My Vista Adventure with the Boises!!

[Flytko]

Hello all,

 

This is my first review and my first cruise in over 6 years.  This won't be an overly picture heavy review, but will be told from a point of view of a twin toddler parent.  I may be a little slow getting the review out, so please bear with me.😁

 

Preview:

I booked this cruise just over 2 years ago as a seven day cruise leaving from Galveston on Palm Sunday and returning on Easter Sunday with stops in Belize, Roatan, and Cozumel.  Two itinerary changes later, it turned to an 8 day with an extra port(Costa Maya), then moved up our day in Cozumel from the last port to the first. 

 

It took a little bit of work to get the whole family excited to go, but once we got to the 40 day mark, things got real.  Not only were my dear wife and twin toddler boys(THE BOISES!) going, we were also bringing my mother in law, and grandma as well.  We all live together, so why not travel together........

 

Anyway, off to bed, need to return to the money maker in the morning.

 

Next will be the great Embarkation Debacle!!!

 

So stay tuned.

Edited April 22, 2019 by Flytko

[jbethel11]

9 minutes ago, Flytko said:

Hello all,

 

This is my first review and my first cruise in over 6 years.  This won't be an overly picture heavy review, but will be told from a point of view of a twin toddler parent.  I may be a little slow getting the review out, so please bear with me.😁

 

Preview:

I booked this cruise just over 2 years ago as a seven day cruise leaving from Galveston on Palm Sunday and returning on Easter Sunday with stops in Belize, Roatan, and Cozumel.  Two itinerary changes later, it turned to an 8 day with an extra port(Costa Maya), then moved up our day in Cozumel from the last port to the first. 

 

It took a little bit of work to get the whole family excited to go, but once we got to the 40 day mark, things got real.  Not only were my dear wife and twin toddler boys(THE BOISES!) going, we were also bringing my mother in law, and grandma as well.  We all live together, so why not travel together........

 

Anyway, off to bed, need to return to the money maker in the morning.

 

Next will be the great Embarkation Debacle!!!

 

So stay tuned.

Nice! How lucky your 7 Day Cruise turned into an 8 Day! Glad you enjoyed the trip!

[Flytko]

6 hours ago, jbethel11 said:

Nice! How lucky your 7 Day Cruise turned into an 8 Day! Glad you enjoyed the trip!

 

It was a blast!!!  Now I'm looking into another cruise for my wife and I to have a mini escape

[JaniceB]

Looking forward to your review.

[pooksma]

Great start!

 

[Flytko]

Thanks everyone!!!

[Flytko]

I'm sorry I haven't been back sooner.  It has been a crazy busy week trying to catch up at work, plus school, then my mom is in town. Also, I'm trying to figure out a good photo hosting service (that happens to be free).  My wife and I have amazon photos and might do a test share from there.

[Flytko]

Nevermind, it just posts a link.....

Edited April 27, 2019 by Flytko

[Flytko]

I'm sorry it has been super busy, but here is a sneak peak of how we started our embarkation day....

[Flytko]

DAY 1:  The Embarkation Debacle!!!

 

Here it is, the day we have been waiting for 2 years has finally arrived!!!  The Boises were up early (as usual), so we put together our last minute packing items and clean the house before we leave for the port.  My wife and I took the boys for a ride to feed he ducks behind where she works and pick up some more items we forgot to buy before (the advantages of lists).

 

 

 

We finally left the house at about 11 am for a 130 pm arrival time.  Honestly, even though we only about 30 minutes from the port, it was a complete madhouse.  We decided to drop off Nana and Grandma at the port, and all of the STUFF.....  We sat in traffic for over half an hour before being able to turn into the port.  We dropped off our vehicles at the Discount Parking on Harborside by I45.  They were absolutely great and had a nice shuttle service too.  We all are back at the port together and get in the line stretching the whole length of the terminal ugh.   Our arrival time of 130 has come and gone and we were still standing outside of the terminal.  We arrived where the lines diverged (Arrival time & Early/Late) a few minutes after our arrival time and were told that we needed to wait in the Early/Late line.  My wife at this time made it known to the world that we have been  standing in line since well before our arrival time.  The port employees must have heard, because they let us through the other line.😉   It couldn't have been that we were also hauling 2 crazy boys in a stroller, a lady on the rollator, another in a wheelchair.😅  We could have used all of the help we could get.  We did also have the advantages of going through the handicap line at that point.  That is where the smoothness ended.  Nana and Grandma were the first to be processed.  Then they were whisked through to process our group, leaving the rollator with their carry-on items.....  Traveling with 6 people is definitely a difficult task and the amount of stuff we brought didn't make it any easier.

 

More to come later, trying and failing at multi-tasking.😎  

 

[ZeeWP]

Thanks for your review! Husband, sister and I are taking my 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son next February on a similar itinerary (your original) SO I am definitely looking forward to your feedback. 

Excited to read more! 

PS-if you happen to have the Camp Ocean Penguins activity schedule, I would love to take a look at it 🙂

[Cairns Cruisers]

Reading your report & looking forward to your adventures on this cruise.

[Flytko]

I'm sorry I haven't been on too much, been on a conference for my job, and just trying to catch up.  I will post an update shortly. 

[Flytko]

On 5/3/2019 at 7:35 AM, fyree39 said:

Great start!  I'll be looking forward to more.  Maybe this weekend?

Thanks, I hope to complete the Embarkation tonight.😁

[Flytko]

On 5/4/2019 at 12:20 PM, ZeeWP said:

Thanks for your review! Husband, sister and I are taking my 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son next February on a similar itinerary (your original) SO I am definitely looking forward to your feedback. 

Excited to read more! 

PS-if you happen to have the Camp Ocean Penguins activity schedule, I would love to take a look at it 🙂

Thanks

 

I will check to see if we kept the schedule ☺

[Flytko]

Thanks!!!!

[Flytko]

Now back to the Embarkation fun!!!!!

 

So, now Nana and Grandma are nowhere to be found, they were whisked so fast to keep everyone moving, that we were left behind with their stuff as well.  We braved through security with 6 bags(1 with 60 pounds of soda 😮😓),2 rowdy boys, 1 stroller, 1 rollator, and 2 very exhausted adults.  On a side note, my wife is a beast!!   Alas, we finally made it aboard!!!!  The fam and I made it to the stateroom via the stairs, yes the stairs, the good thing about being on level 2.  We collapsed in our room by about 230pm.  No chance for lunch right now, lets unpack all of this stuff!!!!!.  At 330, we searched for our muster area, thankfully just one floor above in the dining room and the crew there couldn't be any nicer. The boys were acting like boys and didn't want to sit and wait, so one crew member took them to explore and get their special wristbands.  But then they brought them back..... Oh well, a few minutes of bliss 😁.

 

 

We made it through the muster drill, after having to do a search and rescue for 70 or so passengers, and we were on our way!!!.  After many calls and chats, we met up with Nana and Grandma at lido to get this cruise a going!!!

 

 

Everyone grabbed a guys burger and chowed down since we never had a chance to have lunch.  Talk about some awesome burgers!!!!!   Once Galveston was far behind us, we went back to our room and continued to unpack.  The boys were playing on the top bunk and testing the ladder.  We were all so tired from the day that grandma stayed in their room while the rest of us explored the Camp Ocean, where hopefully the Boises would be able to stay and not cause too much of a ruckus.

 

[Flytko]

On 5/4/2019 at 12:20 PM, ZeeWP said:

Thanks for your review! Husband, sister and I are taking my 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son next February on a similar itinerary (your original) SO I am definitely looking forward to your feedback. 

Excited to read more! 

PS-if you happen to have the Camp Ocean Penguins activity schedule, I would love to take a look at it 🙂

 

 

Sorry it took so long to get back with you, I had a chance to look around and through our pictures.  Unfortunately, we didn't keep or take a picture of the bloomin schedule.  They do vary depending on the length of cruise you take and what ports.  They usually have some sort of party everyday and every evening.  They do movies, arts and crafts, and so forth.  They will usually have 1 to 2 build a bear workshops towards the end of the cruise.  Nana spoiled the Boises and took them to both 😁.

[Flytko]

First Full Day of Fun!!!

 

Our first day at sea speeding towards Cozumel started early with the boys waking us up before 7 am, so we started our daily fight of getting them dressed (even to swim ugh) and headed up to the lido to swim.  We were the only people in the pool at that time, and now I know why.  That water was sooooo cold!!!!!!!!  The Boises begged me to give them life vests, even though they know how to swim.  Of course, I let them, you know safety first.  After freezing, I mean swimming for about 45 minutes, we got some breakfast from the marketplace and tried the Blue Iguana breakfast burritos.  They were to die for, that was the wifey's go to breakfast for the remainder of the trip.  Me, I like variety....... 

 

After breakfast, the boys were playing with their towels on the deck by our table, I think they were garbage men or train conductor, they have such livid imaginations thank goodness.

 

We shuffled back down to our room to grab showers and meet Nana and Grandma to plan out our day.  We dropped off the boys at Camp Ocean and prayed that they wouldn't call us after 10 minutes telling us to pick up these crazy children 🤣.  The 4 of us did some exploring around the ship, checked out the casino, my favorite place, and so on.  We stopped in at the Java Blue Cafe to grab some yummy Starbucks "style" coffees.  Boy, were they delicious!!!!  We sat around on the promenade outside of Ocean Plaza and had a moment to chill.  We took a few pictures of us at the railings, because everyone does that, right?

 

It was time to pick up the boys and get some lunch, back to the lido we went.  We spent most of our time either on the lido or at the pizza shop.  I think we ate all of our weights in pizza that week 😀.

 

 

I will leave it here for a bit while I think back to what we did later.  Plus, I need to get ready for work.......yay😑

 

Thanks to all of my faithful readers so far!!!!!

 

   

[ZeeWP]

 

 

 

 

 

 

5

29 minutes ago, Flytko said:

 

 

Sorry it took so long to get back with you, I had a chance to look around and through our pictures.  Unfortunately, we didn't keep or take a picture of the bloomin schedule.  They do vary depending on the length of cruise you take and what ports.  They usually have some sort of party everyday and every evening.  They do movies, arts and crafts, and so forth.  They will usually have 1 to 2 build a bear workshops towards the end of the cruise.  Nana spoiled the Boises and took them to both 😁.

 

Thanks for checking! 🙂 I hope my kids like it enough to give mom and dad some time. ha ha!

[Flytko]

20 hours ago, ZeeWP said:

 

Thanks for checking! 🙂 I hope my kids like it enough to give mom and dad some time. ha ha!

 

I'm sure they will love it.  My boys loved it, but they get kind of rowdy with each other and freak out the staff.  Luckily they just attack each other and not the other children lol

[jbethel11]

1 hour ago, Flytko said:

 

I'm sure they will love it.  My boys loved it, but they get kind of rowdy with each other and freak out the staff.  Luckily they just attack each other and not the other children lol

So far very interesting!

[ehughes]

Flytko,

 

What a beautiful family you have!  Thank you for the interesting and fun review.  Can't wait to read the next episode.

 

Do you know if adults, without any kids can do Build-A-Bear???

 

Thanks

[Flytko]

15 minutes ago, ehughes said:

Flytko,

 

What a beautiful family you have!  Thank you for the interesting and fun review.  Can't wait to read the next episode.

 

Do you know if adults, without any kids can do Build-A-Bear???

 

Thanks

I do believe there were a few adults only that got build a bears on the last day.  Money is money, I didn't see them discriminate 😁

[Flytko]

I'm so sorry I haven't been real active here lately. Been dealing with personal and health issues.

 

I hope to be back soon!!!