We pulled off surprising out kids with a 10 day cruise to Florida and the Bahamas and we’re taking YOU with us!
WOW, did you all see our last post about how we were surprising the kids with a cruise? Well, we pulled it off and we couldn’t have done it better. If you missed their reaction definitely go check it out on our Facebook page.
We promised to take you with us and in doing so I want to give you a timeline of how our first day went. The first day is Embarkation day. Basically you arrive at the port, get checked-in and off you go climbing the gangway and entering the ship.
We left a little later than we had wanted but there was no stress. Big little realized at 9:30 when she looked at the clock that she had missed the bus. She was not happy until I said she was playing hooky today. We made a quick stop at our local library to pick them each out their own tablets. FYI: those tablets are amazing they are age appropriate and loaded with games, puzzles and books. Best of all—require NO WIFI!
It was Noon at the Port of Baltimore when we arrived unloaded bags and proceeded to park. Onboard eating at 1:15pm! We sailed through (pun intended).
When you cruise you can check-in online in advance which we did and makes this process seamless. We were also lucky to have priority boarding which made our embarkation a bit quicker. The regular lines are like riding a ride at Disney with zig zagging your way to the front.
SAY CHEESE
The last thing you do at check-in is say cheese while they snap your photo for your sea pass. This card is all you need for the duration of the cruise. No cash, credit cards or Ids are required. Everything you purchase goes to this card. We got checked-in walked around the corner and BAM….another Say Cheese moment! The photographers from the ship are there with backdrops of the Grandeur to take your boarding photo. Then we got onboard and we took you with us!
Top 3 Things We Do When We Board
1. Go EAT. Straight to the buffet and in our case this is called the Windjammer. It’s very crowded so finding a seat takes patience.
2. Check kids in at Adventure Ocean. This is the kids club and you need to check in on the first day and sign a waiver. On Royal Caribbean it’s Seuss at Sea.
3. Go to our Room. This cruise we did an interior room. No windows or balconies and it saved us quite a bit of money. Dan took this while I was getting this blog together and the kiddos were eating!
We unpacked and did the muster drill. This is MANDATORY drill for all passengers. Doesn’t matter if you live on a ship or not you have to go. As you can see we haven’t even left port yet. That is the only activity that has to be done at all the entire trip.
We had dinner seating at 5:30pm and before that took a walk outside. It was just perfect. Dinner took about an hour and a half. Afterwards we caught some of the set sail show. My kids are excited to see the cruise director we had on our April sailing. His name is Mike and he’s outstanding. We love to see familiar faces. Our waitstaff from April is all here too and they gave us all big hugs when they saw us.
Following the show in the theatre they played a movie: The Greatest Showman. We stayed for half the movie and called it a night at 10:00pm.
That’s it for Day 1….we’ll be back again and make sure follow us on Facebook too!
What do you think?