Of course, the first thing we found on the boat would be the ice cream machine and the place that we would visit daily. I’m usually pretty particular about what the boys eat but it was vacation. However, even with saying that they did really great. The boys grew accustomed to a three-course meal and Reed asked me to start serving bread with every meal at home. Reed even ordered salmon off of the adult menu one evening and after sampling his father’s calamari ordered two more for himself. Ryder bravely tried escargot. Reed sampled every dessert off of the kid’s menu, while Ryder was pretty loyal to the banana split (more ice cream). On the first night, the staff learned that cantaloupe and honeydew melon weren’t the boy’s favorite fruit and proceeded to bring them a plate of strawberries for the rest of the trip. I really appreciated our wait staff, they paid attention and fulfilled our desires without having to ask.
After the thrills at the waterpark, the boys were disappointed to learn they were not tall enough to ride the water slides. They were however tall enough to ride the Ultimate Abyss which is a pair of side-by-side 216-foot long slides running from deck 16 to deck 6. It took several days to build up the courage but once that box was checked it became several times a day experience.
The boys also enjoyed playing putt-putt and took to ping pong. The climbing structure and carousel on deck 6 were our go-to after-dinner activities. We participated in a scavenger hunt one day but as a family that is pretty competitive, we lost, we will just skip over that. We spent a lot of time at the pools. They have a splash pad for littles and a separate splash pad for even smaller littles. The pools get crowded on at-sea days but I expected that and we made due.
It wasn’t till the second to last night that we discovered the kid’s Ocean Adventure club. We went to check it out and I was impressed my kids had the desire to go and STAY. After dinner we took the boys to have an evening of fun playing group games, doing arts and crafts, and the real winner: video games. Jed and I were then free to explore the adult areas of the ship we had yet to see. The bars were relatively quiet, maybe because the party crew was still at the late dinner seating.
The last day was overcast with a tropical storm altering our path home so the boys went back to the kid’s club to have some space to get the wiggles out. That allowed us some quiet time in the Solarium to relax and read books.
I do think there were some deficits for kids in my boy’s age group/size. The older kids/teens seemed to be ideal passengers. They have teen nights and events and they are also old enough to venture off on their own. A ship is hard to contain all the energy of my young kids. They like to run, be loud and are often crazy. I’m sure the passengers on our deck heard us coming and going but the rooms are pretty soundproof. Our neighbors were surprised to learn there were kids in our room after being several days in.
We had a good trip. I was actually sad walking off of the ship on the last day. Vacations are always a great way to be present and just enjoy being with the people I love.
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