Day Four- Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Day Four brought us to Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We had been advised by the excursions people that Jamaica wasn't really a family friendly place, so had planned to stay on the ship.
Except, remember a few entries ago when I told you the captain invited us to dinner? Well, it was on formal night, and we had nothing formal to wear. We had planned to skip formal nights in the dining room.
We decided to venture off the ship to try and find some decent clothes for formal night the next night.


Jamaica was not fun. The people harassed us like crazy. The kids have said if they never go back to Jamaica that will be just fine with them.
We did a bit of shopping, took a picture of a Bob Marley statue, and headed back to the ship.


Once on the ship, Emily and Natalie fell asleep, so Matt and the boys all headed out to do the rock climbing wall.





They all got suited up, but unfortunately, it started to rain a bit so only Dillon and Matthew got to climb.
After dinner we had priority seating at the ice skating show. We sat right in the front and enjoyed the awesome show.









Afterwards, we got to stay and the skaters came and talked with us and took pictures. They were all so nice. I think it must be a prerequisite to be nice to work on a cruise ship, because everyone we encountered was just great.








I'm sure there was more arcade time, though I'm not sure. I just know we were out late, every night. Enjoying the stars and just being on the ship.

We headed to bed, and were greeted by swans.

Doesn't that bed look so comfy? It was. I wish it we owned it. We were rocked to sleep as the waves were getting a bit bigger. Yet another great day.

Day Three- Labadee, Haiti

On day three we were in Labadee, Haiti.


This is an area of Haiti owned by Royal Caribbean. They have a water park in the ocean, zip lines, and a roller coaster/bobsled type thing. As I mentioned before, the captain arranged for us to have roller coaster tickets, which was so nice of him.
It was really hot that day, and we had quite a walk. As soon as I put Natalie's hat on, she buried her face in my chest and fell fast asleep. We walked and walked until we found some seats in the shade of the coconut trees.



While Natalie I and rested, Matt took two boys at a time to the ocean. They swam and snorkeled.
Beside us was a splash pad, so Emily and the other two boys played there.


Once Natalie was awake, she played there also.


Then we all headed to the roller coaster.






We had a great time on this thing. You were pulled up by a chain, like a roller coaster, to the top of the mountain. You then went on a track, but you could control the speed by using the brakes. You rode all the way down the mountain. You could see the ocean, the ship, all over. It was so neat.

After we rode to our hearts content, we experienced the local people. I know they were trying to make a living, but people yelling for our attention and just bugging us to buy their stuff was not my cup of tea.
We bought a few things then headed back to the ship.
After we rested a bit, we headed to our first dinner in the dining room.



It was so amazing. I could eat there every night!

It was then time for the Drew Thomas Magic Show. Drew Thomas was on America's Got Talent and he was simply amazing. The show was so entertaining, and we all had a great time. I think it was our favorite show.


Matt was called up on stage to help with a trick that we still don't know how he did. It was crazy.








Waiting for the show to start.

After the show we went to the arcade and played some games, then headed to bed. We were met with bats...WEARING OUR SUNGLASSES!!




It was another great day!

Day Two - Bridge tour

Our second day, we were at sea. We got little newsletter type pamphlets every night telling us what the next day had in store on the ship. We got separate ones for the kids and one for the teens. Matthew and Dillon thought it was funny because theirs said, "today is day two, and we are in, The Ocean."
We slept in and had room service delivered to our room. The kids thought that was great fun.
Then we just mozied around in our room, totally relaxing and watching the water out our porthole.
In the afternoon, we met with Brett for our bridge tour.
This was so exciting. We met with the captain and his crew. The captain was so great. He talked with the kids about the controls. They all got binoculars to look with.
We watched guests go to the front of the ship and do the classic Titanic, "I'm the king of the world!!" move.
The captain arranged for us to have tickets on a roller coaster type ride we would be seeing the next day at Haiti, and invited us to dinner at the captain's table Thursday night.
The rest of the day was spent swimming and just hanging out on the ship.
I will add that we did go to the front of the ship to do the Titanic move, then turned and waved up at the crew, who all waved back. So much fun!!



This picture reminds me of Star Trek.




Doesn't he just look so nice?

Day One: Getting acquainted with the ship

Without further ado....the daily entries!
I thought I would do days one and two in this entry, but then I rambled. So you can wait for day two!
We boarded and checked out our rooms. We dropped off our carry on luggage and headed to the Windjammer for lunch. This is where we were first introduced to the food that would fatten us up all week long. Yum-o!
After lunch, it was time for our muster station drill. I think that's what it's called, who knows. We all lined up on the decks to be given instructions on what to do in case of emergency. The guy in charge of ours left us a bit weary. They went through and marked off everyone who was there because it was mandatory. We gave him our name, and he marked off someone elses. We had seen our group on a different page, but he did not mark them. Then, when other stations were calling for their missing people, our guy was not. Thankfully, we had all the faith in the world that we wouldn't sink!

Our life boats
After the drill, we headed to the pool. We had eaten lunch late, so knew we wouldn't be doing our six o'clock dinner in the dining room. The pool area was so amazing. There were several pools and this splash zone area for kids. We later learned that babies weren't really allowed in the other pools, but we didn't know that, so for the first day, Nannie went everywhere.




This is a little lazy river type thing with glass walls.





Like I said there were several pools. These are just pictures of the kid splash zone area. It was amazing.



After we swam and got dressed, we headed back to the Windjammer for dinner. Then, we headed upstairs to Adventure Ocean to meet Brett and to sign the kids up for the program. On our way, we watched an amazing sunset.



This picture was taken at the end of the week, but it shows that we all fell in love with Brett. He took such good care of us, and we adopted him into our family. He may not want to be part of our family, but that's ok, he'll always be family in our eyes!

Matthew and Dillon headed off to the teen area to play dodge ball. We hung out with the workers and got to know everyone.

While Matthew and Dillon played dodgeball,we played a bit of ping pong, then some miniature golf.




We were given free Bingo games, so headed down to Pharaoh's palace for Bingo.

A random bridge on the promenade deck that I thought looked cool

The first of our towel animals, a stingray.
It was such a fun start to an amazing week.