Spring Break what to do... go on a cruise to the Western Caribbean

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

The ship looks really beautiful. So glad you had a good time. I am so sorry we didn't get to meet, life keeps getting in the way.

Any change of you coming to Stone Mtn, for the GG

I can't wait to read more of the TR

I am sorry we missed meeting you Lorna, but I understand about life getting in the way.

I am still trying to work on Steve about Sone Mtn. He is still complaining about the cost of gas. Normally we ended up taking both the van and the truck as all of us going in the truck would be very tight. I mentioned that we could all just squeeze into the truck, but he still said it would cost too much. So, I said we could take the tent. He gave me a look like I was crazy. My youngest and I really want to go so, we will have to keep working on him.

Oh and thanks for reading along. I am about to add another update.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Tuesday, March 27^th, the second day of the cruise. Today will be an at sea day. We had ordered room service to make sure the girls had something in them prior to going to the Adventure Club. Then after dropping them off up there, Steve, Drew and I went to check out the breakfast buffet in the Windjammer. Once again I forgot to bring the camera so, I don’t have pictures. Sorry! I will tell you it was your typical breakfast buffet and they had an awesome omelet station. After breakfast I don’t remember exactly what we did, but I do know that I had plans later to attend the shopping seminar. Truthfully it was really a waste of my time. I am not really into buying jewelry and that is what most of the talk focused on. So, an hour later and having not won any raffle prizes I left and wandered around the ship for a bit more. The adventure club closed for lunch from noon until 2pm each day. Being that I was going to be at the shopping seminar I had Steve pick up the girls and take them to the children/family pool for a bit.

I met up with them and we grabbed some lunch. I am pretty sure Jessica had something else besides this for lunch, but I can't be certain. :rofl2:

Then the girls went back to the Adventure Club and I once again wandered around the ship. There was a dance party going on by the main pool.

Don't ask me what those ladies above were arguing about I wasn't close enough to hear.

I found the place where they were displaying all the professional pictures they had taken of people on the cruise. We had decided to go ahead and pre-pay for the package so, I found our pictures and they started a folder. Now let me just say should you be in the situation where you would like to torment annoy seek restitution capture the sweet loving faces of your teenage and pre-teen children as well as getting an immediate payback for their….well let’s just say not always pleasant attitudes may I highly recommend pre-paying for the photo package. Why?? You ask? Because then you tell them that " Yes. We will be stopping at every possible photo opportunity because we paid for them and we are going to get our monies worth." Oh and we did get our monies worth as if you wanted to purchase the pictures individually it was $20 per picture and to purchase the whole package on board it was $200. We ended up paying $170. So our pictures ended up being a little of $2 per picture. Don’t worry I won’t bore you with all of them.

The only picture we did not get done was a "Zoolander pose" Steve was trying to get us to do that, but none of us would. He did manage to get Drew to do the pose for our camera though.

Tonight was formal night and the beginning of torturing our children (insert evil laugh) for pictures. I am running into some difficulty with scanning the pictures and putting them in my Photobucket account. So far this one of my son and me is the only one that I am able to get to work.

At dinner we had the discussion about if any of us had any towel animals in our rooms. None of us had, but little did we know that was about to change. Our waiter was a lot of fun and did showed the kids how to fold a napkin into a dragon

and how to balance two forks on a toothpick that was on a salt shaker which was on top of an upside down glass.

Following dinner I took the girls back to the room and they changed out of their dresses to play clothes and headed back to …yep you guessed it the Adventure Club. Remember when Rachel was asking if she had to go every day. Well now it was more like hurry up mom we need to get up there. Drew took off to hang out with the teens.

Look we had a towel animal!

After dropping off the girls, I went back the room and Steve was gone so, I took off in search of him. This time I remembered to take the camera.

Some art work by the stairs.

The Champagne bar located in the Centrum area.

I loved the look of these pipes in the centrum area. This was from about the fifth floor where you could see the bottom level of pipes.

Going up a level

Then up another level. That is the library across the way.

Another beautiful view in the centrum area

Looking down into the centrum area. I can't remember which floor I was on here, but I am thinking 10 or 11.

The Crown and Anchor Lounge

I would go back later and get more pictures, but at that time a father was in there with his daughter so, I was very careful not to take any pictures with her in it. I know some people do not like their children's pictures on the internet.

The main pool at night. It was open for 24 hours, but no one seemed to use it at night.

I decided to go spy on Drew. He was getting ready to play dodge ball. He said he had gone over to the courts to play basketball, but there was a dodgeball game going on and the boys who were also at our table and a couple girls asked him if he would be on their team. He agreed. Apparently they chose him as their team captain.

His team ended up losing, but later he did get to play some basketball. They didn't actually play a game, but some thing called "Bounce Out" He ended up winning that game with some 3 point shots and some dunks. Now whatever you may hear from others don't let them fool you I taught him everything he knows about playing basketball and football. :rofl3:

Steve had found his way over to this area too and then we decided to go exploring for awhile. Since it was formal night the casino was non smoking so, we stopped in and had a drink. He had another Fosters and I had a frozen Mojito (yummmy!!!)

Then we went back to the Crown and Anchor. No one else was in there so, I took a few more pictures.

Isn't that a beautiful glass table top? Here is what you see when you look through it.

We had let the girls stay a bit later tonight in the Adventure Club and didn't want to have to sell one of them to afford it so, it was time for us to go and pick them up. As per our tradition started yesterday. We ordered room service. Cookies and milk were becoming the standard bedtime treat.

Tomorrow was Cozumel and we had nothing official planned for the day. It ended up being our favorite day of the cruise.

[stefa70 205]

Great update Yvonne.

Ice cream for lunch is a wonderful idea!

Drew looks thrilled to death for having his picture taken.

Frozen Mojito looks delicious! :drool1:

Looking forward to hearing about Cozumel and seeing more pictures.

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Wonderful update!!! I LOVE Sea days!! So relaxing!!

[Gots2pitt.. Jeff 64]

Great trip report. Maybe one day we will go on a cruise.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Great update!

Good for you for getting the photo package- that was a brilliant idea. Some day, the kids will be glad that you tricked them into taking all of those photos.

I am even more impressed by this ship after your latest batch of photos- that glass table is cool!

And, I spotted a Real Man of Genius in one of your photos! Check out the dude in the lounge chair up on the stage while everyone else is dancing:

What the heck is he doing on the stage in a lounge chair?

That dude is a genius, I tell you! He probably has a beer in that aluminum bottle.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Great update Yvonne.

Ice cream for lunch is a wonderful idea!

Drew looks thrilled to death for having his picture taken.

Frozen Mojito looks delicious! :drool1:

Looking forward to hearing about Cozumel and seeing more pictures.

I think Jessica is a believer that ice cream for pretty much any meal is a good idea. :rofl3:

Thanks for continuing to read along.

Wonderful update!!! I LOVE Sea days!! So relaxing!!

I think that's why we need to go on another cruise. We didn't really get to enjoy the sea day as much as we should. We were too busy trying to see everything we could. It's kind of like going to Disney. You pay so much money then try to cram it all in for the short amount of time you are there. Then you get home and realize how much you missed of just being in the moment. Thankfully we have Jessica who forces us into those moments simply by her requests to do the simple things like going swimming.

Great trip report. Maybe one day we will go on a cruise.

You should. Truthfully up until this year we had never had any desire to go on one. Then people we knew started going on them and reporting about how much fun they had that we thought we should try it. Prior til now most of our vacation time has been spent traveling to see my family or Steve's especially the last few years prior to his dad's passing. Now as our children are getting older we are venturing out to other types of vacations.

Great update!

Good for you for getting the photo package- that was a brilliant idea. Some day, the kids will be glad that you tricked them into taking all of those photos.

I am even more impressed by this ship after your latest batch of photos- that glass table is cool!

And, I spotted a Real Man of Genius in one of your photos! Check out the dude in the lounge chair up on the stage while everyone else is dancing:

What the heck is he doing on the stage in a lounge chair?

That dude is a genius, I tell you! He probably has a beer in that aluminum bottle.

I didn't even notice the Real Man of Genius. You are so right. Though the aluminum bottle is one of the coke cups they sell for unlimited refils. So, my guess is rum and coke in there.

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I can't believe that y'all were in Marianna and I didn't know it. Y'all were only about 40 minutes away from us. I would have definitely driven over to meet y'all. Maybe next time. I'm enjoying the trip report!

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Love all your pictures! I love Cozumel, we have been there on four cruises. I finally told Mike we need to expand our horizon's, every time we went he came home with new cowboy boots. I mean really who needs that many pairs of boots! :rofl2:

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

I can't believe that y'all were in Marianna and I didn't know it. Y'all were only about 40 minutes away from us. I would have definitely driven over to meet y'all. Maybe next time. I'm enjoying the trip report!

Oh man I am bummed. I didn't realize we were so close to you. Next time we come through that way I will definitely let you know.

Love all your pictures! I love Cozumel, we have been there on four cruises. I finally told Mike we need to expand our horizon's, every time we went he came home with new cowboy boots. I mean really who needs that many pairs of boots! :rofl2:

We loved Cozumel too and wish we had more time there. If having many pairs of cowboys boots is like having many pairs of sneakers then my son would probably say there is never enough. I swear that boy has more shoes than me. Actually all three of my children do. I have no idea where they got their fascination with shoes from, but it clearly was Steve or me. We almost have to force ourselves to buy new shoes.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

It was now Wednesday, March 28^th. We would be docked in Cozumel from 8am until 6pm. Prior to going on this cruise we talked about excursions and what we would want to do. Initially we had booked one of the RCI excursions to the ruins in Costa Maya and a beach break. We ended up canceling that tour. We still saw the ruins in Costa Maya, but went with an outside group. But, before we get to that we need to get to today’s activities. We had a day in Cozumel. We had never been here before. In my research I found that apparently Cozumel is a great place to shop, dive and snorkel. The beaches are breathtaking. There are a few things you probably need to know about us:

We are not morning people. Even my children from the time they were babies never woke up early. It would drive my sister crazy.

We are not lie out on the beach all day type people either.

We can never make decisions.

I had thought our plans were all made. Cozumel was going to be a day where we did a little bit of shopping, had some lunch and then came back to the ship. Steve though had been talking to a co-worker who had recently been to Cozumel. He was telling him about the beaches and snorkeling. Now all of us a sudden our plans are shifting. Yet remember #3 above. Did we book an excursion in Cozumel? What did the kids want to do? Well let’s be honest about this what did the teenager want to do? We knew the girls would be open to pretty much anything. Of course Drew really didn’t care. He said he didn’t want to spend the whole day at a beach. Ok. Cool. We can work with that. I got to thinking and realized the girls had never been to the beach.

So, the decision was finally made we would go to a beach for a couple of hours and try snorkeling. Of course then a new decision had to be made. Where?

I had learned about this site called Cozumel my Cozumel http://www.cozumelmycozumel.com/ and started reading information on it. It was a wealth of information. I kept trying to get Steve to read it, but he doesn’t really like to read so, I would just end up telling him what was suggested on it.

As I said we are not early morning risers, but I found myself wide awake at around 7:30am. I rushed to look out the window. Here are some of the things I saw.

Here Stef this one is for you! You can decide if you want to share or not.

Looks like another cruise ship will be joining us. Before I forget please pray for the passengers on this Celebrity ship. They lost a passenger today. My thoughts and prayers go out to her family and friends.

As it got closer to us

That was the helipad on our ship that you could see from our window. Steve had gone down there the other day and Jessica and I would venture down tomorrow.

I tried getting the others to get up and see, but all I heard was :sleep:

They finally decided they had enough of my constant nagging and figured they better get up. :jumpforjoy

Here comes another cruise ship. Jessica decided that we need to go on this cruise;because, she wanted to go on the water slide. Oh if only life were always that simple.

Yet another excursion we could have booked,but didn't.

So by now it was almost 10am and we still had no clue what we were going to do for the day. In the end though that ended up being the best thing ever as we were not tied into any specific plans.

We get off the ship and start wandering around.

We had missed the official RCI Cozumel pictures, but someone was generous enough to take this one of the 5 of us.

The minute we got outside of the cruise ship area we were bombarded with people approaching us about joining this tour or that tour. We politely declined and walked on. That is until some one approached us about renting a car for the day. Our eyes lit up. Especially when he showed us a picture of a jeep. The kids and I all had visions of driving around the island in the jeep with the top down. Steve nixed that idea though when he found out it was a manual transmission. He knows how to drive it, but didn't want to have to deal with it. As he would be the one driving I couldn't argue. So, we ended up renting a Geo Tracker from Alamo. Renting a car was one of the things I had read to do on that Cozumel my Cozumel site. In case you are thinking oh there is no way I could do that here is a map of the island.

We knew we wanted to try snorkeling and the man at the Alamo place told us about this lady who rented snorkeling equipment. She was located right by where we were going to get gas for the car later. We could have waited and rented the equipment at the beach, but we were not sure if we were going to end up going to more than one beach. If we did that we would have to rent new equipment. By renting from her we could take it with us for the day. We ended up renting two adult size and one child size equipment. The girls and I shared the child size as the flippers were up to a ladies size 8 so, I could fit in them. So we put the snorkeling equipment in the back and we were on our way. Since Drew was in the front with Steve he had the task of being navigator. The lady who we rented the snorkeling equipment from had mentioned a couple good places to snorkel. I tried to get some pictures, but only managed to get this one.

Being that I had done my research, I knew that it was the state park and someone should be able to help us get to the beach we wanted. We tried to get our son to use his 1st year Spanish to ask questions, but he refused. Steve wouldn't ask either so finally we pull up by someone and I simply ask "Habla Ingles?" I mean really how hard is that. He spoke a little and Steve mentioned the two beaches we were looking for one was called Money Bar and the other Corona Beach. Hey! I recognize those names. Yep once again they were recommend in that Cozumel site I had mentioned. Oh and case you were wondering I did not let this fact go unknown to Steve. I was sure to point that out every time one of the suggestions they had worked to our benefit. :clint:

We ended up going to Corona Beach. It didn't cost us anything to go there all they ask is that you buy something to eat and drink while you are there. They don't even have a minimum $ amount that you are suppose to spend.

We get settled and it is time to try some snorkeling.

Jessica getting her mask put on. I think she was trying to talk through it to hear what she sounded like. Of course this just made Steve laugh.

She is such a ham.

Steve and Drew

Drew decided this was actually pretty cool.

Rachel is going go give it a try.

I actually did try snorkeling too before we left, but no one took any pictures. I really enjoyed it. To fully appreciate this you need to know that I did not learn how to swim until my first year of college. Even now I am not super comfortable in water. I need to know where my boundaries are at all times. So,if you are thinking of trying snorkeling and are hesitant let me just say if I can do it so can you.

Here is one of the girls just playing around in the water.

I tried to use the underwater setting on our camera to get pictures, but Steve would :panic: anytime I got the camera too close to the water. I kept telling him we needed to buy a cheap underwater camera for the cruise, but didn't think we would need it. :banghead:

Oh look! You can actually see a fish in this one.

Looking back towards the port. Yep the ships are still there we are safe. :whew:

Looks like a deep sea fishing excursion.

Party boat

Jessica was getting a bit worn out from the water so she took a little break.

This seems like the perfect place to take one here too.

[stefa70 205]

I mean really who needs that many pairs of boots! :rofl2:

You can never have too many boots!! :popo:

Here Stef this one is for you! You can decide if you want to share or not.

:jumpforjoy I think I may have practiced my high diving skills and swam after that boat!

The submarine looks like a cool excursion! The one thing I hate about cruises is the pushy people.

"buy this, let me braid your hair, book this tour...."

Looks like a fun day! Thanks for the eye candy.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I'm all caught up! I love reading cruise reports....I've never been on a cruise, so they are different and interesting to me.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

What a great day!! I love to snorkel, I also did the party boat on a cruise. What blast that was. We were out in the water snorkeling and one of the crew members swam out with frozen rum punch for us. Made the snorkeling even more fun!!

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Cool!!!

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

:jumpforjoy I think I may have practiced my high diving skills and swam after that boat!

The submarine looks like a cool excursion! The one thing I hate about cruises is the pushy people.

"buy this, let me braid your hair, book this tour...."

Looks like a fun day! Thanks for the eye candy.

I thought the submarine excursion would be cool too. Yeah not really a fan of the pushiness thank goodness once we were away from the port area we did not really experience this as much.

You're Welcome!! Glad you enjoyed it.

I'm all caught up! I love reading cruise reports....I've never been on a cruise, so they are different and interesting to me.

Glad you are caught up. I am getting ready to update here soon though.

What a great day!! I love to snorkel, I also did the party boat on a cruise. What blast that was. We were out in the water snorkeling and one of the crew members swam out with frozen rum punch for us. Made the snorkeling even more fun!!

Oh that would be fun. But knowing me and my hesitance of the water, I would probably skip the snorkeling and just enjoy the frozen rum punches on that tour. Being that we had the kids with us we did not even look into one of the party boat excursions. Not that we don't drink in front of them, but we wanted to make sure we did things we could all enjoy.

[Live4FW 30]

This TR is going great...I love the snorkeling.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Everyone decided they were hungry and we ordered some food. Being that we had the earlier dining time we did not want to fill up too much. So we shared some chicken nachos (looks like I forgot to get a picture of those), some chicken tacos and some chicken fajitas. Steve and I each also had a Dos Equis. Mean parents that we are we made the kids just drink water. :rofl2: Don’t worry though the drinking water was very safe.

We decided to get a little more snorkeling time in before we left. There was hardly and one here, but fortunately for us there was a family from Colorado who were regular snorkelers. They gave us some suggestions for the girls to get them use to the water and point out some places that Steve and Drew might want to check out. The places that they pointed out were still close enough to the shore that Steve felt comfortable enough (did not want to risk going farther out for a first trip). Both guys reported that it was indeed beautiful. Drew ended up getting a cut on his wrist when he went to try and stand up. The wonderful owner of the beach club got it cleaned up for him.

We decided it was time to head on for the day. There is an outdoor shower so we rinsed off the equipment and got ourselves rinsed off. Put the equipment into the car and then got a couple family pictures.

We were now going to just go explore the island. The Colorado family had mentioned we should let the kids see the white sandy beaches. Where we were snorkeling it was more limestone. This is supposed to be better for snorkeling closer to shore. Also before we had left for the day the rental car guy had mentioned to us about a Catholic Church called El Cedral. I wanted to check that out. Originally we had planned to get lunch in the city of San Miguel, but since we had spent more time at the beach then we originally planned we scrapped that plan and as mentioned above just ate at the beach.

So, the snorkeling we did was at the Yucab reef. We got back onto the road and started heading south. Earlier we had noticed a helicopter flying around and we neared the area by the Santa Rosa wall we saw the Mexican coast guard by a boat. We were not sure what was going on and started speculating. I mentioned something about someone drowning. Steve got very somber and it really bothered him not knowing what was going on. Back at dinner we had talked to our table mates about it, but they had heard nothing. When we returned home, Steve found out that a lady from the Celebrity cruise ship docked next to us had been diving with a group near the Santa Rosa Wall and went missing. Here is an Atlanta news story. http://www.ajc.com/n...ty-1409080.html As I mentioned in my previous post please keep the family in your prayers. :heart:

We continued our drive and Jessica decided she wanted to be our photographer.

The sky turned gray and it started to rain. We were not going to let that ruin our day though. Talking with our table mates at dinner that night we mentioned about the rain and they were shocked. It never rained on that side of the island.

We found the El Cedral and by this time it was pouring out. The kids had no desire to get out of the car. But Steve and I figured we were there so we may as well make the most of it. Dashing quickly (well Steve was at least going quickly :rofl3: ), trying our best to jump over puddles, ending up splashing through them we got over to a covered area where we were approached to have our pictures taken with “the last Mayan.” I shook my head and said “No.” Remember I had done my research. Steve said, “Sure why not.” Of course the guy did not charge anything for the picture he just wanted a tip. Sadly for him we only had a few single bills in the Steve’s wallet.

Speaking of that on our way down to the cruise I was talking to Steve about if he had gotten cash out and if he had made sure to get plenty of one dollar bills for tipping. His response, “Oh… they’ve got those places there. Cool!” No matter how I tried to chose my words carefully it just kept getting worse. :rofl2:

All right back to the time at hand, Steve and I each had our picture taken.

I was the Mayan queen

and he was the Mayan king.

Then we went to check out the El Cedral.

Being that Good Friday was only a little over a week away at this point this next one really got me thinking. I spent the next week praying and reflecting on how Mary must have felt that day. I really felt like with this cruise and the planning that went into it I did not take my normal Lenten Journey as I usually do. Oh don't get me wrong I did abstain from meat as is the Catholic Tradition for Fridays during Lent and fasted on Ash Wednesday, but as crazy as it may seem I love the season of Lent and this year I let it sort of just slip by. :-[

We were done here and not knowing if the guy who took our picture was going to chase us down we grabbed the few single dollar bills we had and gave it to him. The day on the island is still not done yet.

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Loving this TR!! I would really love to take a cruise someday.

[stefa70 205]

Beautiful family picture on the beach and Drew is almost smiling. Darn teenagers!

The last Mayan looks so authentic....but he oughta lose the "I love tips" button. It kind of distracts from the costume. :rofl2:

I also love the El Cedral. Going into neat, old buildings is one of my favorite things to do when on the islands.

I'll be back for the rest of island day. You're doing a fabulous job!!

[campingpixi 11]

Lovin this report!! Great pics!!!!

[SCTigerCock 171]

Finally got to this TR, thanks for sharing!!!! :jumpforjoy

Cool to see all about the cruises. :heart:

[ciciwoowoo 0]

I love reading cruise reports.. :)

Thank you for sharing!

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

This TR is going great...I love the snorkeling.

Thank You for reading along. The snorkeling was amazing.

Loving this TR!! I would really love to take a cruise someday.

Thank You! You should take a cruise someday. Just make sure you allow yourself time to relax. By the time we had finally gotten in the grove of how things went it was over.

Beautiful family picture on the beach and Drew is almost smiling. Darn teenagers!

The last Mayan looks so authentic....but he oughta lose the "I love tips" button. It kind of distracts from the costume. :rofl2:

I also love the El Cedral. Going into neat, old buildings is one of my favorite things to do when on the islands.

I'll be back for the rest of island day. You're doing a fabulous job!!

Every once in awhile he will surprise us with an actual smile.

Oh my goodness I didn't even notice the button until you pointed it out.

Lovin this report!! Great pics!!!!

Thank You! How is it going with planning your cruise? Are you all still planning on going on one?

Finally got to this TR, thanks for sharing!!!! :jumpforjoy

Cool to see all about the cruises. :heart:

Glad you made it over here. I know it's not easy to keep up with these trip reports there are so many great ones. I am so behind in reading some of them, but I figure if I am going to read ones that others wrote it is only right that I should do one too. Besides, I am finding it to be fun and as I have no artistic talent at all it is helping me to keep a documentation for the future. Sadly if I did not do this the pictures would just sit on our computer lonely, forgotten over time.

I love reading cruise reports.. :)

Thank you for sharing!

Thank You for reading along. :heart:

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

Continuing on our drive around the island, the sun was back out.

One of the other places we wanted to check out was Coconuts. Jessica also had to use the restroom so, it became our restroom break.

Apparently Rachel doesn’t want to go to Heaven. :rofl3:

Let's just say some days boarding school sounds like a very good option for when she reaches middle school and high school. Either that or I may often be found here :Bar:

I would tell you would else we did here but,

Actually we thought it was a pretty cool beach bar/restaurant and said we would go back if we ever made it back to Cozumel.

A few more pictures prior to us leaving.

It was getting closer to 4:30 and we had to be back on the ship by 5:30 not to mention also get ready for dinner so, we continued on. Then Drew looks out his window and wants Steve to stop. Next thing I know Steve, Drew and Jessica are running down the hill to the water.

If you recall this was the same child who did not care about going to the beach and oh yes I forgot to mention also swore he was not going to need his swimsuit as he had no plans to go swimming.

Rachel was still in her “mood” so; she didn’t want to go down there.

Finally we made our way back to the gas station, filled up the car (rather had it filled up it’s not self service in Cozumel), returned the snorkeling equipment and then returned the car. Walking back to the ship we stopped in a Diamonds International to see about some watches, but didn’t buy anything. Don’t worry though we did not return to the ship empty handed. We bought some alcohol. We had to turn it in when we boarded the ship, and then got it back the day we left.

We got back to the room and had to hurry to get ready for dinner. Reading on the cruise boards someone had mentioned about using the showers and sauna in the Spa. I tried to get the guys to do this, but they wanted no part of it. So, I grabbed my clothes and my toiletries and headed up there. Let me just tell you they were fools for not doing what I suggested. Ok, so yes it was a public shower, but there was a curtain so there was some privacy. Besides I was the only one in there. Now if you have been on a cruise before you know that unless you have an accessible roll in shower the shower is very small. Well the showers in the spa changing and sauna area are HUGE!! After I got my shower, I wrapped myself in a towel and went into the sauna to relax for a few minutes and dry off. Then I got dressed and went back to the room.

Had some time to enjoy a glass of wine before dinner. I forgot to mention we had decided to purchase the wine package. We chose the 7 bottle Platinum Package. It was the middle level package. We actually only opened and drank 6 of the bottles, but we were allowed to pick out our 7^th bottle and bring it home with us.

The grasshopper I am holding a man made for the girls out of a palm branch when we stopped at Coconuts. Steve said he wanted to learn how to make it so he could have something to do during the homily on Palm Sunday. I guess making a cross out of them is to easy for him.

My girls and me in our favorite spot in the room.

The photographers were out again so we got some pictures, but this time we waited until after dinner. Three guesses as to what our extended family members are getting for Christmas this year. :rotfl6: