Luly

Day 6
Today we were in St. Kitts and Nevis. We had a tour booked with My Island Tours by Javin. This tour has wonderful reviews but the selling point for me was Peaches the monkey. The French brought these monkeys with them hundreds of years ago. They now outnumber the human population 2:1, possibly even 3:1. The farmers kill them when they’re eating the crops then collect the babies and sell them to make money to offset the money they lost on the eaten crops. Javin bought Peaches when she was about 3 days old. She’s now 7 and should live 30-40 years. She has imprinted on Javin and follows him everywhere. 
It was easy to find Javin and his vehicle was parked nearby. He drove us to a rainforest hike with quite a few stops and lots of explanation along the way. There was one brief strenuous section of the hike but it was otherwise easy. We hung on some vines and I found a super cool land crab. Peaches just went where she wanted and snacked and would catch up when Javin called her. We also saw wild monkeys. 
Next we went to a tiny botanical garden where we spent 15 minutes while Javin got lunch ready in his van. Lunch was from a local bakery and consisted of chicken, beef, and veggie empanadas along with some sweet breads and juice. It was sufficient to give us energy to continue on the day but we definitely needed a snack when we got on board after the tour.
Then we drove to a beach with more brief stops along the way. We were given the opportunity to snorkel near an old ship wreck but the swim looked too far for the kids. Kind of a bummer because we could’ve possibly seen turtles and sting rays there but I didn’t feel safe with the littles so we opted for longer beach time. We snorkeled at the beach and saw quite a few fish and lobster. Peaches can swim and dive under the water but was not at all interested and swam to us to get her out of the water so those pictures of her on our backs were not staged and just of her own accord.
It was then time to head back to the ship and we were back on board by 3:15. 
For a snack I got the infamous kummelweck sandwich I’ve read so much about. It’s never been on any other ship I’ve sailed on. Sorry, but I don’t understand the hype. Did I do it wrong? Picture below is what they gave me. It was the saddest amount of sauce with a ridiculous slice of roast beef. However, I do wish they served that bread in the MDR. It was delicious. 
The MDR theme was a taste of Italy. The beef carpaccio was delicious. The arancini weren’t great, I should’ve asked for a second beef carpaccio. My lasagna was ok and hubby’s fish was good. For dessert the kids did not like the hazelnut chocolate cake but that’s kind of their own faults. They know Nutella is made of chocolate and hazelnut but don’t actually like the texture and flavor of nuts so they thought they were just getting Nutella cake. Hubby ate all of his but said it was a bit dry and not great. S7 and I got the lemon meringue and really enjoyed it. I also got the sugar free granola bar and it was yummy. 
D16, D4 and I went to the singing and dancing Renaissance show. It was only 15 minutes and was your typical Royal show with lack of a story line. Then we watched “If you know it dance it.” It was ok but carried on way too long. 
Finally was the much anticipated love and marriage game show.
Tomorrow we’re in St. Lucia with another third party tour operator. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

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. 

Day 6
Today we were in St. Kitts and Nevis. We had a tour booked with My Island Tours by Javin. This tour has wonderful reviews but the selling point for me was Peaches the monkey. The French brought these monkeys with them hundreds of years ago. They now outnumber the human population 2:1, possibly even 3:1. The farmers kill them when they’re eating the crops then collect the babies and sell them to make money to offset the money they lost on the eaten crops. Javin bought Peaches when she was about 3 days old. She’s now 7 and should live 30-40 years. She has imprinted on Javin and follows him everywhere. 
It was easy to find Javin and his vehicle was parked nearby. He drove us to a rainforest hike with quite a few stops and lots of explanation along the way. There was one brief strenuous section of the hike but it was otherwise easy. We hung on some vines and I found a super cool land crab. Peaches just went where she wanted and snacked and would catch up when Javin called her. We also saw wild monkeys. 
Next we went to a tiny botanical garden where we spent 15 minutes while Javin got lunch ready in his van. Lunch was from a local bakery and consisted of chicken, beef, and veggie empanadas along with some sweet breads and juice. It was sufficient to give us energy to continue on the day but we definitely needed a snack when we got on board after the tour.
Then we drove to a beach with more brief stops along the way. We were given the opportunity to snorkel near an old ship wreck but the swim looked too far for the kids. Kind of a bummer because we could’ve possibly seen turtles and sting rays there but I didn’t feel safe with the littles so we opted for longer beach time. We snorkeled at the beach and saw quite a few fish and lobster. Peaches can swim and dive under the water but was not at all interested and swam to us to get her out of the water so those pictures of her on our backs were not staged and just of her own accord.
It was then time to head back to the ship and we were back on board by 3:15. 
For a snack I got the infamous kummelweck sandwich I’ve read so much about. It’s never been on any other ship I’ve sailed on. Sorry, but I don’t understand the hype. Did I do it wrong? Picture below is what they gave me. It was the saddest amount of sauce with a ridiculous slice of roast beef. However, I do wish they served that bread in the MDR. It was delicious. 
The MDR theme was a taste of Italy. The beef carpaccio was delicious. The arancini weren’t great, I should’ve asked for a second beef carpaccio. My lasagna was ok and hubby’s fish was good. For dessert the kids did not like the hazelnut chocolate cake but that’s kind of their own faults. They know Nutella is made of chocolate and hazelnut but don’t actually like the texture and flavor of nuts so they thought they were just getting Nutella cake. Hubby ate all of his but said it was a bit dry and not great. S7 and I got the lemon meringue and really enjoyed it. I also got the sugar free granola bar and it was yummy. 
D16, D4 and I went to the singing and dancing Renaissance show. It was only 15 minutes and was your typical Royal show with lack of a story line. Then we watched “If you know it dance it.” It was ok but carried on way too long. 
Finally was the much anticipated love and marriage game show.
Tomorrow we’re in St. Lucia with another third party tour operator. 

Day 6
Today we were in St. Kitts and Nevis. We had a tour booked with My Island Tours by Javin. This tour has wonderful reviews but the selling point for me was Peaches the monkey. The French brought these monkeys with them hundreds of years ago. They now outnumber the human population 2:1, possibly even 3:1. The farmers kill them when they’re eating the crops then collect the babies and sell them to make money to offset the money they lost on the eaten crops. Javin bought Peaches when she was about 3 days old. She’s now 7 and should live 30-40 years. She has imprinted on Javin and follows him everywhere. 
It was easy to find Javin and his vehicle was parked nearby. He drove us to a rainforest hike with quite a few stops and lots of explanation along the way. There was one brief strenuous section of the hike but it was otherwise easy. We hung on some vines and I found a super cool land crab. Peaches just went where she wanted and snacked and would catch up when Javin called her. We also saw wild monkeys. 
Next we went to a tiny botanical garden where we spent 15 minutes while Javin got lunch ready in his van. Lunch was from a local bakery and consisted of chicken, beef, and veggie empanadas along with some sweet breads and juice. It was sufficient to give us energy to continue on the day but we definitely needed a snack when we got on board after the tour.
Then we drove to a beach with more brief stops along the way. We were given the opportunity to snorkel near an old ship wreck but the swim looked too far for the kids. Kind of a bummer because we could’ve possibly seen turtles and sting rays there but I didn’t feel safe with the littles so we opted for longer beach time. We snorkeled at the beach and saw quite a few fish and lobster. Peaches can swim and dive under the water but was not at all interested and swam to us to get her out of the water so those pictures of her on our backs were not staged and just of her own accord.
It was then time to head back to the ship and we were back on board by 3:15. 
For a snack I got the infamous kummelweck sandwich I’ve read so much about. It’s never been on any other ship I’ve sailed on. Sorry, but I don’t understand the hype. Did I do it wrong? Picture below is what they gave me. It was the saddest amount of sauce with a ridiculous slice of roast beef. However, I do wish they served that bread in the MDR. It was delicious. 
The MDR theme was a taste of Italy. The beef carpaccio was delicious. The arancini weren’t great, I should’ve asked for a second beef carpaccio. My lasagna was ok and hubby’s fish was good. For dessert the kids did not like the hazelnut chocolate cake but that’s kind of their own faults. They know Nutella is made of chocolate and hazelnut but don’t actually like the texture and flavor of nuts so they thought they were just getting Nutella cake. Hubby ate all of his but said it was a bit dry and not great. S7 and I got the lemon meringue and really enjoyed it. I also got the sugar free granola bar and it was yummy. 
D16, D4 and I went to the singing and dancing Renaissance show. It was only 15 minutes and was your typical Royal show with lack of a story line. Then we watched “If you know it dance it.” It was ok but carried on way too long. 
Finally was the much anticipated love and marriage game show.
Tomorrow we’re in St. Lucia with another third party tour operator. 

Day 6
Today we were in St. Kitts and Nevis. We had a tour booked with My Island Tours by Javin. This tour has wonderful reviews but the selling point for me was Peaches the monkey. The French brought these monkeys with them hundreds of years ago. They now outnumber the human population 2:1, possibly even 3:1. The farmers kill them when they’re eating the crops then collect the babies and sell them to make money to offset the money they lost on the eaten crops. Javin bought Peaches when she was about 3 days old. She’s now 7 and should live 30-40 years. She has imprinted on Javin and follows him everywhere. 
It was easy to find Javin and his vehicle was parked nearby. He drove us to a rainforest hike with quite a few stops and lots of explanation along the way. There was one brief strenuous section of the hike but it was otherwise easy. We hung on some vines and I found a super cool land crab. Peaches just went where she wanted and snacked and would catch up when Javin called her. We also saw wild monkeys. 
Next we went to a tiny botanical garden where we spent 15 minutes while Javin got lunch ready in his van. Lunch was from a local bakery and consisted of chicken, beef, and veggie empanadas along with some sweet breads and juice. It was sufficient to give us energy to continue on the day but we definitely needed a snack when we got on board after the tour.
Then we drove to a beach with more brief stops along the way. We were given the opportunity to snorkel near an old ship wreck but the swim looked too far for the kids. Kind of a bummer because we could’ve possibly seen turtles and sting rays there but I didn’t feel safe with the littles so we opted for longer beach time. We snorkeled at the beach and saw quite a few fish and lobster. Peaches can swim and dive under the water but was not at all interested and swam to us to get her out of the water so those pictures of her on our backs were not staged and just of her own accord.
It was then time to head back to the ship and we were back on board by 3:15. 
For a snack I got the infamous kummelweck sandwich I’ve read so much about. It’s never been on any other ship I’ve sailed on. Sorry, but I don’t understand the hype. Did I do it wrong? Picture below is what they gave me. It was the saddest amount of sauce with a ridiculous slice of roast beef. However, I do wish they served that bread in the MDR. It was delicious. 
The MDR theme was a taste of Italy. The beef carpaccio was delicious. The arancini weren’t great, I should’ve asked for a second beef carpaccio. My lasagna was ok and hubby’s fish was good. For dessert the kids did not like the hazelnut chocolate cake but that’s kind of their own faults. They know Nutella is made of chocolate and hazelnut but don’t actually like the texture and flavor of nuts so they thought they were just getting Nutella cake. Hubby ate all of his but said it was a bit dry and not great. S7 and I got the lemon meringue and really enjoyed it. I also got the sugar free granola bar and it was yummy. 
D16, D4 and I went to the singing and dancing Renaissance show. It was only 15 minutes and was your typical Royal show with lack of a story line. Then we watched “If you know it dance it.” It was ok but carried on way too long. 
Finally was the much anticipated love and marriage game show.
Tomorrow we’re in St. Lucia with another third party tour operator. 

Day 6
Today we were in St. Kitts and Nevis. We had a tour booked with My Island Tours by Javin. This tour has wonderful reviews but the selling point for me was Peaches the monkey. The French brought these monkeys with them hundreds of years ago. They now outnumber the human population 2:1, possibly even 3:1. The farmers kill them when they’re eating the crops then collect the babies and sell them to make money to offset the money they lost on the eaten crops. Javin bought Peaches when she was about 3 days old. She’s now 7 and should live 30-40 years. She has imprinted on Javin and follows him everywhere. 
It was easy to find Javin and his vehicle was parked nearby. He drove us to a rainforest hike with quite a few stops and lots of explanation along the way. There was one brief strenuous section of the hike but it was otherwise easy. We hung on some vines and I found a super cool land crab. Peaches just went where she wanted and snacked and would catch up when Javin called her. We also saw wild monkeys. 
Next we went to a tiny botanical garden where we spent 15 minutes while Javin got lunch ready in his van. Lunch was from a local bakery and consisted of chicken, beef, and veggie empanadas along with some sweet breads and juice. It was sufficient to give us energy to continue on the day but we definitely needed a snack when we got on board after the tour.
Then we drove to a beach with more brief stops along the way. We were given the opportunity to snorkel near an old ship wreck but the swim looked too far for the kids. Kind of a bummer because we could’ve possibly seen turtles and sting rays there but I didn’t feel safe with the littles so we opted for longer beach time. We snorkeled at the beach and saw quite a few fish and lobster. Peaches can swim and dive under the water but was not at all interested and swam to us to get her out of the water so those pictures of her on our backs were not staged and just of her own accord.
It was then time to head back to the ship and we were back on board by 3:15. 
For a snack I got the infamous kummelweck sandwich I’ve read so much about. It’s never been on any other ship I’ve sailed on. Sorry, but I don’t understand the hype. Did I do it wrong? Picture below is what they gave me. It was the saddest amount of sauce with a ridiculous slice of roast beef. However, I do wish they served that bread in the MDR. It was delicious. 
The MDR theme was a taste of Italy. The beef carpaccio was delicious. The arancini weren’t great, I should’ve asked for a second beef carpaccio. My lasagna was ok and hubby’s fish was good. For dessert the kids did not like the hazelnut chocolate cake but that’s kind of their own faults. They know Nutella is made of chocolate and hazelnut but don’t actually like the texture and flavor of nuts so they thought they were just getting Nutella cake. Hubby ate all of his but said it was a bit dry and not great. S7 and I got the lemon meringue and really enjoyed it. I also got the sugar free granola bar and it was yummy. 
D16, D4 and I went to the singing and dancing Renaissance show. It was only 15 minutes and was your typical Royal show with lack of a story line. Then we watched “If you know it dance it.” It was ok but carried on way too long. 
Finally was the much anticipated love and marriage game show.
Tomorrow we’re in St. Lucia with another third party tour operator. 

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 4
This morning hubby and I took S7 and D4 to the MDR for breakfast while the older two slept in. Of course the kids still got cereal but I always order the vegetable breakfast bowl with a side of bacon. Then we took the littles to AO and off to the fitness center. I was going to walk on the jogging track but deck 10 was closed due to wind. Then I watched a hip hop dance lesson. I had watched two of the dancers creating choreography in the fitness center yesterday afternoon and was curious to see if this was what it was for. Indeed it was. I enjoyed listening to them choreograph it while I did my workout yesterday. At one point the girl spoke up that she felt one of the moves was too sexy and adjusted the dance. Re-emphasizes the family friendliness of this ship’s activities. She did a wonderful job teaching the choreography. I tried to convince D4 to come with me. If she had come I would’ve learned the dance with her but alas my introversion got the best of me and I just watched. For lunch S12 went and saw his buddies at park cafe and got us a whole pizza to share for a snack in our room. Afterward D16 and I went to deck 5 to watch us pull into Old San Juan.
The ship arrived 20 minutes early but with a late afternoon arrival the line to get off the ship went up about 5 decks in every stair case on both ends of the ship. Once we finally got off the ship we started our walking tour on our own (https://www.thejellybeans.net/docs/WalkingTour_PuertoRico_SanJuan_OldSanJuan.pdf we only walked to number 13 then did our own thing) but very quickly got distracted by some food and drink carts. I had read to try Mavi/Mabi/Mauby (depends on the country). In Puerto Rico it’s mavi. Mavi is made by boiling the bark of the mavi tree with spices. When I ordered it the guy looked at my very pale skin and insisted I try it first because most Americans don’t like it. I thought that was very nice of him to not just take my money. I thought it was delicious. He insisted it was ok if I don’t like it, I don’t have to buy it. I insisted it was quite tasty. He muttered under his breath and shook his head “she likes it, I can’t believe it” many times as he poured it and as I walked away. Hubby and S7 also liked it. 
At another cart we bought empanadas, arepas, and sorullitos. Hubby spent two years living in Venezuela and loves empanadas and arepas. Sorullitos were new to us. The empanadas were the best I’ve ever had. The dough and the chicken inside were just amazing. I don’t love arepas but hubby thoroughly enjoyed that as well. Hubby and S7 liked the sorullitos. It basically tasted like a very sweet honey corn dog but with cheese instead of a hot dog. We were too enthralled to take any pictures. Oops. After much whining “it’s hot” “I’m sweaty” “Carry me” we finally made it to our main destination, Castillo San Felipe del Morro. The grass was quite dead as opposed to the crisp green in pictures I’d seen. Quite a few people were flying kites. The cool wind felt very nice after a very hot and humid walk uphill. We paid to go inside and explored for almost an hour. We then walked to look at Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzi Cemetery. The gates appeared to be locked so we couldn’t explore as I’d hoped. Then we walked to Castillo San Cristobal. I knew it closed at 5 so we couldn’t go inside but it was on the way back to the ship. Since we already enjoyed some local food we decided to get back on the ship for dinner. 
I wish that we had more normal port hours today. I really wanted to go to El Yunque Rainforest but the logistics of getting there and back with plenty of time to explore before dark were just not working out. I don’t like the hop on hop off type Royal Caribbean excursions so that wasn’t an option. I like to have plenty of time to hike and explore and I’d read the ship’s excursion really required staying close to the bus and minimal exploration. I also really tried to find a way to do a bioluminescence tour but they all got back at 9 or later and are 30-60 minutes away from San Juan. All aboard is 9:30. Guess I’ll have to come back to San Juan some time. 
Dinner tonight was taste of USA. The baked potato soup was good. I didn’t enjoy the zucchini fries and the Buffalo chicken dip would’ve been better without blue cheese, but that’s definitely a personal preference because I hate blue cheese. Littles stuck with plain pasta but S7 did get shrimp cocktail and Caesar salad this time. D4 wishes they had berries as an appetizer. I got the lobster Mac and cheese and wasn’t a fan. Hubby had to work and showed up late so I ordered him maple and bourbon glazed salmon. He said the sauce was tasty. D16 ordered the royal burger and loved it. S12 ordered the steak; I think the garlic butter is new with the steak on this menu? It was so good that I sent back my Mac and cheese and got the steak. For dessert kids and hubby got royal chocolate cake and ice cream. S12 was sad royal chocolate cake isn’t on the menu permanently anymore so he was most excited about it. I got no sugar key lime shortcake and vegan brownie. The shortcake was disappointing since I usually like the sugar free desserts. The vegan brownie was fine, just like a regular brownie. So overall today’s menu was just meh. 
The theme was white night and we all looked so cute in our white shirts and dresses but dinner took longer than past evenings and kids were not cooperative for a picture. So I will be requiring our very own white night again in a few days to attempt that family picture. Yes I’m that mom  
No show in the theatre tonight, just Top Gun: Maverick showing twice, but actually in the theater and not on the pool deck. Speaking of the theatre, I LOVE the Masquerade Theatre. The only downside is it’s not as big as the theatre on other ships so it’s harder to find a seat last minute, but we’ve found one every night and we’re usually 5-10 minutes late. The seats are SO much more comfy than newer ships! 
Tonight we’re requiring an early bed time. We have 4 straight days of needing to be first off the boat for excursions. While this is vacation, my kids are not functional without 8-11 hours of good sleep. Littles were in bed by 8 and the other two have been asked to go to sleep at 10. D16 headed to the solarium hot tub after dinner and S12 to the teen club. He made a friend last night and didn’t get back until 12:30am! Park cafe is open until 1am so they were hanging out eating pizza together. I was so tired but moms can’t go to sleep without knowing their babies are safe in their beds.  
Tomorrow we’re in St. Maarten. S12’s BFF is on Harmony of the Seas which just so happens to be in port the same day as us. His family is joining us on our excursion. The two boys couldn’t be more thrilled! I’m excited to be able to start sharing about specific excursions. I do extensive research planning these things so I have high expectations. 

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https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B09PDDL97D?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

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. 

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. 

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. 

The horn just blasted and I just had my first experience watching a pier runner. A security officer was guiding her and as she made it he blew his whistle (which he’s been doing all day) and bowed to a round of applause. 

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