June was a whirlwind for us as we decided to make memories with our boys instead of buying them stuff and things as we usually do at Christmas. Sometime in February I got this wild hair to go on a cruise as a family. Well we finally went to Jamaica and Grand Cayman for a week and I recommend it to anyone who is considering a cruise.
As a result of our experience, I've compiled a short list of do's and don'ts for any future cruisers.
DO
1. get on the boat as early as possible before departure, or you will feel like you are on Ellis Island, trying to pass all of your physicals to get into AMERICA!
2. take appropriate clothes for the cruise...my poor mother must have thought she was going to Alaska (again) and brought all kinds of long sleeves and pants!!
3. send your kids to the KIDS CLUB every chance you get. They think they are going to this fabulous party every day to learn the Electric Slide and all sorts of other cool things. When in fact, you're the ones having the fabulous party WITHOUT THEM.
4.Indulge in all of the YUMMY FOOD and forget about the scale for a week. NO ONE is going to serve you lobster and fancy soups and desserts when you get home.
5. Go on the earliest excursion possible or you will be sitting there BAKING in the hot sun waiting for your 10:30 tour to begin while everyone else has left to go swim with the dolphins.
DON'T
6. Feel bad about dumpin' the kids at the kid's club, you'll get over it after a few minutes.
7. Lose your 9 year old kid on the ship the first few minutes you get on board. It's hard enough to find your way around without being in PANIC MODE!!!
8. Take AMERICAN EXPRESS. Jamaican beaches don't take it. Take your VISA, it's everywhere you want to be!
9. Be afraid of kissing a stingray, kinda feels like kissing a GIANT slimy mushroom. Now, I will have 7 years of good luck...according to my tour guide.
10. Don't leave the gift shop on Grand Cayman island without your 9 year old...as the ship is preparing to depart!! You will be traumatized for several hours after that.
Do photograph the DARLING towel animals on your bed every evening.
Do take water shoes for the Jamaican beaches. Our feet were getting cut up with rocks as we posed for this picture as our water shoes sat on the ship.
Do invite your parents to join you..if you like them. Mine are pretty cool.
Send the kids to the space alien parties, they will have a blast!!
This Christmas, instead of presents, the kids will get a power point slide show of our Cruise. We'll see how that goes over!
3 comments:
Yeah--don't know how the slideshow will go over. I completely LOVE your philosophy though--we're trying to start implementing that. Jeff's researching cruises, etc--but that's not abnormal, he's always researching cruises.
Such great fun--hopefully they'll still think so Christmas morning. We need to get together!
Love the pics of the cruise. Can you send me the pics of the 4th. Hope you are feeling well. Say hi to the kids!
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