Cruise Day 3-November 3rd, 2015

Today we woke up to semi sunny weather. At the same time, on our side of the ship looking out over our balcony, we passed some rain clouds in the distant. Due to this,we got to see a gorgeous rainbow over the water! We also witnessed a beautiful rainbow on our last cruise. I like to think this was a little wink from Noah letting us know even though he isn't physically here with us on vacation, he is still a part of it all!

If you look close, you can see to the left part of a double rainbow!

Cruise Day 13-November 13th, Sea Day

If you are just joining, catch up here to see what I am sharing about in the coming days & weeks!
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Cruise Day 13^th, Sea Day, Thursday November 13^th

Ahh, finally a laid back day after the busyness of port days. Don’t get me wrong, we love our port days but it takes a bit more work getting ready for them. In addition to packing a beach bag for the littles, we also get water bottles ready and I have a small cooler I pack a few snacks in to hold us all off until we get back on the ship to eat a mid-afternoon snack. Just helps to keep the cost down in port.

A random view of the promenade down the center of the ship with a small view of the Schooner bar right below.

After breakfast this morning, we took Ava & Olivia up to the playroom set up for them as the gal in charge today was doing a music activity. She had a bunch of little musical instruments for them to play and she did some guided play as well as songs for them to play along with (ok so it was mainly Olivia who followed along while Ava did her own thing!) The girls had such a fun time! They have been spoiled being the youngest on board and getting this one on one attention from the staff.

She was so good with the girls! And the girls looked forward to sea days so they could hang out with her! 

Once the gal was done with her hour there, I let the girls play there while Kevin & Erik went to do the rock climbing wall. They weren't out there too long as they said the rocks were getting hot to the touch which made it hard to climb very high.

By this time it was lunch, so we grabbed some food to take back to the room to feed the little ones. I then decided to go to the MDR for lunch as they have a great salad bar where they mix up whatever you want (there are also menu items available as well). No one else wanted to go so I figured I'd sit alone and read. Well, when I got there, they sat me with 10 other people (aka strangers who didn't talk) so no reading for me. I quickly ate then left.

When I got back, Kevin took Ava for a walk for her nap and I took Olivia out to the waterslide and kiddie pool. I lost track of how many times we went down the slide! Because she is small, an adult has to go with her. She of course had a blast doing this together! I also managed to snap a photo of Olivia next to the same life preserver I took her picture by when she was on this same ship at just 6 months old.

I'm so sad this ship is going overseas and I won't be able to do this photo again in front of the same life preserver. Crazy to think how many countries this girl has visited already in her short 3 yrs of life!

 Once Ava was asleep, Kevin parked the stroller in the shade and was able to watch Olivia & I.

After Ava woke up, we found the older kiddos and asked them to watch the little ones for a while. Olivia has absolutely adored how the teens hang out with her. According to the girls, the teens love having Ava & Olivia hang out with them! 

In fact, the group of teens has taken the girls up to the play area to play with them as a group from time to time. One of the guys wanted Olivia to talk to him when she was being shy so he went and bought her a soda so she would be his friend, HA!! Yes, those girls got spoiled by the teen group. I just found it so neat how this group of teens embraced the little ones so openly.

Awesome group of kids! Most of them have still stayed in touch via texting. Some of them are even from overseas!

Meanwhile, I spent some time sitting out by the pool reading. The Caribbean band was out there playing music. I had to chuckle though when they broke out into Kenny Rogers “Know When to Fold Them”!! haha And yes, I took a video clip! What a hoot, Caribbean guys singing country, not something you hear every day!

Kevin & I then sat at the back of ship watching the wake for a little while until it was time to get ready for our third and final formal night.

Such a relaxing, peaceful view!

Can't get much more laid back than this!

Ava walking to dinner (after she ripped out her adorable hair bows). Susan is in the foreground.

Tonight’s dinner consisted of the fisherman’s platter which had lobster tail, YUM!!!! I think all of us except Kevin ordered it. 

The only time I ever get lobster is on a cruise!

Our waiter also unexpectedly brought us some more escargot for an appetizer! Yes, you can thank us for helping to keep the population of snails down in your yard, haha!! I have not ordered dessert this cruise, mainly because I am often full and I admit, I don’t have a sweet tooth. I decided to splurge tonight on the Grand Marnier Soufflé with some sort of creamy sauce. It was served warm and very delicious!

Olivia with her ketchup smiley face from Dario.

Ava insisted on "using" the menu to order her dessert, this was just TOO funny! Our waiter was a good sport!

Olivia with our sweet friend Randy.

We had our typical hour and a half after dinner hanging out with many of our friends again. I will miss this time of hanging out with friends every evening once we are home! While we were with them, the girls took Ava & Olivia to make another build-a-sea-pet as they had won another free one during another round of bingo in the teen club. Now each of them has their own souvenir from the cruise. 

The girls with their new pet at sea animal.

The towel animal in the kids room tonight.

One of our many formal photos. Have to heavily watermark it unfortunately due to people stalking & stealing my photos. But you get the idea! ;)

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All photos can be clicked on to enlarge. The photos I am sharing are a combination of ones I took as well as my kids and husband on a variety of cameras and iPhones, hence the varying quality.

Cruise Day 10- Curacao, November 10th

If you are just joining, catch up here to see what I am sharing about in the coming days & weeks!
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Cruise day 10, Curacao, Monday November 10^th

Today we arrived in Willemstad, Curacao. (ok I always pronounced it kur-AH-coe, apparently it’s pronounced cur-uh-SOUW, who knew!!) This country is known for its very colorful buildings. Hannah did a research project on this country before our trip and the reason for the colorful buildings is because people would get headaches from the white buildings due to the bright sunlight!

We were in port from 8am until 8:30pm so we took our time in the morning getting ready then had a laid back breakfast in the MDR. Today was a chocolate themed breakfast! Some of the options were chocolate waffles with a caramel-banana sauce, chocolate chip pancakes, chocolate milkshake, chocolate cream cheese trifle, chocolate banana bread, etc.

Us by the welcome sign.

When we got off the ship, we caught a taxi to Mambo Beach which was about 10 minutes away. Our first impression as we drove there was how much more sophisticated this island was compared to many Caribbean islands we’ve gone to. It didn’t have the third world country feel that many of the previous islands had.

The view by the shops looking down on Mambo Beach.

We got dropped off at the beach and were quite impressed by the surroundings.  We walked past a lot of nice shops before we walked down steps to the beach. There were 2 levels of shops & restaurants that lined the beach, nicer than the boardwalks at home actually! On the beach were also some small hut-type of buildings that had grilled food & drinks. There was even a nice volleyball court right behind us.

The beach was beautiful! There was a reef out a little distance that broke the waves so the water right by us was perfectly calm which was great for the little ones. The water here was clear & beautifully warm! We could see lots of little fish swimming by our feet. There was also one of those big, floaty trampoline for the kids to jump off of into the water.

We could even see our ship in the distance from where we sat. We saw several pelicans dive bomb into the water right by us for fish. One of them came within a few feet of the kids and made them jump as they truly come out of nowhere! I went for a little walk up the beach and came across a HUGE iguana. The thing was over 2 feet long from head to tail and walked out about 5 feet in front of me. Thankfully I had my phone on me and snapped some pictures.

Olivia playing with the kids snorkel gear.

This beach was one of our favorite due to how clean it was as well as the calm water. We stayed here until almost 4pm then headed back to the ship to get ready for dinner.

The view of our ship from on top of a bridge we crossed.

This was the first time when we docked that we entered & exited on the side of the damaged life boat so we were able to get a closer view of the destruction.

The head waiters weren’t on the floor tonight like they typically are so Olivia was bummed she hadn’t seen her “buddy” yet (that’s what she calls him). So we told our waiter as we finished dinner that Olivia was asking about her buddy. He immediately said “I’ll go get him”. Didn’t our head waiter come out bearing plates of chocolate chip cookies and in his words, it was for her to pack to take to the beach the next day! He spent time talking to her which made her night! Out of all 4 cruises we've done, this by far has been the best wait staff we've ever had!

My appetizer and main course!

Ava cheesing it up on the left and Olivia carrying her napkin rabbit & hat. Hmm I can see why people asked if they were twins!

A view of Curacao from the ship.

Later on in the evening, a few friends & I went to one of the big lounges for a musical dance game. The room was divided into 2 teams. The person in charge would play a song that has known dance moves to it (like the chicken dance, macarena, gangum style, etc). Whoever knew the dance moves had to go out on the dance floor and do them. Whichever team had the most people out doing the song, won that round. It was a lot of fun! While I was participating in this, the older 4 kids were at the teen club and Kevin was watching the Eagles football game (one of the few live programs we get on the ship) while the little ones slept. Everyone had a great evening!

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All photos can be clicked on to enlarge. The photos I am sharing are a combination of ones I took as well as my kids and husband on a variety of cameras and iPhones, hence the varying quality.