Our MAGICAL Cruise: December 2014

Back in the day, my parents came up with this fun plan to take all of their kids on cruises as they graduated high school.  They took my brothers in sets of two and then got stuck when we hit the boy, girl, boy, girl kids.  Anyway, it was a few year late, but we finally took our cruise trip and it was AWESOME.  Sarah had just finished her mission so it was a great chance to meet up together and head out to the Caribbean before her new semester started.  On Thanksgiving Day, Matt and I went and had a delicious Thanksgiving meal with his sister Stephanie and her family and then we surprised Sarah at the Salt Lake City Airport.  It was so fun!  She finally got to meet Thomas and I got to see my long lost sister!

That night we stayed in Farmington with my aunt and uncle and then we left bright and early the next morning for Orlando.  I was so grateful that my parents and sister were there to help me on the flight with Thomas.  Thomas is a really good little boy, but traveling with a baby is hard regardless of angelic your child is (especially when you're lugging around a carseat, a stroller, a checked bag, a diaper bag, and a cute little guy) :).  Anyway, I was very grateful to have my family with me on my trek with baby T. 

Saturday was the beginning of our Disney marathon.  First up was Disney World!  It just happened to be my birthday that day so I got to fulfill my life-long dream of wearing a Disney birthday pin :).  AND... not only did I get to spend the day at the happiest place on earth in matching shirts, but I got to spend it with people I love and eat TWO churros all by myself!  I really missed Matt and would've loved to have him with us, but we still had a great time.  Lucky for me, I still got to talk on the phone and skype with my handsome husband for my birthday.  Oh and if that wasn't good enough, Matt took me out for a special birthday date to the Cheesecake Factory and the movies before I left Utah.  So needless to say, I definitely felt the love on my big day.  

Overlooking the bay at Epcot

Experiencing England in Epcot Center

Waiting for us outside the roller coaster at Hollywood Studios.  Thanks Dad!

The firework show at Magical Kingdom

My birthday treat...s

The next day we left from a port in Florida and headed out to sea.  The boat was incredible!  Not only did it have a big theater for live shows, a big movie theater, two water slides, all you can eat everything, and a bunch of outdoor sports, but everyone on the boat was incredibly kind and everything was really clean.  I was so impressed by friendly all of the "cast members" were to me (especially since I had a baby who wasn't ALWAYS happy).  It made me so happy to see all the waiters and waitresses walk by and make faces at Thomas.  Some of them would even stop for a few minutes and ask me all about him.  We got to know a lot of people from countries all over the world including: the Philipines, Portugal, Indonesia, and Jamaica.  It was so neat to talk to them about their families and learn about where they were from.  Our main waiter was named Alvin and he was from the Philipines.  He looks really young, but he actually has four (or five?) kids and is a grandpa! Our assistant waiter (probably not the real term) was named Anto.  Anto was my favorite.  He was so smiley and happy all the time.  He has a little girl that is at home with his wife in Indonesia.  I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to work on a cruise ship away from your family for most of your life.  Alvin has been doing it for over twenty years and only gets to see his family for about six weeks at a time and then he leaves again for four months.  I'm sure they're getting a lot of blessings for working so hard for their families.  

 Leaving Florida.  It was gorgeous!

Thomas' first time meeting Mickey.  We'll stick with this picture because the other ones are a little disappointing.  Thomas was a little sleepy.

The favorite baby on board and the king of the ship :)

Alvin on top & Anto on the bottom.

While we were on the boat we got to watch Broadway-style shows every night.  The shows were so much fun!  We also got to play games and participate in activities all over the ship.  One of my faves was the potato/carrot car races they held one day.  We won "best name" with Vegimation, but our car lost in the derby during the semi-finals.  I guess you can't win them all haha.  I also loved watching the "Diaper Dash" where they had crawling babies race to the finish line.  I was tempted to put Thomas in the race just for fun, but I figured him laying on his belly while probably crying wouldn't be the most exciting thing in the world.  

Our first port was Cozumel, Mexico.  It turned out to be a fun, rainy day so we shopped at the little stores along the streets, ate some authentic tacos, and ate delicious ice cream and popsicles.  The rain was coming down really hard for a while and the people were really nice and gave me a big piece of plastic to cover the part of the stroller with so Thomas wouldn't get drenched.  I love that there are kind people all over the world.   

Us with Julian.  His dad was painting postcards to sell and he kept talking to us.  He was obsessed with Thomas' bald head.  To Thomas' credit he's not BALD... he just has a little bit of red hair where you can't see in pictures haha

SOOO good.  Aw man... now I'm craving it.  Maybe I'll go on a hunt in Provo.

The second port on our cruise was at The Grand Cayman.  It was neat to learn a little bit about the history of this island while we were there.  I didn't know this before, but The Grand Cayman is an island that was settled by the English and is now a popular destination for rich people because the residents don't have to pay taxes.  There were people from all over the world that lived there, but it definitely felt more like the U.S. than the other countries we traveled to.  

While at The Grand Cayman, Sarah, my dad, and I went on an excursion to Sting Ray Island.  Basically, we took a boat to the middle of the ocean where it's pretty shallow (the water was about waste level).  It was so crazy, but in the middle of nowhere basically there were hundreds of sting rays.  We got our snorkel gear on and jumped into the water and got to swim around with the rays.  AND we even got to hold them.  They were huge and so cool!  I'm so grateful that my mom volunteered to watch Thomas so that I could do that.  It was such a crazy experience to have them move past my legs and body while we were swimming :)  

See!  They're huge!

The next port was my very favorite.  We went to Fallmouth Jamaica and it was so cool!  We hired a travel agent type of man to drive us around part of the island and show us what Jamaica was really like.  He drove us all over and we met some fishermen, ate Jamaican jerk chicken at a place that all the locals go, ate mango and sweet sop at a fruit stand, went to the ocean for a few minutes, and met a bunch of neat people.  Everyone we met was really friendly, but it was sad to see some of the situations that people live in.  It makes me wish that I could help more people.  

Dad, the fishermen, and their weird sea cucumbers

Not sure how he feels about this whole ocean thing

Sweet sop.  Tons of weird seeds, but not too shabby.

With our main man and awesome tour guide, Gregory

Our last port was Castaway Cay which is Disney's private island.  We hit it off with a bang and "ran" (mostly walked) the Disney 5k.  After that it was a total bum it at the beach day, but it was exactly what I wanted.  We snorkeled a little bit, ate some yummy food and way too much soft serve ice cream, and laid on the beach.  My goal was to come back at least two shades darker, but I don't think that happened.  Maybe I got to one mini shade haha.  Anyway, the other fun thing about being on this island was that Thomas got to experience the ocean :).  The water here was actually a little colder than it was in other places on our trip so Thomas wasn't a huge fan when I tried to get him to go in up by his belly and chest, but he liked putting his feet in.  Over all it was so fun.  Waterslides?  Check.  Relaxing day on the beach?  Check.  

Pit stop on our "run"

 Thomas missed the big finish

When everything was all said and done it was sad to go home and put an end to this magical trip, but I was ready.  A week away from Matt was too long.  I know I'm a wimp, but a week was too long to be away from Matt.  Thomas and I both missed him and even though we had fun people to hang out with and help with the little guy, we missed Daddy.  I think he missed us too :)  

Anyway, I really wanted to document this for myself so that I don't ever forget the fun adventure we went on, but if for some reason you have extra money lying around and you want to take a cool trip... this is the one.  It was awesome.  I love the magic that Disney brings.