In November are long awaited Vacation was finally here!! We were going Cruisin!
We flew into Long Beach a day early So we were sure we wouldn't miss our ship and stayed overnight in the Queen Mary hotel.
It is an old, old, war ship that they have turned into a hotel... Did I mention it was old. Supposedly haunted and super creepy! It was fun to explore but when you got into the engine room and the propeller room it was eerie! Paul enjoyed pretending he was the captain
and karden found a gun so he was happy!
Of course we had to have a couple photo bombs or too!
I psyched myself out and woke up at 5am to a pitch black room, with no windows and no air, to say I was freaking out was an understatement. I had to open the door and get fresh air into our coffin of a room. But up on deck it was fun to look around and explore!
The kids loved the old stuff on deck to play with!
But being next door to the cruise terminal was worth the panic attack!!
The night we got there we had a whole evening with nothing planned, but I couldn't have that so I researched area attractions and found the Long Beach Aquarium.
They were even having evening hours the night we were there... but one small problem,....you had to be members of the aquarium to get in. So what did we do? We bought a year long membership for 4 hours of fun! ( it was actually cheaper to buy the membership anyway) They were having a spongebob themed night and we got to meet Patrick
and see lots of super fun exhibits..
. We got to touch jellyfish, and pretend to be eaten by a shark!
That was worth the price of membership right there. It was neat. We all had a great time!
The next day it was Bon Voyage time!!
We headed to the ship and we were loving life.
Whitley insisted on Marching and Saluting everyone when she was wearing her sailor girl outfit! She was hilarious!
The kids eyes were huge trying to take in all the sites!
We explored the ship and ate, ( which became the theme for the trip) we hung out on the lounge chairs,
registered for camp carnival and got ready for the adventure ahead!
We went to Catalina Island the next day. We all rented golf carts and toured the island in style!
It was fun to have a little caravan and be able to see everything in a short amount of time.
It was fun to cruise around and check out the sites. It was a pretty island.
We found a really fun park to let the kids run and get out some wiggles
and then did a bit of shopping! We ended the day with the kids playing in the sand and surf.
Then headed back to the ship!
That night we went to a couple of shows and I ended up getting picked to play Family Feud.
My "Family" ended up winning the show despite my horrid fast money answer of Question: Name something about Italy? Answer: Its shaped like a boot? Yeah It was bad.
We won some Champagne( That Becky and Porter inherited) and a 24 karat gold plastic trophy!
The next day was Ensendada Mexico.
We ended up going to "the Blowhole" But because the tide was low the spray wasn't all that impressive.
What was impressive was the Flea market surrounding the blow hole. I had soo much fun there. It was totally not in my element because I am NOT a bargainer. I will pay what people are asking if I want it bad enough but the guide on the tour told us we must bargain! Me and Ryans favorite part was the pina coladas in the pineapples.
Kardens was holding this Nasty snake!!!
Whitley loved showed everyone her Mexican mariachi band moves!
When we got back to the ship we decided to play BINGO!! Until we waited for the next show to start and Guess who won!! Oh yeah....Me!! I won a free cruise!!!
I was so excited!! So after Christmas we will have to start planning are next cruise! This time we are leaving the kiddos home :)
We had awesome dinner servers! Our waitress was Costadinka.
She was so cute with the kids and they loved her! They danced and played with her during the dinner "shows"
Speaking of dinner Karden was so brave! He tried everything weird and nasty on the menu.
Karden ate and loved Escargot, Alligator Fritters, Calamari, Octopus, Lobster, and sushi. He despised the
Sushi but the rest he loved!
The kids also loved the towel animals we had waiting for us every night when we came back to our room.
Sting ray
Bunny
Hippo ( and yes karden is pretending to smell its butt)
One afternoon when the kids were making shirts
and going on scavenger hunts and getting there faces painted in Camp Carnival.
Jon, Shar, Ryan and I played Scattergories and we kicked some serious butt on that one as well!! Getting medals and trophies as our prize!
We were starting to be celebrities on this cruise! That night we went to the Vegas style show only to be recognized and asked to be a "VIP" We had to walk the red carpet and to my utter horror I had to get pulled up on stage and of course I had to be the groupie to the Male Stripper that was not only really sweaty but Gay as could be as well! I played the part, and was a good sport but I wanted to climb under a rock and die!!
The last day on the cruise was a "day at sea" we hung out. Played some Mini Golf,
The kids went down the water slides a million times even though it was NOT warm enough to swim.
We explored the ship, hit the gift shops. The water was pretty choppy and I was very glad for the dramamine this day. I only got sick once. We happened to be up Hanging out on the lido deck,
eating again, ( I think Porter ate his weight in ice cream)
and we watched a ice carving demonstration and the it was time for the hairy chest contest! I may or may not have pointed wildly and screamed over Pauls head when they were looking for contestants and Paul got picked!
It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen! He was such a good sport and won by a landslide!
The next day was hurry up and get off the boat to get to the airport and head back home!
We were not loving the 20 degree temperatures when we had been in the 70's all week. but I was glad to be home and see Berkley! Vacation at its finest!
