Cruise Day 3

 

Sunday on the cruise...

After sleeping in and a leisurely breakfast, we gathered in the library and played games as a family.

Ben seemed extra sleepy so I let him fall asleep in my arms.  He got pretty heavy though so I shifted him to half on my lap and half on another chair.

Lunch at the back of the boat...

I think some more relaxing was done between lunch and dinner as well as Andy playing shuffle board with the kids...somehow we don't have pictures of that though.

This night all of the kids tried escargot...

...even Ben.  He'll eat anything though...no big deal :)

Virgilio, our server, began his card tricks this night as well.

He was great!  We really enjoyed him...and his tricks :)

Cruise Day 2

 We knew Ben would love some time in the water so Andy and I suited up and got him to the splash pad!

In these pics you can see he is clinging to the head of whatever towel animal was left on our bed that day.  He loved seeing the hand crafted animals and claimed them as his own :)

They had been splashing for only a minute or two when the life guard approached and asked if Ben was in a swim diaper.  When he found out he was, they were sent to the baby pad :(

It was much smaller and not very exciting...but of course Ben didn't really know or care so I tried not to either.  He still enjoyed just sitting and being in the water.  It was a bit chilly though so we didn't last too long.

I think the boys and Andy tried the big water slide that day too.

One of the best parts of each day ended up being at night as we gathered for a nice dinner in the dining room.  The kids got to try some fancy things (more to come on that later) and we were treated well and able to talk about the day and enjoy laughing together.

Cruise Day 1

We finally did it!

We bit the bullet and booked a cruise :)

We had wondered for a while if it would be a good way to vacation with Ben but we just hadn't been able to take the leap.  Some friends from Andy's work encouraged him and helped him find one with a good deal and with just about a month to go we went ahead and scheduled it.  

               On May 1st we flew to L.A. and hopped on board Royal Caribbean's boat, Navigator of the Seas.  Ben did really well with the flight, pretty much sleeping through the whole thing...so did the older boys.

                                

Traveling with Ben can sometimes be a challenge (but we've also noticed that sometimes his chair can be a perk and will aid in skipping long lines :) so after the short flight, and enjoying our first Uber experience and finding our way on board the boat, we were greatly relieved to have arrived without too much trouble.

On a side note, I have always had trouble with motion sickness but we had been told that the patches you put behind your ears are very helpful so I gave those a try and let me tell you...I think they are a miracle!  The plane ride and the Uber drive were a dream.  I couldn't believe how good I was feeling in situations that would normally leave me feeling queasy and headachy.

Ben doesn't seem impressed...

but everyone else was a little in awe over the boat.

While we waited for our rooms to be ready we found ourselves on the pool deck and got some food.

While there, we ran into a couple that used to live in our neighborhood years ago!  It was fun to see the Hills and catch up with them a little bit as we saw them throughout the week.

Josh found the ice cream...

I am now eating an anti-inflammatory diet so I knew it would be somewhat of a challenge to find things I could eat.  Having not found anything on the deck that was thumping with loud music, I went exploring to see if there were other options...also, options that included fries for Ben which he had been begging for.

I found the Windjammer which was much more peaceful and had fries...not really many options for me still but I think everyone was grateful to get away from the atmosphere of the pool.  

There was an announcement that the rooms were ready so everyone else went off to check them out while Ben and I continued relaxing at our table.

I can't really remember what we did until dinner time...probably just relaxed in our rooms.

Our first night in the dining room was nice.  One of the chefs came out to talk to me about my dietary needs.  I felt bad saying all the things I couldn't eat.  I had brought my own bottle of salad dressing on the boat with me and just planned on bringing a little squeeze bottle of that to dinner each night...and if a salad was all I got, then that was fine.

There was a little trouble with the rooms.

We had planned on having the three older kids in one room together but when they saw their room, it was obvious there was only space for two people.  Even though it made the most sense to me for Abby to come be with us, she was not happy with that arrangement so Josh was a good sport and volunteered to sleep on our couch with Ben.

We decided to sleep with the balcony door open and boy, did that end up being one of our most favorite things of the whole trip...falling asleep to the sounds of the ocean every night!