Spring Break Trip 2025, Day 8: At Sea

Friday, March 21, 2025

I woke up really early, just after 6am. Everyone else was still asleep. I tried to lay in bed for as long as I could, but I decided I might as well go for a run. Around 8 o’clock I started, and then by the time I finished, Erik and Ian were already awake and ready to go to the dining room for breakfast. Elisa and Gabe were still sleeping. I showered and went with Elisa (who was up by the time I was done) to the Windjammer for breakfast. I don’t like going to the dining room because it takes too long to get my food. Also, I like picking out my own portions and trying a little bit of everything.

After breakfast, we found Grandpa watching the Armed Forces parade and joined him for a bit. We found Gabe too, but he ran off in the middle of it, and we stayed to watch mostly to the end. We found Erik just after the parade. Elisa ran off with Ian, and Erik and I at some point went to the Windjammer for a little bit of lunch. I grabbed some seafood, ribs, and roast beef. I tried not to eat too much but it’s hard when there’s so much yummy food! There was also a dessert area they had set up special (I don’t know the reason— maybe there isn’t a reason). There were all sorts of cakes and even a fondue fountain. I chose strawberry cheesecake; it was pretty good. Erik wasn't interested in any of the desserts.

    

After lunch, we made Ian and Elisa come with us to the carnival that was happening right around the corner at The Boardwalk. We found Gabe and took him with, but he wandered away not too long after. Ian and Elisa picked out some balloon swords that were being given out. Then we stood in line for some cotton candy. We had to pay three dollars for it, but we all shared it.

The kids weren’t interested in doing much else the carnival had to offer; besides, it was closing just after we got cotton candy. At 3:00, Ian and Elisa went to a candy sushi making class at the Izumi restaurant that Erik had scheduled for them. They seemed to enjoy the class, and they sure came back with a lot of candy sushi!

A fun activity, but too much sugar!

Erik and I took Gabe (Grandma and Grandpa came too) to general trivia. We won thanks to Gabe’s help! The prizes were crappy keychains, but we were happy to get them. We had just enough time to go back to our stateroom to get ready for dinner. The special at dinner was the lobster tail, which everyone at our table got except Gabe and Grandpa. For an appetizer, I got the onion tart, which was basically a quiche, but it was pretty good. I didn’t care much for the dessert I ordered, which was some strawberry shortcake—it was bland and dry. I ate the middle out and left the rest. The warm brownie was good though, so I ate the rest of Erik’s. I probably should have skipped dessert since I had some at lunch, but oh well.

Free lobster night!

After dinner we went back to our stateroom for a bit. We tried to convince at least one of the kids to come with us to the ice show, 365 Seasons on Ice, with no success. It was a pretty neat show; I enjoyed it even if a few of the skaters flubbed up their landings aka fell. The kids missed out. Erik and I were irritated with them because they don’t seem to want to do anything on the cruise ship; they just want to lay in the stateroom bed and watch TV. Because of that, we decided against booking another cruise for next year.

A really neat ice show!

After the show, Elisa, Ian, Erik, and I wandered around some shops. The kids wanted to buy some stuff, but everything is double the price and none of it was necessary. Elisa wanted to buy a swim cover and bottoms, but they were $80 yikes. Erik said we’d think about it, but we never went back. We looked at/smelled a bunch of perfumes and then went over to the Bionic Bar where Elisa designed her own drink. There’s not a lot of options unfortunately, but she picked out something with sprite and cranberry. It’s fun to watch the machine make the drink, but I didn’t like that there was a good inch left on the cup. So, not much drink for your money. I guess you’re just paying for the novelty of it. Erik and Gabe went to watch some of (about an hours worth) the movie Back to the Future while the rest of us got ready for bed.

Bionic Bar with Elisa

Erik, Gabe, and Grandpa went to the Aqua Theater to watch the first half of Back to the Future. They left early since we had to get up early the next day.

The kids just wanted to stay in the stateroom and watch TV for most of the cruise.

Spring Break Trip 2025, Day 7: St. Thomas (US Virgin Islands)

Thursday, March 20, 2025

We didn’t need to wake up early today since our shore excursion at the US Virgin Islands didn’t leave until 11 AM. However, I woke up early anyway and went running around the jogging track on the ship. When I got back, Erik got up and got ready. We went to the solarium for breakfast, because the kids wanted to go to the Windjammer and Erik and I did not. The solarium has pretty much the same food, but there weren’t as many people to bump into there.

Just docked at the US Virgin Island

After breakfast, we got our swimsuits on and made our way to the pier. We hopped in the back of a pickup truck that was outfitted with some benches, and they took us to Burger Beach. They gave us our snorkel gear and let us put our valuables in a minivan. We got in the water and swam around looking for sea turtles. The entire group probably didn’t see more than half a dozen, but each of us saw about one or two turtles. There were a lot of airplanes landing and taking off at the airport right next to the beach. I wasn't able to get any pictures since my phone was kept in the van. After over an hour of snorkeling, we got a ride back to the pier. We looked around some of the shops and found a couple souvenirs from Saint Thomas.

Back on the ship, I took Ian to El Local Fresh where we had some nachos for lunch. Erik took Elisa to the Windjammer buffet where they found Grandma and Grandpa. Gabe eventually wandered in as well and joined them. Then I took a shower and lay down for a while. I may have fallen asleep. Next, Erik wanted to do pre-dinner trivia, so I went with him to the attic. After trivia, we went back to the state room to get the kids for dinner. Gabe wandered in about 15 minutes late. I ordered the coconut shrimp, the chicken korma, and the brownie. Most of our family ordered the Caribbean chicken, but the kids didn’t seem to enjoy it much.

After dinner, Erik and I sat out on the balcony to watch the sunset as we read our books.

It was time for the show "inTENse" at the Aqua theater. I would have liked to see the entire show, but we had a reservation for the escape room. We left a few minutes before the show ended.

Gabe finally showed up as Erik and I were leaving to do the escape room. However, the escape room was just a bunch of puzzles to unlock some boxes. We did not succeed. Several people seemed more of a hindrance than a help. Also, the puzzles were not intuitive. We walked back to our room through Central Park, and we got the kids to clean up the bathroom and go to bed.

Spring Break Trip 2025, Day 6: St. Martin

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

We woke up around 7 so we could eat breakfast and get to our meeting place for our excursion at 8:30am. We ate breakfast at the windjammer. Erik left me and Gabe behind because we were too slow for him. It took me forever to find where everyone was sitting. Poor Gabe couldn’t find anyone at all, so he ate by himself.

Our excursion for the day at St Martin included swimming and lunch at Orient Beach. We took a bus from the ship to get there. They had fruit punch and beach chairs ready for us, but we have to pay five dollars for each umbrella. Somehow, they messed up and left our umbrella even though we didn’t pay. We spent a couple hours swimming at the beach. Then we had our complementary meal. Elisa, Ian, and I had the ribs, Gabe had the chicken, and Erik had the fish. They gave us complementary water bottles.

After we finished lunch, we swam some more at the beach. There is a nude beach down the way, so we unfortunately saw a few bare chests and way too many old dudes in speedos. Erik and I were diligent about putting sunscreen on the kids after every few hours, so no kid got sunburned this trip! When our beach time was up, we rode the bus back to port where we browsed some shops for a few minutes.

Oh Gabe. I really did try to get a nice picture of him swimming. 

Playing in the sand

Look how pretty the water is!

A video of the beach

Almost Gabe, almost...we tried to get a good pic of you.

Getting most (definitely not all) the sand off before getting on the bus to go back to the cruise ship

Walking back to the ship

We all showered when we got back to our state room to get all that sand off of us. Erik did trivia while I stayed in the state room. Before we went to dinner, I went with Erik, Ian, and Elisa to get their zipline experience in. I had no desire to go on the zipline, and while I watched, my decision to not go was confirmed. I don't think they liked the zipline too much. It's just too short and jerky to be any fun.

Getting geared up

Erik went first!

Getting unclipped

Elisa went next

After the zipline, I took Elisa somewhere (don't remember) and Erik and Ian stayed behind to play mini golf.

We had dinner reservations at the Solarium, which was a buffet but nicer and way less crowded than the Windjammer. The selection was smaller but better. The Solarium requires reservations, but there's no extra charge. We all enjoyed our meal there.

After dinner, Erik took Ian and Elisa ice-skating. I sat on a chair and watched. Ian used the grandpa walker and didn't even try to ice skate properly before he walked off the ice. Elisa and Erik did a good job skating. 

After skate time was up, the kids went back to the stateroom. Erik and I hung around the promenade and looked at some other fragrances for sale, and I bought a nice floral Boss perfume. We stopped at the Bionic bar for a drink. The drinks were semi-customizable. They were a bit expensive, but it was fun to watch the machine/robot make our drinks.   

Next, we made our way to the theater to see the comedian juggler Scotty Cavanaugh. His act was so similar to the other comedian juggler on our last cruise, that we wondered if it was the same guy. Maybe it was. I was so tired that I could hardly keep my eyes open through this show, even though it was entertaining enough. After the show, we went to bed and made sure that we would sleep in the next day.

Spring Break Trip 2025, Day 5: At Sea

Tuesday, March 18, 2025

I woke up around 7:15 and decided to get a run in before everyone else woke up. I took my sweet time getting ready, so by around 8 I was ready to go. The running track was just outside of deck 5 so I decided to give it a try. It was a bit weird running when the ship was swaying, and some parts were really windy, but mostly I felt ok. I didn’t like when I had to go around the walkers who didn’t get the memo that they were to stay to the right. I did just over 7 laps, which was about 3 miles. I was so sweaty that I had to shower even though I just showered the night before.

Erik went to the Solarium to eat breakfast with his parents (he said the food was similar to the windjammer) while Ian and I got ready to go to the windjammer to get breakfast. Ian filled up his plate and again but didn’t get a donut (thankfully). I thought I wasn’t hungry but then decided that a fried egg with a roll and some potatoes and mushrooms looked good. While we were eating, Erik did the word search and morning trivia with grandpa.

After breakfast, Ian and I went to arcade and Ian played a few games. Then Gabe came in. They played Mario Kart and then decided to go to the boardwalk to check out more games. Erik and Elisa just happened to wander in while the boys played yet another round of Mario Kart.

The boys took off, and Elisa, Erik, and I went to Sorrento’s pizza place and waited for the anchors aweigh parade while Elisa ate a few pieces of pizza. The parade was fun but short.

After the parade, Erik and I went up to the windjammer for a small lunch and then back to our stateroom. We tried some Indian food and fried flounder. Erik went to the gym to do weights while I lied down on the couch to read my book and take a short nap. Elisa and Ian wanted to try out the water slides, so I took them (Grandpa came with too). They didn’t wait in line too long for the first slide, but Ian wasn’t happy because they made him take his shirt off, so he left right after. Elisa and grandpa went down the big orange slide, but that wait was a lot longer. I got an ice cream cone sometime while waiting, but I didn’t enjoy it much because it kept dripping and the wind kept blowing my hair into it so I just felt messy and sticky. Elisa and Grandpa helped themselves to a cone after the slides.

Ian wasn't happy about taking his shirt off

Good for Grandpa, going down those slides! I'm not the biggest fan of them.

Elisa had fun going down the slides

Can you spot the Elisa?

After the slides, I joined Erik for a bit for trivia. It was a hard game—we got 6/20 correct, but the winners only got 9/20 correct. By the time trivia was over it was about time for dinner. We went back to the stateroom to get ready. It was formal night, but we decided against bothering with the formal dress clothes this cruise. So, I just wore the same outfit I wore the whole day. Dinner was mostly good, I ordered calamari, beef tenderloin, and Creme brûlée. Surprisingly, Ian ordered the escargot, but unfortunately, I had to get after Elisa to stop upsetting him over his choice. Also, my crème brûlée wasn’t very good, and they didn’t give me a raspberry with it. 

We were surprised when Ian ordered the escargot!

We decided to let the photographer take our pictures for dinner. We took some screenshots later the next day.

After dinner, Erik got Ian to go down the water slides again with him. Then Ian and Elisa swam in the pool while Erik and I saw the adults only comedy show. I think it was adults only because the comedians were so old. We recognized the first woman from our last cruise. She had the same jokes this time as she did last time, at least when I could understand what she was saying. She mumbled too much. The next guy told us he was 61, and he told a bunch of jokes about poop and butts. I suppose there were a few funny jokes sprinkled in there somewhere. On our way back to the state room, we browsed some more rings for sale in the shops. We made sure all the kids showered and brushed their teeth before sending them to bed. The next day we would have to wake up early.