Wes: 1 Year, 3 Months & 2 Weeks Old
Ty: 3 Years, 4 Months & 2 Weeks Old
I don’t know how I am ever going to get caught up! Since being back from the cruise, I started school,
so every weeknight (except for Friday night and the night that I work) is
dedicated to school, but I’m sure I will get better at the time management! So I am trying to do “blog work” on Friday night
and Sabbaths, but I have either been working or we have been gone for the
weekend every week!
SABBATH FEBRUARY 22
(yes, I am a month behind)
- We flew out of
Boston at 1:15 PM. Thank goodness we
left a bit early, since we didn’t know that the Sumner Tunnel was closed and we
had a very long, slow detour to Logan.
The flight to Houston took forever, over 4 ½ hours. That is torturous with a 15 month old! Tyson is so easy because you can set him up
with any type of entertainment device and he is golden. Westin could care less. All he wants to do is walk around! Heath & I took 30 minute “shifts” with
Wes and mostly walked up and down the aisles with him. Long trip.
- We stayed at a
Spring Hill Suites near the Houston airport.
We got a killer deal. They will
take 6 people in a room, so we shared the room with Keith & Sonia. I booked the room in Keith’s name, so we
could get the senior discount. $72! You can’t beat it! We walked to a Denny’s across the street for
supper and had some great food, but the service was atrocious! We were there over 2 hours – at a Denny’s!!!! We all crashed hard that night.
SUNDAY
- It should have been
an easy day, but it was not to be. Fog
hit Houston (for the 5th week in a row) and the port of Galveston
was closed. The cruise ships were
finally allowed into the port 6 hours late!
We had a Super Shuttle van booked to pick us up at the hotel in Houston
and drive us the 45 minutes to the port at 12:00. Our driver was great and got in touch with
the port and we ended up at the port at about 1:30 PM. We were supposed to be able to board the ship
at 12:30 PM, but the ship had just docked and they had not unloaded any
passengers yet. Thank goodness Carnival
took all of our luggage at that point, so we could walk around Galveston port
without lugging our bags. A big blessing
was that there was a Mardi Gras parade that day, so we spent a lot of time
watching these marching bands practice…and then watched the parade itself! The boys loved it and Ty got a TON of
beads! We had lunch…walked around some
more…long story short, we finally got on our ship, the Carnival Magic, at 7:30
PM! Long, long afternoon. They did the mandatory lifeboat drill at
about 9:30 PM and then we hit the hay.
If you think that time is ridiculous, the week before…the ship had not
been able to get into port because of fog until about 5:00 PM (almost 12 hours
late) and they were doing the lifeboat drill at 2 AM!!!!! Can you imagine? Thank you Costa Concordia for these new requirements.
MONDAY
- 1st day
at sea. We explored, unpacked (well,
that was me), and went swimming at the Water Works kids area (with 2 adult
waterslides). It was the 1st
formal night and the boys were adorable in matching yellow bow ties. We had a nightmare of a time for dinner. Every time we have ever cruised, we always do
“Anytime Dining” and go to dinner whenever you want. Carnival never had this option before when we
have cruised with them, but now they do it.
Unfortunately it appeared that a TON of people chose that type of
dining. You are assigned to 1 restaurant
and you show up whenever you want to eat.
The unfortunate part is that Carnival does not do any reservations with
the “Anytime Dining” (where Norwegian, Princess, Royal Caribbean does). So on our first night, we had gone to the
dining room at about 6:30 PM and probably 200 other people had the same
idea. There was the longest line I have
ever seen! We probably would have been
in line for 45 minutes just to get in for dinner! We went to the early show instead and then
tried again to get in for dinner.
Probably about 100 people had that same idea and we were still in line
for about 20 minutes to get in. We ate
dinner from 9:30 PM to 10:30 PM that night with 2 exhausted children!!!!! Are you kidding me? We will never do “Anytime Dining” on Carnival
ever again!
- Quick note about the shows…we hardly missed a night. The boys loved the shows! They held their complete attention and they
loved the music and dancing! The boys would
dance the whole show long! It was very
cute.
Kiddie waterslide
Getting ready for dinner
All dressed up, playing on the stairs
Formal pic
Hard to see...but it was cute!
TUESDAY
- Day 2 at sea. More swimming, mini-golf etc. We had ice-cream every day much to the
delight of the boys. The food was
fantastic and they had a ton of options at the buffet for lunch. They had an Indian station, deli sandwich
station, create your own pasta (at their specialty Italian restaurant, free at
lunch), Mongolian Wok (create your own stirfry & noodle dishes that they
cook in front of you), burrito bar (fantastic, with lime-cilantro rice like
Chipotle), plus 24 hour pizza. The only
negative (I know, how could I complain) is that they never had any soups and my
kids live on soup!!!!
- My main issue of
business for the day was fixing our dinner situation. I asked to get an early-time seating, but it
was completely full. So I asked if we
could get the late seating at 8:15 PM and we could. We definitely figured that eating at 8-9 PM
would be better than 9-10 and we didn’t have to wait in line with the
kids! Good call. We ended up having fantastic servers that
played with the kids nonstop and worked so hard to get us out quickly. They were great. The boys were really good too. We had a table by the window, so Ty would sit
by the window sill a lot and play and Westin was really good in his highchair
by me. By the time dessert would come,
Wes would get antsy, so I would bring out the iPad with a video. Since he was stuck, buckled in…he would
actually watch the thing!
iPad at dessert
Grammy treated Ty & Wes at the ship's candy store - someone was in heaven!
WEDNESDAY
- 1st stop
at Roatan, Honduras. We booked an
excursion, took bus trip to this mini-zoo place. It was a walking tour with a guide. It was 90+ degrees and it was smoking
hot. It was very nice and we walked over
this scary suspension bridge. I was
holding Tyson’s hand, but it was so unstable…and we were over water, but the
bottom part of the bridge on either side of us was completely open…not big
enough for an adult to fall through, but just perfect for a little kid to fall
through. It freaked me out, but Ty didn’t
fall! One of the funniest thing happened
when we reached the monkey area. They
have all these monkeys running free and they just jump on you. Jump on your shoulder or your head. They had us remove all of our hats, glasses,
drinks etc. and put them on this
bench. Well, this one monkey had just
jumped off of Heath and ran over to the bench, grabbed our Gatorade, and ran up
a tree with it. He knew exactly how to
work those sports caps and he downed the whole thing! Tyson was so upset! “That bad monkey! He drank our Gatorade!” It was really funny though. After that portion of the excursion, there
was a beach there and we swam. Then the
truly funniest thing happened there at the beach. We were all in the water, when Ty said that
he had to pee. Well, the bathrooms were
really far away, so we quietly tried to convince Ty to just pee in the
water. Well, that freaked him out and he
wouldn’t pee in his bathing suit in the water.
So Heath helped him discreetly pull his bathing suit down and pee in the
water that way. Unfortunately that came
back to bite us later. Fast forward an
hour or so…Ty is at the water’s edge playing in the sand, while most of us were
a little ways in the water. He said he
had to pee again, so we told him to come into the water with us. Next thing we know, we look up, and there is
Ty, standing on the edge of the water…with his bathing suit around his ankles,
peeing into the ocean!!!!! It was the
funniest thing ever. There were plenty
of people around and everyone was laughing, thankfully. I was crying I was laughing so hard. What are you going to do?
Walking in the park
Right before it stole our Gatorade!
At the beach
He loves the water!
Bus ride back to the ship - everyone was tired!
But he got some life after a nap before dinner!
THURSDAY
- Our next stop was
Belize. We took an excursion and got on
a boat, right off the ship – which was great since we were going to have to
tender into Belize. They took us on a
semi-submarine ride and then brought us to this island in the middle of the ocean
for more beach time. There was great
snorkeling around this island, so Keith & Sonia went first and then they
watched the kids while Heath & I went.
The boys had a blast in the water and never got any sunburns!
Getting ready to board our boat for our excursion! Someone was excited!
Semi-sub cuteness
Very studious looking at the fish guide
"Oh my goodness! Do you see that fish?!!"
Getting tired
Riding to the island
There it is!
"Land ahoy!"
My boys
Enjoying the beach
Eating lunch when we got back on the ship - don't they look alike?
Solo pic we got of Ty - doesn't he look like 8 or 9 years old? So old!
FRIDAY
- Our last stop was
Cozumel. We had been planning to go to
this beach that we loved, Paradise Beach…but we had been at the beach the past
2 days and we are not beach people. So
we went shopping instead. Cozumel had
some great prices and we had fun walking around.
- I have to mention
something about Tyson here. It was
pretty sad. The last 2 cruises he had
been on (not that he remembered them…) he had been the complete center of
attention, but that was no longer the case.
Everyone was going crazy over Westin, since he is the baby and Tyson was
pretty jealous. If someone was talking
with Westin, Ty would go right over and turn the charm on to get attention. I even saw him throw himself on the ground,
rolling around, laughing over something.
Poor guy just craves the love!
Sitting on steps in Cozumel
Shopping in Cozumel - he loved this little wooden truck
Ty loved these big flippers
2nd formal night
Banana split at supper - look at the joy on his face!
SABBATH
- Our last day at
sea. We had a relaxing day out by the Waterworks
again and also did mini-golf and the “Sky Course.” It is a ropes course that looks so easy from
down on the deck! Keith, Heath & I
did it together and it was so scary!
Keith & I both looked at each other and said, “Why did we do this?” We are both afraid of heights! You are about 12 feet up in the air, but you
are high enough it is almost like being over the water! It was scary!
Heath on the Sky Course - Keith & I were pole-hugging on the left!
Westy fell asleep during dinner that last night - it must have been all the dancing!
SUNDAY
- We left the ship
and took our shuttle to the airport. Our
flight unfortunately did not leave until 5:00 PM, but at least the flight home
was just under 3 hours…thank you jet stream!
Heath & I did the 30 minute shifts with Wes again, but it was pretty
turbulent for awhile and we couldn’t get up at first, so that made it
challenging! We got home at about 12:30
AM, exhausted, but safe & sound! It
was a great trip! The boys were so tired
that they slept until 10 AM the next day!
