The water slides were fun. The boys spent most of the time hanging in the hot tubs.
The first day, while Brad was recovering from being sea sick...I got the kids checked into Camp Carnival and I got an hour stone massage. It was heavenly! I knew I wanted to do a massage and was glad I booked one the first day, before I got any sunburns . I was impressed with the Camp Carnival. We would look at the kid schedule and pick fun stuff that Wyatt or the big boys would like and then check Wyatt in. The big boys could check themselves out. It was nice to send Wyatt for an hour or 2 and he would have fun with kids his age and we could relax and not worry about where he was. The biggest struggle I had, especially the first day...was not having the use of cell phones to keep up with everyone! you dont realize how much you use your phone until you are without it! I was in a panic at first, trying to figure out where everyone was going and where to meet up. But once we got our bearings, we got it all figured out. We stayed together 90 percent of the time.
Wyatt would have lived at the putt putt coarse, if we let him. We all had to take turns playing putt putt with him. It would be crowded and hot during the day, so we learned to take him at night...much better!
The big boys enjoyed fancy drinks and reading their books on the decks. Next time we will probably not do the unlimited soft drinks for the boys. It would take a long time to get their soft drinks in the dining room (we eventually stopped ordering them sprite) and they usually begged for frozen drinks and didnt get their money's worth in the end. But for some kids-its probably worth it.
This was elegant night. Jackson really enjoyed all the seafood on the trip, like double lobster at dinner! There was a pizza place that was open round the clock and they loved that. The food was good on the ship. One night they served pumpkin soup, which is something I was anticipating as I remembered eating it on our honeymoon cruise. It was delicious! Most of the time we ate in the main dining room. One night we ate in the buffet area and it was good, as well. The last cruising day we discovered one grill that served homemade pita and hummus...so good!
They had a cute little Dr. Suess show one day. We skipped the Dr Suess breakfast since weve done alot of character breakfasts via Disney, etc.
We really enjoyed the dive in movies. We watched Apollo and the Martian and Jurassic World.
Brad entered a black jack tournament and ALMOST won. Wyatt enjoyed playing the chips...though Brad had to explain to him that they are real money and we cant lose them
A highlight for the boys was that they got to participate in a comedy show. And by participate...I mean they were up there for 30 minutes! The rest of the trip, people would stop them and tell them how funny they were...Jackson said it was like they were famous! Jack went to several comedy shows after that. He loved that.
One rule that I made is that the boys could pick their own onboard activities, but they couldnt play with their phones. Each day we would look at the activities offered and we would highlight stuff they wanted to do. I knew that once the excitement wore off, they would be temped to hang out in their room and watch TV, etc. I wanted them to try new things, so I stuck to my rule and it seemed to work. They read books, swam, ate new foods, met some friends, went to shows, watched movies on the big screen, played putt putt with Wyatt. We really enjoyed our family time on the ship
