Since this was Brandon's last spring break living at home with us, we kind of let him choose what we'd be doing. He said he wanted to do another cruise. I found THE BEST cruise for us. It was amazing and we LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!
It sailed out of Tampa and was a SEVEN day cruise. It left on Easter Sunday and got back the next Sunday. Tampa is about a nine-and-a-half hour drive for us.
Road Trip!
We left on Saturday morning and headed down.
When we stop at a rest stop with palm trees,
it officially feels like vacation!
We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's along the way and ran in to some members from our stake. We found out that they and two other families from their ward were going to be ON OUR SAME CRUISE! How fun! Later on the ship, Andrew also found out that he GREW UP with one of the men, Kevin Johnstun. He is a couple of years younger than Andrew, but Andrew was friends with his older sister. Small world!
We visited a ward in Tampa on Sunday morning.
They had a great Easter sacrament meeting.
Floral girls!
Then it was off to the ship!
We had the smoothest, easiest check-in process ever.
Sailing out of Tampa was EASY.
First stop on the ship: Food!
Yummy lunch and Andrew's favorite: ICE CREAM.
Also spent time exploring the ship.
We went back to Carnival this time.
We were on the Carnival Miracle.
We liked it!
Stained glass in the chapel.
We even found a copy of El Libro de Mormon there.
The main atrium.
Our dining room, the Bacchus.
Since it was Easter, there was a scavenger hunt
you could do around the ship to try to find Easter Eggs.
We found ALMOST all of them.
One of the dance clubs.
Cool decor
This is kind of hard to see, but it's a giant
piece of artwork in the atrium.
One of the theaters was Alice in Wonderland-themed.
Fun tables there.
And I loved these tiles.
The sports bar had a Magic Johnson jersey.
Ready to take off!
Here we go!
I splurged and got us rooms with extended balconies this time.
I.
LOVED.
IT.
Next time we cruise, I think I'll have the kids across the hall
from us in an interior room. They hardly used their balcony.
But I read out there ALL THE TIME.
It was so peaceful and relaxing.
Caroline and I spent lots of time watching the ocean go by.
We saw lots of flying fish--my favorite!
More exploring.
Andrew always has to be aware of the ceiling
heights when we're on cruise ships.
My travel agent had some treats sent to our room. Yum!
I've booked our last several cruises through Vacations-To-Go.
Their prices aren't much cheaper than what I can find online myself,
but they are able to get me more on-board credit than I can get on my own.
Since we always do shore excursions, that on-board credit helps
pay for those and it's fantastic.
In the early evening, they had a family "Easter Hop."
You could go to different stops around the ship.
It was almost like trick-or-treating,
you could just get candy from each stop.
They gave candy to both the kids and adults.
It was the perfect stash of sweets to have in our rooms
over the week. Yes!
It ended at the Frankenstein club with a family dance party.
We didn't stay long, but had so much fun.
We were all looking forward to dinner in the formal dining room.
Our server was named Superdi (Super D) and we liked him right away.
They also had a table magician, Pankaj, who was SOOOO
good. We would look forward to him coming to our
table every night. He did a show in the kids club when
Caroline participated and he said she was the most
interactive, excited kid in the club, so he liked her, too.
Great first day!
Yay for cruise posts!!
ReplyDeleteOh this looks like so. much. fun!!!!
ReplyDelete