Well, we got our first ever Fall Break here in Cobb County and we enjoyed every minute of it!! We picked Jennifer up just a little early from school and packed the van FULL!! I think every space was used up. Mom and Bill went with us, and we were all packed for a 9 day trip and we didn't have to use the car-top carrier as we expected. Dale was very happy about not having to use it. Then we got on the road and headed to Miami FL. This was our longest straight ride ever, but going down we broke it up so it wasn't too bad. We spent the night in Gainesville, FL at a new hotel. We lucked out and both got suites at a really good price. The next morning, we ate breakfast and headed on down. We arrived in Miami around 3 and immediately called my brother Brandon who lives down there. Bill had gotten us really nice rooms at the Marriott in Miami but our rooms were on the exact opposite ends of the hotel-same floor though. Brandon came right over and it was so good to see him as we hadn't seen him since Christmas last year. We just hung out for a while with him and then walked down to the Oceanwalk area for dinner.
We ended up going to Bubba Gump's for dinner. We ate outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Then we walked around a little and grabbed some breakfast for in the morning. Brandon ended up spending the night with Mom and Bill in their room, so we got to spend the morning time with him too. He had to go to work so he left a little before we did but told us he would try to ride down and see us leave.
We headed to the pier and got on the ship. It took a little longer than normal, but we finally got on and we heard our favorite sound - PING!!. That sound makes it official that I am on vacation and ready to relax and have fun.
Since I have done several posts about our cruises, I always like to say what things were different on each one to help me remember specifics. So, here goes.
This was the first weeks cruise with Mom and Bill.
This was the first time Dale LEFT the ship right before we were to leave Miami to run back to the car for a forgotten bag.
This was the first time the kids were in a balcony room.
This was the first time we actually had 2 rooms for our family-the boys had a Promenade stateroom right across the hall from the girls balcony stateroom.
This was the first time we had a normal side balcony.
There was one room in between us and Mom and Bill's room.
This was the first time we had someone to wave to from the ship before we left port.
This was the kid's first time doing my time dining.
This was the first time that Jennifer did absolutely NOTHING with Adventure Ocean.
This was the first time that Jennifer went to all of the shows.
This was the first time that we ran into someone that we knew from home.
And this was the first time that we met new friends on the cruise from home before cruising with them..
Before we left the port, Brandon rode his bike over the bridge to the port where we could see him. It took a while before he found us but it was pretty cool to see him riding around on his bike down there. He even rode down into the port area so we could all wave bye to him.
We left on Sunday and had a very windy sailaway as usual.
While unpacking, Mom discovered that they had left their beachbag in the van. You know how I said we used all the spaces? Well, it was stuck under the back seat and just overlooked. It had their swimsuits in the bag along with sunscreen and other stuff. Dale RAN off the ship and all the way to the parking deck and grabbed the bag. He was told he made it back with 5 minutes to spare.....WHEW!! That would have been awful if we had started pulling away and he was still on land. But thankfully, he was a good sport about it and brought Mom their bag and saved the day! We all got our luggage without any problems and went to dinner the first night. We did my time dining so that we could be flexible with our dinner times and not have to rush to get back from anywhere and work it around the kid's schedules. We sat at Makram(our waiter) and Tania's(assistant waiter) table. It was a great location in the corner next to the window where we could watch the sunset most night. Makram was an excellent waiter and has been missed many evenings since returning home. He was very humble and had such a gentle spirit. One night they sat us at another table, and he acted like his feelings were hurt. So, we requested him the rest of the time. Although, the asst waiter that we had that one evening always searched us out too even if we weren't in his section. The MTD staff did an excellent job of learning names and serving us. And they all loved Justin for some reason. I think several of them had sons about Justin's age and they would ask about him if he wasn't there.
We had a very active cruise critic group this time. I kept the roll call list and we had about 100 people on there. No one had kids along except for us up until about 3 weeks before the cruise when several families popped on with kids. They were all from Cobb or Cherokee County and on their fall break too. One of the families lived locally and had 2 boys ages 9 and 11 and a daughter age 6. Since Justin was 10, that was perfect for him. And Jennifer loves little girls. We started chatting through emails and had a lot in common. Both families were traveling with the Mom's parents along. They were going to Miami early to visit her sister, while we were visiting my brother. She likes to scrapbook and stays very busy with the family and work. We were going to try to meet before the cruise-either at home or in Miami, but it didn't work out. So, we met at the meet-n-mingle sponsored by the cruise line for cruise critic guests.
We had several events scheduled with that group. The first was the meet-n-mingle. That went fine and Mom won a prize as always. She is so lucky!! Then we went straight to the slot pull. While Dale and I don't normally gamble, this is always a fun time to get to know everyone. Everyone puts in about $6 each and you all go to one slot machine where everyone takes turns spinning. It increases your chances of winning and makes it a lot of fun to have everyone cheering you on. If you lose everything, you have lost $6 for about an hours worth of fun and entertainment. But this time, we actually doubled our money plus some! One guy hit $300 and we all went crazy. Mom got SUPER close to hitting the jackpot. She was literally one tick away from $20,000. I told you she was lucky!! Anyway, we got to talk to Beth and Jeff (our new friends) and got to know them better while we played. Then we went to get the boys and they had already became friends without even knowing that they were neighbors. I love that!
We also did a cabin crawl with our group. This was the first time we had participated in that, but it was really fun to see all the different types of rooms. We had several suites on there, so we got to see the different levels of suites. We even got to go in the coveted Ben and Jerry "sweet" where everything is cow-themed and you get free ice cream every day from Ben and Jerry's. The alarm clock is a cow mooing. And you get all these benefits because when you look out your window, you see this:
We had all of us in the grand suite at the end and still had plenty of room. It was awesome!! But I have to be honest and tell you that IF I ever had one of those suites, I would feel like I needed to stay in the room rather than going out. We had 2 people in our group paying solo rates for their suites since they were traveling alone. WOW!Jennifer, on the other hand, never went to her age group's activities. She preferred to hang with the adults and do things with us-which was fine too. She went to all the shows with us, except one that she couldn't go to. She really seemed to enjoy laying in bed and watching TV or movies as that is a novelty for her- both watching TV while in bed and having total control over the remote. Usually, she has to share the TV with her brother and/or Dad. She really enjoys dressing up for dinner and always tried to coordinate what we are all wearing to dinner. She did have a friend from school on board but they never even did anything together. We didn't know that she was going to be on there, but within an hour of us getting on the ship, Justin and Dale went to the Promenade. When they came back, they told us that a lady recognized Justin and came up to him and asked them if Jennifer and I were on the ship too. What a small world!! Turns out it is a friend from Justin's school that I work with at PTA.
Our first stop was at St Martin. This was Justin's 11th birthday as well. So, we woke up early and decorated the girl's cabin so we could surprise him. We had ordered room service so we could eat on the balcony and watch us pull into port. He came over after he showered and we all threw confetti and yelled happy Birthday. He was totally surprised and loved the attention! Our room steward James was really sweet and gave Justin a little stuffed animal from himself. He also put a big sign on the door announcing his birthday.
And that evening he made him a SPECIAL towel animal using not only the sunglasses, but some toilet paper for a tail and Justin's socks for legs. It was really cute!!
We had breakfast in the room ( I think this was the kid's first time doing room service). We then headed off the ship to meet our group in St Martin. We had arranged for some of the cruise critic group to go on a private tour with Bernards. At the last minute, our new friends excursion was canceled so they joined ours. We had about 20 people and between our two families,we had 13 of the 21 people. We toured the island going to both the French and the Dutch side, heading to our final destination on MAHO Beach. This was the highlight of the day as it is an airport where the planes land right over your head so low you feel like you can almost touch them. We got to see probably about 15 or so planes come and go while we were there. We ate lunch there at the beach bar and the kids had a blast just playing together. The waves were HUGE and rough. They were some of the roughest Dale had ever experienced. We had one guy with us that never could make it in the water as he kept getting knocked down. But the men and kids had a blast and luckily, I hit the waves at good times too. Beth and I had the same camera, so she videotaped the planes coming in and I took the still photos. We had a great time. We stopped for a little shopping on the way back and some sightseeing as well. We also stopped at Oriental Beach which has a nude side to the beach. We had warned our kids about this but obviously our new friends hadn't said anything to theirs. It was so funny...their Dad told them that they might see someone naked and their eyes got big and they wanted to know if they could tell Justin. He told them that Justin already knew and they just laughed. When they got off the bus, one of them ran up to Justin and said he just heard the best news ever! LOL They were so funny at Orient Beach as they saw someone at a distance and made a really big deal about it. Thankfully, we didn't get off there but I was so proud of my 2 kids who sat in their seats so that they were blocked from seeing anything they shouldn't. Especially with all the attention the others were giving to it....
At one point we got on the bus and Mom had brought a plastic little cake and one of the ladies lit the candles and the whole bus sang happy birthday to Justin. He was very surprised again and blew his candles out. I think he enjoyed having his new friends along to help celebrate his birthday.
Then that evening we let Justin choose our restaurant- either the dining room or Johnny Rockets. He chose Johnny Rocket's which was no surprise. We had a great meal and milkshakes and then all the waiters came and sang to him with his special dessert.
Then they did their normal song and dance. The head waiter kept hugging and patting Justin all week. She later told us that her son was the same age and about the same size and reminded her of her son, so she was trying to please him all week and make sure he was happy. Our next stop was San Juan. The kids and Dale and I just walked around the old side of San Juan and went to one of the Forts and toured inside. It was pretty neat. We had walked up there before but never went inside. There were some terrific views!!
And the last stop was Labadee, which was our favorite stop. We planned to meet up with the Warchols and we found them after a while. The Moms were laying on the chairs talking and the men were talking in the ocean.The kids were all digging huge holes in the sand. We were chatting about our kid's activities and I realized that the boys took Taekwondo with a boy from Justin's soccer team. When I remarked that the parents were on a Disney cruise by themselves, she said "Are you talking about the Hentz's??" And I was! I thought it was so funny that we were so far from home and I mentioned that and they all knew them. So, the boys had a mutual friend too...Justin Hentz. After we came home from the cruise, I was telling one of the other soccer moms about that funny story and she asked what their name was. When I said their last name, she smiled and said " You went on a cruise with Beth, Jeff, Matthew, Andrew, and Lauren?!?" She was the kids' preschool teacher, so we had found another mutual friend. Isn't that funny?!?
All of the kids wanted to do the aqua park, so they all went and played on the slides, rock walls, trampolines, and all kinds of fun inflatables in the ocean. They all had a blast!!
Then Justin found some huge starfish that were still alive! They played with them for a few minutes and then took them back out to deeper water. 
Then we went to the other side of the island where the kids and Dale rode the new roller coaster.
We were one of the last to leave Labadee this time. Oh, we also had our first emergency evacuation while on a cruise. They actually got to Labadee sooner than expected and had the helicopter on the pier to take him off. We think it was a crew member. Hope he is all right!!
As always, we enjoyed our sea days to the fullest!! We swam at the pool and relaxed in between activities. Papa enjoyed the hot tub every day and made some new friends in there. The kids did ice skating one afternoon, and they both did very well. Neither of them fell at all, but Justin was taking little baby steps most of the time.
Jennifer did the rock wall. Justin wanted to do it, but we just ran out of time as he was always wanting to go play with his friends at Adventure Ocean. But Jennifer did AWESOME!!! She climbed all the way to the very top for the first time ever!! She stopped a few times and said she was ready to come down, but we couldn't' hear her so I just kept yelling for her to go on ..that she was doing good. And she kept going!! Finally she realized that she was almost there and made it and rang the bell. I was SO proud of her!! 
We even went back and watched the rock wall climbing competition. Those men and women were really fast and made it look so easy. 
We also watched the ice show- which is one of the best shows on the ship. They always do a fantastic job with that. We also watched the surfing competition at the end of the week, which is always fun. We all did boogie boarding and enjoyed it and wanted to go back, but again just ran out of time. It seems like we can never get everything in in a week. Maybe we should go for longer next time. :)
The trip home was uneventful for the most part. And it really wasn't so bad. We were one of the first ones off the ship that morning and would have gotten home around 6 that night but we stopped for dinner in South Atlanta. We didn't even get to watch all the new movies I bought for the trip!! Both kids worked on some homework on the way home, and I had plenty to keep me busy.
Overall, we had an excellent trip. The ship was in great shape. The waters were rough one day and I had to wear my patch so I wouldn't get sick. I even shared a patch with someone we had dinner with from South GA-bless his heart he was feeling so bad. But it got better throughout the week. The last night we had a thunderstorm around bedtime and it was beautiful to watch until it got too close-and I came in from the balcony.
We also were on-board with a group from the Tea Party. We sat next to a couple one day and got to talking to them and found out that some of the big names that were on board with us were Alan Keys (who ran for president in the past), Col. Denton, and Bill Murray (Madelyn Murray's son). It was very interesting to talk to them and hear the stories they had to share. But, for the most part, you never even knew they were onboard.
Here is a video-it is 13 1/2 minutes long- from SOME of the pictures from our trip. Hope you enjoy!!
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