Our family Cruise

My husband and I love to cruise. We went on a cruise for our honeymoon and found out that we LOVE it. We then went on our second cruise when we'd been married 2 1/2 years and it was fantastic. Now we've been married for 5 years and we were itching for another cruise. After looking at our options we decided to go as a whole family this time and take our children. My friend Amber (from music camp, college, she's been my friend for a long time) and her family came with us.

After weighing our options of reviews verses price and on board options we decided to go with Carnival- it was by far the cheapest for 5 people, had rooms for 5 people, and take 2 year olds at the kids camp- no other cruise lines starts at 2 (EVERYONE else starts at 3, they may offer paid babysitting but not inclusive kids camp) and with two two year old girls that was a HUGE deal.
We had heard a lot of things about Carnival being the "booz cruise" and being how any cruise line in the Caribbean is the "party" destination. But we had also heard that it isn't as bad as the rumors say and we hoped we made the best choice considering all our needs.

We choose a 5 day cruise (that way if the children didn't handle it well it was shorter), out of Galveston, TX (because we could drive there and stay in budget), with two stops Cozumel and Progresso, Mexico (so we could see Chichen Itza).

We loved out shore excursions, Chichen Itza was awesome and in Cozumel we did a private island called Passion Island. It was awesome. We were a little concerned about the "all you can drink" alcohol but there was only one person who was obviously drunk when the shore excursion was over. The awesome part of Passion Island was the kids section. They had activities, and a play area and children supervisors that were great with the kids. We didn't fully leave our children there (although we could have) we sat up next to the play area were we could watch them play. Our daughters discovered water color painting and did that for over an hour.  

Our children LOVED it. They had so much fun. The loved their time at the kid's camp and would beg to go. 

Our steward had fun with our children's toys and kids loved seeing it and the fun animal towels.

So its a good thing our children enjoyed the kids camp because there was nothing else on ship for us to "safely" do with our children. If we weren't at the kids camp, we were in our room using the laptop to watch a movie.

Here comes the downer side of everything....

1. Carnival bills themselves as "family friendly" not just that they have a kids area but they advertise that everything is family friendly for the entire family.

FALSE it was such a drunken party all over the ship that we would avoid walking anywhere near the pool or the casino with our children. I didn't want to expose our children to that atmosphere. 

On top of that I didn't want to be in that atmosphere. We didn't go swimming once because we didn't want to be in that area.

Compare and Contrast- On our other two cruises we would go to the pool, participate in the different on board activities. Never once did I feel like the fact that I wasn't drinking anything but soda ever make me self continuous or even aware that I was the only one not drinking. Every activity focuses around alcohol.

In addition, even the shows said they were family friendly. We went to one of them that said was rated "PG for costumes". I would have given the costumes a PG-13 rating and the show as well. NO way would I have taken my children at any age to see it. After that we skipped the other shows.

2. Our room was a lot smaller than on the other ships we've been on. It ended up fine, but it was tight for 5. I think if we didn't have a balcony it would have been much more difficult. The TV channels were a joke. There was never anything to watch, especially for our children. And our room was two floors above the "broadway" shows theater and we could hear EVERY word and note through the whole show. Either the boat was not constructed with sound proofing or the show is way too loud, or both.

3. Besides a few super stand out employees the rest of the service was below par- way below. We love to do the "unlimited" soda. One thing we LOVED is they had Coke ZERO and Sprite ZERO as part of their soda options. If not for this options I wouldn't have done the unlimited soda. I am not a huge soda drinker- but when I do drink soda I only drink diet soda. I do not drink my calories (except for milk or juice in the morning for my breakfast). So here is the complaint. The soda was done in cans that they poured into cups with ice for you. It was never already cold soda, and often was flat because it doesn't take a whole can to fill the cup and the rest of the can would just sit out until someone asked for that soda again, then they would get what was left from the last can before they would open a new can. It created a lot of flat soda. Then there were the bar tenders where you had to get the soda. Besides the bar tender in the main lobby with the guest services desk, all the bar tenders acted like your were imposition them to have them get you a drink. Yes we aren't making any more money for them, but we did pay for it and that makes money for them.

Shout outs---- Regina in the dining hall was AWESOME!!! and so was Daniel the dining hall drink server!!!

4. The food was... okay. It wasn't anything amazing or even special. I really liked the hot chocolate in the buffet area that was inclusive, and the soft serve ice cream always available. And my favorite was the chocolate molten cake in the dinning hall. But when it comes to meals, nothing was so wonderful to brag about. And the same food was available at the dinning hall as were the at the buffet. 

Our biggest problem, was that we learned that the world's definition of "family friendly" is - 'there is a safe place to drop off your kids while you go get smashed'. 

It was a good cruise for us at that moment in our lives. Having to take the girls everywhere with us would have not worked and the girls had so much more fun at the kids camps. But we will probably NEVER do that particular cruise again.

Overall we did have a great family vacation. 

and everyone was happy to get home again.

Our time in Mesa

We spent the last two weeks in Mesa. The premise of being there was that I could be a help to my sister. And I believe we were a help. But we did take advantage of being up there to enjoy ourselves.

One day when we had my sister's daughter with us we went to Sonic and everyone got their own Strawberry or Cherry Limeade. The twins were suppose to share but Nellie didn't want to share so Rose ended up with my Route 44.

Tues we went to the Arizona Museum of Natural History. I remembered they have dinosaurs there and knew that would be a huge hit with our four year old. Of course it was. Wish I took more pictures. I didn't know that there were so many dinosaurs that have been found here in Arizona. I hadn't been to the museum since I was a in elementary school. I am so glad we went.

When we left the Museum on Tues, Al then announced that he wanted to go to the place with the live fish and sea animals. I knew he was talking about the aquarium but I wasn't going to take him 2 places in one day and going there in one trip would be expensive. When I mentioned his request to my brothers they suggested the Bass Pro shop in Mesa. They have fish there. So that is what we did for our outing on Wed. Well Al, although found the place interesting, was very keen to point out that it was no aquarium.

Al finally broke me down and on Thursday we went to the Sea Life Arizona Aquarium at Arizona Mills mall. It was a larger aquarium than we had visited previously but I didn't feel like it has as many interactive activities. Al was in heaven the girls really enjoyed it too. The first time through we didn't see the octopus, and after a lot of tears we went back in and asked if they had an octopus. Turns out they do and they told us where we'd find it. So we went all the way through again. I need to remember that on thing like this that my children will regain interest again and do it all over if we just take a break and come back again. Each time through it took us about an hour with my children's short attention span. 

Friday we hang around the house and then their cousins had a sleep over with them that night. First one of its type.ll

Trip to Texas: Mills mall in Grapevine

Yes a mall is not a "fun" vacation activity for little children. But considering we don't live near a big mall like this they were at least interested.

I have never done those carts you pay for, it just seems silly to me. but we got in there and things started to get crazy and we thought maybe they would think it was more fun..... I guess so.

Cory had a walk down memory lane when he found a Games Workshop store in the mall.

And then we thrilled our son's heart when we told him he could pick any candy he wanted in a candy store. There is a reason we use the expression "like a kid in a candy store" because it is a very true statement and probably universal. Then we took our candy and started toward our next destination. 

Trip to Texas: the Great Wolf Lodge

I had only seen this resort on GroupOn. And when we were looking for things to do my husband found them on a list of great things to do with toddlers. 

Great Wolf Lodges are a chain of resorts that have an indoor water park. For those from the Arizona area, the indoor park is on the scale of SunSplash. It also have an outdoor section for the summer and good weather. It wasn't open while we were there.

It has a huge area for smaller children. And a bunch of slides for older children and adults. It has a hot tub area for adults only and a wave pool and lazy river for guest of all ages. I was impressed with out much water area there was to do.

Al though he was in heaven, but the girls.... took a while to be okay with being in the water. I do feel that by the end of the visit they were enjoying their water time, but they still didn't want to stay in all the time.

The girls were so cute in their suites. If you ever do something like this, or do public swimming areas in general bring colored swim clothing for boys and girls make spotting children so much easier.

The girls favorite part was chill'in on the chairs with their 

water bottles. 

Al was big enough to stay up late and go to story time both nights we were there. After story time the second night Violet the Wolf was there to meet and greet the kids. Him and I got ice cream too while we waited for story time.

By the end of each day our children were so tired. They could hardly stay awake to eat dinner.

Overall we had a bunch of fun. The food was expensive and not impressive at all. But for the winter deal we were able to get it wasn't too bad of a price for what we got. I don't think I could ever go and spend their "normal" full price. It just sounds way too expensive for the fact that they are going to nickle and dime you, just like any resort, to do any of the extras. In a way I've been spoiled by the cruising experience of a resort like feel. Where sure extras are extra but there is so much already included that you don't actually need a many of the extras. We will probably do it again someday, maybe in 2-3 years when Al will be big enough to ride the large slides. Maybe we can talk my sister's family into going with us.... maybe.

Trip to Texas: Children's Aquarium at Fair Park Dallas

With my husband starting a new job we took the week before he started and went on a road trip. We decided on going east since we seem to always be going west and to Disneyland. We did a lot a research to see what there is to do in the winter time west of Arizona but still in driving distance. 

We decided on going to the Dallas area and to the Great Wolf Lodge. Its only a 13 hour drive from where we live. We've gone to Salt Lake City before and that is 14 hours from where we live why not Texas.

The first thing we do once in Dallas was we went to the Children's Aquarium at the Fair grounds.

I just have to point out that the whole area are gorgeous art deco buildings. Including the aquarium.

The girls enjoyed themselves, but not as much as Al. He LOVED it. He has been into ocean predators lately and this was perfect for him. Sting Rays, and sharks, and Alligators OH MY

We gave in and each child got a toy. Yes occasionally we are push over parents. We are much more so when on vacation than otherwise. Plus we justified it because we didn't plan ahead and bring car toys with us.

And in the same park area is the stadium that the cotton bowl is played. I found that exciting. It was a must to get my picture in front of it. 

Spontaneous Trip to Disneyland

So you wouldn't think being "UNEMPLOYED" and "DISNEYLAND" go hand and hand. For some reason we seemed to think they did. In hindsight, considering we are still unemployed two months later, maybe it was a bad idea. But we had the money in savings and we didn't think we'd still be unemployed this long (now its looking like it could be A LOT longer). We did it on a whim because we wanted to take advantage of the time we had to spend as a family. I don't regret the memories we made or that we did it- just the money we spent. 

We left late in the evening and drove all night.

We arrive about 4am and checked into the hotel.

the next day we went to the Beach and the Newport Beach Temple

and then the following day to Disneyland.

Our children had no idea until we walked up to the gates where we were and then our son went all giddy shy on us and would say Disneyland. 

We did kiddo things all day

.It was the first time in my life since being 10 that I went to Disneyland and didn't ride one ride I couldn't have rode the first time I ever went to Disneyland (when I was 4).

 Everything we did was focused around Al having a great time.

 We were able to go to CARSland. It was fun but I was very disappointed that the babies couldn't do even ONE ride there.

Al did find CARSland really cool 

 It was a *really* hot hot day. Too bad I thought it was going to be a bit cooler and packed our clothes for the low 80's and not for 100's.

Also it must have been twin day at the park. We met TWINS everywhere. 

These grown twins were there celebrating their bday. They told my girl that they have no idea what fun is in store for them. Since it was first thing in the morning at Disneyland I thought they were talking about Disneyland But then I realized that they meant 'in their lives as twin'

The Beach (first time)

Went to the beach for the first time with our children back in September.

The girls didn't know what to think of all the sand and took a while deciding what to do with it. 

On the other hand our son thought it was awesome and took no time at all to warm up to it and become friends with the other children on the beach.

We had a good time.

Sowards Family Vacation

I wish I had more picture from the weekend. I didn't get out my camera.
These photos of my daughters were taken by my brother with his awesome camera.

These girls are just so cute and are natural hams in front of a camera.

This creepy wood guy was on the outside of the cabin we were staying in, looking inside the cabin- it was just creepy.

Biosphere 2 Family Trip

I found on GroupON a great deal to tour the Biosphere2. We went as a family, bringing my sister and her two children, and my parents.

I wasn't sure how well the children would handle the tour, but they all did great.

The last time I had gone I was in junior high and a tour consisted of walking around the outside of the buildings and standing in the sun. 

When I learned that the tours now take you around inside, I knew that we were going this summer. The picture above is of my father and Nellie. In the wind tunnel Nellie was laughing and thought it was great fun.

It was great fun. 

We'd totally recommend going. If you find a good deal. GroupOn has had it on a few times now. Next time it comes up pick it up.