This absolute preciousness may go down as my favorite ever travel souvenir. I can't even stand the sweetness on these colored up pages.
I grabbed a pack of three blank books out of the Dollar Spot at Target, not really having a plan for them. (Sam says I'm a craft hoarder. Which is probably actually true.). But, as I had every inch of our clothing lying on the dining room table waiting to be packed, it occurred to me that those may make cute little cruise books for the girls and serve the double purpose of distracting them while we waited for dinner. So, at what I'm sure was probably 11:15 on a "school night," I sat down and penned the bones of a little book for each girl to tell their own vacation story.
In all fairness, Willa apparently spent her travel time fighting the color red because that's her book in a nutshell. Lots of scribbling. Lots. So, that is why hers isn't represented here. I thought you may be able to imagine that on your own.
But, here's the Cliff's Notes of Harper's cruise. Some evenings she would need some prompting-- "what did we do again?"-- (I wasn't kidding when I said there were a few of the girls ' naps that resembled unconsciousness.), but for the most part, these were her own highlights of the day. You can likely tell from the pictures (wink, wink), but I'll go ahead and translate just in case.
Day One: Boarding the Ship in Tampa
Highlight: The Pool
Day Two: Day at Sea
Highlight: Lunch Date with Dad. (Sweetest thing ever. I totally thought the pool was winning again.)
Day Three: Roatan, Honduras
Highlight: Monkeys at Little French Key
Day Four: Belize City, Belize
Highlight: The Slide
Day Five: Costa Maya, Mexico
Highlight: Buying a handmade coin purse with her own money
How is it already time to go home? These precious moments with my family have gone by too quickly. It's been ten days full of belly laughs and bonding, snuggles and all the "sparkly" eyes, shining with excitement and love. And now it's time to pack up the fun and take it back to Virginia. With the same fervor that I hate how fast this week has flown by, I hope the trip home moves at supersonic speed. Like blink-your-eyes, I-dream-of-genie fast.
When we disembarked from our Adriatic Cruise, we chose to just carry our luggage off because we only had the two bags and we liked the idea of not having to try to find them in the terminal. But, with all three suitcases, a stroller, and two borderline maniacs, we decided to just grab some luggage tags for the last possible time slot and enjoy our last few hours on the ship while NCL took care of our luggage. So, we leisurely ate breakfast, and when they finally called "lime," we were ready to roll.
Harper and Fiora
We made our way through the terminal and customs without incident. It was super chilly (like upper 40s), which didn't make it very comfortable to stand outside. But, we still decided to wait for a few minutes for an UberXL versus hopping in one of the cabs there. (Seriously, if you haven't signed up for Uber yet, you should. That $60 cab ride to St. Petersburg was only $32. It's usually about half as much as a cab would be.) It definitely felt sad seeing our last bit of the ocean for a while, especially since we knew we were coming home to snow.
While we were waiting in the St. Pete airport, I was trying to round up someone to clear on hill so that we would be able to get up our driveway and not have to climb the hill of snow with two little girls and lots of luggage. I found a guy who said he do it, and we called and talked to Dave, and he said he'd pick us up at the airport in his truck to take us home. All set!
Except when we got to our house, no one had touched the driveway. So, we pulled up our neighbor's cleared driveway and then walked across the snow. I grabbed the girls' boots from the closet and came back to the car so that they wouldn't be walking in their Keen sandals.
They thought it was absolutely perfect that we got to come home to snow. Within ten minutes of being home, they were dressed in snow clothes and out the door to catch the last bit of daylight. It was nice having them out from under me while I emptied suitcases and scrounged up some dinner. They're really going to miss their gourmet meals now that they're back at Casa de Fertitta.
And just like that, our whirlwind, belated-Christmas-gift trip is over. It's finished, and now all that's left is this goodness waiting to sink in. And that's maybe what I love most about travel. The memories always get better with time. The sweet moments will become even more precious. We'll smile with warmth at just the thought of them. Even the blips in travel, the times that are borderline disastrous, shift from horrible to hilarious through the lens of time. And that's what we are gifting these girls, this time around for Christmas and I hope throughout their childhood. That our time together, our adventuresome spirits, our commitment to do life and fun and carefree, our resilience when stuff doesn't go quite right-- that's the gift. Even more for us than these two precious girls. I almost can't wait for all the fun stories that we'll look back on and tell about our first big family of four trip.
Today basically started the way yesterday ended: waves, waves, and more waves. It was so choppy last night that I had a hard time sleeping. It may be because I heard them start draining the pool above us around 3:00 am. Cruises, rough seas, slightly hypochondriac mother, and the sound of rushing water... that's just mean. Haha.
At breakfast, the buffet bar was giving out free ginger ale, and had already gone through several cases when we arrived. Sam and I both felt a little queasy, but the girls haven't even seemed to notice. The girls have been so excited about another sea day to play in the pool every. single. second, but bad news: the pools were closed due to choppy waves.
In the Freestyle Daily yesterday, it recommended that Kids' Club members report early in the morning to practice for their Circus production. That was great because it meant Harper went to Splash Academy from 10-12, and back again from 1-3. And at 3, the parents got to go to the Stardust Theatre to see the many talents of the Turtles and Guppies.
Proud Audience at the Circus
Harper and her "classmates" were lions, and they were so cute. The circus ringmaster kept boasting on how ferocious, but well trained the circus lions were. They came parading out, and Harp's face was precious. She was so, so excited that we were there to see her perform.
Since the girls weren't going full throttle all day long, we decided to forego naps and actually make it to dinner at a normal family-with-children time. We saw our Canadian friends Brian and Parissa with their girls Fiora and Raia. They couldn't believe when we told them it was our first night making it to dinner before 8. Haha. They weren't the beneficiaries of late afternoon, mega napping kiddos, so they were in the let's-hurry-and-suffer-through-dinner-so-these-kids-can-go-to-bed camp. Yikes.
The girls got to say their farewells to Devi and their favorite waitstaff. The crew members of the Star have been so, so good to them. I can't say enough about how doted on these girls feel.
On the last night of every other trip over the last five years, we've been sad to leave but oh so excited to see some sweet faces at home. This time, we are just sad to leave. ha! We could've never guessed we'd have this much fun together. That there would be this little fighting and stress, this much sleeping, or this many memories.
Remember how I didn't take that many pictures yesterday? Well, I sorta made up for it, so get ready for 1.2 zillion pictures of us. And dolphins. And us with dolphins.
So, as soon as we started thinking about a cruise with the little ladies, my mind instantly went to doing a fun "meet the dolphin" excursion. So, I got online with Norwegian and looked to see which ports had something along those lines. And then, I almost closed my computer just to make sure I didn't get charged the $199 per person that I saw on the screen. What? $780 for our family to swim with dolphins. (They were super generous to give a $10 discount to children, making it only $189 to take your toddler who may not even participate. Givin' ya a deal.) Well, that wasn't going to happen. That was literally more than half of what we paid for the entire cruise for all four people, so I started looking elsewhere for a reputable tour company that may have something similar.
Guessing which dolphin we'd meet
Can I just say, I looooove TripAdvisor.com (and the app). If you don't use them when you travel, you're missing out. I rarely book anything through them, but I love the hotel reviews (it's great having them all in one spot) and we utilize the "Things to Do" tab for the locations we visit. It's how we found Issys Tours on our trip to Costa Rica, and how we scouted out where we'd be staying in Europe. For this trip, it led us to Little French Key in Roatan, Honduras and a tour company in Cozumel that offered a dolphin excursion. Travel is so, so much cheaper if you're able to do some homework. Or if you spend your free time pretending you're a travel agent. What? I think I can claim that as a hobby, right?
I used my time over Christmas to do a little port research, and after scouring for an hour or two, I quickly came to realize that the deal that Cozumel Insider offered was by far and away the best. Instead of paying nearly $800 for our family of four to do a Swim with the Dolphin experience, we settled for just "encountering" the dolphins for the much more modest amount of $143 for our clan, with the added bonus of it including passes into Chankanaab Beach Park, lunch for the four of us, and two non-alcoholic drinks per participant. We only had to pay $80 for each adult (kids 5 and under were free!), and on top of that they were running a special that if you booked more than 20 daysin advance, they'd give you a 20% discount. Deal! So, if both of my girls stand on the dock and refused to get in the water (seriously a real possibility when you're dealing with temperamental-aged kids), I could handle writing off the ~$150 much more easily than the mortgage-sized excursion.
The only downside is that we did have to book it in advance, so we really had no idea what the weather was going to be like. I was hesitant to hype our fun dolphin adventure to the girls for fear of it being canceled due to weather. And when the "Freestyle Daily" came out last night, I am super glad that I hadn't. High of 78 with thunderstorms. Waaaaaaaahhhhhh. If it were just raining, theoretically we could still do the encounter, but with lightning, not happening.
But, when we woke up this morning, it wasn't raining. It was actually pretty sunny. Our Meet the Dolphins fun wasn't scheduled until 1:30, so we decided to just leisurely hang around the ship this morning, and not rush off with the rest of the ship at 9:00 a.m. Originally, we were supposed to be allowed off at 8:00 a.m., but another ship was docking around the same time, and so they didn't want folks on the pier in the event that the other guy wasn't that great of a driver. :) We weren't in a hurry, so we just ate and watched to see what the weather was going to do. About 10:30, we disembarked to get a taxi over to Dolphin Discovery in Chankanaab Beach Park. At that point, it was still sunny, just super windy. When we pulled up to the park, we were super impressed and wishing we had head over a little earlier. There was a fun pool area, ziplining, a crocodile exhibit. If we had known about all the fun there, we would've gone over earlier. But, I am so glad we went when we did. As we were checking in at the ticket center, they offered for us to move up to the 12:15 time slot for the dolphin encounter. That's a big yes! We thought we may be able to beat this forecasted storm, so the sooner the better. It was crazy windy, but no rain, so even though the public beaches were all closed with a red flag out because of the swells, the dolphin show went on.
The girls loved doing a little dolphin spotting while we were waiting along the dock. That definitely got them excited for their time to meet them. We looked at what the dolphins' names were, and tried to guess who we would be meeting. So that we wouldn't have to hear Harper ask 1, 562 questions that we wouldn't be able to answer, we opted to go over to the wading pool to let her swim for a bit during our hour wait.
At noon, we walked over to be fitted for our life jackets, and this is where I started to get a little nervous. The pictures just do not do justice to the crazy waves we'd be standing in. All of Dolphin Discovery's centers are actually IN the ocean, not a pool, and there is only netting or fencing in between the area you interact with the animals and the actual ocean, so there's no wall holding back the tide or breaking the waves. We had to lock up all our valuables, and could only proceed with our lifevests and flip flops (which would be deposited in a laundry-type basket), but absolutely no phones or cameras.
Dolphins, here we come!
They gave us instruction to hold on to the fence with one hand and reach to pet the dolphins with the other hand. Well, obviously that wasn't going to work for our two tiny adventurers, so Sam and I opted to hold them (and let them hold to us) instead, and let them be the ones to reach out and touch our new friends. As we got into the water, I was so excited to find that it really wasn't that cold (the pool water was freezing), but oh my goodness, it was R O U G H. Like, giant swells breaking over my head, and 6'4" Sam having to jump with some waves to keep from having them crash in his face kind of rough. It was pretty intimidating. I thought, T minus 2 seconds until we have two babes turning into spectators from the dock.
And Wills did start crying. She couldn't understand why all the saltwater was splashing her in the face. But, we were able to rearrange and give her to Sam (so she'd be higher) and I took Harper, and those brave babies kept on trucking. They eagerly met Noel and Aramis, petting them on the belly and on the fin as they swam by. My goodness, the dolphins were incredible (and so neat feeling), and of course, crazy smart. Harper was the very first of our family to do the individual interaction with the dolphin, getting kisses and holding hands.
This may or may not be the picture that forced me to spend a zillion dollars. SO. CUTE.
Meanwhile, I doted, and Willa had a total meltdown. We ended up needing to sit her on the side for a bit, but after a minute or two, she hopped right back in to the waves and splashing because she wanted to "pway with the dolphins." As tricky as it was when she was crying (when traveling, we tend to be hyper aware of how our kiddos are affecting everyone else's experiences), I was just amazed at my tiny girl. My two year old was getting beat to death by waves to pet giant swimming mammals. I mean a two year old! The other family we saw in Belize, we saw again at Dolphin Discovery, and their 6 and 8 year olds got out (and stayed out) after 10 minutes because it was so tough out there. And here, my cautious, think-it-through toddler toughed it out and made the best of it. So many times on this trip, Sam and I have just looked at each other, totally amazed at how much our "baby" has grown up. I know I'm totally bragging on her, but seriously, it was so outside her comfort zone, and she dug deep and did it. I'm super proud of her.
After we finished with the dolphins, we walked to a neighboring platform to meet the manatees. They were like giant sea dogs. Harper even got to help feed them some lettuce. Throughout the encounter, there were photographers taking pictures, since they don't allow others to come watch and take pictures.
Well, at least that's what I initially thought.
In reality, it's so they can rob you blind. :) I "ooo"ed and "aaaahhh"ed over some sweet pictures of our family before the swim, and Harper as she pet the dolphins. I clicked through a hundred shots of our family, and thought maybe I'd get one or two. That's when the sweet lady came up and asked me if I'd be interested in purchase the whole set for a significant discount. I said, maybe, depending on how much they are. And then she said... Wait for it...
the low, low price of
$280.
($70 per participant x 4 of us)
What?!
That was double what we paid to even do the experience. So, I asked about just getting a few. $40 per image. Gracious. I knew Sam would never go for that, so I told her thanks, but no thanks. Then of course, she says $200. Then I said, there's no way I can pay more than $150. Still ridiculous for pictures, right? So, she came back and said she could do that, but I still needed to think it through.
So, our little gang went and enjoyed our lunch, and the girls played in the pool for a bit longer. As our time to leave was nearing, I just kept going back to the pictures in my mind. I just haaaaated the idea of having nothing at all to capture the day. To remind us of our fun. To celebrate our little ladies' bravery. To jog their memories for when we say, "remember that time with the dolphins..." Ugh. Sometimes sentimentalism is a curse! :) So, Sam being the sweet, smart, married-for-nine-years-so-he-knows-how-this-works husband, said, "honey, just go get them."
Back to the photo shop I went. And after some more negotiation, I got them down to $120. As absolutely obnoxious that is for pictures, I figured they ended up being around $1 a piece, and we still did the whole day plus pictures even less expensively than if we had booked through NCL. (Can't you tell my money spending logic is fierce? haha. Can you go ahead and comment with how much you would've missed the pictures in this post so Sam can sleep better?)
We spent the next bit walking around Chankanaab, exploring the beach area and walking through the crocodile habitat. These guys creep me out, even behind bars. As we were walking through the park area, the guy who took our picture on the way in ran up with it to show us. He offered it to us for $20. I laughed. I just spent $120. Sorry, bud. You missed your window. So, he said, ok, $15? I offered him $5, and he said he couldn't do it. So, we started walking again toward the other areas of the park, and he ran back to agree to the $5. So, now, I've spent $125 on pictures for the day. Maybe I shouldn't even type that so we don't have to relive that part of the trip. Haha.
We took a cab back to Punta Langosta (Lobster Port) to get back on the ship. Harper really, really wanted to ride in one of the pedi-carts, so we hopped on for the short ride back to the ship. So short that Sam walked behind us, and it only took him about 10 seconds longer than us. :)
One of Norwegian's signature experiences is the White Hot Party. Maybe you remember us mentioning it during our Adriatic cruise? It is always the night before the last day at sea. Everyone wears white, and there's a lot of dancing, and glow sticks, and a fun party atmosphere. The girls had asked about getting to go dancing, and we kept promising we'd go one night. Well, after some three hour naps, they were wired and ready for dinner and dancing.
The party starts around 10:30, so at 10:00, we went to Spinnaker's Lounge to listen to the live Motown band that was playing. They loved showing everyone their moves there. The party is geared more toward adults, so we only stayed for about 30 minutes before taking them back to the room, but they loved getting glowsticks and going out on the dance floor. Little party animals!
What a big day. Our girls felt like such big girls. And then turned around and crashed for a nap and snuggled like babies. We aren't wanting this trip to end! (Especially now that we know our hometown is getting hammered with the first big snow of the winter, estimating about 18 inches of snow!)
