This past Sunday we got home from a wonderful family vacation. We took a 7-day cruise out of Galveston and visited Roatan, Honduras; Belize, and Cozumel, Mexico. I will write separate posts and what we did in each country over the next few days and just talk about the cruise part here.
First I have to say that this was one of my favorite family vacations. This was Collin and mine's 5th cruise and Caden's 3rd. This was the first cruise Caden has taken that has left from the U.S. Not to say the other cruises were not amazing, which they were, but this was just fun. I think a lot of that has to do with Caden's age. He is just at a really fun age right now. We also cruised on Royal Carribean which is now our favorite cruise line. Previously we loved Holland America the best. Royal Carribean has a fantastic kids program. They also have lots of fun things to do on the ship. They had ice shows and you could ice skate. You could roller blade, Caden went roller blading for the first time on a cruise ship. They had a climbing wall, lots of pools, and a miniture golf. If your child is at least 3 and fully potty trained, they can go to the kids program for free. Caden LOVED the kids program! We did too. We started off with letting him go for an hour. Then by the end of our cruise we felt comfortable enough to let him play there while we went kayaking and snorkling in Cozumel (he was too young for this excursion). They also have a neat program where you sign your child up for My Time Dining. Then you let your waiters know and they will bring your food out earlier and so you can eat dinner as a family and then take your child to the kids area while the adults finish their meal. It was wonderful, we had a date almost every night. Also it was neat how the kids recognized each other on the ship and even on the shore excursions. Caden made lots of great little friends.
A number of people, probably about 7 or 8, asked me if we were going to take Caden with us on our cruise. I thought it was really strange. Do that many people have family who can watch their children while they travel? We don't have family that is able to take Caden for us. So this was a great way for us to all to have a vacation. I have some friends who are going on a cruise without their kids. If you can do that, great. However, your child(ren) would have such a great time I think it would be better to just take them with you. They also get to learn about other cultures. Not only from visiting other countries but from people they meet on the ship. From other cruisers to the lovely staff who works so hard to help you have a great vacation.
We tried to pick excursions that we would all enjoy. When we were packing for the trip Caden found his beach ball and a few other beach items. He was so excited to go to the beach again! He loved the beach and building sandcastles. He also liked swimming in the ocean and on the ship.
This was our first time to stay in an inside cabin. We booked it two weeks before we left so there wasn't anything else available unless we wanted to pay twice the price for a balcony, no thanks. The other two cruises we went on we stayed in a suite. So this was quite an adjustment. However, I will say, it really wasn't too bad. The bathroom was smaller, we didn't have a window which was kind of weird, but it was dark and we all slept well at night. We also didn't spend a lot of time in the room because there's so much to do.
We ended up buying the photography package on board. It was such a great deal. For $300 you got all the pictures they took and a CD with copyrights. I'll have to do a post with some of my favorites. This was from everyday on the cruise by various photographers with different styles. Since we hadn't paid for pictures in a few years we decided to buy it. We got a lot of great ones and then a number of not so great ones. But overall it was worth it.
We saw some friends from Legacy on our ship, the West family. We got to eat lunch with them one day and it was nice catching up.
The day before our cruise we stayed with some friends, Chris and Marci, and their four kids, in the Woodlands. Collin and Chris grew up together and went to college together. They are great people and we really enjoyed spending time with them. Caden loved playing with their kids.
Family vacations are so much fun. We love traveling and hope to always be able to do so. There are not many 3 year olds who have been to 22 countries. I think he's finally getting to the age where he's going to remember some of these places. Caden has talked about the trip quite a bit since we've been back. My favorite way to travel is cruising. It is so easy to just unpack once and see lots of pretty places. Food is already paid for, unless you eat on shore, which we end up doing a lot of time. Overall it's a great value for everything you get. If we could take one once a year, we would.
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| Caden hanging out |
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| Caden's first ice show |
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| He loved it! |
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| The ice skaters were amazing |
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Collin and I went ice skating on the ship.
Caden decided he didn't want to. |
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Caden did want to try roller blading.
Sadly, the skates were two sizes too big! He did great though! |
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| Our fearless climber! |
I have wanted to go to Belize since I was 18 and got certified to scuba dive. The Belize Barrier Reef is the longest reef in the Western Hemisphere and the second longest in the world. Collin and I were tempted to go scuba diving or snorkeling in Belize but really wanted Caden to see the reef as well. So we signed up for an excursion on the ship called Under Water Windows to the Wonders of the Barrier Reef that also went to a private island. Our ship did not dock at the port but rather docked in the middle of the ocean. We took a 45-minute boat ride to the reef, about a 10-minute boat ride from there to the island, and then 40-minute boat ride back to the ship.
