves used to go there to commit suicide. 
I had asked if we could stop for black pineapple, an amazingly sweet pineapple only available in Antigua but Iba found out there are none available on the island right now. I also asked to stop by a local street vendor for a local snack. When we were almost to the cruise ship we found one. Again, nobody was out for Good Friday. There were no snack options, just full meals.  A local was there and advised us what to get and ordered for us. I actually remembered to take a picture this time but not until we’d half way consumed the meal. We had ducana, fungee, chunk, lingin fish (maybe? I can’t remember what it was called), Cassie (the green pepper looking veggie), and pumpkin. I don’t know what chunk is but it was one of the better items. S7 and D4 likes the ducana. I thought it would be a tamale type thing but it was more like a sweet bread and tasted similar to an oatmeal cookie. The other kids didn’t taste any of the local food. 
We were back on board by 1. S12 learned today (or not because this is not the first cruise we’ve had this issue on) that he should eat actual food. He and D16 went off on their own and when we met up for dinner S12 was not feeling well. All he ate after we got on the ship was and large Ben & Jerry’s and a strawberry daiquiri.  The staff at Ben & Jerry’s didn’t believe the kids that a Diamond benefit is 50% off an ice cream and charged them full price. I went to the Diamond lounge later to get 50% back. It was a very small amount in the scheme of things but I was just hoping it might be a queue to make sure the staff are fully trained on the new benefits. 
The rest of us either had pizza or windjammer food. Then littles went to AO and off to the fitness center hubby and I went. As I was heading back to the room I heard my daughters name being announced in the Centrum. My not only introverted, but incredibly shy daughter, was participating in the corn hole tournament! I stayed to watch and apparently S12 was also competing. Neither won but I was so proud of her for going way beyond her comfort zone. 
Dinner tonight was Taste of UK. We all got the mozzarella sticks and enjoyed them. I wish they were warmer and fresher so they were gooey and stringy. D16 and S12 got fettuccine Alfredo. They enjoyed it and I took a taste and agreed it was pretty good. Neither of them ate much having recently consumed way too much Ben & Jerry’s. Hubby and I got chicken tikka masala. It was spicy but not so bad that I couldn’t finish it. For dessert S7 got the chocolate mousse and liked it. Most of us got the vegan berry sundae. Hubby and I liked it but D16 didn’t. The best thing was the sticky toffee pudding. 
We had two pier runners today but their running ended up being unnecessary because we left more than an hour late due to two medical evacuations. The woman on the stretcher waved and yelled “see you on the other side! I’d say break a leg but I already broke mine!”  It looked like the woman in the wheelchair also injured her leg. 
The show was Derek Floyd: the Lionel Richie Experience. Gotta be honest, I only knew one song and that’s because it’s in the Trolls movie. That being said, he was fantastic and the on board orchestra is just incredible. He got a standing ovation. 
D16 and I then went to the karaoke finals. Apparently there’s been some competition going on all week. It’s beyond me how these people made it this far but it was the final 4 and I left after 2 of them. See pictures of D16 in embarrassment of being there. I guess after I left the other two people were quite good. 
Kiddos got in bed, S12 went off to the teen area and then it was time for The Quest. This is the first sailing I’ve been on since they brought this back after the pandemic. It was fun as usual. I let D16 go and she found it very funny. While it was inappropriate as usual I didn’t feel uncomfortable with her there. 
A couple of random thoughts:
I’ve decided I’m actually quite happy in an ocean view room. After doing so many caribbean cruises and never seeing wildlife while spending hours on my balcony, I’m not missing the balcony and I’m sleeping way better not having nightmares of my kids falling overboard in their room. Plus I saved a ton of money. Hubby thinks we could even manage an inside room but I really like waking up and seeing some natural light. However I want to emphasize I could not go without a balcony on an Alaska cruise. Way too much wildlife to see there.  
I noticed today that decks 7 and 8 also open up onto the centrum and the doorway is open so there’s no sound barrier. I wouldn’t want rooms there either. 

Also, this was the state of my backyard this week. You cannot imagine how thrilled I am to be on this trip away from the endless winter that is Utah. 

Day 6
Today we were in St. Lucia. We had a tour with Cosol Tours. Finding them just outside security was very simple. Luckily we arrived early and the gangway went down before the scheduled 8:30 time because Our meeting time was 8:20. When I woke up at 6:45 we were getting tied to the pier. We waited until 8:45 for two sets of no shows. We were split into two groups for two vehicles. Our group had 10 people. We had quite a few stops for overlooks of the ships, cities, and Pitons. 
We stopped at a banana plantation where we used a banana chip to try banana ketchup and banana bbq sauce. Both were delicious but the bbq sauce was especially yummy. We also each got a banana fresh from the tree. 
We ate brunch at 10am. It was lovely and had so many local things to try. A few of my favorites were the bbq chicken and the tamarind. We also tried the Cosol fruit which was the texture of…slime? But the flavor of a flowery watermelon. Hard to describe. Drinks were also provided with a choice of water, coke, or sprite. Later after snorkeling alcohol was offered. 
Then we continued to the next city and took a quick 5-6 minute water taxi ride to sugar beach resort where we only had an hour to snorkel and enjoy the beach. It wasn’t long enough because we didn’t know the order in which we were going place to place so we spent a good 15-20 minutes sunscreening everyone up. If we’d know approximately what time we’d arrive I would’ve prepared in the van. The water taxi wasn’t some calm ferry, it was a bouncing crazy speed boat so no chance we could apply sunscreen there. 
Sugar beach was beautiful and the snorkeling was great. We saw a variety of fish, a puffer fish, and several squid. A couple people on the blog commented on our snorkel masks. Let me prepare you for the good and bad. I hate putting the salty breathing piece in my mouth and with these I never have to taste salty water. That’s a huge plus for me. They do give me quite the headache though so be prepared for that. 
Next we went to the worlds only drive through volcano. We were given a choice between a volcano tour or doing a mud bath. This is where I reached my vacation goal of doing something outside my comfort zone and was the only one dropped off to do the mud bath and everyone else left to do the tour. Hubby said the tour was meh. After being to Yellowstone so many times it wasn’t especially informative. The mud bath was AMAZING. My skin felt like silk. 
Finally we went to a waterfall. Nothing all that impressive and required an entry fee. We have an awful lot of gorgeous and free waterfalls in Utah but D4 wanted to get in so in we went. S7 and S12 decided to join us. 
I should add that Cosol Tours covered all food and entry fees upon arrival so there was no additional cost above the cost of the tour. 
Next was the 90 minute drive back to the ship. What I haven’t mentioned are the roads. Every minute or two there’s a sign preparing you for a hairpin turn. It’s like doing a hike with constant switch backs but driving. S12, S7, and I are very prone to motion sickness. I wish there had been a warning on their website or email to bring Dramamine. The driving was the absolute worst part of this tour and why I wouldn’t do it again. I would recommend the tour to anyone but stomaching that drive back took a lot of self control while also coaching the boys through breathing and counting down the minutes.
If I were to come here again I’d love if there was a tour that took you to sugar beach in a boat and then a vehicle drove you to the volcano for a combined tour and mud bath then a boat back to the pier. I get severely sea sick even snorkeling so boat rides are rough too but if I take half a Dramamine every 2 hours I’m ok. I suspect the boat ride would be faster and less sickening than the car ride. 
Anyway, we got back to the port at 4 so it was a very long tour and so so much driving. Because we hadn’t eaten since 10 we needed pizza. I was not feeling great but two Tylenol and a Shirley Ginger helped. Ginger always helps calm my stomach. 
So far St. Kitts has been our favorite. Javin (from yesterday’s tour) pointed out they’re no longer a third world country and are now a developing country and you could see it all over. Now maybe we missed some of the poverty stricken areas but what we saw was well taken care of and beautiful. I can’t say the same for St. Maarten and St. Lucia. Next time we visit St. Kitts hubby and I would like to climb Mt. Liamuiga and if we come to St. Lucia again we’d like to hike to the top of the Pitons. Both hikes are too strenuous for our young kids. 
Dinner tonight was Taste of Asia. I got the spring rolls and hubby and D16 got the dumplings which ended up being what we’d call potstickers. I stole some of theirs and enjoyed both appetizers a lot. I got the Teriyaki Salmon, hubby got the shrimp pad Thai, and D16 got the veggie stir fry. The salmon tasted really good but was way over cooked. Hubby said the pad Thai smelled weird but tasted good. D16 envisioned finely diced veggies in rice similar to Benihana so was not thrilled with the giant chunks of veggies and didn’t eat much. Probably didn’t help that she already ate two pieces of pizza in park cafe. We got the matcha passion fruit cake, banh flan, and mango tapioca desserts. None of them were fully consumed. Tonight I also tried a virgin pretty n pink. It tasted like a very sour pink lemonade. I love sour drinks so thought it was good but tropical crush and blueberry nojito are still my favorite. Last night I got served a blueberry mojito. It’s much better alcohol free and I quickly sent that back for a replacement. 
I forgot to mention last night was my family’s replacement white night since they were not cooperative with my desire for pictures the first time. Pictures below. 
The show was comedy juggler Billy Prudhomme. He was pretty funny. A few sexual innuendos that quickly went over the kids heads.
We are so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open to write this but am waiting for S12 to come back from teen club. We gave him a 9:30 curfew tonight. He’s very hard to get along with when he’s so tired in the morning.  I think it’s harder for him to enjoy the tour for the first couple of hours so I’m hoping an extra hour or so of sleep will help because we have one more very early morning. Then we can have two days of sleeping in. Woohoo. It’s very hard to have such a port intensive cruise with no break in between port days, especially for the kids and especially after spending hours in the sun swimming etc. 
Tomorrow is our final port day in Antigua. 

Disembarkation was a breeze. No fumbling through all the passports, just the nice facial recognition software. We were group 25 so enjoyed breakfast in the MDR and then waited only 15 minutes or so to get off the ship. No tears were shed. Instead we get to count down the days to to joyful things like D4s upcoming bday and 49 days until our next cruise. Our cruise was out of Port Everglades but we flew into Miami due to scheduling and price. We took a Lyft to Miami where we waited 3 hours in the hotel lobby for our room to be ready. Luckily there was a big comfy couch and tv with Nick Jr. With it being a school day at home we had what we call a “remote learning day” for the kids to catch up on their school work online. Then we had a late lunch/early dinner, took the littles to the pool to burn some energy, and everyone was asleep by 6:30. S12 actually fell asleep at 4:30. We have to be up at 4am for our flight and then the kids are all going to school when we get home. We’re headed home to mid 70s weather! Better than the 8” or so of snow that I posted pictures of just a week ago. 
 
What a wonderful and memorable family vacation. Thanks for reading!

Disembarkation was a breeze. No fumbling through all the passports, just the nice facial recognition software. We were group 25 so enjoyed breakfast in the MDR and then waited only 15 minutes or so to get off the ship. No tears were shed. Instead we get to count down the days to to joyful things like D4s upcoming bday and 49 days until our next cruise. Our cruise was out of Port Everglades but we flew into Miami due to scheduling and price. We took a Lyft to Miami where we waited 3 hours in the hotel lobby for our room to be ready. Luckily there was a big comfy couch and tv with Nick Jr. With it being a school day at home we had what we call a “remote learning day” for the kids to catch up on their school work online. Then we had a late lunch/early dinner, took the littles to the pool to burn some energy, and everyone was asleep by 6:30. S12 actually fell asleep at 4:30. We have to be up at 4am for our flight and then the kids are all going to school when we get home. We’re headed home to mid 70s weather! Better than the 8” or so of snow that I posted pictures of just a week ago. 
 
What a wonderful and memorable family vacation. Thanks for reading!

Disembarkation was a breeze. No fumbling through all the passports, just the nice facial recognition software. We were group 25 so enjoyed breakfast in the MDR and then waited only 15 minutes or so to get off the ship. No tears were shed. Instead we get to count down the days to to joyful things like D4s upcoming bday and 49 days until our next cruise. Our cruise was out of Port Everglades but we flew into Miami due to scheduling and price. We took a Lyft to Miami where we waited 3 hours in the hotel lobby for our room to be ready. Luckily there was a big comfy couch and tv with Nick Jr. With it being a school day at home we had what we call a “remote learning day” for the kids to catch up on their school work online. Then we had a late lunch/early dinner, took the littles to the pool to burn some energy, and everyone was asleep by 6:30. S12 actually fell asleep at 4:30. We have to be up at 4am for our flight and then the kids are all going to school when we get home. We’re headed home to mid 70s weather! Better than the 8” or so of snow that I posted pictures of just a week ago. 
 
What a wonderful and memorable family vacation. Thanks for reading!

Disembarkation was a breeze. No fumbling through all the passports, just the nice facial recognition software. We were group 25 so enjoyed breakfast in the MDR and then waited only 15 minutes or so to get off the ship. No tears were shed. Instead we get to count down the days to to joyful things like D4s upcoming bday and 49 days until our next cruise. Our cruise was out of Port Everglades but we flew into Miami due to scheduling and price. We took a Lyft to Miami where we waited 3 hours in the hotel lobby for our room to be ready. Luckily there was a big comfy couch and tv with Nick Jr. With it being a school day at home we had what we call a “remote learning day” for the kids to catch up on their school work online. Then we had a late lunch/early dinner, took the littles to the pool to burn some energy, and everyone was asleep by 6:30. S12 actually fell asleep at 4:30. We have to be up at 4am for our flight and then the kids are all going to school when we get home. We’re headed home to mid 70s weather! Better than the 8” or so of snow that I posted pictures of just a week ago. 
 
What a wonderful and memorable family vacation. Thanks for reading!