Our long-awaited cruise was finally here!! We were so excited to trade in the cold weather and our busy schedules for some fun in the sun! We left SUPER early Saturday morning and had a long day of travel. We flew into Fort Lauderdale and took an Uber to Miami to spend the night in a hotel near the port. These kids were SO excited to embark on their first cruise the next day!
DAY 1 - BOARD THE SHIP
After spending the night in Miami, we boarded the ship Sunday afternoon. We went on the Oasis of the Seas which is a massive ship! It can hold nearly 9,000 passengers! It's one of the biggest Royal Caribbean has to offer and the perfect ship for our family! There was SO much to do on the ship, and it was so family friendly! There were multiple pools and hot tubs, mini golf, multiple food spots (including the yummiest Mexican restaurant), all-you-can-eat soft serve ice cream (the biggest highlight for the kids!), a candy shop, a merry-go-round, waterslides, a huge slide from top to the bottom of the ship, Flowrider, a zipline, an ice skating rink, tons of shows, a track, a huge fitness center, an Aqua-theater, and more. Endless amounts of fun!
Day 1 we explored the ship, ate our first lunch at the Windjammer, settled into our rooms, swam, tried out the merry-go-round, ran around the track, and had fun playing on the ship!
DAY 2 - DAY AT SEA
The kids had their first breakfast in the Windjammer and it did not disappoint! How many carbs are too many carbs?! The bacon and pancakes and donuts every morning never got old for these growing boys:
We swam and played all day on the ship! The weather was beautiful and we soaked in the Caribbean sunshine!
Callie did the Flowrider for her first time and rocked it!! She stayed up the entire time and balanced without her hands for a while. She is good at anything she puts her mind to! The instructor and everyone watching was so impressed!
We had our first of many, many ice cream cones!
Not sure what to caption these pics... ;)
More ice cream..
The kids LOVED mini golf. They said it was one of their favorite things on the ship. We played many, many times!
The kids also loved having a candy shop on the ship. Their love of candy (like their daddy) runs deep!
We did the Zipline! The first day it was just me, Aiden, and Brennan. Callie wasn't quite 75 lbs and didn't make the cut off that first full day (but more to come on that later!)
That night was the formal dinner night where we all dressed up and got to enjoy some fancy food! Brennan didn't understand why we had to dress up in church clothes on the ship ;) He was pretty ornery about it for a little bit and then sadly he started to feel really seasick...hence the reason he is not dressed up like the rest of us for the first picture...
Luckily after some fresh air, he started to feel better and decided to dress up with the rest of us and come to dinner after all. We're so glad he did!
The dinners in the formal dining room were another highlight! The kids loved ordering appetizers, a main dish, and a dessert or two each night. They weren't too adventurous in trying new things. They kids mainly stuck to steak and chicken and spaghetti and things they were familiar with. And always ice cream and cookies for dessert. We'd sit around and play "Would You Rather" or ask a hard question that everyone had to answer. We also had an waiter a few of the nights we really liked. His name was Maryuta and he'd show us magic tricks.
When we got back from dinner, our housekeeper Luni had some fun surprises for us:
Luni made us the cutest hanging monkey in the kids' room and an adorable dog and some chicks in our room.
DAY 3 - LABADEE, HAITI
We woke up to the most beautiful, lush, green island: Haiti! Royal Caribbean has a private resort on the island with multiple beaches and excursions and everything you'd want at a port!
We took the tram over to Columbus Cove and spent the majority of the day there. It was a chill cove and the water was so blue and sand so light that it felt like a pool! We also had a perfect view of the Aquapark and the ship.
Nate and the three oldest kids spent an hour at the Aquapark right there. Sadly, Graham missed the cut off by two months and was too young to go, so I stayed back with him. Nate and the kids loved the Aquapark and had a blast climbing and jumping and playing in the water!
While they played, Graham and I hung out on the beach swimming, floating on a beach mat, and playing in the sand. Graham started his seashell collection and found some cool shells.
Once Nate and the older kids were done, we all hung out at the beach floating around and playing football in the water. They played football for hours.
We had fresh fruit and burgers and salad just off the beach. Being a private resort for Royal, we could eat all we wanted! Graham had LOTS of cantaloupe...his favorite food on the trip. He always made sure to eat as much cantaloupe as possible for each meal.
I loved the calm water at the beach and the whole atmosphere! There were vendors and street performers and it was such a great spot!
We headed over to a different beach for the last part of the day. This beach had bigger waves and less people. Luckily, Nate and I found an empty cabana with beach chairs to hang out on while the kids played on the beach and in the sand for a while.
There was a zipline right over the beach which was fun to watch. These kids LOVED playing in the sand and could have stayed playing for hours. It was such a perfect day and great first port!
Once we got back on the ship, we got cleaned up and went out to the pool deck for some ice cream and more mini golf.
Callie also put all of her heaviest clothes on and ate some food and then weighed herself again for the zipline...and this time she was allowed to go! She was still only 73 lbs but since she was so close to 75 lbs they let her do it. She was SO excited she got to be one of the big kids!
We ate dinner in the formal dining room and Graham was so tired from playing hard out in the sun all day that he fell asleep in his chair! The waiters brought him another chair so he could have a little bed while he finished eating.
Brennan and Graham just went to bed that night, but Nate, Callie, Aiden, and I went to the Aqua Show and it was incredible!! The show included some crazy dives (some from the top of the ship!), synchronized swimming, tight rope walking, slack line jumping, and lots of dancing. It was so enjoyable!
DAY 4 - San Juan, Puerto Rico
The time change finally caught up with us and we all slept in! Since we didn't port until the afternoon it was nice to have a lazy morning. We ate brunch in the main dining room and hung out on the ship as we ported.
Ice cream for breakfast?! The kids thought that was the best!
And more ice cream as we headed off the ship...
Once we got off the ship, we took a taxi ride to Escambron Beach. It was only a couple miles from the port and it was a beautiful, quiet beach! The kids all got a little sunburned in Haiti (especially Callie) so the highlight was having the beach mostly shaded.
The kids loved this beach and played for hours! More sand castles, more football, more jumping in the waves, and the kids buried each other and got SO sandy! The sound of the waves and the swaying palm trees above was so relaxing! It was another perfect day!
Nate and I hiding from the sun in our wide-brimmed hats :)
Gotta love when we make our kids be the photographer and kiss instead of smiling ;) They're not fans haha.
DAY 5 - Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI
We had an excursion at 7:30 in the morning so we got up super early to get off the boat. Our port was in St. Thomas but we decided to head to St. John's for the day. St. John's is only accessible by boat so we took a 45 minutes boat ride there. During the boat ride we saw the coast of St. Thomas which was beautiful! It was lined with some fancy resorts and mansions...one being Michael Jordan's vacation home. Once we made it to St. John's we took a bus ride to Trunk Bay. I had no idea what to expect with this excursion but Trunk Bay was BEAUTIFUL!! One of the prettiest beaches I've ever seen! The water was bright blue and the sand light and soft. It was a magical place!
We were told that only mineral sunscreen was allowed in the Virgin Islands so we bought some zinc oxide sunscreen in San Juan. Zinc in the thick, white sunscreen that never soaks in. So we lathered it on once we got to the beach and we all looked so pale and transluscent on the beach! It was pretty funny and hard to not laugh as I looked around at my paste-y kids haha. But the sunscreen worked and none of us were fried this day!
We snorkeled through an underwater reef trail and it was amazing! We saw so many beautiful, tropical fish! It was the kids first time snorkeling and it wasn't that easy for them...it took some time figuring out how to breath and swim around with the snorkel gear on. Brennan even got scared seeing some of the big fish at times and would scream his high girl-pitch scream. It was kind of funny! But they eventually figured it out and we loved snorkeling there!
After snorkeling, the kids played in the sand.
We didn't have sand toys with us so the kids had to be creative. It still entertained them for a long time.
I couldn't get over how beautiful the views were!
On the boat ride back we got to ride up on the top deck and the views were incredible!
This picture cracks me up....the zinc sunscreen was still going strong hours later ;)
Michael Jordan's old vacation home:
Callie and I did some shopping in Charlotte Amalie and then headed back on the ship to meet the boys.
I literally couldn't stop laughing when I found the boys like this on the ship. They all wanted to go swimming so Nate put more of the zinc sunscreen on the kids to make sure they didn't burn. I couldn't decide if they looked like ghosts, nerd dad and kids, or albinos! Haha.
DAY 6 - DAY AT SEA
We had our last full day at sea and we made the most of it! We played in the pool and on the slides a lot of the day. More food. More ice cream. More mini golf. I left my phone in the room all day, hence the lack of picutres. That evening was another formal night so we got all dressed up again and had a delicious dinner in the main dining room! These kids clean up nice!!
The kids were so excited to come back to some fun towel animals again!
A great last day on the ship!
DAY 7 - PERFECT DAY AT COCOCAY
We spent the entire day at Thill Waterpark and had a BLAST! The slides were so fun! The kids went on every single slide and were so brave! CocoCay has the tallest slide in North America and it went so fast! Nate and the kids loved the drop slide too...but I wasn't a big fan since it was pretty freaky! A little too intense for me. We played in the wave pool and Callie loved playing in the obstacle course pool too. We ate endless food at the snack shack and laid in the sun. The day was perfect! The only negative was CocoCay was windy the day we were there.After each slide, the wind made us feel pretty chilly. So we'd warm up in the sun for a minute or two and then once we were warm we'd head in line for another slide.The kids all said it was their favorite port!! We hope to go back sometime!
We travelled back home on Sunday. It was a LONG day of travel with some flight delays and layovers. But it was a relief when we finally made it home at 3am. But we'd do it all over again if it meant going on another cruise!
It was SUCH A FUN TRIP!!! Memories we'll have forever!! <3
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