The Munhollands: Merry Cruisemas

We want to thank everyone who have known for the last few years we were going on a cruise for not letting the kids know. We knew it would be tough to deal with them for the length of time they would have to wait for the cruise. With the expense, we definitely wanted to make it a Christmas gift. It was a good time to gift it to them since there was very little they were asking for this year. They were really surprised, and because it was a surprise they thought there would be more surprises. They were convinced people were going to meet us at some point. We kept trying to tell them otherwise, but literally up until the time we were at sea they were on the look out for people they knew. They couldn't believe we were going somewhere without anyone else. There was definitely some disappointment it was just going to be the five of us.

I figure I may have one more Christmas to convince Kellan to dress in matching pajamas. I am going to take full advantage.

Lots more Seahawks stuff for Zoe.

All Kellan asked for was an Oregon jersey. Unfortunately I had to get him a men's small, huge on the poor kid. He requested #11 since that's his baseball number.

New jerseys

We had the kids go on a scavenger hunt to figure out their big gift. I was pretty proud of myself since it was done within hours of Christmas Day. They had a clue to find each letter, then had to spell out the words. Dexter kept hiding the letters throughout the day, hence the missing "I" in cruise above.

On our way to Cocoa Beach.

We got to the hotel at 2:00 AM. It was a long day. None of us woke up until 11 AM. We were worried about all sleeping together in the same room for 8 nights, but it ended up being fine since everyone was so exhausted.

Day 1: Cocoa Beach. Cocoa Beach was no Huntington Beach, but the weather was great and it beat being in snowy Denver. Kellan took right to the water like he does when we go to So CA. Zoe still couldn't stand the sand, which makes for a long day at the beach. Dexter went with the flow.

Day 2: Port Canaveral. The Disney Dream.

Love Boat NEVER showed this part! Check-in is crazy.

View from our room before disembarking.

Jim and Dexter on the Aqua Duck. The kids managed to go on the slide 50+ times. One of the days at port in the Bahamas we stayed on the ship vs. going to Atlantis. The boat was 80% capacity and when everyone was on board the Aqua Duck line was up to 45 minutes. On the day everyone went to shore it was closer to 15 minutes. While others got dressed up at night and went out, we spent the nights at the pool, had the place to our selves.

Me and D

Kellan and Zoe

Day 3: playing the Hidden Mickey game - finding clues to solve the mystery which meant trekking around the ship. We thought we'd spend way less times with the kids, but it didn't turn out that way. For the most part we stuck together since they wanted to spend so much time at the pool.

Smoking the kids at fooz ball.

Winners

Losers

Pirate Night. We weren't very good about dressing up, tons of people really got into it.

Day 4: New Year's Eve day, Atlantis

Dexter Hates noise and fire works. He was going nuts to go to bed. I took him back to the room and hung out until he fell asleep...then I left. It was about a 5 minute jog back to the room. I was a wreck that if something happened or he woke up (though I told him I was going to leave and he was totally fine with it), obviously not enough to leave the guy for 20-30 minutes.

Day 5: Castaway Cay. Our one and only crappy day. Chilly and pouring rain at times. It was the day I looked forward the most, hoping for really warm water, it was cold. The kids still managed to have fun, Zoë was even Ok for a bit with the sand.

Dexter was stoked that he got to play like the big kids too!

Day 6: Day at sea

Surfing on his Kellan surf board.

They cannot take their hands off each other...

While on board Jim and I kept questioning the appeal of cruising. It was crowded. As much as there was to do, there probably wasn't enough for more than a couple more days. The food was pretty good. The service, decor, and cleanliness was outstanding. Having been home for awhile now, we appreciate it more. The kids are begging to go back. They loved the ability to eat ice cream and drink soda at any moment of the day. If it hadn't been for the Aqua Duck, not sure if they would have enjoyed it as much.

Last night at dinner.

Our last 2.5 days we spent at Disney World; one day at the pool and Downtown Disney, one day at Magic Kingdom, back to Downtown Disney and then the airport. We weren't going to go to the parks at all, but felt that was kind of a tease.