Spring Break - Day Six

Jamaica, mon.  Gotta love how my brain works.  It knew that we had to be up earlier for our Jamaica disembarkation and excursion and kindly woke me up before 6 am.  After morning exercise, we breakfasted in the Windjammer for a faster morning, checked out towels before leaving the ship, grabbed a quick picture with our camera, and met up with Kevin and Candace before heading off to find our driver for the day.

Chris had done his research and found a highly-rated company called Dudley's in Jamaica that provided private drivers for the day.  We spotted our driver, John, holding his "Chris Kline" sign.  He got us loaded into his van and we were off, driving to "The Blue Hole" about an hour away.  There were four cruise ships in port, so we expected that we would encounter crowds.

John shared facts along the way as we drove and even taught us Patwa the English-based Creole language of Jamaica.  I stored the phrases, "No bodder me," and "Lef me lone" for future use.  Really it sounded like some funky slang.

It was overcast and rainy for our day in Jamaica.  And once we arrived at the Blue Hole and got off the paved roads, it got exciting.  There were SO many vans full of tourists and the drivers would come within inches of each other.  One van didn't have power to make it up the muddy hill and had to dump its passengers on the side of the road.  The parking lot was just as crazy and full of vans jockeying for position.  John seemed quite adept at such a situation and easily backed us into a parking spot next to one of his co-worker's vans.

Each group coming to the Blue Hole had a guide, so after paying our entrance fee, our guide, Val, directed us down to the water.  I'm not really sure what I was expecting, I need to read up on these things more, but I thought maybe a nice swimming hole.  No.  It was a series of jumps into cascading pools of water.

First we took some pictures.  Kevin and Candace climbed down into the water to sit on a rock.  As we were taking pictures, Val reached over and changed the flow of the water so that it total sprayed and drenched Kevin and Candace.  Next it was our turn.  As Chris and I sat on the same rock, I turned to Val, pointing my finger, and said, "Don't!"  The girls then climbed in around us and we all tried to hang on to each other.

Don't even think about touching that water!

From there, the jumping began.  Now let's just say, I am not a fan of swimming and surely not jumping from heights.  But I did it.  In fact, the thought went through my head, "I rode an elephant.  I can do this."  Val did his best to keep our group together and to horn his way in front of other groups.  I figured he wanted to get us through the excursion as fast as possible in order to pick up a new group and make more money.

After the first couple of jumps and choking on water, I finally said, "I am done," and found spots where I could shove off from the side to get to the next jump.  It was at one of the slide off that I went down harder than I planned and gave my tail bone a good knock.  Ouch.

Amy, Chris, and Kevin were the only brave enough for the walk down the side of a waterfall holding on to a rope.  I watched as one lady slipped and was saved as her guide grabbed on to her arm.  The guides would walk barefoot down the front of the falls without any rope, carrying smaller children in their arms.  We had made sure all of the girls had water shoes with good grips for this very excursion.  And though the older two think their water shoes are ugly, they were glad to have them.

Don't forget about the rope swing...and cute girls.

The last jump of the day was from a cliff 15 feet above the water.  Kristen was so brave that she went twice.  Misha, Candace, and I declined.

We climbed back up to the parking lot and toweled off, John asking us to sit on the towels to keep the seats as dry as possible.  Val used a hose to wash off our shoes as we climbed in from the muddy parking lot.  I gratefully sunk in to the seat and just as quickly realize that my tail bone knock was rather painful.  Ouch.

Now that we were wet, the A/C cooled us off quickly.  I asked to have it turned down but John only turned the intensity of it blowing on us, not the temperature.  He stopped a few times along the way to fetch us some local Achee juice with cloves.  Gotta love how it was bottled.

Maybe Kevin loved it a little too much!

Our driver then made some crazy maneuvers to find us some mango.  We tried to tell him it was okay, but he was determined, driving along the shoulder against traffic!

John drove us back down from the Blue Hole toward a jerk chicken restaurant called Scotchies.  It took at least 45 minutes or more to get back to it and then we stood in line for at least a half an hour.  They weren't fast food by any stretch of the imagination.

We finally ordered and got a peek at the cooking operation.  Ever used sheet metal in your BBQ?

While we were checking it out, Chris was trying to get our bill straightened out.  Apparently they had charged our Visa in local currency which turned out to be a $3180 charge to our credit card.  Yikes.  I am so glad he was paying attention.  Chris got it reversed and was careful to make sure the $26 charge went through accurately the second time.

We finally sat down to eat, though it took at least another ten to fifteen minutes for the food to plated for us.  We found John waiting for us as we finally left the eating area and headed back to our ship.  It was late enough in the day that we just had John drop us off instead of further touring, and the girls got to shop a little before checking back in to the ship.

Amy's new shirt.

It was good to get rid of our wet towels and climb stairs from deck one to deck nine.  We were all still wet and a little chilly.  We all time for a quick shower before heading down to dinner at 6 pm with Louie and Sheena.  Louie had magic tricks tucked in to his shirt pocket each night to amaze us with.

We were pooped from our day.  Amy and Kristen went down to swim and hang out in the hot tub for awhile.  Misha was happy to veg up in her bunk and have a little alone time.  Chris and I skipped the shows and activities for the evening and watched a movie on tv.  Kristen knocked on our door at 10 pm after returning from the hot tub.  I kissed her good night and sent her off to bed.

Spring Break - Day Five

I slept in again.  Probably because it was another day at sea and our schedule was wide open.  My mind instinctively knew I didn't have to be up early.  Our schedule was pretty similar to Monday with a late breakfast in the dining room after Chris and I exercised and then showered for the day.  May I just say, with the sun beating down in the fitness room, it felt an awful lot like a sauna.  I was just wishing for my fan to cool me off as I jogged.  Yes, I jogged.  That is what I love about sea level.  Jogging is just so much easier.

Our breakfast took over an hour.  Our server Candice from Trinidad and Tobago, though friendly, was so slow.

The day gradually began to be overcast with intermittent rain showers.  The kids spent a little money in the arcade and then watched shows on the DreamWorks channel.  I tried to stay off the open decks with my flip flops in order to prevent a repeat splits performance, and if I did go on deck, I was careful to perform a graceful shuffle.

We had a nap in the afternoon, skipping the men's belly flop competition.  Dang!  I'm sure Chris would have won!

The rain finally gave way to some sunshine later in the afternoon.  I took the opportunity to walk on the outdoor track while others soaked up what rays they could and Kristen swam.

Amy and Chris conquered the climbing wall followed by a race with Kristen and Amy on the outdoor slides and then Chris and some other little girl.  He asked, "Did I beat her?"  The races were timed.  And yes, he did.

Check out his stellar sunburn lines.

You had to wear socks to climb the rock wall.

We all went to watch Amy on the Flowrider (a surfing simulator).  She did great!

We attended the 5:45 show of Saturday Night Fever--The Musical--and then dined late at 8 pm.  Before heading over to dinner, Kristen wanted to do the Open Karaoke.  She was so brave especially after they messed up and queued the wrong song for her the first time.  She sang "It's a Wonderful World," and rocked it.  Sadly, my camera only had a 1gb card and captured maybe five seconds!

Our table with Sheena and Louie was occupied with diners who were chatting over their dessert, so we were seated at the table of Sammai from Thailand (the only Thai on the ship).  Kevin and Candace had been seated at his table the first night and surprised him with speaking Thai with him.

He was a character.  Like many of the waiters with kids at their table, he was kind enough to cut up Kristen's steak for her and jokingly kept feeding her pieces until her mouth was overflowing almost. 

Spring Break - Day Four

I slept until 7:30 am local (about 6:30 am my time).  Chris and I got up and headed down to the Fitness Club to exercise.  It was bu-sy.  All these well-intentioned people.  Just wait until the last day or the third day for that matter!

The girls were quick to come knocking on our cabin door once they were awake.  Who can blame though when they didn't even have a window to see out of?  Of course, we also had all of the snacks.

We enjoyed breakfast in the Rembrandt dining room at 9:30 am with the girls.  What an improvement over the Windjammer!  One of the things that Chris loves about cruising is that he has ample opportunities to speak Tagalog to many of the staff.  He loves it.  They love it.  In fact, one of our servers, after hearing Chris speak, laughed and said, "You amaze me, sir."  We had a few other Filipino servers stop by our table to talk with Chris.

Kristen headed up to the Kids' Club while the rest of met up with Kevin and Candace for a rousing game of miniature golf.  The only clubs available were way too short!

Like many of the 1000s of passengers on the ship, we tried to find deck chairs to relax around the pool.  Gotta love the people who set towels on most of the chairs and then walked away.  Amy and Misha finally found two chairs together on deck 13, but it was pretty windy.  Kristen wanted to swim, so Chris and I tried to find chairs close to the kids area.  We found a few in the kids area partly in the shade, which was fine by me.  I tried to stay out of the sun as much as possible anyway.

 

And yes, Chris had a crazy sunburn complete with stripes across his chest from the stair railing.  Kristen took a frozen yogurt break.

The frozen yogurt stand "Sprinkles" opened up and we stood in line.  I realized after a short time that I was in the strawberry line so got out and went to the other side where chocolate and vanilla were the options.

As we stood next to Sprinkles, I happened to shuffle my feet a bit on the wet deck and down I went into splits.  My flip flops, apparently, were as slick as snot.  A kind gentleman helped me to right myself.  Chris hadn't been nearby and only noticed me when this gentleman was reaching a hand down to me. Probably not perfect splits, but since it was my first real attempt in years, I'm sure my performance was at least worthy of a six, ten on the humor scale for sure.

Since we had such a late breakfast, we skipped through the lunch hour.  Kristen wanted to go to the Kids' Club, but it opened at the same time as the Ice Show.  I told Chris that I would drop her off and then meet him there.  I came in to the performance after it had started and looked around for Chris.  I never could find him, though I did see Kevin standing in the aisle next to me.  I finally just sat down in the aisle to watch because all of the seats were taken.  I guess I missed the announcement at the beginning asking people not to sit in the aisles.

I returned to our cabin after the performance to find Chris resting on the bed.  Apparently he and the older two had tried to find seats at the packed performance but only lucked out with blocked views.  They decided to leave, unbeknownst to me.  I headed up to the Windjammer to grab a small bite to eat.  There were lots of choices, but I knew that we would have dinner at 6 pm and it was already 3:30.

Chris and I both had naps and then discovered our sunburns.  We put sunscreen on the girls to swim, but forgot to cover ourselves before our activities of the day. I now had a nice little half moon on my chest.

Formal night and the girls were excited to dress up.  Amy had borrowed a dress from her friend, Kenadi, Misha wore a dress of mine that I took in, and Kristen wore a dress we found in Utah back in February.  They looked lovely.  And my stylish husband sported a great look.  We had a few photos taken, as the photographers are always lurking about on the ship.  

We had signed up for "My Time" dining which meant we could change our dining from night to night.  We lucked out by being placed at Louie Atian and Sheena Cabral's table, along with Kevin and Candace.  Both Louie and Sheena were Filipino and Chris had a grand time talking with and surprising them.  Even other waiters came to our table to check out the white Tagalog speaker.

The meal was great.  The desserts delicious.

We followed up with the 8:30 pm performance of comedians Alfred and Seymour.  Kristen headed off to Kids' Club once again while we attended.  The girls takeaway funny moment was Alfred's comment, "Let me take off my earrings," pretending to be a black girl preparing to fight.  He then pretended to remove earrings all the way up his ear, on his eyebrows, nose, and finally his belly button.  It was pretty funny.

Chris and I went to the hot tub on deck 12 with Kristen and Amy.  The girls followed that up with pizza at 11 pm from Sorrento's.  They were loving the cruise and the freedom and the food.  Good thing we required them to take the stairs at every opportunity (except for when toting luggage or wearing heels.)

I tucked them in at 11:15 and quickly fell asleep myself.

Here's our towel turkey (I think).

Spring Break - Day Three

Ahhh, we slept in a little late--7:15.  Kristen and cousins were being kind of noisy in the play room.  I shushed them and climbed back in bed for a short time.  Then the need for showers, getting ready, breakfast, and packing up was upon us.  Did I mention that Kevin and Candace had booked the same cruise as us?  Yep, they were coming too.  We said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa Ball who would be watching Kevin's children for the week.

But we didn't leave before Chris tried out Kevin's new riding lawn mower.  It was a manly kind of mower.

Our drive to the cruise terminal went rather smoothly on a Sunday morning.  Traffic was good and we were able to listen to some of the Sunday morning conference session.  We arrived at the terminal around 11:40 am and promptly all received texts that due to unforeseen circumstances, boarding wouldn't take place until 1:30.  Seriously?

Kevin dropped us off and then drove two blocks to the parking lot where Candace had pre-purchased a ticket for them.  We got in our first of many lines--the line for luggage cruise tags.  From there, we stood in line to drop off our luggage, and then we found the end of the check-in line that snaked back and forth and back and forth.  Kevin found us after dropping off the van.

Look who we ran into?  Wycoff's surprised their kids at Christmas with this same cruise!

The line started moving well before 1:30 pm which brought a happy cheer from us.  It was kind of a Disneyland line:  you think that once you get in the building you'll be at the check-in desk, but really you have more lines.  First security, which slowed us down because we didn't have all of the paperwork we needed and they needed to verify that the girls were on the passenger list, and finally check-in.  But we snaked back and forth and back and forth again.  At last, our pictures were taken for our Sea Pass and we were able to board the ship.

We had rooms 9686 and 9687.  Ours was a cabin with a balcony and the girls were in an interior cabin across the hall.  Misha asked, "Are there any bad cabins on this ship?"  (Okay, she really said ghetto).  I started to reply, "Well, the ones on the interior with no....hah, yours!"  Seriously though, they were on a cruise.  There were no bad cabins (except I didn't want theirs).  Their cabin was a little smaller than ours, their twin beds were pushed against the wall with a bunk pulled down from the ceiling which Misha spoke for.  We dropped off our carry-on backpacks and headed up to the Windjammer for lunch--along with at least 2000 other hungry passengers.  We were on deck 9, in the aft (rear) of the boat.  We didn't have stairs in the aft and had to walk to mid-ship to reach the upper decks.

The Windjammer was crazy busy.  We found a small table and proceeded to enjoy our first meal on board.  Next, explore.  We also stood in line again to sign up for an excursion, to link our cards, and to get a card to the girls' rooms.  Of course, we participated in muster, which was more standing around, and we just so happened to be in lines.  Following muster, Chris and I went up to the 11th floor to register Kristen for the kids club.  The other two were old enough to come and go as they pleased.  Kristen could come and go as well, but she had to be registered and have a wrist band for emergencies.

So, Amy happened to mention that she wished she had brought some stick on tattoos.  I had stuck some in and when I mentioned it, she said she would look at them, but I could tell from what she didn't say that her mother couldn't possibly have brought cool enough tattoos.  Fooled her.  After breakfast, we returned to our rooms to get ready for our day.  I pulled out the tattoos and the girls were all over them.  They were a hit.

The girls were already by the pool and in the hot tub as we left port.  Chris and I watched the departure from our balcony at first, spotting a dolphin or two in the water below.

And then we saw plumes of black smoke billowing from a building on the Starboard side of the boat.  It was the Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig and Museum.  The Coast Guard called in the fire and then worked to put it out.  We headed up to deck 12 to watch as we left port.

Chris and I watched the Set Sail party by the pools.  We were on a DreamWorks cruise.
 

They were lucky to find a few deck chairs to catch some rays.

Because we wanted to see the comedian on Sunday night, we opted for dinner in the Windjammer.  Definitely not our first choice.  Kristen chose to go to the Kids' Club while Chris and I and the older two enjoyed the comedy of Tom McTigue.  Kristen was going to stay in the Kids' Club until 11 pm.  We were charged the baby-sitting rate after 10 pm.  Apparently, she felt bad about the extra cost and left the area a little before 10 pm.  Chris and I didn't know and she was wandering around the boat trying to find us.  Amy and Misha took off to do some exploring together and Chris and I enjoyed "Finish that Lyric" in the Star Lounge, then Open Karaoke in the On Air Lounge on Deck 3.  We even stopped for pizza at Sorrento's on the Promenade.

We ran in to Amy at Sorrento's.  She had already purchased a lanyard for her Sea Pass so she didn't have to worry about pockets or losing it.  The bottom portion of the lanyard disconnected and her Sea Pass was promptly lost.  Chris went with her to get a new Sea Pass (and cancel her old one) and then back to the shop were the lanyard was purchased to get a replacement.

Around 10:15 pm, Chris and I were getting tired.  We hiked up the flights of stairs to the 11th deck to check on Kristen and found that she had already checked herself out.  Back down two levels to the 9th deck and our rooms to find a sad Kristen who had worried because she couldn't find us.  She made the smart choice in returning to her room.

I helped Kristen unpack and put her clothes in drawers and then stored her suitcase under her bed.  I laid out her nightie and doll and then retrieved all of the girls from our cabin across the hall to tuck them in for the night.

Spring Break - Day Two

Wouldn't you know it, Kristen was up early with cousins.  That was hard to avoid as she and Ashley were sleeping in the open play room.  It was a slow morning. We saw most of Saturday morning conference and then walked to the neighborhood clubhouse and park.  We headed off to Walmart before the afternoon conference session started, but because the road was closed, we ended going out of our way to another Walmart and didn't make it back in time to see much of conference at all.

Candace had planned a BBQ at the clubhouse pavillion.  Chris and I walked back down and met up with kids playing tennis.  We all participated in a fun game of kickball--kids against the parents--with Grandpa Ball pitching or rolling the ball.  Dinner took longer than planned to cook as some of the chicken was frozen, but the men listened to the Priesthood session of Conference.  Chris was pleased that he didn't have to get dressed up.

Chris and I walked back to Kevin's house.  By the time we arrived, kids were already making snacks of popcorn and Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. Kristen and Ashley had planned a movie in Ashley's loft after we returned which meant that our guest room was occupied.

Misha checking out Ashley's loft.

Spring Break - Day One

Chris arrived home from a work trip at 10:30 am on Friday morning.  I picked him up and then we headed home.  Chris had to finish out work for the day and I set off to pack for our week-long cruise.  I prefer to pack thoughtfully instead of being rushed and thinking that I have forgotten something.  Besides packing for me, I checked through Misha's suitcase as well as Kristen's.  I should have checked Amy's.  Her suitcase weighed in at a whopping 46.5 pounds.

Our flight didn't leave until ten pm.  Yeah, it was late and Kevin (Chris' brother) wasn't exactly thrilled to picking us up in Texas so late, but it was the best use of Chris' SWA points.  Unfortunately, the Pikes Peak parking lot was full.  Fortunately, we had left a little early and had time to drive to the Mt. Elbert parking lot.  We unloaded and headed over to the covered bus stop.  It was a bit chilly and none of us had heavy jackets because hey, we were going on a Caribbean cruise.

The bus stop was filled with people, and not a single one had opted to call the support line to ask where the shuttle was.  Thank heavens for Chris and his proactive thinking.  Apparently the bus had just been sitting off in a corner of the lot doing who knows what.  All of the people that had been waiting filled the shuttle.  I watched as we drove on by the next bus stop and the people waiting there literally had their jaws drop at being left behind.  I would have been ticked off as well.

We arrived at the terminal to find a pretty quiet check-in desk for Southwest.  We got our suitcases taken care of rather quickly and headed down to security.  Amy, Misha, and Chris had pre-check.  I think I have gotten pre-check once in all the time we have been traveling.  Anyway, Kristen came with me so that we could easily got through the regular scanner.

We easily boarded with Chris going first with his "A" boarding number and saving us seats near the back.  Sadly, I got the middle seat and a big man sat down next to me.  I was not pleased as his arm kept touching mine.  I finally pulled my jacket up around me so that we weren't touching skin to skin and took over the arm rest the next time he shuffled in his seat.

We waited at the airport for Kevin for about 20 minutes after retrieving all of our bags.  We were all running on fumes at this point, and we still had an hour ride to his home. 

It was 2 am local when our heads hit the pillows.