Cruise Ship - Swimming

On top of all the other things we did on the boat. We also did quite a bit of swimming. The weather was a bit cold so the big pool was a little too chilly for most of us. The hot tubs were crowded as a result.

The ship had a nice water slide that some of the kids were willing to try. My kids were hesitant about it so just watched their cousins go down over and over again.

Ian did get into the big pool and swim around a little while. He didn't like that it was filled with salt water so quickly returned to the hot tubs.













Not much else to say. The pictures show the kids having a great time. The parents mostly just hung out and made sure they didn't slip or get too rowdy and start splashing the other people in the tub.

It was just an opportunity for all of us to sit and enjoy the sun.

Cruise Ship - Entertainment

I know... more pictures of the cruise.... I am posting these for my family to enjoy, so bare with me.

This time the topic is Entertainment. On a cruise ship there is always stuff going on.

This ship was designed with a Mini golf course on the upper deck. We came up here at least once a day to play a round.

Molly was thrilled to be allowed to crawl around. There isn't a whole lot of open space on the cruise ship for crawlers.

This is the big show room. We attended a few shows but I have to say we walked out of a number of them because they claimed to be family entertainment but evidently they weren't talking about our family. We are more selective with our viewing than most people I guess.

They also held a few Trivia contests here. Just about every trivia contest was won by some member of our family.  I believe my husband won one on 70's music and ? . He was also really close to winning the one on Motown music as well. My brother-in-law won the pictionary one. And my Sister-in-law won the contest of riddles.  The prize was a plastic cruise ship trophy. Not that exciting but trying and winning a contest is always fun.

There were a number of singers performing throughout the ship.  This man played Beatles tunes. He took requests and was pretty good.

My family sat at the bar with their glasses of water and listened.

So what about all the kids? What did they have on board the ship for them to do.

Carnival Kids Camp.

We would drop the kids off at Kids camp and they did all sorts of crafts and activities.
Each day they came home with their faces painted and party hats of some kind.

Here is Henry and his cousin painted to look like Fun Ship Freddy.

We picked them up once and they were all dressed up like pirates.

Henry looks pretty good with a goatee.
The kids put on a talent show one afternoon and the whole family got to do some dancing.

There were a lot of kids on the boat. I was surprised. Of course we added 12 children to that number so we may have added a lot to their workload.



A lot of our time was spent just sitting around doing nothing. We would find an empty lounge and just hang out together.



These two little babies kept us busy too.
They look about the same age. Molly is about 3 1/2 months older. They are going to be "best cousins" as my kids say.

My sister was smart and brought along an umbrella stroller. For some reason I didn't. Our car was already full of luggage so I guess I left that item off the list. I ended up doing a lot of walking on board the boat and had to carry Molly around everywhere. By the end of the week my back and shoulders ached. Just for future travels with a baby. BRING a STROLLER!

Cruise ship - Food

Everyone knows that when you go on a cruise that there is going to be a lot of food. Eat Free and Often is the line we heard used. You can find food anytime of the day and it was always in plentiful supply and with lots of choices. And it almost all tastes great. Which of course means you eat way more than you should.

The Buffet was always a favorite. Breakfast, lunch and dinner with little to no waiting and lots of choices. And of course there was ice cream. I think my kids had ice cream for every meal because it was always available.

The kids also got to have all the fun cereals like Fruit Loops and Lucky Charms that I don't allow at home.

Getting dressed up for dinner was fun. Having a waiter take our order and serve us isn't something we do often with kids. But they behaved pretty well and were experts by the end of the trip.

Every night there were a number of choices for appetizers, entrees and of course desserts. It is so hard to decide sometimes. Everything sounds good. And some of us often ordered two dinners or multiple appetizers. I personally loved all the soups. I think I had a soup every night. Mango, asparagus, navy bean, cream of broccoli and many more.  I also tended to order the vegetarian or fish entrees.

Lucky for me I had Molly sitting next to me and I often ordered her a meal as well so I could sample one of the other items on the menu too.

Henry got tired of all the things on the kid's menu. He didn't want pizza, hot dogs or chicken nuggets so I told him he could order from the adult menu. He was very excited that he could have some salmon. He got a smoked salmon appetizer, a cesaer salad and then a baked salmon entree. He ate every bit of salmon on the plate and much of the salad but left all the other fancy stuff. I am glad he has such refined tastes

Julie doesn't like pictures but we sneaked this one in somehow.

We even tried to have a sit down breakfast one morning. It didn't go so well. The kids couldn't decide what to get and then when they saw something that someone else ordered then they suddenly wanted that also. So we kept that poor waiter very busy. I guess we should just stick to the buffet for breakfast and lunch.  They all did great at dinner.


At one point my Dad leaned over to me, as we watched some of the kids pile food onto their buffet plates, and said "can you believe there are starving people out there in the world? ".

We were far from starving on this trip.
Food is just part of the fun.

Cruise Ship - Fun in Catalina

Last week we spent a week on a cruise ship with every member of my side of the family. My parents, brothers, sisters, in-laws, and all the kids that go along with them. There were 26 of us. It was a really fun way to have everyone together.

The Cruise ship only had two stops. The first was Santa Catalina which is an island off the coast of California.  We took a little boat from the ship to the shore so we could walk around.

What do my kids do the moment we walk off the pier? Head for the water!

I wasn't prepared for beach play. I didn't pack any swim suits or towels but the kids were having so much fun we just let them play. Some of the cousins had never even been to the beach before so wading in the Pacific Ocean was a treat.



All the kids had such a fun time playing in the water and the sand that the adults just hung out and let them play. There were some performers dancing in the square nearby and some went to watch that but mostly we sat and talked or took turns wandering around while the kids played.



I did let Molly play in the waves a little. She loved it and I had trouble getting her out. She screamed and wanted to go back to play some more.

My sister and her husband had fun introducing their daughter to the sand and water. First time parents are so fun to watch. Every new thing is so exciting.

I can't say we did much on the island. We did enjoy getting off the cruise ship for a bit. But were rather soggy when we headed back.