Cruisin'

So much to catch up on! Well, this is as good a place to start as any:

December 14-19 we went on a Cruise with 16 other family members. My mom and Joe decided that they wanted all the kids/grandkids together for the holiday this year and instead of us all trekking to someone's house we hopped on a boat out of Tampa to the Western Carribean.

In attendance were:
Mom & Joe
Nate, Rhonda & Tiffany
Grannie
Mac, Mystie, Chase, Tori, Dawsyn & Morgan
Ginger & Brian
Lori & Scott
Me, Jeb & Alanna

When we left it was pretty darn cold here...about 10 above or so. Florida was a welcome change and upon arrival that evening, Alanna wanted to get into the pool with her Uncle Mac and cousins. There was a small snafu with the flight on the way out due to a storm that morning. All flights into Chicago were cancelled, but I'm pretty impressed with Expedia. Our itinerary had already been adjusted and we were rerouted through Dallas with only an hour and a half difference from our initial flight time. Overall, we got there about 4 hours later than anticipated, but still no real hassles which was very nice.

Alanna warmed up to everyone by the next morning and she and Dawsyn were best buds for most of the trip.

The ship was absolutely HUGE. Honestly, the rocking didn't bother me and was rather relaxing really..especially when trying to go to sleep at night.

The major problem we ran into on the ship was the toilets. Alanna was absolutely TERRIFIED of them. Similar issue happened on the airplane. She has no problems with potties in stores like Target or what not, but is deathly afraid of the airplane and ship potties. This led to an accident on the airplane right before we landed in Tampa which meant Mommy and Alanna needed to open the suitcases off of baggage claim to change clothes, but we wanted to be in shorts anyway.

Back to the ship potties...Alanna is potty trained and even does pretty well at night. So, Mommy in her infinite wisdom (haha) only brought pull-ups for nighttime and to my credit I did bring a few extra, but not enough for her to wear every day all day. Alanna would look at the potty and flip out.

I thought I had the solution, I really did. See, there's this kid's daycare with activities on the ship called 'Camp Carnival' and they have a potty chair!! Problem was, she wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with Camp Carnival. And honestly, can't say as I blame her. They didn't let the parents come in at all. Now this may be fine for a child who's in a daycare center or in school, but for a child that is used to a family type environment, this can be very scary. Had they even let the parents in for say the first morning for an activity or two she would have been fine, because she would have had a chance to acclimate to the new people with Mommy or Daddy there to show her it was ok. Hell, she would have been fine if the waiters were the daycare staff since she got more of a chance to get acclimated to them in one meal than to the staff in the Camp. Soooooooo...no on board daycare for us and no potty! Luckily, her cousin Morgan is about her size and still in diapers so I was able to beg some off of Mystie.

The cruise was nice, although not something I would try to do again with a 3 year old. Maybe a Disney cruise where there would hopefully be more options to keep her entertained and let Mommy/Daddy have some time too.

We did port in Cozumel and the weather was gorgeous. About 91 degrees. We had to take a small transport boat into land as Hurricane Wilma had demolished (and I do mean demolished!) the areas where the cruise ships used to dock. The shore looked very banged up and there was construction going on everywhere. We went to Playa Mia which is a paid inclusive beach and it was beautiful. Deep squishy sand and clear blue/green water. Alanna had an absolutely wonderful time playing with Dawsyn and Morgan in the surf. I was able to sneak away (thank you Aunt Ginger!) for about 30 minutes to get a massage on the beach. The masseuse was good and the price far less than in the spa on the boat, but what made it very nice was the sound of the birds, the breeze, and hearing the water hit the sand. What I didn't think about (DOH) was that the masseuse would use oil on my back. Now, for the most part, I don't tan or burn really. Actually, I'm still rather pale even after sitting on the beach. But, my back was a different story. I wandered past the drink hut on my way back to sit in the surf with the kids, picked up my pina colada, and plopped down to promptly and literally BAKE my back. My back was as red as Santa's hat. Ah well..thank heavens for aloe.

Got some wonderful pics as did everyone else and waiting for the collected cd of photos from Mystie so that I can go through them and create our after the holidays greeting letter (in lieu of Christmas cards).