Caribbean Cruising

I’m baaa-aaack!

Our family spent the last week soaking up some sun on a Caribbean cruise.  Cruising has to be my all time favorite pastime.  The Tool Man and I went on our first cruise for our honeymoon, and we were hooked.  Eat, sleep, swim.  Eat, sleep, swim.  What’s not to love?

We have always cruised with Carnival.  This time we were aboard the Carnival Ecstasy.  It’s one of the smaller ships that we have sailed on, but still, it was a big boat.  I never fail to be amazed at the sight of those enormous floating vessels.

Our itinerary took us to the Bahamas.  We sailed from Port Canaveral, Florida and made three stops:  Half Moon Cay, Nassau, and Freeport.  We usually cruise during the month of May, so this was our first winter cruise.  It wasn’t cold by any means, but 75 degrees and breezy doesn’t exactly make for perfect swimming weather in my book.  Ty, on the other hand, had no qualms about going for a dip.

Aside from our first cruise, the Tool Man and I always opt for a room with a balcony.  We just love having our own private area to sip coffee (or enjoy a bowl of that never-ending ice cream), relax, and listen to the roar of the waves.  But this year, Santa thought it best for us to skip the balcony and have just a picture window instead.  His reasoning was two-fold I think.  One, Santa had a lot of wishes to fulfill, so he was probably pinching his pennies.  Two, he probably knows what a climbing dare-devil Lucy can be, and a balcony would just be asking for trouble.  I did miss having my balcony, but the kids thoroughly enjoyed our picture window.  It had an extremely deep ledge that they could sit and play in.  Lucy also found it rather amusing to jump from the window ledge onto the bed.  She can make anything dangerous.

Not only did Lucy have fun playing in the window, but for some strange reason, she liked playing in the bathroom too.  And stranger than that even, was that she called it her “church.”  She’d pack up her baby and blanket, head in the bathroom, and say, “I going to church.”

If you’ve ever been on a cruise you know that the staterooms are tiny.  There’s not a lot of room for extra beds.  Ty slept on a bed that pulled down from the wall about 5 feet off the floor.  Yikes!  Talk about temptation for two little monkeys!  It was like having your own private, in-room jungle gym.

Dad liked the bed too!

One of our favorite parts of each day was coming back to our room after dinner to discover what towel animal awaited us.  Ty tried to keep the animals from every night, but Lucy usually found a way to destroy them.

I told you earlier that I wasn’t into swimming on this cruise, but there was just no keeping Ty out of the water or away from this water slide.

Dad was the lucky one who got to escort Ty on his first trip up and down the slide.

My guys were freezing, but that didn’t stop Ty from going back for more.  Eventually, though, he did give up the slide for a dip in the hot tub.

Now, if you ask me and the Tool Man, the best part about cruising is dinner.  We have always enjoyed the food and service you get in the main dining rooms.  I especially like formal nights on the ship.  It’s the only opportunity this mom has to get all dressed up! And what girl doesn’t like to put on a fancy dress every now and then?

One small accomplishment we had on the cruise was to teach Lucy how to smile for the camera.  Trust me, this is a huge deal!  The trick was asking her to show us her front teeth, like when she’s getting them brushed.  Works like a charm!

How did I end up with the two cutest monkeys ever?

This week we also discovered what Lucy’s favorite food is.

BUTTER!

Let’s just call her, “Little Paula.”  We finally learned to hide the butter each evening as soon as we were seated and ration it out to her throughout the meal.  Otherwise we’d catch her dipping it up and licking it off the butter knife.  Ew!

Here’s the pièce de résistance.  This dessert ranks among the top 5 of the best tastes I’ve ever put in my face!  Really.  I like it that much. 

Bitter y Blanc Pudding.  In other words, dark and white chocolate bread pudding.  Yumm-O!  They didn’t offer this on our last cruise, and I was some kind of disappointed.  Imagine my delight when I found it on my menu last week.

Monkey kisses…

Sweeter than any old dessert!

I guess that’s why we southern gals call it, “sugar.”

After dinner, we stopped by our room to check out our towel animal.  Then we headed to the show.  Ty was none too impressed with all the singing and dancing.  In fact he was a little disturbed by some of the dancers’ costumes!  Lucy, on the other hand, loved the show.  She sat still as a mouse, as interested as could be.  That little girl definitely likes music dancing.  I can’t wait for her to take some dance lessons.

OK.  In order to get this posted today, I’m gonna stop it here.  Hopefully I’ll be able to share the rest of our vacation with you in a day or two.  It seems I have a lot of impatient followers out there.

Lindsey