Puerto Rico Cruisin' (2019) - Day Eight

Remember back on my blog from Day 1?  Where I raved about waking up, realizing that you have the entire trip in front of you?  Yep, still one of my favorite feelings on Earth.  The world is your oyster.  You want to know what's less fun?  Waking up and realizing that you're not only more than halfway through your cruise, but that you're about 3/4 done with the entire trip.  More than any other day, when I awoke on our third full cruise day, the "sads" were starting to set in.

Now, that didn't mean that the trip was over.  No, more fun was right in front of us.  But there was just a small sense of melancholy for me.  Oh well.  All good things must end sometime, right?  Anyway, we all crawled out of bed and got ready for the day.  Today's port was St. Lucia.  And stepping on the balcony, I could tell this was going to be one of the prettiest islands we visited.  There was green everywhere, with rolling hills and pointed mountains.  That helped ease the sadness of a soon to be complete trip.

Once everyone was ready, we headed to....Cabanas of course!  Spoiler alert - we ate at Cabanas for breakfast every day on the ship.  And I must say, Sam was insanely consistent on this trip.  And I don't just mean Cabanas.  The kid ended up ordering macaroni and cheese at every dinner.  Even Miles branched out, into chicken tenders and cheeseburgers and salads, etc.  But not Sam.  By the end of the trip, our server, Judy, didn't even need to ask.  It was Mac and Cheese, no appetizers, and a Mickey Ice Cream Bar for dessert.  As for breakfast, Sam was equally consistent.  Yep, you guessed it.  He wanted his daily fruit loops, a donut, and his hot chocolate.  Sure, every once in awhile he would throw in a ham and cheese omelet or hash browns, but his other choices were mainstays. Hey, whatever makes you happy on a cruise!

Considering yesterday's observance of vomit fun in Cabanas, this morning we saw that the outside deck was available and headed out.  And man, that was nice.  Sitting in the beautiful sun while the ship came into port was calming and relaxing.  It also gave peace and tranquility to us while we watched Miles, Lukas, and Sam scarf down donuts.

After breakfast, we got all of our stuff together and got ready to disembark.  Today's excursion was appropriately titled "Land and Sea to Soufriere".  Soufriere is a collection of mud baths at the base of an active volcano.  So we'd start by taking a bus around St. Lucia until reaching the mud baths.  After that experience, we would head to the water and take a catamaran back.  Oh, and we'd throw in a visit to a plantation in the middle of it all.

We quickly left the boat and were greeted by a stable of vans.  We were joined by our tour guide, who was awesome, but as I sit and recollect a trip from a month ago, I can't remember his name.  More "sads". My memory must be failing me.  Anyway, he was awesome.  What was most impressive to me was how knowledgeable he was.  He literally covered everything, from government to tourism, insurance to farming.  Whatever you needed to know about this island, he was your guy.  Sorry nameless amazing tour guide!  One day, at 3AM, I'll suddenly sit up in bed, yell his name, and scare Elisa into oblivion.

And then, we were off.  Our van tour started pretty simply, snaking through the small town at port.  But soon enough, we started climbing hills and the road got VERY twisty.  The boys all seemed to be fine, though, so I didn't worry too much about it.  Sam was basically bouncing off the walls, clearly showing that the twisty turns weren't going to make him car sick.  After quite a drive, we got to our first destination.  This was a beautiful overlook of a little inlet of the sea below.  We parked and got off the van.

Right when our feet hit the pavement, my kids were handed cute little animals (fish, birds, etc.) made from tree fronds.  The man specifically said "free for you."  Well, look at that wonderful St. Lucia hospitality!  Sam and Miles in particular seemed to like them and we went over to enjoy the view.  While we were looking out over the ocean (it really was beautiful), I heard the locals advertising banana ketchup.  Ummm...what?  No thanks.  I never eat ketchup and say "you know, this really needs more banana!"  Elisa seemed to at least be slightly interested, but I wasn't having any of it.  For the record, we didn't buy banana ketchup, though later on, Elisa did try it...as did I, begrudgingly.

Soon enough, though, it was time to get back in the van.  As we headed to the door, though, that same hospitable man blocked my entry.  Now, he wanted money...for the little tree frond animals.  But...they were free?  Apparently not.  It's the great switch and bait.  Here, kids.  Let me give you these super cute and unique items, tell you it's all free, and then force your parents to pay me money later.  Not wanting to cause a scene, I gave him a little money but as I sat down, I promised to not be swindled again.

A short van ride later, we arrived at a small fish village down by the water.  Thankfully, when we got out, there were no souvenir peddlers putting things in my kid's hands.  But there were a variety of shops to explore.  Sure enough, here was the banana ketchup!  But there were other items as well.  We got some banana extract, which I do love in my coffees, and a cute little St. Lucia coffee set.  Miles was further entertained because one of the people had this really cool jaw of a fish.  Miles, again, is our sea creature kid, and got some great pictures with his head in the fish jaw.  We finished shopping with Miles getting a bag (for the seashells we collected in St. Maarten) and Sam getting some small carved turtles.  As we were leaving, I went back to where the fish jaw guy was.  This was someone I actually wanted to give a tip to.  He was so great with Miles.  But he was no where to be found.

A nearby woman asked if I was looking for him and I told her that yes, I had a tip for him.  She looked at me and said "he's my husband.  You can give it to me and I'll get it to him."  Yet, as I handed the money over, I couldn't help but wonder if I had just been swindled again.  I'll never know, but I did have my doubts that this man and woman were truly husband and wife.

Back into the van we went, and back onto twisty roads.  It was during this part of the drive, though, that I realized that Sam wasn't really bouncing off the walls again.  He looked a little green around the gills.  The car sickness was clearly coming around.  Thankfully, just as I started wondering where to put the coming vomit, we arrived at our third stop.  This one was overlooking the Pitons, large mountains that St. Lucia is famous for.  I, however, didn't look at them.  I pulled Sam out, ready to focus on calming his stomach.  Yet, as I exited, here were more of those damn tree frond animals.  Yeah, under no terms were we going to accept these and be swindled.  I told the kids to not take them.  I refused.  Yeah, that didn't go over well.

But I had Sam to worry about.  We headed over to the deck and I sat with him as his stomach calmed down.  Sure enough, Sam came around and we avoided any throw up.  Whew.  Once he was settled, we did enjoy the amazing view, ignored buying any more souvenirs, and I got into the van.  On this stop, one of the men had given Connie a cool tree frond flower thing, but like me before, she got swindled.  Upon entering the van, the guy wanted payment.  Poor Connie.  She dug through her purse, found some coins, and headed back.  Soon enough, though, she came back with those coins still in her hand.  Apparently, they don't take American coins on St. Lucia.  Only cash.  So Connie got her flower for free.  I'm sure the guy was thrilled.

On this part of the van trip, I tried my best to keep Sam watching the scenery outside to avoid the car sickness, but I could still tell he was struggling.  Luckily, we didn't have that far to go to get to the mud baths.  You knew you were close when you could smell the sulfur.  I was sure that would help Sam's stomach...not.

We parked at the mud baths and got out, and Sam said he needed to use the bathroom.  And poor kid...sure enough, the car ride had finally gotten to him.  A few throw ups later, though, he seemed a bit better.  Still, not the ideal way to enjoy an excursion.  When that was over, we reconvened with the group and got ready to do these mud baths.  We all stripped to our swim suits and headed over.  Before us was a small but deep pool full of dark grey water.  And it was spicy hot.  We waded through it and got out at the other side.  We walked through a small muddy river and looked up to see steam rising from the Earth.  Just above us, the sulfur enriched air was letting out pockets from the clear magma underneath.  That is what was warming the water.  Strewn around us were big buckets of the mud as well, and they encouraged us to load our bodies.

There were two types of mud.  One was a white grey, which went on easily and came off easily.  The other was a dark grey almost tar like mud.  This, we all learned, did not come off so easily.  Sure enough, I'd find little black marks on me all the way back to the ship.  If I had known this tar like stuff was so hard to remove, I would have just skipped it.  As such, we didn't know, so our entire group loaded up on the stuff and looked like walking mud puddles.  After allowing it to dry, we went back into the small but deep pool and then headed over to some very rudimentary showers.  Boy, these were fun.  By the time you were ready to get the sulfur smell off you, the "showers" produced a very light and inconsistent drizzle.  I think I stayed under the shower for 10 minutes.  We all got as much of the mud as we could off and then got dressed.  Needless to say, visiting a mud bath sounded cooler in the excursion description.  Now, we just all smelled like rotten eggs and had little black dots all over our bodies.

We piled back into the van and had a VERY short drive over to a nearby plantation.  We would eat lunch here and then explore before heading to the catamaran.  We entered an outdoor eating area and walked through the buffet.  The food was fine...well, I'm not telling the truth.  It was mostly fine.  But they did have some fried fish that was AMAZING.  Everything else was okay to me, but man this fish.  And I'm not a huge fried fish fan.  Sam, however, wasn't enjoying lunch.  So then I got an idea.  The fried fish...well, it looked like a flat chicken tender, right?  So I patiently sat and told the boys that this was fried chicken.  And sure enough, all the kids not only ate it, but they all wanted seconds. Yep, my kids tore through fried fish.  All it took was a little white lie.  And don't judge me.  Every parent reading this knows that you must sometimes go to great lengths to get your kids to eat.

After lunch, we got a tour from our fabulous still unnamed tour guide.  It was pretty informative.  This used to house slaves and you saw the terrible conditions they lived in.  You also saw the various plants that they used to treat various ailments, and then we saw and learned how coffee beans are extracted and prepared for use.  It's a much more involved and fascinating experience than you'd think.  Then, we learned about coconuts and watched a master husk and break into one.  They extracted pieces for us to taste, and I must say, I wasn't a fan of that center piece of the coconut.  It tasted...weird.  

We picked up a few souvenirs, though not the one we needed.  You see, during the trip to the mud baths, Sam had somehow broken a leg off one of his turtles.  Prior to lunch, I saw those damn turtles EVERYWHERE.  Now, at the plantation, they were nowhere to be found.  But Sam was pretty upset. In fact, while driving down to the catamaran, he managed to break off a second leg.  Lay off the turtle, Sam!  What has it ever done to you?  But I added turtles to my search and hoped we would indeed find another before we got back to port.  

We arrived and did board our third (and final) catamaran of the trip.  As we left, we got amazing views of the Pitons before the disappeared as we headed around the island.  Prior to getting back to port, we would have one more stop at a beach for some swimming.  I was pretty happy about it too, as I wanted the chance to get more of the sulfur stink off of me.  As we pulled up to the beach, though, about 5 people crowded the sides of our catamaran.  Talk about entrepreneurs.  They rowed up to the catamaran and were setting their souvenirs on the side of it before we even had a chance to get off the catamaran.  However, one of them had...those turtles!  This was my chance.  When we got Sam his two previous ones, we paid $5 for a pair.  So I figured this would be the same.  I asked how much for 2 (Miles wanted one as well).

$25. HAHAHAHAHA.  Oh, and yes, I laughed.  You know, I might get swindled when you put tree frond animals in my hand unknowingly, but if you're going to actively try to sell something to me, be prepared to lose this negotiation.  I counter offered.  $5 for both.  He laughed. Okay, this was fun!  Though, I think less fun for him once we began bartering.  He went to $20, I stayed at $5.  He went to $15.  I stayed at $5.  We went to $10, I stayed at $5.  But when he said he wouldn't go below $10, I said "okay, I'll just wait until we get back to port and get them for $5.  Shockingly, he said okay to the $5.  Master barterer right here, folks!

After that was done, we did get off the catamaran and Lukas and Elisa went off to snorkel (apparently there were a ton of fish to see!).  Even Miles did a little bit of it, albeit closer to shore.  I, on the other hand, wanted to try some more sand art.  This time, the boys wanted a sea turtle, and I had wanted to make one, since I had fond memories of Elisa and I making one on the beach in Seaside, Oregon, the day we got engaged.  And I must say, my sea turtle ended up being righteous (does anyone get that reference?).  It was awesome.  I was very proud of it...maybe a bit more proud than I should have been.  I'm surprised I didn't pull the excursion folks off the catamaran for a closer look.  While I was building the sea turtle, though, I sat and watched a few of the souvenir people that had rowed to the catamaran getting in an argument.  Apparently, they were getting each other's ways.  Thankfully, it was only a war of words though.  

Before long, they called us back on the catamaran, and we headed back to the port, stopping only briefly to see where the rich people stay while on St. Lucia.  

And then, we were back on the ship.  There was no time to swim (this was another full day excursion), but we did to our customary ice cream run.  Well, the kids did their ice cream run with Elisa.  I got pizza again.  Hey, I'm as consistent as Sam!  We all headed back to get showers as well, but sadly, even despite a good scrubbing, I still felt like I smelled like sulfur and my skin still had little black dots.  Oh well, I tried my best.  After everyone was clean, it was time to head to dinner.  

As we had now visited every restaurant, it was time to start the circuit again, so we were back to Tiana's Place, this time with a Mardi Gras menu and parade!  The kids had a ball.  I had great fun too...eating way more than I should have!

I started with only one appetizer (sausage fritters), but apparently the shrimp and grits were the star appetizers of the meal.  I couldn't resist two soup/salads though.  I started with a Cajun Pepper Pot and added an Iceberg Salad.  Thankfully for everyone, though, I only got one entree - prime rib.  It was all delicious.  However, the real star of the show (and this is saying something, since I don't like desserts) was...the dessert!  I ended up getting two.  First, we got some fresh beignets.  WOW.  Incredible and I love me some of those.  Second, they had a Bananas Foster sundae, which was just to die for.  Honestly, so good.  This was one of my favorite meals of the cruise, matching the earlier French one with the escargot.  

After dinner, Elisa headed back to the room for her nightly rest while the rest of the crew were off to tonight's show...A Frozen Musical!  And it wasn't half bad.  It was pretty impressive to see them put that on, and Sam especially loved the music.  Kudos to Elsa, who belted out Let It Go like a champ.  Yeah, she was really good.  After Frozen, we headed into the gift shops and very quickly, I realized that they were starting to run low on souvenirs.  Captain Mickey, one of the key stuffed animals Miles had wanted, was sold out.  Not taking chances, He got Pluto, Goofy, and Donald, so we wouldn't lose out on those.  Sam was still pining for a Golden Mickey, but I didn't buy one just yet.  I mean, they were running out of souvenirs but they still had 1,268 Golden Mickeys left so I wasn't feeling the pressure.  

And with that, we headed back to the room for another good night's sleep.  One more day of wonderful fun, but still one day closer to the end of the trip.  Again, sad.  

For next time, we head to our last port, watch terrible parenting, our tour loses a hard hat, we literally lose Miles on the ship, dress like pirates, and see fireworks on the ocean.  

Puerto Rico Cruisin' (2019) - Day Seven

I mentioned in a previous blog trying to balance everything.  That's me on trips.  Everything in balance.  I really do think that has been the key to my evolving trip planning.  Never too much, never too little.  So after the previous day's half day excursion, it was time to push ourselves a little more with the first of our two extended excursions.  But man, oh man, we were looking forward to this one.

We awoke on our second full day on the Disney Wonder and once again, we were coming into port.  Today would take us to Antigua, a beautiful island that ended up delivering the goods completely.  Today's excursion called for...stingrays!  We would board a catamaran and sail around the island.  Once on one of the far small islands, we would get into smaller boats and head to Stingray City, right in the middle of the ocean. We would get up close and personal with these beautiful creatures before heading back to the catamaran, having lunch, getting a little beach time, and then going back to where we started.  This was one of the most anticipated excursions of the trip.

After getting the crew ready to go, Elisa and I were busy trying to get control of the room, which tends to get slightly away from you with 3 rowdy boys.  I was in final preparations and was working to put some jewelry in the safe for Elisa when I discovered Miles' own protectionist ways.  Here, in the middle of the safe, were Chip and Dale.  His brand new lovies were already snuggled right into his heart, and he was taking no chances in securing them in the safe.  Knowing how important it was to him, after laughing, I left them there.

We headed up to Deck 9 and to Cabanas again.  We ate here every single morning, and it was nice to basically take a different tactic each visit.  Whereas the first day, I went with an omelet, bacon, sausage, and hash browns, today I went with Eggs Benedict, along with a host of fruits and breakfast sweets.  The outside sitting area wasn't open yet, so we all settled into breakfast.  And then, not long after, while people were still eating breakfast, a barrage of Disney Cast Members settled into the area just to to the east of us.  Before we knew it, they had ushered us into others seats in Cabanas as some poor child had apparently "lost his vittles".  Our group ended up having to separate into two tables to accommodate the move, and I sat in wonder as even in a vomit incident, Disney was well organized.  Multiple people kept guard, a cleaning crew was quickly dispatched, and some managers stood at the front of the section, explaining what was happening and offering to help find people seats.

By then, though, it was time to stop eating donuts and danishes (again, a weakness of mine on the cruise) and get ready.  We were to head down to a different club to await our dispatch to the catamaran.  This one was like an old English Pub, stocked with various game tables.  Before we knew it, Lukas and my Dad were into a chess game, Sam and I were "playing" chess as well, though you can only guess what that was like, and Miles was at a Backgammon table.  I think he even made a friend with a little girl that was also keen on trying out the tables.  It passed the time and we were then escorted off of the cruise ship and into Antigua.

Antigua looked to have an even more extensive set up of shops that I knew the group was interested in exploring, but I figured we would have plenty of time after our excursion.  We followed the rest of the group and were boarded onto our catamaran.  As with every catamaran voyage we went on (I think we ended up on 3 on this trip), I always laughed at the opening messages, which were always the same.  The gist - "yes, we absolutely have your rum punch and it will be flowing like a river, but not until AFTER the main activity.  We don't want you to drown."  You might scoff and think that's silly, but I will say that I saw a fair few people that had WAY too much to drink on these catamarans. One gentleman in particular, on our Culebra excursion, was cut off from the bar.  Yeah, that's how you know you have a problem.  It's also jarring to think of how much rum punch it would take to get to that level of drunk.

The catamaran headed out, with Miles and Sam really being our restless little jumping beans.  They started on the netting, moved to sit with us, moved back to Grandma and Connie, and then ended back up front.  Somewhere along the way, Miles head ended up in my lap and he was peacefully sleeping.  I'm sure part of that comfort was just knowing that Chip and Dale were safely tucked away in the safe!

On the way, we saw just how varied these islands can be.  The port area wasn't overly fancy, but as we traveled past the coast, you could see the island evolve.  It started with some nice, but cozy beach front hotels.  Then it went into big houses and condos, where apparently the Royal Family likes to come and stay.  But then, as we were getting close to our destination, they told us all about Long Island - the real Long Island.  Sure enough, out in the middle of the ocean, a ways from Antigua proper, there was a....very Long Island.  This, apparently, is where the rich and famous come to stay when visiting Antigua.  People like Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey visit, and the general cost is only about $20,000 a night.  Um.  Alrighty then.  How would it be to spend that per night on an island and not even think about it?  Must be nice.

Just past Long Island, we arrived at Bird Island, which, safe to say, is not the home of the rich and famous.  It looked nearly abandoned.  It's a small island where our catamaran would stop while other little speed boats would come and collect us to go to Stingray City.  We pulled up and I glanced off the side of the boat - bathtub clear water - finally!  Truly, you could see all the way to the bottom with ease.  It was wonderful and beautiful.  We all boarded smaller vessels and headed away from Bird Island to go farther out and "become one with the fishies".  It was a fun, bump ride that I think was JUST getting to Elisa by the time we pulled up to some docks on a sandbar located truly in the middle of the ocean.  It was a sandbar, docks, and...that's about it.  I knew it was going to be special when we docked and I looked to the left in the water and saw two stingrays float on by.  Needless to say, most of us were really eager to get in the ocean.

And when I say most, it was definitely not all.  As we awaited our turn at the ladders that would put us directly onto the sandbar, Miles was crying.  He was suddenly tremendously scared of the stingrays - he didn't want to go.  This is one of this moments where you aren't sure if the better parent strategy is to push through it and hope they love it or hold them back but be grumpy and know they're going to miss something special.

I, of course, went with the "suck it up, you'll love it!" decision.  Into the water Miles and I went, with him holding on for dear life.  And sure enough, every time he saw a stingray, he nearly started screaming bloody murder.  I took him aside while the rest of the group started getting up close and personal and worked to calm him down.  I ended up giving Elisa the GoPro and I'm glad I did...she got a ton of amazing underwater footage.

As for Miles, slowly but surely, he was calming down.  But he had no interest in getting near the stingrays.  For the time, I settled for him just not freaking out whenever he saw a stingray. When we joined the rest of the crew, Elisa was already taking her place as the Stingray Whisperer.  She was all in on holding, petting, and following them.  And one by one, the group got to try their hand at holding a stingray in the water.  Miles still was resistant, but I think him watching me and Sam interacting with a stingray gave him enough confidence to think he could at least try it.  With him in my arms, we finally approached the stingray and Miles not only touched one, but held it in his arms.

After that, there were high fives all around and Miles, while not smiling yet, was calm and more open to where we were and what we were doing.  It struck me as odd - Miles is our science kid and he LOVES learning about ocean animals.  I would have thought Sam would have freaked out over Miles, but we are who we are.

And then, it was exploration time with these wonderful creatures.  At one area of the sandbar, you'd get pictures with the stingrays.  In another, they'd hand you a big piece of squid and they would direct the stingrays to actually suck the food out of your hand.  It was weirdly satisfying.  It felt like a vacuum sucking up the squid.  We each took turns doing it, and then Elisa got an extra surprise.  Likely due to the fact that her hand smelled like squid, one of the stingrays tried to suck up her fingers!  The result was not pain or injury, but it did create these weird red marks across her 4 fingers.  When she first said the squid sucked up her fingers, I had a mini panic attack that she lost her wedding ring, but she informed me that those were safely stored right next to Chip and Dale.

And for the next 45 minutes or so, we were in heaven.  Miles finally embraced the activity and the sea creatures, and we got so much time watching and playing with these beautiful animals.  So many great memories like Sam gleefully shrieking that the stingrays touched his feet, Miles finally being brave enough to hold a stingray without my help, and Elisa going back for more in feeding the stingrays.  It was so cool and we got some great pictures to memorialize the experience.

So it was with a heavy heart that we finally said goodbye to them, exited the sandbar, and were back on the speed boats.  All the way back, we talked about how great the experience was.  It further solidified in my mind just how special this trip was becoming.  Soon, we were back on the catamaran and enjoying a nice lunch of chicken, rice, beans, and Mac and cheese.  The Mac was fine, but man did Sam enjoy the rice and beans.  He was like a stingray, vacuuming up the food as fast as we could shovel it to him.

After lunch, we got to exit the catamaran and spend some time on Bird Island.  Miles went directly into the sand (yep, that's him).  Sam played around by making sand shoes for himself, and then we walked down to the opposite end and the boys and I played the fun game of digging your feet so deep into the sand at the surf that it's like you lost your feet!  After that, though, Lukas and Elisa got off the back of the boat and started snorkeling and Miles approached me cautiously.  He was ready (and I think, emboldened by his stingray bravery) to snorkel in deeper water by himself.  I got him a flotation device and his snorkel gear and sat proudly on the catamaran while Miles swam around by himself. Granted, he didn't see any fish (there weren't many around bird island), but he was immensely proud of himself and I was proud of him too.  In parenting, watching your child overcome their fear creates some of the best moments.  Leading up to the trip, one of the people at my work showed me a video of Will Smith skydiving.  He had been very afraid and then, when he finally jumped, in the moment that he probably should have been most afraid, all the fear left him.  And the quote he shared sticks with  me even today - "the greatest things are on the other side of fear."  It was absolutely true for Miles that day.

But then, it was time for everyone to get back on board the catamaran and take the long ride back to the port.  It was quite uneventful on the way back and when we arrived at port, I think we were all glad to finally be off the catamaran.  It was still my favorite excursion of the trip.  In the end, even before shopping, my rankings had been updated.

Antigua was my #1 favorite island and #1 favorite excursion.

Antigua also had much better shopping than St. Maarten.  We found shirts for the entire family and Elisa and I even came upon some coffee liqueur that we just had to have.  And hey, duty free prices aren't half bad!  But after about 45 minutes of shopping, the day was getting pretty long in the tooth and we needed to get back on the ship.

I had to check the alcohol in (we could pick it up at the end of the cruise) so Elisa and the boys headed back up to Deck 9 for some afternoon ice cream.  When I headed up, I could see them just getting their ice cream, so I wanted a treat for myself.  I'm not a sweets person, I'm a savory guy.  So nothing sounded better than some pepperoni pizza as my own version of afternoon treat.  Yum.  And let me just say - Disney Wonder has some kickass pizza.

We got back to the rooms and got showers for all and Miles was happy to see that Chip and Dale were safe.  Now that he was back on the ship, he could properly caretake them both and they wouldn't leave his side.  Tonight, we would head to our final new restaurant of the trip.  This is a really cool setup where giant screens lined the walls and slowly, hand drawings would appear.  It was a fun game to guess at what character it was.  I definitely impressed the boys with my proclivity in discerning the Disney characters early on.

As for the dinner, it was again excellent.  You will be proud to know that I chose just one appetizer (black truffle pasta purseittes) and one soup (baked potato and cheddar cheese).  Both were excellent, but the purseittes especially so.  SO good.  I could have had another plate of those - and NO, I didn't.  Okay, I'll be honest here though.  While I was good on appetizers and soups, I was NOT good on entrees.  I got two - Herb Crusted pork chop and Ginger Teriyaki dusted beef tenderloin.  Both were good, but the pork chop was phenomenal.  And while I'm no dessert person, they did have a cookies and cream sundae to die for.  So yes, of course I polished that off.  Did I mention that my pants were starting to feel a little tighter?

After dinner, Sam and Miles headed back to Oceaneer Club, but Lukas wasn't really feeling Edge.  He hadn't really connected with any of the other preteens, which was fine.  He hung out with us like a mini adult and then helped me go and collect the other two.  Tonight's entertainment was a magician show.  Apparently this guy one a couple TV magic shows and so I was curious to see how good he was.  Needless to say, while it was fine, I think most of us were just blah on it.  Some cool tricks, but nothing extraordinary.

And with that, we all headed back to our rooms.  What a day.  What a memory.  The stingray excursion truly was not to be missed and the cruise was definitely not disappointing.

See you next time, where we head to a new port, get accosted with "free souvenirs", experience car sickness, stinky baths, arguing salesmen, and then we all "let it go."

Puerto Rico Cruisin' (2019) - Day Six

I mentioned it early in the trip blog, but now seems like a good time to revisit the strategy.  You might remember that Elisa was hesitant about cruising, namely because of her motion sickness and the 2008 cruise, where she felt like she was on the boat a good three weeks after it was over.  So what did we do?  I had instructed Elisa to start taking Bonine a day before the trip even started.  Knowing we would be doing things like catamarans in Puerto Rico, I didn't think it would hurt.  I then told her to keep it up throughout the trip and we'd see how things would go.  And the result?

Pretty.  Dang. Good.  I wish I could say that Elisa didn't feel the ship at all - we did have some moments where the swaying of the ship was bothersome, but we never got to the point where it was debilitating.  In fact, as we woke up on our first full morning, Elisa was in pretty great spirits, and I was happy to see that the wonder of a Disney Cruise (it is spectacular) was winning out over a little movement of the boat.

I also thought that our itinerary was working to my advantage.  This was a 6 night cruise, but the day at sea wasn't until the end.  That's right.  We had left Puerto Rico just a day before and we would wake up coming into a different port for four straight days.  We'd start in St. Maarten, head to Antigua, hit St. Lucia, and end in Barbados.  I think that, in general, really helped the motion of the ocean.  We were also incredibly fortunate with our weather.  As I sit back and truly analyze the entire thing, I'm quite sure we only were in real rain twice.  The first was in the rainforest, and we were safely in the car.  The second was at the caves when we were tubing (it was raining on one end and sunny when we exited).  Besides that, the weather was truly exquisite. I'm not sure if that is regular January weather or if we got lucky, but it helped  - both our experience and Elisa's motion sickness.

And sure enough, when we woke up, we were slowly working our way to our first port - St. Maarten. The boys and Elisa were up pretty early with me, so we got dressed and headed up to the ship forward to watch ourselves coming into port.  Slowly but surely, we inched our way (while Sam went back to being obsessed with the foosball tables).  But before long, we were hungry, so we thought we would head down to Cabanas and see if the crowds were manageable.

Man, this was a great daily buffet.  It wasn't just eggs and bacon.  They had something for everyone.  Egg scrambles, Eggs Benedict (like 4 varieties), pancakes, Mickey Waffles, French toast, every breakfast meat under the sun, oatmeals and cream of wheat, bagels, breakfast breads (danishes, donuts, etc.) and a station that would make to order eggs or omelets.  There was also, obviously, a full drink area as well as a fruit and cereal station.  So it will not surprise you that every day we visited Cabanas, I had to make a stop to get Sam his fruit loops.  Yes, that was definitely a hold over.  Wait a minute.  We've been back from our trip for almost a month now and Fruit Loops are still a holdover for Sam.

I also really liked how they did their egg station.  Most buffets, you order and then sit and wait for it to be made.  Here, they took your order, found out which general area you were sitting at, and gave you a number.  You could go enjoy the buffet, sit down, and they would bring you your eggs.  A nice touch, and especially helpful with kids.  Periodically, a cast member would also walk around with danishes, donuts, etc.  Color me impressed.

While I was getting the cereal for Sam, I also noticed that Genevieve was working that counter.  Man, they work hard.  Serving dinners until 10-11 at night and then back to Cabanas at 7am.  Give them raises!

After a nice breakfast, it was time to go collect our tickets and head to one of the adult clubs to check-in for our excursion.  This won't surprise you, but I put the excursions into a sort of tournament for everyone to choose, and then I try to balance them over the course of the trip to make sure that we aren't doing the exact same thing over and over.  For St. Maarten, we were only doing a 1/2 day excursion so we could do some more things on the ship as well.  This excursion - a Caribbean Beach Day was simple enough.  We would take a boat to the island, walk over to a private part of the beach, have access to our own little cabanas, have lunch, and just play in the surf.

We checked in and got 486 towels (okay, it only felt like that when carrying them around) and waited for the excursion to begin.  St. Maarten is set up that there are some shops not far off the ships (there were 3 others cruise ships at St. Maarten with us), but to get to the main aspect of the island, you need to take a water taxi.

So we followed a line leader to a water taxi and boarded.  Apparently, however, we weren't very good at this.  During the water taxi ride, said line leader passed out little tickets for our return journey.  We HAD to have these to catch a water taxi back without having to pay.  But when we got off the water taxi near the mainland, our party of 8 had 0 tickets.  We were at the front of the line, and she handed us our tickets - well, 6 of them.  Considering there were 8, I started wondering if this beach day was going to turn into a high stakes game of Survivor, with 2 of our party forever stranded.  No, maybe not.  She went through the line and had given a couple tickets to toddlers, even though toddlers didn't need a ticket.  Man, that seemed like a lot of drama just to get tickets to a water taxi.  More on that later, though.

With the great ticket fiasco of 2019 out of the way, we headed down the beach side, passing a variety of restaurants.  I enjoyed the competition.  Every restaurant had some variation of the same deal.  Rent cabanas from them and get X number of alcoholic drinks.  Only $20!  I noticed a trend that the worse deals were closer to the water taxi.  The better ones were a lot farther away - but that's the point I guess.  If you were willing to walk all the way down the beach, treasures (and deals!) awaited you.

Before too long (about halfway down the beach), we hung a right off the beaten path and into the sand.  We walked right up to the ocean and were instructed that all of the blue cabanas were ours.  Yay!  And then, our excursion group proceeded to run over each other trying to get ones right at the water.  We were a bit more than half lucky.  We snagged five, and my parents and Connie got 3 on the second row.  And then, the excursion folks would leave us alone until it was lunch time.  So in a matter of seconds, the boys were sun-blocked and ready to swim.  Sam had his water wings, and all the boys had goggles.  I turned around for about 10 seconds and they were all in the water and splashing around.  The water was pretty warm - not too cold, but it wasn't that pristine water you would expect.  Don't get me wrong, it was lovely.  But I was kind of hoping for "it's like you're in a bathtub" kind of water.  Don't worry - we get that later.

For the first little while, the boys just played in the water.  Then, Miles discovered shells.  And one thing to know about me - one of the most relaxing things I do on a beach is walk up and down it looking for shells.  I just love the feeling of our feet in the water, searching for little, undiscovered treasures.  I walked down toward the water taxis and back, and by the time I reached our family, I had two handfuls of shells.  Miles was thrilled.  He is definitely my sea creature kid.  So he went through a bunch of them and then I took Elisa along searching down the other side of the beach.  We made it all the way to the other end and back, and had even more shells to go through.  It was super calming.

And then, Sam and Miles needed my help.  They wanted a sand castle.  So here I was, thinking this would be a wonderful experience of a father and two of his sons.  We would sit in the sand, talk about our designs, and work together to construct a lovely sand castle with moat.  This was going to check a box on my vacation bucket list!

Needless to say, these are kids sitting at an ocean.  And my dream didn't mesh with the reality.  Miles was all in at first, but before I could even sit down and start pulling sand to me, Sam was back in the ocean and splashing around.  Bye Sam!  Lukas had no interest from the beginning, so I didn't even look for him.  Miles, on the other hand, said he was in.  So while I started putting together a massive pile, Miles said he would start working on the moat.  And to be fair, he hung in there for awhile.  He probably built...1/4 of a moat.  I, however, was going into OCD focused mode.  But I looked around a few minutes later and Miles was back in the water.  Now, any normal person would just give up and go play.  Oh, have you met me?  No, the kids wanted a damn magical sand castle? They were getting a magical sand castle.  So I worked for the next 45 minutes or so (okay, maybe a bit less) by myself, but by the end, I did have a pretty good sand castle.  At least, I was proud of it until Elisa said it was very phallic in nature.  Oh good. I've built a pornographic sand castle and wasted an hour or more of my Caribbean Beach day!

But even though she was a critic (or was happy about it?  Who knows), I was happy with it.  The kids walked over, said "oh cool!" and then walked away.  El. Oh. El.  At least I tried.

After lounging around, though, everyone was getting hungry.  And sure enough, lunch was right on time.  We headed back up the beach and were greeted with a picnic lunch of chicken, burgers, and hot dogs.  They even had dessert.  Everyone got their food and got settled, while I ran back and forth collecting everything that everyone had forgotten (utensils, drinks, etc.).  By the time I arrived back at our beach chairs, Miles had found a way to dribble ketchup all down his front.  Whoops.  Good thing we had 872 towels from the ship, amirite?

After our beach lunch, the excursion folks told us that we were free to do whatever we wanted.  We had our water taxi tickets, so we could go shop, explore, or whatever.  For the most part, the kids were done on the beach and wanted to go to the pools on the ship, so we packed up and headed back to the water taxi.  While there was some shopping around, we also decided to just get back to port and hit those duty free shops.

We got in line and waited for the next water taxi.  Sam entertained those manning the line and before too long, we were on the ship.  Oh, and the irony?  We would discover the very important water taxi tickets in my mom's purse some days later.  All that drama and they didn't even ask for them.  Wheee!

But we did take the water taxi and unloaded right into some shops.  Like the pro shopper that she is, Elisa immediately went into a jewelry store and found a couple bracelets and a pendant.  Man, she's efficient.  I don't blame her those.  She got fantastic deals and they were Alex and Ani brand, so we knew the quality was great.  After that shop, we headed into another jewelry store, where Elisa discovered a fantastic piece of art.  It was a jeweled stingray.  The color was awesome.  Black and white and gold.  It really was a sight to behold.  Elisa also discovered a really cool snake ring.  The seller could sense blood in the water.  So when I looked at the prices (a cool 8 grand for the string ray), I nearly choked.  But don't worry.  For the cool price if $5900, they would be willing to part with both the ring and the stingray.  WHAT A DEAL!

Lucky for me, Elisa didn't lose her wits and was able to walk away.  Yowza, though.  I mean, that would have been a lot more than the cruise itself.  I did wish I was a lottery winner, though, where you could walk into that and drop the money and not even think about it.  Someday, maybe.  Okay, no, but let's not kill the dream, shall we?

After going through a few more shops, where we considered some shirts (but didn't buy), we finally gave up and headed back to the ship.  I have to be honest: St. Maarten was not my favorite port.  In the end, it would rank as #3 in Beauty and #4 in Excursions for me.  And don't worry - I will be updating the rankings as we go.

So back to the ship we went, where the first stop was the very important Deck 9 where the boys and Elisa could get some ice cream.  Then, we got settled so the boys could go swimming and Elisa could go to the Cove Bar, get a coffee, and chill out at the Adult only pool.  Cruises, man.  There's something (and somewhere) for everyone!

The boys, now ready for swimming, started with the water slide on deck.  They each rode twice, but got a bit tired of the wait to ride down.  While they were on their second rides, I went over to Daisy's De-Lites and got a plate full of fruit (cantaloupe, grapes, watermelon, honeydew).  The boys came over and loaded up on healthy snacks (no ice cream from this guy!) and then wanted to go over to the Goofy family pool.  Now this is pretty fun.  Sure, it's a regular old pool (and two hot tubs), but they face a massive TV screen where Disney movies are always playing.  Over the course of our trip, we would glance/pass by/watch like 10 different Disney movies.  It was fun watching the boys swim, glance and watch a movie, and then go back to swimming.

But after a half day at the beach and more time in the water, I think even the boys were done.  They said they were ready to go to the room (well, except Sam who could have stayed in the pool all day long).  So we headed back and got everyone showers, washing off all the sand and chlorine from the day.  From the Cruise Itinerary, tonight's dinner would take us to Triton's and it was an optional dress up night.  For Disney cruises 6 days or under, there is no true formal night.  Well, Elisa and I embraced this.  We didn't want to lug along fancy clothes for everyone.  So here we were, in shorts and t-shirts.  Knowing this was a Disney Cruise, I figured a good number of our fellow cruisers would go right along with us.

Yeah...not so much.  Apparently almost everyone else on the ship likes to lug fancy clothes with them and put on suits and ties and fancy dresses.  And while I didn't feel THAT out of place, it was certainly a weird collection of folks.  Not everyone dressed up, but enough did that I felt a bit like a fish out of water.  For their part, Disney didn't care.  Everyone was welcome and the fancy clothing was definitely optional.

We got some great family and kid pictures at a variety of photo stops outside of Triton's and then headed into dinner.  When we got settled and chatted it up with Judy, we saw that tonight's menu was French inspired.  Oh, I had been hoping for this.  I'm always in the mood to try good and unique foods and sure enough, escargot (snails) was on the menu.  I was really proud of Lukas.  He not only ordered escargot, but he really liked them.

And for those who read the last blog, let me reinforce that I eat like a pig on vacations and this cruise was no exception.  Elisa was eager to point out that I seemed to always order more than 1 in any category.  Oh well, I guess I have a reputation to live up to, right?  I started with the Lobster and Jumbo Shrimp.  I added the escargot.  Then I got the French Onion soup.  Yes, I know.  But at least I admit it.  And then, I made a mistake. A big one.  I was really torn on the entree.  I only wanted one, but two options sounded really good.  One was Conchiglie Pasta with Lobster.  The second was a Chateaubriand prepared steak.  I thought I'd get a second opinion, so I asked Judy which of those two sounded better.  Her response?  "How do you like your steak cooked?"

So that settled it.  She thought the steak was better.  Cool.  We worked through our appetizers and soups/salads and then I eagerly waited for my steak.  And here it was (and it looked fantastic).  But just as I was digging into my plate, here came the Conchiglie Pasta as well.  Okay, now I really looked like I was out of control in my eating.  Just didn't say a word.  I, however, learned my lesson.  If you don't pick one and you ask which of two are best, you're getting two.  You have been warned.

Truth be told, though, I was glad I got both.  While the lobster in the pasta was good, the pasta itself was only average.  The steak was excellent.  It all ended up working out.  And true to form, I rounded out my meal with an Apple Tartin.  For the second straight night, Miles and Sam wanted to go to Oceaneer Club and Lukas wanted to check Edge out again, so I dropped them off (the club is REALLY close to Triton's which was nice!) and then went back to finish dessert.

After the meal, which was very good (Two for Two, Disney!), Elisa was once again ready to go chill in the room.  The boys, however, wanted to be picked up promptly because tonight's show was the "Golden Mickeys".  It was setup to be like the Golden Globes or Academy Awards, but all the nominees were new and old Disney movies and characters.  We got our seats (Sam stayed for this one) and I was impressed at the levels Disney goes with their presentation.  They had a live feed just outside the theatre where a woman was interviewing cruise families as though they were on the red carpet.  That's devotion to a theme.

The show ended up being fine.  Some of the collections of Disney movies were really good, and I liked how they went back and forth between them.  And the premise (the Stage Manager gets asked by Robert Iger...yep, in full recorded videos where they talk back and forth) was pretty cool.  I mean, kudos to Iger for playing a role in a Disney cruise production, but overall, it wasn't AS good as the ventriloquist from the night before.  It was still really enjoyable.

The biggest takeaway, however, came after.  As we walked through the gift shops (and Miles got his first two stuffed animals of the trip....cruise ship Chip and Dale), Sam decided what he really wanted - his own Golden Mickey.  Those things are huge and heavy.  Needless to say, I denied his request for the evening.  He settled for a Pluto and cruise ship stuffed animal while Lukas got a cool Mickey pirate shirt.

But after a long day of sun and surf, we were all pretty done.  We headed back to the room and settled in for the night.  After all, we had an all day excursion planned for the next day, and it was one that I was especially looking forward to.

Next time, join us for that bathtub like water, swimming with sea friends, a brave leap from Miles, and more.

Puerto Rico Cruisin' (2019) - Day Five

Good morning everyone, it's going to be a magical day!  Oh, I'm sorry, I should have taken my shirt off first.  Hold on a second.

Okay, let's try this again!  Good morning everyone, it's going to be a magical day!  Yes, that's better.  But, in truth, the day was certainly going to be more magical than the others before it.  Because after 4 days in Puerto Rico, we were scheduled to transition from Part 1 of our cruise to Part 2.  The boys were so excited.  I mean, I have properly raised a bunch of Disney freaks.  And they were finally waking up on the day of their first Disney Cruise.  But it wasn't all happiness around the hotel room.  One person in particular was quite sad.

Elisa had truly fallen in love with Puerto Rico and did not want to say goodbye.  I think she had found a part of herself, whether it be in a little cafe in Old San Juan, snorkeling in the waves of Culebra, or discovering farms owned by people with the last name of her grandparents.  Elisa had found a second home.  And while I was excited about the cruise, I must admit that Puerto Rico had definitely captured a portion of my own heart.

In my life, I really have two major (worthwhile) experiences in beach type locations - Hawaii and the Puerto Rico.  And I can best describe Puerto Rico by comparing it to Hawaii.  You see, I view Hawaii and Puerto Rico as sugar, but not the same kind.  Yes, they're both highly addicting and tremendously sweet, but they're very different.  For me, Hawaii is refined sugar.  There's an air of it being a bit processed, perfected, and "clean".  That's not a complaint.  You go to Hawaii for the manicured type of beach getaway, and you love the islands for it.  I especially love Maui, a perfect mix of the refined aspect minus the crowds of Oahu.

Puerto Rico, while still sugar, is raw.  There's something incredible natural about this island.  It's real, unprocessed, unfiltered.  Sure, you see more of the realities of this island (both being a territory and the damage from being in the path of major hurricanes), but there's also something incredibly pure about it.  I can already tell you that Elisa prefers the raw version.  I seem to fall in the middle.  I can appreciate and love both, though something like the previous day's cave tubing certainly adds to my love of the "raw" nature of Puerto Rico.

So while we packed our bags that morning, Elisa did so with a heavy heart.  However, we weren't leaving the hotel first thing.  We weren't even scheduled to get on the cruise ship until 1:00pm, so we definitely had some time to kill. As a final treat, we headed back to the buffet for another great meal of various breakfast foods and all of the danishes and breads and sweets you could hope for.  Sam, unsurprisingly, opted for the usual of Fruit Loops, a banana, and a ham and cheese omelette.  Hey, whatever works, right?

The rest of the family enjoyed the usual faire as we began to say goodbye to the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar.  On a separate note, if you're ever going to Puerto Rico, I highly recommend this hotel.  Not only is it set apart from the hustle and bustle of San Juan, but it is very close to El Yunque, and San Juan is only about 25 minutes away.  You're also right on the beach and the hotel has 5-6 great places to eat.  We didn't head down there, but they also have a casino for those interested.  It truly was an experience.

After eating breakfast, though, we needed to check on some souvenirs from this portion of our trip.  We all headed into the gift shop and looked around.  Lukas found a great shirt that featured the Avengers as sea creatures.  Miles opted for a Puerto Rico shirt with frog in a violent shade of neon green.  And Sam? Well, you know Sam.  He's...unconventional.  Sam discovered a small ukulele that said Puerto Rico, had the Puerto Rican flag, and even had two birds...that resembled the birds outside the hotel (remember Bob and Geoff?  Hi Bob!).  He had to have it.  So the boys got shirts and Sam had his ukulele.  And let me tell you, while the boys definitely love their shirts, Sam got his money's worth on this little musical instrument.  But more on that later.

It was time to finish our last packing and then Lukas and Miles had begged my Dad and I to go outside and play a game of football.  I think Lukas was hoping to imagine himself replaying the Saints/Eagles game from the night before.  But packing was first.  We headed up and somehow got all of our clothes and new souvenirs back into our 42 suitcases and I was immediately filled with dread.  The suitcases.  The rental car.  We would have to pile back in with every spare crevice filled up.  Oh joy.

After packing was complete, we headed back outside.  Elisa took my camera and would spend the time getting amazing shots of Sam (with instrument), us playing football, and her last images of the beach at the hotel.  Did I mention she didn't want to leave Puerto Rico?

Lukas, Miles, my Dad, and I ended up playing a fantastic game of football.  It was Miles and me vs. Lukas and my Dad.  Miles and I kicked butt.  We won along the lines of 35-20 and I was the proud recipient of two pick sixes.  Hey, that's how you learn, Lukas!  It was a really fun time, though.  Here we were, on a patch of grass at a hotel in Puerto Rico, and I was playing football with my boys while Sam serenaded us with songs with us ukulele.  Now that's what you call a vacation.

But before long, it was indeed time to start our way to Phase 2.  As we would be getting on a cruise ship, and though I was dreading the ride in the rental car, at least we would be getting rid of the thing.  The plan was to head back to the airport, drop the rental car, and then get a taxi to the Pier.  We loaded all of our suitcases and headed to the rental car.  The same conundrum existed as before (where to put it all?), but at least this time, we were prepared.  We even did a better job of organizing everything, said one final goodbye to Geoff and Bob (Hi Bob!  Bye Bob!) and we were off.  It was only about a 20 minute drive back to the airport and we pulled in and finally got rid of the way too small rental car (okay, fine, the room was good.  It was the luggage space!  But I digress.).  We headed back across the street and went straight for a line for taxis.  I had noticed this when we first got to Puerto Rico, and I was happy to see that there was no one in line.  The plan had been to get two taxis, but when I told the woman at the desk that we had 8 people and 432 suitcases, she said it wouldn't be a problem.  Sure enough, a van that was actually large enough pulled up and loaded all of our suitcases.  We left the airport and were headed to the pier!

And unlike yesterday, where Sam wanted to devote all of his time to finding hurricane damage, this time we were all on the hunt for the Disney Wonder!  The Wonder is one of Disney's 4 cruise ships.  The Magic and Wonder were the first and are smaller than their newer counterparts (the Dream and the Fantasy).  I was curious to see if I would be sad that we were on the smaller boat, but I'll skip ahead here.  We weren't sad at all.  2,500 people on a ship as opposed to 4,000 made a difference, in my opinion.

So here we were, driving in a taxi, looking for water and then the cruise ship.  I think Sam or Miles saw the cruise ship first.  And then everyone started getting excited.  This would be our lovely home for the next 6 nights and everyone was thrilled.  We finally made our way over to the pier (only about a 12 minute drive from the airport) and pulled up to unload.  And in a very Disney way, we found that our first step would be a line!  Yay, Disney.  Whether it be on a cruise ship or at a theme park, you're always guaranteed lines!

All kidding aside, we wheeled all of our luggage through the line, but it wasn't that long and the line moved briskly.  Prior to leaving the Wyndham, we had put our special cruise tags on our luggage (it would be delivered to our rooms), so we offloaded all the suitcases (and booster seats) and headed into the terminal much lighter than when we had arrived.

After a quick jaunt through Security, we were greeted with...another line!  And then I got a bit nervous.  I had checked us in online and we were assigned a time of 1:00pm.  In my research, I had found that Disney was quite stringent about these check-in times, but right before we were assigned a desk agent, I glanced at my watch and saw it was only 12:35.  I had fears that Disney would kick us back out of the line, but come on now, this is Disney.  In the end, the check in time meant nothing.  We would be on the ship before 1:00pm even came around.

So we split our groups and went through the check-in process.  The woman that helped us was delightful, but clearly told me at the beginning that her English wasn't perfect.  So I thought that this would be the right time to tell her that Lukas was learning Spanish and could help.  Talk about a deer in headlights.  The minute she started talking in rapid Spanish, Lukas just looked back and forth between me and her.  We gave that up pretty quick, but I do love the kid for trying.

In the end, her English was perfectly fine.  We got the boys their bands for Oceaneer Lab (the kids area on the ship), got our Keys to the World, and were instructed to head through the doors to the right.  Here we go!

We went around a couple corners and were greeted with...a line!  This one was for pictures in front of the backdrop of a cruise ship.  I knew this part of Disney magic was finally underway when we all did the thumbs up pose and were told to head up the escalators and get on the ship.  Up we went two escalators, and then we were walking parallel with the ship.  From the looks of it, we would be entering the ship on the 4th floor.  We crossed a bridge and then I set foot on our very first Disney cruise ship!  I was full of...wait for it...Wonder!  Okay, I'll stop.

Once we were on the ship, we were rewarded with...a line!  Yay!  But a more pressing matter took over.  We got to the place where you need to scan your new Keys to the World and...my Mom had lost hers.  No offense, Mom, but how do you lose a Key to the World in less than 5 minutes!?  Unfortunately, by the time we noticed this, we were already checked into the ship.  We pulled to the side and I looked over everyone's heads (it pays to be tall sometimes) and saw her frantically searching her purse.  Finally, after about 45 minutes (okay, maybe 45 seconds), she came across her Key to the World!  We were back in business!  They caught up to us and I made a joke about this being like the time where we were going to Disney World and after all my planning, I arrived at the airport only to realize that my Driver's License had expired.  Whoops!  Talk about speeding back to the house to get a birth certificate!  I'll never forget that the attendant told us we had to be back 30 minutes before the flight or we wouldn't make it.  We arrived back with my birth certificate 31 minutes before our flight.  Yowza.

We rejoined the line and I promptly got the boys excited by telling them that they were actually on the cruise ship.  When we finally reached the door, a nice gentleman asked "What's y'alls last name?" I was half temped to say "Our y'alls last name be Pierce", but I resisted.  After telling them Pierce, though, we stepped over the threshold and were officially announced over microphone.  "Please welcome the Pierce family!"  Well wasn't that a nice touch.  Other cast members welcomed us aboard and we got our first view of the atrium.  The ship looked exquisite.  After rounding a couple corners, they asked if we were looking for lunch (oh we were...starving) and they told us to head up to Level 9 and to the back of the ship where we would find the buffet of Cabanas.

So off we went.  At check-in, we were told our rooms wouldn't be ready until 1:30, so we thought eating was a good first step.  The problem was that EVERYONE was wanting to go to Cabanas.  Ironically, the only time on the entire cruise that crowds caused a problem was at lunch.  Cabanas was full.  Thankfully, my "magical" research had taught me that there were a lot of quick service shops all around Deck 9.  Some of the crew headed to Daisy's De-Lites, for, well, lighter faire like salads and sandwiches.  I took Sam and Miles to Pete's Boiler Bites for a hot dogs and chicken tenders, and then we found some tables and settled in.  As the rest of the family was still not quite up to speed on the ship, I went over and loaded up drinks.  I brought them in two shifts (4 drinks each shift) and then finally sat down to lunch.  The food was pretty good.

But something even better happened while we were up on deck.  Remember the ukulele? Well, Sam hadn't let go of it since we bought it.  So here he was, on Deck 9, playing away.  Steve, one of the cast members quickly noticed.  He asked Sam to play him a song and Sam complied, including a little singing as we went along.  Steve was in a Captain's outfit, which told you he had to be one of the managers on board. He thanked Sam for the song and typed something into his iPad.  Don't worry - this will come back later in the story.

After eating, we decided to go check out our rooms and then explore the ship.  While it was 1:30, the ship itself wouldn't be leaving dock until around 5:30 or so.  We headed down one level and all the way to the front of the ship.  We were in cabins 8500 and 8506.  The plan was for Elisa and me to be in 8500 while my parents and Connie were in 8506. The boys would rotate.  However, when we arrived (and I loved our room placement by the way - farthest cabin forward), we found that in addition to our bed, you could pull down not 1, not 2, but 3 beds from the walls.  Very quickly, we settled into the idea that all three boys could stay with us for the cruise and we were really excited.  I mean, usually when we travel, one of the kids is inevitably with Grandma and Grandpa.  It was kind of special to have all the boys with us for our first Disney Cruise.

Soon enough, though, after falling in love with our veranda (this would be AWESOME on the cruise), we headed out to explore the cruise ship.  First, we headed over to Oceaneer Club.  This is designed for kids Age 3-12.  It's really cool and really secure.  You head in and we had pre-registered, so the only thing we needed to do was get their bands secured on their arms with a little additional gray circle.  We also set it up that Lukas and Miles could check themselves in and out but Sam needed an adult.  And if anyone was checking someone out, they needed our family password...duh, it was "Utes".

As the cruise hadn't departed, this was considered an open house, so the whole crew got to go in and watch the boys.  They started in Andy's room, which was a great recreation of a bedroom.  You headed upstairs, could "bounce" on Andy's bed, and then could ride a Slinky Dog slide back to the ground floor.  All boys went up.  Sam came down first, thrilled.  Miles came next, a bit slower than Sam (those longer legs!).  Lukas basically had to crawl out of the slide.  Yep, he was officially too big for this.

We explored other parts of the Lab.  There was a Marvel section and a crafts section.  Then you headed down a long hall and entered the other part of the Club.  Here, Miles went crazy.  He is an artist through and through, and there was so many art activities awaiting him.  You could trace Disney characters, learn how to draw Disney characters, or even do more crafts, painting, etc.  He was in heaven and immediately started tracing some of his favorite Disney characters.  Lukas did some too, but Sam already wanted to head back to Andy's room.  He and I went back and Sam rode the slide about 49 times.  Man, that was fun watching that happen over and over again!  Before too long, we did head back and discovered a bunch of dodge balls.  So now, in the middle of the Lab, Lukas, Sam, Miles, and I were throwing balls back and forth at each other and having a great time.

It was then time to go explore other parts of the ship.  First, we headed to Edge, which was a preteen hangout zone.  Lukas seemed pretty interested in returning later on in the cruise.  Up on Deck 9, we also discovered the adult only section of the ship - more on that in future blogs because I truly believe you could do a Disney Cruise as a couple adults and have a wonderful time - and we found ourselves at Cove Cafe.  I had learned about this in my planning and knew it would be a hit with Elisa.  We headed in as the boys found some deck chairs to wait in and Elisa saw a whole coffee bar in front of her.  Yes, theses were extra charges, but how could you resist a coconut chocolate mocha concoction?  I pushed Elisa into getting one and she was very glad she did.  I was too - it was delicious.

From there, with iced coffee in hand, we went up to Deck 10 and to the front of the ship.  Here was the Wide World of Sports deck.  They have a netted in area for basketball and other activities.  Lukas and I went in and played some basketball while Sam obsessed over the foosball tables. '

And do you know why Sam obsessed over the foosball tables?  Because of that damn Michael Kay!  So many magical experiences losing at foosball to his brother!

Anyway...

After a bit of basketball and a rousing game of foosball that had to end in a tie so no one was upset (ah, boys), we decided to head back to our rooms to see if our luggage had arrived.  On the way down, we let the boys get some free ice cream and then got back to our cabins.  Sure enough, our luggage was waiting for us.  While we unpacked, Sam headed into my parent's room.  Before long, Lukas, who had traveled over as well, came to tell us to come see what was delivered.

Remember Steve?  And the ukulele presentation?  Sam (who was registered in my parent's room) had received a special card and a plate of chocolate chip cookies.  The card read "Thanks for the song.  Please enjoy these cookies.  Your friend, Steve".  Sam was overjoyed.  Sure, the cookies were great, but I think we was more excited that he had a friend named Steve.

We settled into the room and had some time before the muster drill, and that's when we discovered a very understated and cool part of a Disney Cruise.  Where other ships just sound a bland horn, the Disney Cruise horn is...well, Disney.  It plays the tones of "When You Wish Upon A Star" each time. Maybe it's just me, but it was a nice little touch.  After eating some of the cookies from Sam's "friend", it was time to actually do the muster drill.  The first part was just trying on the life jackets in our room, which turned into the boys making crazy, silly faces while putting on the life jackets.  Then, we finally got word to head to Group C, which was just down a few floors from where our room was.

We headed onto the deck and I was sad to see that we were on the side of the ship that was in the full blast of the sun.  I jealously imagined the people on the other side of the ship, calmly waiting.  We, on the other hand, were collectively counting the minutes until the muster drill was over.  It was so warm that the boys started hiding in our shadows.  But soon enough, after seeing life jacket demonstrations and hearing what we would do in an emergency, we were finally released and it was time to head up to Deck 9.

Disney was having a Sail Away Celebration, which would effectively kick off the trip and invite the Disney characters out and about.  We went up immediately and Lukas, Miles, Sam, and I got a front row seat.  I looked around to see where everyone else was, but they had smartly found chairs that overlooked the stage and my Dad was already busy getting us our first official cruise drinks.  Sure enough, over came a Pina Colava (thank you very much!).

Before long, the deck had filled and the Sail Away Celebration kicked off.  First came the cast members, doing a variety of small skits and even more dances.  Then came the cruise director, who had entirely too much energy.  Finally, I looked to the right and the Disney characters were lined up to come on stage.  We were greeted to Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Pluto, Chip, and Dale, and they had their own dance routines to get through.  Finally, we all started a countdown from 10, streamers exploded, the cruise horn sounds (When You Wish Upon A Star!), and we were "officially on vacation."  Okay, sure, the ship wasn't moving yet, but Disney said we were on vacation, so we're on vacation now, damn it!

We headed back to the rest of the crew and Miles and Lukas told everyone else about all of the dancing they had done.  It was a fun send off.  And then immediately, Miles wanted to see Disney characters.  So we headed down to Deck 4 where Mickey Mouse would soon arrive.  After a short wait, Mickey did indeed come barreling down the hall.  We weren't that far back in line, and it was fun to see the excitement from the boys.  However, I have to give it to other parents (or maybe tease them a little).  The strides people go to for Disney autographs.  Just in front of us, some families brought large canvases for signatures.  Others had made wooden anchors for the characters to sign.  I mean, come on.  Aren't the pictures more memorable?

Anyway, it was finally our turn and there were big hugs all around for Mickey.  We got some great shots (maybe some of the best ones of the crew for the whole trip) and we were truly feeling the magic.  Are you happy now, Mr. Kay?  Just as we were leaving Mickey, I glanced out the window and saw that we were indeed finally moving.  We immediately headed outside to get our last glances at Puerto Rico (yes, Elisa still didn't want to leave).  And then I realized that it was time for our first dinner.

Now, I'm not sure how other cruise ships do dinners (it was a decade since my last one), but I'm a big fan of how Disney does it.  There are three separate restaurants on the Wonder: Triton's, Animator's Palate, and Tiana's Place.  You rotate through them, but your server comes with you.  That really opens up the cuisine changes and keeps things fresh.  Our first night's dinner would be at Tiana's Place, yes themed after Princess and the Frog.  As we walked into the restaurant, we were greeted by a jazz band already playing.  We were assigned to Table 21, which meant, as a group of 8, that we had a table to ourselves.  We all got settled in and waited to meet our server.

It was a little while before we met her - she was busy with another table right next to us...same party size, it seemed, and even from afar, you could tell that one of the cruisers was "special".  Oh, yes.  She would be special through the cruise, I was sure (and I wasn't wrong).  But then we did meet our server and assistant server.  And my, they were amazing.  Our head server was Judy, who was from Barbados.  Our Assistant Server was Genevieve, who was from South Africa.  They were both lovely, and we all liked them immediately - especially Judy, who right away seemed to make a connection with Elisa.  They would later bond over their distaste from special girl at the other table.

We glanced over the menu and I already knew that I would need bigger pants.   On cruises, you can order anything and as much as you like off the menu.  The problem is, they have appetizers, soups/salads, and entrees (and that's not including the full dessert menu).  Too much looked good, but as I was on a cruise where the food was included, I wasn't going to skimp now was I?

I started with the Louisiana Hot Crab Dip, got the Cream of Mushroom Soup, and also ordered a Caesar salad.  I know, I know.  Elisa gave me grief thoughout the trip as well.  Oh well.  This was part of making my cruise magical.  When it came to entrees, though, I only got one - the sirloin steak.

And the verdict?  Holy hell, everything was amazing.  I cleared literally every plate put in front of me, and wasn't sure I could squeeze in any dessert.  While most of the adults were wrapping up their entrees, though, Sam and Miles had gotten bored after eating Mickey ice cream bars.  They asked to go to Oceaneer Club.  Lukas seemed brave enough to head to Vibe.  So Lukas went off and I took Miles and Sam to the Club.  I loved this set up.  I could check them in and then head back to the dining room, knowing they were safe and secure.  In a cool bit of tech, even when we went to pick them up, they knew precisely the room they were playing in.

So I did head back to Tiana's Place and discovered that Elisa had ordered me some chocolate cake.  Somehow, I made the ultimate sacrifice and found room for it.  Elisa was pretty much done for the night (this would be a theme, but it's her vacation too...if she wants to relax in the room each night, she absolutely should).  But the rest of the group had wanted to go to the big theatre to see the first of many productions.  Tonight would be a ventriloquist that, according to Judy, was supposed to be very good.  So we met up with Lukas, and I checked Sam and Miles out of Oceaneer Club, and we browsed the new open duty free shops.  The boys were already making plans for souvenirs.

We headed into the show and got seats.  And the ventriloquist?  Hilarious.  He used a variety of them, and each routine seemed to get even better.  However, about halfway through, Sam said he was tired, so as Daddy, I had to leave the show and get him back to the room.  Once he was back, I headed to the theatre once again to see the best part of the show.  The guy had called up various adults and kids from the audience and were letting them use his puppets while he made them talk.  One little girl was an angel with the puppet.  Very kind, very careful.  The boy, however, was a nightmare.  Like so bad I would have personally been embarrassed as the parent.  He was so rough with the puppet that one of it's legs fell off.  Yes, literally.

You could tell that the ventriloquist was not a happy camper.  But he handled it like a pro.  He thanked the boy and had him leave the stage, and then went to the girl and told her she got to keep the puppet she was so careful with.  That's a pro move right there.  Well done.  And even amidst the chaos, the ventriloquist was still hilarious - like tears running down my face hilarious.  When that little boy was being incredibly rough with the puppet, he had the puppet saying the craziest things.  We all enjoyed it and it would remain one of our favorite shows of the cruise.

And then we were all exhausted.  Whew.  What a day.  What a blog!  Kudos for those than hung with me in this never ending account!

Next time, we hit our first port of call, build castles, get the jewelry "offer" of the century, and head for the red carpet.

Puerto Rico Cruisin' (2019) - Day Four

While I like to work on a balanced trip (no matter the destination), I always try to throw in one or two activities that challenge the idea of a regular old vacation.  When we went to Disney World, the additions were subtle but effective.  On our first full day, we all rented mini motor boats and went skirting all around Seven Seas Lagoon.  There was nothing like slowing up right in front of the entrance to Magic Kingdom, having the Monorail go right above your head, or spend 20 frantic minutes wondering what the hell happened to your mother and Aunt, since their speedboat hadn't been seen in ages.  Even better was getting them on the phone and trying to orient myself to their location and then, by memory, try to give them directions back.

Oh, they made it back safe, but wow, I know what it's like to try to lead a blindfolded person through a minefield.  In the end, we all had a good laugh, though.  Similarly, on that trip I tried to get a little adventurous related to our cuisine.  Instead of just eating "American" faire over the course of our trip, I had staged an elaborate dining tournament that would ensure that every meal would highlight a different cuisine.  This meant eating in more exotic locations, including an African restaurant.  

For Puerto Rico, we were already playing around in unknown waters, but I still wanted to find something that screamed "special".  Just days before the trip, I stumbled upon just the addition.  Knowing the make up of my group, I triple checked to make sure that all ages (young to old) could handle the adventure and I got everything booked.  So what were we going to do?  Ziplining?  An exotic restaurant?  Oh no, we were going into the heart of Puerto Rico and we, as a family of 8, were going to go cave tubing.  I had been sold by the website that talked about this being a life changing type of excursion.  Everyone else, surprisingly, seemed open to the idea.  Maybe they didn't really wrap their heads around what we were about to do, but I like to think more positively.  I think they are just getting well trained for my planned trips and whether they admit it or not, they like a sprinkle of the unexpected.  

Unlike Day Three, however, we wouldn't be taking it easy in the morning.  We were located on the northeast corner of Puerto Rico and our excursion was in the middle of the island.  Puerto Rico isn't gigantic, but even getting to our destination would take a couple hours and it started promptly at 8:30AM.  So I hurried everyone out of the room at 6:15AM and we headed down to the little counter service place we had discovered just 2 days before.  Everyone got more of the usual (cinnamon rolls, egg sandwiches, donuts filled with Nutella) and before we knew it, before the sun was even up, we were heading out to explore.  

On the drive, a few interesting things happened.  First, we saw a rainbow not far into our adventure.  This was fitting, as every time my family sees a rainbow, they believe it is my brother Jeff saying hello.  Hi Jeff.  Miss you buddy. 

Second, since it was a longer drive, and Sam was not yet cured of his infatuation with natural disasters, he created a sort of weird game, where we all had to be on the lookout for hurricane damage.  I thought very little of it, as I felt it would fade through the longer drive.  I was definitely wrong.  Part of it, no doubt, can be chalked up to my oldest son's habit of being highly competitive.  Suddenly, people were keeping score and we were having involved conversations explaining why some damage wasn't always caused by hurricanes and why Puerto Rico still needed our help.  It was...different.  

While these natural disaster conversations raged on (and yes, we got into the subject of which natural disaster was the worst and why each of us held our various opinions), Elisa got some sleep and we meandered across Puerto Rico.  With about 15 minutes to go until our excursion began, we got off of the main roads and started heading up one of the most twisty roads you'll ever find.  It was "enhanced" by the fact that most Puerto Rico 2-way roads are not that big.  Many times, you need to pull to the side to let another car pass.  So here we were, going about 12 kilometers through twists and turns.  I was half afraid that one of the kids would get car sick and half afraid that I wouldn't see a car coming from the other direction.  It was...not the best.  I found it slightly hilarious, though, that exactly 2 minutes after 8:30, we got a call on my cell phone from the folks running the Excursion.  Dude, you know the road we have to drive!  Be patient!

But we finally did arrive, and got out of the car and prepared ourselves.  We were told to leave most possessions behind, including towels.  We would be one with nature and could worry about the finer comforts upon our return.  As everyone did final bathroom breaks, each member of the group was fitted with a helmet with corresponding head lamp and a life vest.  Here we were, 8 crazy adventurers that ranged in age from 72 to 5.  What a sight, I'm sure.  

And as we got ready to leave, we were greeted by our guide, Omar.  Omar, it turned out, knew a shit ton of stuff about Puerto Rico and our excursion and ended up being just a fantastic guide overall.  He balanced our safety with our sense of wonder and created a truly engaging experience.  Yet, we would have to earn that experience, and I'm not talking about rough terrain - at least not yet.  Our first step on this excursion was to pile into one of their vans and continue down the twisty turn road.  That is, until we turned off the twisty road into a truly offload experience.  How off road?  We literally went up a steep incline to the top and Omar said "this is just like a roller coaster" and we headed down what felt like a 45 degree incline.  We were bouncing all over the place.  Miles and I had been relegated to the back, and I spent a good amount of time just hanging on.  You should see some of the GoPro footage.  Just watching it would be enough to get you car sick.  

On the ride, though, Elisa got to learn more about her potential heritage.  As we were traversing, Omar stated that the little farms dotted here and there were owned by the Cintron family.  Elisa's grandparents held the last name of Cintron, and it was fun to see Elisa pontificating whether or not they had some tie to her.  It was fun to see her further connect to her heritage and to Puerto Rico.  

My enjoyment, however, was sidetracked by Miles.  Where earlier, I was sure he was enjoying the bouncing, now, he definitely looked green in the gills.  I was very afraid that if the ride didn't end soon, I would have breakfast sandwich all over the seat.  But luckily, just about the time I was truly starting to panic, we arrived at our destination, and I was able to get Miles out of the car.  He took some very deep breaths and started to regain control.  I wish I could say that this would be my last experience with car sickness in the family, but I'll leave that for another blog much later into the trip.  

Before too long, though, Miles was doing better and we were ready to start our true adventure.  The plan would be simple.  This would start with a mostly downhill hike through muddy trails.  We were actually instructed to turn sideways and work our way down in a sort of shuffling pattern.  According to Omar, it was better to fall to the side than have your feet slip from under you and you fall on your...butt.  So here we were, all shuffling to the side.  I was holding Sam's hand, Elisa's hand, or my Aunt's hand to get us all to safety.  

Along the way, Omar filled us in on the various plants and wildlife.  It was truly fascinating.  We learned about how self sufficient those in Puerto Rico had become, and how much they were able to live off the land.  We also were saddened to hear that even the heart of Puerto Rico had suffered terrible damage from Hurricane Maria.  I was grateful that Sam didn't continue his game of finding damage as we walked.  

Before too long, we had made our way all the way down the trail and arrived at a river.  I looked around for tubes, but I kind of didn't expect to see any.  After all, the water was moving pretty quickly around here.  No, we were just beginning our quest.  Omar told us that, holding hands in a long train, we would be crossing the river on foot.  Unfortunately, the water got deep enough that Sam wouldn't be able to walk, so I got to carry Sam while holding Elisa's hand.  But it was so cool.  You truly found yourself alone in the middle of this exotic island.  Sure, they did these excursions often, but you also got the sense that you were definitely one of a smaller number of people to ever do this.  Nature was...raw.  There was no other way to describe it.  There were no hand bridges, guiding posts, or built bridges.  There was only Puerto Rico, the river, our feet, and our train of brave adventurers.  

Once we got through the river, we snaked through more rainforest like trees until we reached another part of the river.  But this part was...moving.  It was amazing.  In every small little pond of water, you saw hundreds, if not thousands, of tadpoles.  Outside the pools, miniature frogs were learning how to hop.  It was breathtaking. Here we were, carefully stepping in and out of pools that were full of varying tadpoles and frogs.  I loved it.  We crossed another shallow part of the river and then headed back into the rainforest.  

Before long, though, we came out of it and were greeted by a much calmer part of the river, anchored by small cliffs on either side.  Sure enough, up and to the right, you could see stacks of tubes.  We had arrived at the second part of our journey.  It was so quiet, and I was sure there was no around us for miles. Soon enough, though, 9 tubes were brought down and the backpacks that we had lugged down were safely stored up on the cliffs.  One by one, we each got settled on a tube and one by one we realized just how chilly the river was.  Oh, we definitely had an inkling from crossing the river, but putting your butt into the water was an entirely new level of chilly.  Omar patiently took each of us and had us use our legs to hook onto the tube in front of us.  When we were one big snake in the river, Omar went to the front and starting giving us instructions to paddle.  Everyone else was a single rider, but I had Sam firmly on my lap.  This would lead to both Sam whining (he wanted his own tube) and Sam entertaining me (constantly talking into the GoPro about how he loved Puerto Rico and how amazing the vacation was).  

Omar, it seemed, either had a terrible group of paddlers or something was wrong.  Because we sat paddling for about 3 minutes and didn't move an inch.  Poor Omar.  Off he got from his own tube and discovered that a couple of the tubes were stuck on some rocks under the water.  Upon returning back to the front of the group, we found that paddling was much easier.  

Sure enough, we slowly started working our way toward a large cave entrance.  Omar guided us most of the way and pushed us over to the left side of the cave entrance.  Instead of paddling, we would use our hands to slowly work our way down the cave walls.  It was so cool to slowly work your way deeper and deeper into a cave where you couldn't see the other exit.  We all turned on our head lamps and even as we headed in, you could see the walls of the cave change. As Omar explained, when it REALLY rained in Puerto Rico, this cave would fill completely up.  And yes, that's saying something.  Deep into the cave, we glanced up and saw incredibly high ceilings.  Omar even pointed out a random container that could barely be seen some 50 feet up.  This was something in the river when a flood had occurred that simple had gotten wedged into the top of the cave.  It was also very cool to see the walls of the cave change.  They, at times, looked like something you might find in one of the caves in Carlsbad (or for my Utah peeps, in Timpanogos). 

In a moment that surely gave Elisa the creepers, we came across scorpion spider like creatures that hung on the wall.  Don't worry, we stayed away.  But it was another shining example of just how far into the wilds of Puerto Rico we were.  For awhile, we were under the cover of complete darkness, but slowly but surely, more light came in as we made our way to the other exit of the cave.  We got to a place where the river was again shallow and we got off our tubes.  We headed back outside, again completely alone.  I was, minute by minute, becoming more of a fan of this adventure.  THIS is the type of out of the box experience that, in my opinion, every vacation needs.  

We came across a waterfall that had completely purified water (yes, we drank and no, we didn't ever get sick from it).  Omar showed us some cool leaves that were completely water resistant, and Lukas and Miles spent time throwing water back and forth from leaf to leaf.  Omar then found us a rock that provided us natural mud.  We took his lead and we loaded our faces, arms, and legs with mud.  Yep, it was a free mud mask for anyone interested and we all got involved - well, except for Sam.  He got a little dribble on the side of his face and that was enough.  He would stay away from the mud while the rest of us loaded up.  None of us were as good at creating face masks as Omar, though.  He stated that he did this on every excursion and he just had the best skin.  

After a little more play, though, it was time to reverse course and follow the path we had already traversed.  As we headed to the opening of the cave, it started to rain.  It wasn't a heavy downpour; just a slight drizzle that only added to the peace and serenity of the experience.  Heading back into the cave, the return trip would be more relaxing, though.  This time, we were traveling with the current, so we could simply relax and "go with the river".  Soon enough, we were back to the cave entrance and we meandered back to the shore where we had first gotten our tubes.  And then Omar turned to the group with an offer - who wanted to go cliff dive with him?  You could almost feel everyone collectively step back, but I was definitely intoxicated by this experience, so I was the lone volunteer.  So Omar and I headed across the river and climbed the left hand cliffs.  We made our way down to what Omar called "the deeper parts of the river".  It's interesting, because the cliff didn't look very tall from the river, but it felt a lot taller when you were staring down into the river.  But YOLO, amirite?  The boys did a little countdown for me and I dove feet first into the river.  Sure, it was cold, but going all the way down and touching the bottom of this river seemed like the perfect addition to this excursion.  I was so glad I did it, and I silently marveled at the fact that Elisa and I, on back to back days, had our own "moments" with Puerto Rico and nature.  She had gone into the pool and water fall (remember the whole "take the damn picture!"?) and I had cliff dived into this river.  I was proud of both of us.  

By the time I got back to shore, though, I was also very cold.  Yeah, didn't consider that part.  But we put the tubes back, got our backpacks, and headed back from whence we had come.  Back across the frog pools, back through the rainforest, and back across the raging river.  On the way uphill (no side shuffling required) Omar found a cool leaf that allowed you to write on it.  Miles especially loved this  (he is our science kid).  But soon, we were back at the van and I knew the excursion was coming to an end.  And while I had been transfixed with the experience, I also remembered the roller coaster van experience, so Sam, Miles, and I moved up to the second row and I cautioned them to watch the road in front of us.  Yes, the drive was just as crazy and bumpy, but this time we avoided all of the car sickness.  

Back at the starting point, we took the time to change our clothes and we got back into the car. Thanks again, Omar.  You were truly an amazing guide.  I'll never forget it.  

Unfortunately, we had to meander back 12 kilometers to get to a regular road, and I was very worried about Miles.  He was a trooper, though, and before long, we were heading back and searching for a place for lunch.  While I was driving, I asked my Dad to find some options on his phone.  A couple times, he found a place that happened to be in the opposite direction.  We were all entertained when he kept mentioning a place called Joy's Barbecue and Connie openly rejected the idea every time.  I might be wrong, but I don't think Connie liked either BBQ or people named Joy.  

It took awhile to actually find a place to eat.  I had to pull off the road for us to really narrow down a spot and I found a little pizza joint not too far away.  We found our way to it, and headed in.  This was definitely local.  No one was in there, but the woman awaiting us was very nice and brought Elisa and the kids these fruit juice concoctions.  We had a mix of burgers and pizza (I know...strange combo) and while it was fine, it wasn't amazing.  Lukas especially rejected his pizza.  The menu said nothing about jalapeños, but they had indeed put them UNDER the cheese.  Yeah, that's kind of killer.  

After lunch, we were all pretty done, though.  We got back in the car and headed back to the hotel.  Along the way, I finally killed the "let's find hurricane damage" game after it became a little to competitive and a little too silly how they were pointing out everything as some sort of hurricane damage (it wasn't).  

Back at the hotel, though, we also had another mission for the night.  There would be no swimming, as even though we were on vacation, our beloved New Orleans Saints were playing a playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles.  Our plan was to get some drinks, watch from the hotel room, and get some room service.  This served two purposes.  First, it allowed us to watch the game.  Second, Elisa LOVES getting room service on vacations.  It's definitely one of her favorite things.  We call this type of situation a great "two birds, one stone" moment.  

Down at the bar, I patiently (okay, not really...I was nervous about the game) waited for a Havanas Bananas and we were still at the bar when I watched my dear Drew Brees throw an interception on the first play of the game.  Well, at least I'd have my drink, right?  We got our beverages and headed back into the hotel.  As we were getting off on the 6th floor, a man was getting on the elevator.  He chimed in with a random "the Saints are going down!" to which I replied "nice to meet you too!"  Okay, I added "dumb ass" right after but the elevator doors were closed.  I then went on a mini rant about jerk wad strangers pulling crap like that.  I don't talk crap before a game.  I wait until after.  

And despite the horrible first quarter, my Saints would end up prevailing.  They won the game and had officially made it to the NFC Championship game.  And hey, we would still be on vacation that following Sunday, so yay!  

Lukas was especially thrilled with the results of the game, though I got the keen sense that while Miles is a big Saints fan, he doesn't live and die by their results.  What is my proof?  When the game was it's most intense, Miles fell asleep.  When he woke up and I told him the Saints won the game, he nodded and headed for the bed.  Geaux Saints, right?

I will say, though, that I very much regretted not paying attention to what the elevator crabby patty looked like.  I REALLY wanted to find him and point out that, in fact, the Saints were not going down.  I was so excited (and still bugged by the stranger) that I considered running around the bar outside and just screaming that the Eagles had gone down, just for fun.  Elisa definitely wouldn't have approved of that.  

And yet, the day held one more surprise before we all retired.  As Elisa was washing out our swimming suits in the bathtub, she screamed and I ran in.  Here, in the middle of the bathtub, was a worm, still wiggling around.  It seemed that we truly were in nature in Puerto Rico.  A worm had even hitchhiked all the way from the middle of the island to our lovely hotel room.  Elis was not pleased.  I promptly disposed of the creature.  

But as I laid down to go to sleep, I just smiled at the adventure that had developed just a few days before our trip began.  This would be a lasting memory for me, and I was so grateful that we did it. 

As for next time, we head for the second leg of our journey. We start by reenacting the football game from the night before and then delight ourselves by injecting Disney straight into my veins.  The cruise was finally upon us.