I'm not gonna lie. Vacationing with a teething(molars-grrr...) almost two year-old that isn't used to sleeping in different environments, needs to play with trains on a daily basis, and likes to scream at the top of his lungs if he doesn't get his way is quite challenging. Yet, none of those things trump our positive feelings and straight-up love for our first cruise. If we get to the last day of a trip and we don't want it to end; well, I'm going to say it was most definitely a success. Anyone want to take two kids and a mommy on a cruise next week? I'm ready!
Our original family vacation plan was to travel to Guatemala and spend time with my Daddy Man. But, after some research and discussions with my BIL (Hi, Bob!) who was traveling with us as well, we decided it wasn't the best option for us due to safety concerns. So, with an idea in mind, I did a little poking around and found a cruise that was ideal for five beach/water lovers leaving only three weeks from that date. The 7-day cruise was as so: leaving from Long Beach, CA on Saturday, April 5th, traveling at sea for 2 days, arriving in Cabo San Lucas on Monday morning and then leaving later that same day, arriving in Puerto Vallarta on Tuesday at noon and leaving Wednesday at 3pm, sailing for 2 days, and then finally arriving back in Long Beach on Saturday morning. There were so many details of this trip that appealed to us that we just couldn't pass it up.
Now, because I really want to finish this post tonight and actually share the huge number of photos that we took on the trip, I'm going to quickly highlight things I don't want to forget or notables.
- Amélie is quite the party animal. As part of the cruise fee, kids from 2-18 years of age have access to all the activities that take place from 10am to 3am every single day of the cruise. So, so awesome. We gave her the option to decide if she wanted to go or not and every time that she did go, Amélie was seriously mad when I picked her up. She'd tell me she didn't want to leave and that she wasn't tired(while rubbing her eyes and yawning) even though it was usually midnight by that point. There were only two nights that she stayed up that late so Eric and I could go out together while uncle Bob so sweetly offered to take Sebastian since he would pass out every night in our room by 8pm. She had so, so, so, so much fun. It was amazing.
- We loved Cabo. The water was so clear. Cabo is not as large as Puerto Vallarta and we really liked that. It was so beautiful! Bob spent the day scuba diving and he absolutely loved it. The hubby, kids, and I ate delicious food, frolicked in the warm water, enjoyed tasty beverages while relaxing on a mattress on a private beachfront under an umbrella while relaxing club-like music played in the background. What more could we want?! Reading over that last sentence makes it sound like a movie. Yeah, that's how we felt; all fancy-like. After all that goodness we took a little boat trip around the Sea of Cortez before heading back to our ship. It was a perfect day.
- Puerto Vallarta was so much fun. Although we didn't end up in the water as much due to massive amounts of jelly fish, we pretty much did the same exact thing we did in Cabo. Tough life, huh? Bob was with us for the entire time we were out in PV and he upped the fun for all. It was just so wonderful having him with us on this trip for so many reasons. At one point during our first day out in PV Eric said, "When you can get drunk on a beach while your kids still have a blast is so awesome." Let me just add that I was the sober adult on that particular day and it was still so wonderful.
- Someone needs to invent a treadmill that simulates running while on a sailing cruise ship because my core had to work extra hard to stay steady and thus got a serious workout.
- We ate and drank soooooooo much! Good thing I work out regularly. That's partly what vacation is all about, right?!
- The kids both considered Bob daddy number two. It was a little joke throughout our trip because Amélie did actually call him, "the other daddy."
This is a compilation of photos that Eric and I took. So many great memories made.
My set first. No editing. No time.
{looking out our deck as we leave the port in Long Beach}
{our first cruise cocktails!}
{day one- sea day}
{first stop: Cabo}
{at The Office on the beach}
{sebastian's one and only nap while in port}
{this girl had no trouble getting into beach life}
{do you see our cruise ship in the back?}
{where the sea of cortez and the pacific ocean meet}
{waking up in Puerto Vallarta}
{did I mention that we had a lot of cocktails?}
{preparing for parasailing}
{third port day and I was NOT tired of this kind of view}
{mmmm....frog legs}
{anyone surprised we had shots?}
{uncle Bob being awesome. we caught them like this after we'd gone out dancing.}
{"How do we feel about our last morning on the ship, guys?!}
Eric's set of photos.
{first meal in the dining room}
{water taxi over to the beach from the marina}
{don't we look like we belong there?}
{just add sand for happy baby boy}
{view of Puerto Vallarta from our balcony on the ship}
{we met a baby burro. hahaha}
{all dressed up for our second formal dinner}
{the kids loved all the towel animals by our steward}
