We are back home from our big cruise vacation with the kids. We had an amazing vacation and we got to see so many beautiful places and do so many fun things. Chad's Mom, aka Mimi, and Chad's Aunt Phyllis, aka Phil, came along with us to help with the kids, and they were such a tremendous help to us. The kids LOVED getting to spend time with them too!
We definitely had our share of rough spots along the way, including Brady and Chad getting stung by a jellyfish on the beach in Antigua. I was a wreck about poor Brady being stung but he took it like a total champ and was back in the water playing like nothing happened in less than 10 minutes. How many 2 year olds can say they braved a jellyfish sting on a Caribbean beach? Also, every person on our trip got sick with the cruise flu bug to varying degrees with the exception of Mimi. It started with Aunt Phil around Tuesday and lasted a day or so and she recovered. Chad got extremely sick on Thursday night and recovered by Friday afternoon. I got so sick on Saturday night I had to go the infirmary and get a shot to stop my nausea, and Chloe and Brady got sick in quick succession in the early morning hours of Sunday, the day we were supposed to disembark the ship and travel back home. We were extremely lucky that by 9 AM on Sunday we were all feeling better and we were able to travel home that day without any incidents.
Any time you travel you take a risk that you are going to run into some issues along the way, and you can just about double those chances when you are traveling with two toddlers, but overall our trip was amazing, even withstanding our illness. The children got to see so many amazing things. In St. Thomas they saw so many beautiful sea creatures at Coral World including sea turtles, sharks, and sting rays. In Tortola they swam with the dolphins and interacted with them up close and personal. In Antigua and Nassau they played on the beach and swam in the beautiful Caribbean ocean. Aside from all of the great experiences the kids were able to have, we were very lucky to get to spend so much quality time with them for 8 days and also that they were able to spend so much time with their Mimi and Aunt Phil. They bonded with them so much during our trip and it was difficult for us all to say goodbye when our trip was over.
Below are some pictures from the first port, St. Thomas. This was our first day off of the ship. We did not have a scheduled excursion on this day. Instead, we planned to arrange for transportation to visit Coral World. Coral World is like an aquarium that also has some outdoor exhibits including a beautiful sea turtle cove. We explored Coral World in the morning and made it back on the boat in time for nap time that afternoon. It was a beautiful place!
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| Chloe and Chad at Coral World. |
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| The port of St. Thomas |
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| View at Coral World |
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| Mimi and Phil with Brady and Chloe at Coral World |
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| Mimi and Chloe checking out the sharks at Coral World |
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| The sea turtles were beautiful to watch and my favorite part of Coral World |
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| Chad and Brady at a scenic overlook in St. Thomas |
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| Watching the sharks |
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| Brady and Chloe looking out at the sea turtle cove at Coral World |
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| Our whole group in St. Thomas |
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| Coral World |
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| The sea turtle cove at Coral World is pictured here |
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| Out in that pod you could do a swimming with sea turtles experience, but Brady and Chloe were not old enough yet |
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| Me and Chloe in St. Thomas |
We enjoyed our morning in St. Thomas and our visit to Coral World very much! Stay tuned for my next post which will have some pictures from our time on the beach in Antigua.
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