sk8rmomof3

thank you for the heads up, I have included this info in my file. We plan on taking their shuttle back to FLL for our flight afterwards and with 13 of us going so far I don't want to chance anything!

I'm with you! I don't like to chance anything!

Great Review....I loved all the pictures. We will be sailing out on our first Cruise June 3 on Conquest. I have read a lot of reviews that you have to dress causal every night for dinner. Did you guys do that or is that only in the main dinning room?

We had two formal nights on the cruise. It was Monday and Friday I believe.

There was a dress code for the main dining room which said no flip flops, ball caps, sleeveless shirts on men, or sports shorts on men. For the most part I saw people dressing in casual clothes such as polos and khakis. I also did not see the staff reprimand anyone for dress code violations. The buffet area has signs that asks that you don't wear bathing suit attire, but people did that also.

Quick question for you about the Build-A-Bear.... do you have to have a kid in the kids clubs to get one? I love Build-A-Bear and have always wanted one off of the ships.

You do not have to have a kid! There were people of all ages there! Although the Kids Club people are the ones the orchastrate the event, it's not a Kids Club specific ordeal. It's open to all!

Awesome review!! Your family is gorgeous and your pictures were fabulous!! Thank you for taking the time to do this, :)

Thank you!

Great review. Thanks for your hard work. We are sailing on the Conquest in October (not the same itinerary). Glad your family had a great time.

Thank you! Have fun in October!

So really, that's our trip. You don't want to hear about our plane rides home. Just normal stuff. I will say that A) the Delta line was over an hour and 20 minutes long just to check your bags. I had again prepaid this, and thought that would help, but the lines were long inside and out. Once we got inside, the Delta terminal things (I don't fly much....no clue what the waiting area is called) was crowded. Literally, not even sitting on the floor room. All seats taken, and it seemed like the four flights for that area were all loading within 10 minutes of each other. So we had the kids, their carry on luggage, trying to eat because we were starving, and no where to sit! Chaos!

BUT we were able to get on our flight, and we got home just before 1am. The kids are happy to have had that experience.

My oldest daughter got really sick yesterday, throwing up and everything. I gave her Dramamine. She ended up sleeping the day away. Myself and my son were just dizzy all day, I'm still dizzy today. My youngest daughter and husband are un-phased and even went to Cedar Point yesterday (We have season passes). I went back to work today, taught 10 hours of clinicals with students, then I work an 8 hour shift tonight. So life goes on. The week is officially over, we have great memories, and now to start planning for "next time"!

Hope y'all enjoyed. I am NO expert, only sharing my personal experiences and opinions! We had a wonderful time.

I can honestly say that looking back, its hard not to compare. I liked the ship better on Royal Caribbean, but I liked the overall feel on Carnival. If I had to book again today for the next cruise, I would choose Carnival because it was much more personable. Not just the employees, but the other travelers. They were all nice, not afraid to have conversation with others. I met a lot more people this trip than the first trip. I enjoyed the food much better on Royal Caribbean. I guess in my opinion, any cruise is better than no cruise, and so if the price is right, that's where I'll book!

Thanks for listening!

SATURDAY...DEBARKATION DAY

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. We woke up being at the dock already. We got dressed, gathered our last minute carry on bags, and went to the buffet for breakfast. It was PACKED. We found a seat and ate breakfast. Debarkation was supposed to start at 8am for people that were self-debarkating. I think I just made up a word there. Let's go with it.

SOOOO we really debated about this. I hated the debarkation process on Royal Caribbean. They put you in groups, you had to go to a specified location, and you were cramped. We had to go to a theater and it was standing room only. There were no overhead announcements, so you just had to wait and hope you heard something. Then it was a long line out, and much confusion. I told my husband if we ever cruised again, we were going to self-debark so it wouldn't be so painful. HOWEVER this time around, we had kids, and we were not in a hurry, so we sent our bags the night before. I'm glad we did. Trust me on this, per our experience (Which I admit is limited), Carnival has a MUCH better debarkation system. They asked that you either stay on the 9th floor, or 5th floor. We preferred to stay in the buffet.

They made an annoucement that it was taking longer than normal, as custom's computers broke down, and didn't know when they would come back up. We knew being group 12, we weren't getting off any time soon, so we finished eating, and started a round of UNO.

Chloe the cruise director was good at making announcements and keeping us all informed as to what to expect, and eventually said it would be slow moving, but they would start with the self-debarking people, just know it would be slow because the computers were still down and they'd have to manually do everyone and only had 30 custom's workers. So they started to call groups. At this point, we had been in the buffet area for 2 hours. Kids getting restless and they took all the food way! I get it, they were getting ready for the oncoming people, but hey, if we are going to be here a while, feed us! But then we figured out a way around this dilemma....UNLIMITED ICE CREAM!

Finally our group was called and we made our way down the stairs to the 3rd level to get off the ship. We actually saw people loading on the ship as we were getting off! We got escorted to the area to find our bags, and got them fairly easily. Then to get in the customs line. At this point they must have gotten the computers up and running. This must have been my most frustrating part.....now if you were on this cruise, you must speak up too. The security guards, I understand. Doing their job, trying to keep the line moving. WELL it was moving too fast. I'm not kidding you. people were moving so fast back and forth through the winding barriers that their things would fall. They'd have to stop to pick up what fell and the security people would literally be there yelling "keep it moving". Ummmmm....we are moving too fast....that's why I dropped my stuff! This was happening everywhere. I understand there's a rush to get everyone through, but hot darn....it's not our fault this is running behind! I felt bad for the people that had to stop to catch their breath or pick up their belongings that had fallen. It was crazy! Keep on moving!!!!!

As soon as we got out of customs, we went outside. We found the shuttle bus area. We had prepaid through Carnival for the shuttle bus. NOW, we paid the $16 a person. We had been told after we did this, that our hotel from pre-cruise would have done it for $11/person. The lady that got on the bus and sat next to me asked me if I had prepaid on Carnival and I said yes. She was upset because they were advertizing on the sidewalk the exact same shuttle for $10/person, kids are free. So yes, I could have just paid $30 and instead prepaid $80. However, again,, I like to be prepared, I prepaid. Had I not done that,, the price would have been double that day, and I would have been stressed.

FRIDAY CONTINUED:

So being that it was the last sea day, I expected the pool area to be packed. It was 11 at this time. But as I stated earlier, we never had a problem finding seats, and this was no different. We had our choice of where to go, and as usual, I chose to sit half way up the slide so I had view of the pool and the slide so if my son changed his plans, I had full view of him at all time. I was able to easily get 4 chairs all together. One for each of us, and one for my husband that joined us. We all did the slide a ton of times, I kept dipping in the pool to get cooled off, and then would go an sit down to read.

Now......before we went, I posted a question on this board asking about a drink in a pineapple. It was my one and only request of the whole trip, MUST DRINK ALCOHOL FROM A PINEAPPLE. I got mixed reviews of yes or no they have it or not. WELL........they had it on this last day. It was the drink of the day. I specifically wanted a strawberry daquari, but I didn't ask if they could do it, as when they described the drink as pineapple paradise, it sounded so intriguing that I went with it. Very happily I paid the $14.95 for my pineapple drink and very satisfied took it to my seat! The drink basically is a more pineapple-y version of pina colada.

My trip was complete. I was a happy person. This was alcohol drink #4 of 4 of the trip and I ended it very happily!

By 11:30 my son was asking for food and if Guy's was open. I explained that it opened at noon, and he just couldn't wait, so off I went to the deli to get him a hot dog. He ate that whole thing, then still requested a Guy's burger (notice, I took special care to ensure I didn't say Five Guys this time. Ha ha). My son then downed this whole burger while I ate his fries!

We continued to swim, and I could literally feel my legs starting to catch on fire from the burning. Time to take a break! I had to get in from the sun after being out there since 11 and it was then 5pm.

The dilemma of the day....the kids wanted to watch Trolls and Moana on the movie dive in screen, however, it was the same time as the kids club good bye party. Kids club won out. Trolls can be rented. (As it turned out, it was free on the flight home). While they were there at kids club, my daughter and I had dinner in the buffet (it was another formal night in the main dining room and we just didn't feel like getting dressed up).

After dinner we went to the main area as there was going to be a balloon drop. They had us all put names in balloons, blow them up, and stick them in a net up on the 7th floor....

They then did a good bye ceremony and had all crew standing on the steps as they did the balloon drop. It was fun to watch. We stood on the 5th floor so we could get good views and not feel squished.

After the balloons fell, they told the kids to pop them. My daughter ran down the stairs to help with the popping. OK, so here's how it gets gross. First of all, it sounded like firecrackers going off in the area. The popping was so loud. But it was fun watching everyone popping them, young and old. The gross part is, and you literally don't think about this until something of this magnitude happens......my daughter said that the floor was getting slippery. Why? Think about it......hundreds, thousands of people just blew those balloons up. Inevitably their spit gets in the balloons. You have thousands of balloons all getting popped in a small contained area? Spit on the floor, floor was wet. GROOOSSSS! I never would have thought about it until my daughter said that! Oh well....it was fun to watch! Glad I wasn't on the 3rd floor!

AND glad I wasn't part of the clean up crew!

My husband then got jealous at our matching sweatshirts and decided he needed one as well, back off to the gift shop. Surprisingly enough, the hooded sweatshirts (zipper front) are only $34.99. I mean seriously, I live near Cedar Point, the roller coaster capital of the world ,and you can't get a sweatshirt for less than $60! So I'm ok with that price! After shopping AGAIN, my daughter and I were done. I was tired from a full day of sitting by the pool in the sun. I felt stupid for sitting in my room, but it was cool and comfortable, I had no little kids, and my book was calling my name. This is where a balcony would have been nice, because I wouldn't have felt guilty being in my room the last night of a cruise, reading a book if I was on a balcony enjoying the scenery. But I was in my window-less room, but still enjoying it. I maintain that in the future, I will continue to book an interior room to save money.

We had to have our bags in the hallway between 8-10:45pm, so I planned out outfits for home going, got the kid's jammies laid out, packed our things, and put the bags in the hall way. By the way, they really make sure you understand the debarking process, as they had a seminar during the day, then had it on all of the tv's as well. Plus they gave us a form to look over that explained it as well.

Apprarently the custom's form has changed in the last few weeks, so if you haven't cruised in the past 2-3 weeks, it has changed, according to Chloe. I guess now you have to itemize and list ALL purchases. I don't know. Just relaying what we were told.

I picked up the kids from kids club, they had lots of goodies from their last night, and we all fell asleep instantly.

Such a great review! Thanks for taking the time to post all the details and pictures. We sail on the Conquest on June 3, so I'm soaking it all in :)

 

And ps, your kids are adorable!!!

Awwww....thank you! :)

FRIDAY CONTINUED:

So to continue the Dr. Suess breakfast......

Here's a picture of the menu (it's turned sideways, so turn your computer screen in 3....2....1......)

It was all you can eat, and $5 a person. No extra gratuity taken off.

They brought Thing 1 and 2 to the table and Pixels took a picture of that. Then they have on the back of the kid's menu a place for the characters to "sign". Ummmm....they didn't sign it. Kendyl with a Y (Cuz why not?!) came around with a stamp and stamped the paper with Thing 1 and 2 on it. Ha ha. Kids didn't care, they thought it was cool. Then they brought out Dr. Suess himself and told the kids to line up with they wanted a picture with him. They keep the line moving, so if you want a picture with your own camera, be ready. They won't stop you from taking the picture, but they also will not wait for you either. Pixels takes the pictures.

After Dr. Suess came out, the waiters all went up the stairs and put on wigs and came down and did a little dance. It was really funny and the kids laughed. Then they brought out Sam I Am and had the same idea, form a line, keep it going.

The breakfast in total was less than an hour long. They were already tearing down the decorations before we were done eating! They had a really cute ice sculpture when you come in, but it was obviously old and had dirty and hair coming off of it. It's seen better days!

After breakfast, it was just in time for the towel animal show in the theater right by the dining room. I had seen pictures previously about life size towel animals that people dress up and you could take pictures, so I thought it was something like that. It wasn't. It was a puppet show. I found it extremely lame and kept checking my phone for the time. They have all the kids sit up on stage, and it seemed to keep their attention, and as long as they were having fun, it was fine. Maybe I'm just getting old!

After the show, they were selling towel animal books that gave instruction as to how to make them. I believe the book was $14 and proceeds went to St. Judes. We did not buy one, but it was a cute book.

Then my youngest asked to go to kids club. My son and daughter choose to stay with me and go to the pool.

FRIDAY, LAST SEA DAY:

So Friday was our last full day on the ship. It was a boring day, but in a good boring way! We started the day with the amazing Dr. Suess breakfast. I was surprised to see a lot of empty tables. The breakfast was in the Renoir dining room. They decorated so well!

The table settings were adorable, and the menu was just like I had seen before the cruise, looks like a book. We were seated and started figuring out what we wanted to eat. It was hard because everything looked good. So the two oldest kids got the french toast:

I got the waffles. Now, I should say that the menu states something about berries. I was expecting waffles with berries. That's not what you get. The blue and red stuff is more of like a marshmallow fluff? Or a whipped frosting? I really couldn't tell. It wasn't bad, just not what I expected:

My husband and his friend got steak and eggs which they liked, and my husband also ordered the green eggs and ham, because you HAVE to. I mean, come on! It's called Green eggs and ham, Sam I am......so you have to try them! Ha ha......Never fear, they tasted regular (according to him, as I'm allergic to eggs and couldn't try them)

My youngest, who is picky, choose the pancakes, which she likes pancakes so I thought it would be a good fit for her. We had seen the pictures before, and I figured if the red ones worry her, at least she could eat the white ones. Fair warning, they are not good. None of them. I don't know what it is, but they taste good when you take a bite, and as you chew and go to swallow, they get a real bitter after taste and they just are not good. Cute idea, looked good, just not edible. I ended up ordering her a side of bacon instead.

Then they walk around offering a fruit parfait, or a strawberry thing. Not sure what the strawberry thing was called. My son got the fruit, I got the strawberry. He ate the granola off the top and the strawberry and that was it, and I tried a spoonful of the strawberry thing, but again, it looks much better than it tasted. The strawberry is that red goop you add to a strawberry pie. It's not jello, it's not strawberry puree. It's like that strawberry red goopy stuff that 's a filler in a pie. Not good. Then the white stripes are whipped cream. Not yummy.

I've reached my max photos for one post, so I will continue the breakfast on a new post!

I love Chloe! We had her on the Miracle a year or two ago. She was great!

Absolutely amazing she was! My son still is talking about her. And maybe because on our first cruise we didn't even know a cruise director existed so the fact that she was visable and so attentive, we really liked her! I couldn't imagine a better one than her.

THURSDAY CONTINUED:

When we got on board the ship, the kids instantly wanted to go to kids club. So again, shower them, send them to their kids club. My husband, his friend, my oldest daughter and myself decided to do the buffet for dinner. It was a good dinner, my favorite so far, considering I didn't like the buffet much. The food was good and there was plenty. Beef stroganoff, and seafood galore for my husband and his friend. He ate many steamed muscles. They also had flank steak that was good as well.

After dinner, my daughter and I went to the gift shop to shop some more. We both had our eye on the same sweatshirt and bought 2 of the same one. We bought a magnet as well since we collect them, and we also got a ship ornament for our tree. Then we went and got caught up on buying the pictures from Pixels. They also did a sale where when you buy something (the gift shop, not Pixels), they give you a 20% off coupon valid for the next hour. You could use it on all items from the ship even items on sale. So off to the jewelry we went and I found myself a new ring. Not real of course, but pretty nonetheless. Pixels pictures are NOT included in this coupons.

Again, at 10pm, I picked the kids up from kids club, brought them to my room where we all fell asleep and my husband picked up my son later.

Side note:

We did not have room keys made for each other's rooms. The kids really didn't need their cards, so in the evening, he would take my youngest daughter's key to let himself in our room at night so we didn't have to wake up. I kept thinking I should go to guest services and get a key, but the lines were always long, and there wasn't a big pressing issue to have this done.

Also, the towel animals continued to be a HUGE hit!

THURSDAY CONTINUED:

Once we got to Passion Island, they led us over to an area, you MUST take a picture. Some people tried to just keep walking to get to the beach and the tour guide stopped them and literally told them the picture was mandatory. They then explained to us about the meeting place, how the island works, and explained the tipping situation to us. They said you can tip whomever you want, but tip at the end and only if you feel you got exceptional service. Then they said that all the tips get thrown together and shared equally. Then we were off. There was plenty of seats for everyone, and we found a table in the shade for our stuff. I had a lot of cash on me, and I was nervous about our electronics, so we rented a locker. FYI.......the lockers are $5, with $5 deposit as well. This is the only thing they take as cash. You rent the lockers where you can rent snorkel equipment and the any other things like the water tricycle. Those items you can rent but must use your sail and sign card. You can also get life jackets there for free, but they hold on to your sail and sign card to make sure you return it. Also, the kayaks are free, but they warn you if you break the oars it is $60 billed to you.

So we got settled and off to the water we go. The kids were so excited about the bouncy inflatable things, and that's where we stayed. I truly would have pictures to show, but they are all on the GoPro, and again, I haven't had time to go through that yet. I can say, that if anyone else was on this excursion and reads this review, they can vouch for me.....my son was quite the little charmer. He's 9 but he's TINY. He's also fearless and quite the little personality on him. This was a perfect combination to start people launching him on the inflatables. Someone had seen him on the pillow thing and asked if they could launch him, he was all for it, he went flying, everyone laughed, he climbed back on, and then started the "I want to launch him too" "did I get him higher than you?" He was game. He's tiny, not even 50 pounds and these grown adults were having a blast with him and all were recording this. It was really fun to watch. My son had to take a break after a while because he did a belly flop and it hurt, but soon he was right back at it. It truly was hilarious......I'm not the only one with videos! It felt really like a big family being out there with people all coming together having a great time!

So then it was time to eat, we eat at the buffet. They warned us ahead of time that this is not Taco Bell, it's not intended to be tacos, although there are the supplies there to make it. They had chicken, fish, rice, potatoes, guacamole, corn tortillas, french fries, fresh cut fruit, and homemade tortilla chips. It was freakin' delicious in my opinion. My husband also loved it. BUT you can always tell the people that were unimpressed. The lady in front of me couldn't believe they didn't have sour cream. Again, they told us it isn't Taco Bell, I wasn't expecting condiments like in America. But whatever floats your boat. I liked the food, and it was included. I had only a sip of 2 drinks, I'm not really a drinker. But the drinks looks really good what other people were carrying.

I think the only confusing/frustrating part was when we wanted to rent the water tricycle thing, I couldn't get a straight answer out of the attendant guy about the price, Then, he said we couldn't do it as you need 2 adults and we wanted to go one at a time with the kids. So we gave that up and said we would do the free kayaks then. He kept yelling at me telling me it was for one person only. I said I knew that and my son and I were going separately. He kept saying it's for one person only. I kept insisting it was for us to go separate. My son has kayaked before and I knew he was capable. Finally he understood then said "The baby is going to do it alone?" First of all, he's not a baby, and second of all, I was going right next to him. Finally we got our stuff and went out to kayak for a while. It was nice.

By that time it was time to go already. I literally have no good pictures as they are all in the GoPro. I can say that the bathrooms were pretty, but they smelled bad. They also have changing rooms. All were within walking distance. The shops had nothing good in them, and they like to hassle. Save your money for when you get back to Cozumel. Those stores have better prices and won't hassle you.

We got back to Cozumel around 3:30 and had to be back on board at 5:30. As we pulled in to the dock, the tour guides said that if we went to Three Amigos and show our bracelet, we'd get a free margarita. Sounds good to me.

We shopped around a bit, got what we wanted, and got back on the ship. Keep in mind, this is the only place where they have sniffing dogs to make sure you didn't bring fruits or perishables off the ship when you got there, and they also did the same to get back on the ship. You must also have your passport or ID along with your ship card. The other two ports did not require this.

THURSDAY:

So this was our last port day and I was a little sad that this vacation was going so fast! Today we went to Cozumel and had an excursion with a catamaran to take us to Passion Island. I liked the idea of this excursion because it truly was all inclusive, where when I had heard a lot about the other all inclusive beaches, it seemed as though there was always an extra cost somewhere. Again, my first time to Cozumel, so I could be wrong. But when I went online to the other beaches, they didn't provide transportation, which added to the cost. Or they didn't add food which was expensive when I looked at the menus. Or they didn't provide the inflatable bouncy toys and were $18 extra per person. So it just seemed that after putting it all together, it was much easier to choose a cruise-sponsered (I seriously can't spell today) excursion to a private island. It included the boat trip there, the food, the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, the inflatables, everything we could have possibly wanted. I also am a nervous person, and the thought of taking non-cruise transportation and going somewhere not endorsed by the cruise makes me nervous that I may do something wrong and miss the boat. Again, it's me being paranoid and my own comfort level. I'm sure more experienced cruisers have other feelings, but I prefer the peace of mind.

So off the boat we go to find our excursion. Yet again, I was pleasantly surprised that it was easy to find. When we got off the boat, we had to walk down the pier and into a big building. The building was long, crowded, and stuffed with souvenirs to buy. Funny note, I love how on all of the cigarettes it says "These kill you"......anyway, once we made it through that long building, we were in the main area of the shopping plaza. It looked just like it did on YouTube, and beautiful. I couldn't wait to come back to shop and I still had many souvenirs I wanted. There was one other ship there that day, the Carnival Glory.

We found our excursion, it was well marked. They put bracelets on us and told us to go sit in this restaurant and wait until everyone had arrived. We had to wait about 20 minutes and it was quite hot. Once everyone was there, they made us follow them 2 by 2 to the boat dock. They split us in to two groups. Much like in Grand Cayman, they make sure they have you remember your group number, (We were group one), and your tour guide's name and what time to meet back.

Here's a picture of the catamaran you take:

The tour guides on the boat were very informative, told you what to expect, and were funny too. They warned us it was about a 30-40 minute ride to the island because you go against the current, and it was a pretty bumpy wet ride. They said coming back was only about 20 minutes due to going with the current, and much more smooth. We did get wet, and it actually felt really good. The kids loved the ride. You could sit on the top or the bottom, and there is a bathroom on the boat, but you can only go "#1....pee pee or wee wee" as they say.

Awesome review. I will be going to these same ports with my grandkids so I really enjoyed reading about your excursions so far.

Thank you! When we were planning the excursions, I took a lot of consideration into what was the most kid friendly, and exciting thing to do. The bobsled was nice because although my 6 yr old is somewhat of a nervous nelly, I reassured her that I can go as fast or slow as she wanted. She loved it and it was her favorite thing! I also tried to include food if it came with the excursion because prepaying for food instead of finding it on the excursion can get pricey. And when you get off the boat at 9 or 10 and back on after 3 or 4, it's inevitable, you'll get hungry! Trust me on the turtle farm, it was a HUGE success! And well orchastrated as well. The did a fantastic job.

OMG, thank you so much for your review (I've only ready 2 posts so far but needed to thank you). We are also going on Conquest and staying at the SpringHill Suites!!

 

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Get there early so you can get a good shuttle time! Also, talk to the shuttle ahead of time and schedule a pick up for after the cruise. It's much cheaper!

Great review, well written with just the perfect amount of information! Thanks!!!

Thank you! I'm trying to include the information that I was most concerned about pre-cruise and couldn't find direct answers to! Such as pictures of the bears, and prices!

Great rewiew so far, thanks for taking the time to write it!

Thank you! I was nervous because I've read other people's reviews and they are fantastic!

WEDNESDAY CONTINUED:

So that night, we had seen there was a Hasbro game night in the theater. We dropped the youngest off at Kids Club, as per her request, and off we went to the game night. It was packed in there. We found a seat to which the lady next to us was not to nice about. My husband's friend had sat there and saved us a seat, when we walked in, she rolled her eyes at having to move one seat over because we took up more space than expected.

This show was perfect. It was fun. They made it seem like you were actually on the set. While waiting for it to start, they showed clips from the actual show. Then, they started our show and made it seem realistic. Had someone doing the countdown, showed commercials (old black and white commercials for Mr Potato Head....it was HILARIOUS). They choose people out of the audience to be contestants. How did I know that Gabriel would get picked?

Our side of the room was the blue side and we lost miserably. There were two games. Gabriel got to play the connect four game where him and three other people from our side had to throw basketballs in to a life size version of connect four. Red side won. It's ok.

Then they played another game with other contestants, and red won again. It's ok, It was so much fun to watch and they really know how to get the audience involved. They want you crazy and loud!

Gabriel got a medal for his participation

From there we went shopping at the Pixels picture area and found a few pictures we like. The prices are $11.99 for regular photos, $14.99 for the photos of the pier, or themed photos, and I can't remember the formal photos (we didn't get any of those). Then they have a tiered free gift program where every 3 pictures, you get a gift. The first gift at 3 pictures is a customized luggage tag from Shutterfly. Then the next level is an 8x8 Shutterfly book (they give you a code), then the next level is a travel mug. Then, we were 2 pictures off of the next level and I don't know what that prize is!

Then it was off to bed to get ready for the next day in Cozumel.

WEDNESDAY CONTINUED:

Once we got to the area where you board the ship, we had some time so we shopped around a little bit. We already knew just what we wanted and where to get it due to having a little time before the excursion to walk around. We picked up what we wanted, and my husband tried some fried conch:

He said the conch was ok, but not his favorite.

Once on board, we showered and got dressed for Build-A-Bear, another thing the kids couldn't wait for. I had heard this gets quite chaosful, so we got there early and were first in line. They took our room number and had us sit down. Once people were all there, they explained the procedure to keep it organized. They called us up family by family and had only the family they called up there on the stage at one time to keep the chaos from ensuing. They had coloring books and crayons, and cookies and chips there to keep you busy while you wait.

We were the first family up. I was hoping one kid would pick the Carnival bear, but none did. We ended up with a turtle (this made turtle #3 for the cruise), a pink bear, and a white bear with hearts. I had said no to clothing for the animals, but the girls just couldn't resist and I got pulled in to the temptation.

Here is a picture of the options of bears:

So they call you up there, you pick your animal and they stuff it for you. Then you go to the next station where they sew it up for you, then you go to the next station to pay. $110 later, we had three new additions to the family. They do give you a cinch sack to put them in, and in it has the birth certificate. I figure, the prices here were no more than they would be at the mall for a regular Build-A-Bear. 3 bears, 2 outfits, and a pair of sunglasses that the bear just couldn't live without????? Not bad, and I had budgeted that much anyway.

If you ever get the chance, go to the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta. You can watch them make a Coke, but they also have soda fountains from all over the world so you can see what Coke taste like in different countries. It's really neat! Some of them are really good and some are worse than cat vomit. (Not that I've ever tasted cat vomit, disclaimer)

 

Also you mention about keep checking on the kids. I am not sure about all age groups but I know for my younger son we can ask for a phone and they will give us a phone that works on the ship to communicate with the kids club. My oldest (12) never went to the kids clubs so I don't know about for his age. He has more fun on his own roaming the ship. Something to keep in mind on your next sailing so you don't have to keep running back and forth.

I saw the phones the first day, but figured it was for the little ones. Good thing to know for next time! I think people do just leave the kids there all day because they kept reminding us of when they eat, etc, and made mention, "You know, that is 6 hours away, and that's a long time" so I wanted to make sure I was present so they knew I wasn't just leaving them. (The staff)..........

WEDNESDAY:

So Wednesday was a busy day. We had a port in Grand Cayman from 8-4, then we had Build-A-Bear.

We docked and got off to get to the port. We had to take a tender to get off the boat, but they had plenty of tenders running. There was also a Royal Caribbean ship there was well. Liberty of the Seas I believe. It came after us. When we got off the tender, we were escorted to a tented area with signs for our excursion. I had picked the turtle farm, as this is my son's fascination, and I knew it had something for everyone. I had a feeling this would be everyone's favorite port. We had to wait an hour before our shuttle was ready to take us, and you had to watch because the ship stays on ship time, and Grand Cayman is an hour behind. They were very good at reminding you of this, and even the bus driver told us to make sure we knew ship time versus local time. They must had said 800 times, "Whats your bus number, who's your bus driver, and what time to get back on the bus?" "Bus 6, Best, and 1:30 SHIP TIME". This gave us a total of 3 hours at the farm once we got there. It was about a 20 minute drive to get there, but our driver was fantastic and hilarious as he told us all about the island and gave us a good tour.

Once we got to the farm, we had to stay with the group for about 20 minutes as they showed us the first few areas. We saw the breeding tank, then each tank with different age turtles, then led us to the tank where you could get in an hold the turtles. The guide said those turtles were 37 months old. I felt like speaking to a toddler's mom who never can get off using months!

They take a picture of you holding the turtles and offer you to buy it. Now be prepared.....the prices change. The guide will tell you $25 for one picture, $35 for two pictures, and $45 for all the pictures. We picked the ONE picture we wanted. Took the SD card to the counter to pay and the guy said it's $25 for the one picture, but if you want them all it's $30. Ok, what's an extra $5? So I was prepared to get printed pictures, but they just hand you the SD card. That's it. ha ha. Oh well.

My youngest was scared for some reason and wouldn't hold the turtles. They do make you sanitize before and after handling the turtles and have many bottles of disinfectant available, plus a handwashing station.

After we held the turtles, we decided to swim. They have a fresh water pool with a water slide, and then a snorkeling pool. We took our youngest to the fresh water pool where she and my husband swam, then I took my oldest daughter and son to the snorkle pool. That was awesome. They provided snorkel gear (we used our own), and a life vest. We went out with the GoPro and got a lot of good footage. I can't wait to look through it all. Then we switched and I stayed with my youngest, and my husband and son went snorkeling.

They have the areas of the fresh water pool roped off so you don't get too deep. They have the shallow end, then ropes to the landing area of the slide, then to the rest of the pool with waterfalls and much deeper water with an island in the middle. It was gorgeous. The snorkeling area was amazing, but you could see the algea, as expected. There were 16 turtles, and multiple tropical fish in there, and we saw many!

We got the package that included lunch, since it was only $5 more, and I'm sure their lunches cost way more than $5 a person. The lunch was a "buffet". It was BBQ chicken, rice and beans, and veggie pasta dish. Then they have fruit punch and water. The food was good, I loved the flavor, but instantly I knew my youngest wouldn't eat it. The nice lady serving us said she would bring her chicken fingers and fries, and it was included. They also had a man playing music and singing while we ate. It was a fun atmosphere. I say it was a "buffet" because my husband went up for seconds and they kind of looked at him funny. But they let him get another plate.

At this point it was 1pm and we only had a half hour and still wanted to see the predator tank, the aviary, and the souvenir shop. Too much to do! I could have used another 2 hours easily there. We raced to the predator tank, which thankfully was not much,, and we went in to the aviary quickly. Then went in to the souvenir shop that I would have liked to spend more time in, but we got a few quick items and loaded back up in our shuttle. It was a nice excursion, well worth it, but I could have spent much more time there!

SIDE NOTE TO TUESDAY;

Totally forgot to mention, this was my official graduation day! As of that day, I was a graduate with my masters in nursing education! I totally forgot that day and my kids reminded me that afternoon! Hence the drink I had! My husband also had something special delivered to my room!

The cake was delicious, although the two younger kids didn't like it. I also didn't know to refrigerate it and it went bad after a day. Ooops! But it was a nice gesture!

TUESDAY CONTINUED:

Once we got through the security gate, it was time to get on board.

We were about 1.5 hours before boarding time, so getting back on the ship was no problem, and we quickly got back up to our rooms. The little two were eager to get back to kids club. We took showers and got dressed so I could drop them back off at kids club before they went to dinner. The girls wore their new Jamaican dresses:

I got a drink called a Miami Vice, half strawberry margarita, half pina colada. Drink #2 of 4 for the trip. It was delicious and just what I needed. I grabbed my book and went to read on the deck. Now I have to say, again, RC comparison, last year, we NEVER had a chance at getting a seat on any deck poolside or not. On Carnival, there were chairs everywhere. Everytime I wanted to sit down, I could find multiple seats, even poolside. Yes, there were chair hogs with their towels, but still, there were many chairs around at all times, not just port days.

So apparently Jamaica wore everyone out:

NOTE: That is MY book, not my husband's. ha ha

So we decided to skip the main dining room and just eat when we felt like it from the buffet. This worked for us. I checked on the kids, there were quite content in the kids club, so I kept them there until 10pm again. When I picked them up, I took my son to his room to change in to his pajamas, and we found this in his room from Chloe the cruise director:

WOW what a surprise! First of all, I don't even know how she knew his room. We never gave it to her, and we were different rooms, so she had to do some investigating (or an assistant had to do some investigating). So he got a note,, chocolate covered strawberries, and a plastic piece of ship! He was tickled pink, and this only further deepened his crush on Chloe.

I took the kids to my room, we had all intentions of watching tv, but all fell asleep instantly. My husband came to pick Gabriel up whenever he came back. I was so sound asleep I never noticed he came!

SIDE NOTE:

I forgot to mention, night one.....our neighbors were incredibly loud. I was prepared for slamming doors and some talking in the hallways. But seriously, these people sounded like they were in my room. Yelling all night and banging and crashing sounds as though they were fighting. It was ridiculous and went on until 6:30 am. I got barely any sleep that night. I told my husband and he let Su, our room attendant know, and he had security come speak with them. We had no problems the rest of the cruise. Guest services even called a few days later just to check up on the issue. I was impressed. I don't know what they said, but it worked!