Friday: We pack up and leave for South Florida. Noah begins to cough, a fake sounding little cough. By the time we arrive in SFL I am debating whether I should take him to a walk-in clinic, but worry that he'll be exposed to even more germs at the clinic. For those who remember, the last time we cruised, Nathan got sick the day before we left, we took him to the doctor the morning we were to board the ship, she cleared him, and then he proceeded to spike a 105.1 fever at 2 a.m. onboard the ship, which resulted in a panicked trip to the ship's medical facilities. So we might be a little paranoid in this area. I called our ped and they recommended taking him in just to have his lungs listened to. My mom found us a walk-in clinic and they determined that he had bronchiolitis, but no way to tell whether it was viral or bacterial. Either way, the PA said that it was mild, prescribed antibiotics just in case it was bacterial, and sent us on our way.
Saturday (boarding day): Noah is coughing more, and I'm seriously questioning whether we should go. He spits up his entire breakfast, which doesn't make me feel any better. Nevertheless, we decide that if the doctor said it was okay, we can go safely.
We arrived at the pier around noon and were able to board pretty quickly. On Holland America, you can go directly to your stateroom, so we went there first to drop off the big box of diapers and wipes, Noah's medicine, toys, etc. I had meticulously researched cabins and had secured one of the largest available, but I was still skeptical of how big it would actually be. As it turned out, the cabin was super roomy, probably over 200 sf, with a sizable bathroom/shower and plenty of room for the pack n play. I was happy.
Next we went upstairs, where under the guise of "checking out the pool," I had a surprise waiting. The ship we were on (Eurodam) has private "cabanas" poolside that can be rented by the week. They include lots of amenities as well as a shady, private, and secure space. I thought that this would be a nice way to have an outdoor space for the boys to lounge so that we weren't stuck in our room as much. I think I succeeded in surprising Jason- he must have been happy, because he immediately took a picture and emailed it to all of his friends :).
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| the cabana |
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| The outfit matching the pillows was totally coincidental :) |
We hung out in the cabana until well after sailaway and enjoyed our champagne and chocolate covered strawberries. Unfortunately, by this time it was too late for naps for the boys, so we ended up in the room, ordering room service for dinner. Somehow it got screwed up and we waited nearly two hours, so the first night was basically a wash. Oh well.
Sunday (sea day): Noah was still coughing, but was his usual happy self more or less, so I was happy about that. Honestly I don't remember too much of what we did this day. I think we hung out in the cabana, mostly.
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| sea day |
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| they deliver ice cream to the cabanas |
Unfortunately, we couldn't get the boys to nap in there, so we had to take a several hour time out in our room.
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| naptime |
We did tag team that so that I got my gym time and Jason had some time to explore. The one particularly memorable thing that happened is that when Jason left the cabana to get some lunch, Nathan had to go pee. Of course, for some reason neither stroller was in the cabana, so I couldn't take him to one of the public restrooms (he needed to be lifted and I couldn't do that and hold Noah at the same time. So we rode the elevator nine flights down to our room with him holding himself, because he thinks that's what I mean when I tell him to "hold your peepee." We got a lot of comments in the elevator (none mean, just amused). That night, we went to the buffet and then explored the ship in search of live music.
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| buffet dinner |
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| relaxing |
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| raptly watching a string quartet |
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| what cruise is complete without towel animals?? |
Monday (Grand Turk): All of the ports of call during this cruise were new to us, and we were not disappointed. We were greeted in the morning by an unbelievable turquoise sea, sparkling white beaches, clear blue sky, and a cool light breeze. This turned out to be a great port because you can just walk off the pier into an open air shopping plaza that leads right onto the beach. We secured a spot on the beach (they have free lounge chairs out there too) and hung out there for a while.
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| Jason says I look like a bag lady |
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| classic Noah pose |
As J was taking Nathan to the bathroom, he discovered "Margaritaville" just 100 yards or so from where we were. Margaritaville is kind of a resort area minus the hotel part- pool, chairs, shade, swim-up bar, music, etc. All free. So we stayed there for the rest of our time on the island.
We didn't want to keep Noah outside for too long, so we went back onboard for a late lunch/nap. I believe this is the first day we dropped Nathan off at the kids club,just to see if he would like it. He didn't like it. He LOVED it. They did art, went on pirate treasure hunts, ate snacks, and generally just goofed off. I think he might have enjoyed his time there more than his time on the ship with us, which is okay because honestly we needed a little break.
I had been concerned about how Nathan would respond to the lack of structure and our inability to deliver real consequences, and sure enough I was right. He just couldn't quite handle it all, which is totally understandable for a three year old. Even though he is smiling in all of the pictures, I can assure you that there were numerous tantrums and power struggles each day. We didn't eat in the dining room once because we couldn't get him to behave well enough to risk it. Luckily for us, the buffet was fantastic, so we never were underfed, but still, we'd have liked to go the dining room. We did in fact try to go on Grand Turk day, just with Noah after dropping Nathan off at the club. But the only table available was up two stairs in a back corner where we'd barely be able to squeeze the stroller. Neither of us felt comfortable risking a meltdown, so we left and went up to the buffet.
To be continued...
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