The Plaizier's took us on a family cruise to the Caribbean out of Miami the middle of May. Ask me how nervous I was to fly 5 hours for the first time with a 15-month-old! Can I just say my daughter is AMAZING? She did awesome! People even asked if it was her first flight she was so well behaved. Luckily we had a whole row to ourselves and she just played and took a little nap with Papa on the way to Atlanta. The flight from Atlanta to Miami was a little harder, but much shorter, so we survived.
We got into Miami the night before and the next day went to lunch at an Argentine restaurant. So yummy! Made me miss our fun times in Buenos Aires. We boarded the ship and after many interruptions, I got Zoey down for a nap. It was so nice to have an interior cabin with no windows which made it pitch black. That and the gentle sway of the ship made her sleep the best she's ever slept in her life! She went down easily and slept soundly pretty much the whole trip!
We were on Carnival and had SUPERB service. The wait staff, housekeeping, everything was great and everyone friendly. Zoey really liked swimming in the pool and she was the hit of the ship. She even helped me get on a game show on the boat!
Our first stop was Cozumel, Mexico. We took an excursion to a private island called Isla Pasion with the family. The beach was great and Zoey got her first trip into the ocean. I was a nervous wreck and she didn't enjoy it as much as digging and eating sand. Despite gobs of sunscreen, my little bronze baby browned right up. I'm insanely jealous of her skin tone.
The next stop was Belize. I left Zoey with Dallin and his sister and brother-in-law (who went exploring) and headed out snorkeling in the barrier reef there with my brother- and sister-in-law. Snorkeling was fun but the fish were few and far between. Much better snorkeling in Hawaii. It did make me put snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia on my bucket list. The highlight was the dolphins we saw swimming by the boat on the way back to the cruise ship.
Our next stop was Isla Roatan which is an island off the coast of Honduras. Being part of Honduras, there were lots of security warnings but we had an excursion across the island at a bird and monkey park. We picked this especially for Zoey as she is an animal fanatic. She loved looking at all the animals despite the scorching heat. We even got a monkey to sit on our shoulders! She freaked out which in turn freaked me out which makes the monkey think you're playing so he starts going for the baby and I'm trying to get the blasted thing off of me, it was a crazy mess but good memories and even better pictures. After he left she kept signing for "more" so I guess she wasn't that traumatized. Silly things went right for our diaper bag and riffled through it and found some hidden candy and stole Dallin's soda and ran up a tree and ate it all!
Our last stop was Grand Cayman. I have never seen beaches so beautiful. Pristine, fine, white sand and crystal clear blue water. Since it was my brother-in-law's birthday, we rented a jet ski and rode around for an hour. Then torrential rain set in! We'd had such nice weather the whole time, despite weather.com's predictions and Grand Cayman was supposed to be the only clear day. But man, I have never seen it rain that hard or fast. And it just kept coming. We were drenched! Then it got a little windy and cold. Luckily, we were about to call it a day anyway and got back on the ship.
We had a great, relaxing, time. My little "fish" freaks out every time she sees a picture of the ocean or beach. She traveled like a champ the whole way home too. Good thing she's content to people-watch and just likes to observe and take things in! We practiced walking at the airport for hours and she came home a lot more daring and ready. We had 2 weeks to recover before heading out again! Stay tuned!
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