Typically in the past I have uploaded a daily recap of each day of a vacay or trip, but this vacation didn't really warrant it. Plus, one of the best things about a cruise is disconnecting from life. While we had our phones because they serve as cameras for both of us sometimes, we had no connection to home for three days and I didn't carry my laptop with me so I didn't write up actual recaps. Instead, we wanted to highlight a few of our favorite moments from this trip so we can look back on it for years to come (since that is the purpose of our travel journal anyway). First, a bit of info.
Our family took a 3-day trip aboard the Royal Caribbean Harmony of the Seas. Harmony is presently the second largest cruise ship in the world. I believe that the largest (also an RC ship) is only slightly bigger though so really... it's a big one. The ship was being relocated to Port Canaveral for 7-day cruises; however, in order to get it back on the right schedule, they offered two 3-day cruises. And we were on one of them. This was the kids' first cruise and our trial cruise to see if they love it. Spoiler alert... they did! We are already planning a possible 7-day for our summer travel plans next summer in lieu of traveling through the US or something. We had one stop in Nassau. We didn't get to go to the newly renovated Coco Key, but we did get to see it when the captain practiced docking at it (as the 7-day will be going there as a port of call. It was a tease. Haha!
Anyway, some of our favorite things about this cruise... Here we go!! (These are in no particular order. And fair warning: pic heavy post ahead.)
1. The ship itself. While we will definitely hit a few key points in our top moments/things about the ship, the ship itself is something to behold. Like I said, second largest in the world. 17 decks high and some 350 or so meters long if my memory serves me correctly. Our room was on deck 10 with a balcony. Starboard side. It was a gorgeous view. The ship was huge and dwarfed the other ships in port in Nassau. It wasn't until we got off there that we truly realized how big the ship was. When it was in Port Canaveral, it was hard to figure how big it was because of the building in front of it and then you were on it. I will say that we averaged 15,000 steps a day (with me topping out at about 22,000 on Nassau day) because it was so much walking just to get from one part to another.
2. Sail Away. This was the first serious moment of excitement for the kiddos besides getting on the boat itself. They got to feel what it was like to leave port. We left right by Jetty Park which made the kids super excited because they know the beach there and they thought it was so cool that we got to wave to people on the beach as we left. Also... Bahama Mamas. Enough said.
3. Central Park. This boat had 7 distinct neighborhoods on board. I'm going to hit on a few of them. This was one of our favorites though. The trees/plants/ etc are all alive as it is an open area on the ship. It was located on Deck 8 but looked straight up through all the remaining decks to the sky. It had the most gorgeous trellised walkway. It also had a few restaurants you could pay extra for that looked really good. We just didn't do it.
4. The Robot Bar. Super random and while we never actually used it, it was so cool. The kids just liked to stand there and watch it make drinks. So, you order drinks on a tablet and then these two robots made the drink. It even asked if you wanted it shaken or stirred. So. Very. Cool.
5. The Boardwalk. Another neighborhood on the boat. This one was home to the carousel which the kids knew about and we had to find immediately upon entering the boat. Well, as fast as possible after we ate. It also housed Johnny Rockets (which you could pay for but again, we didn't), a climbing area for the kids which they loved, some shops, the aqua theater, and The Abyss.
6. The Fine Line. While on the subject of the aqua theater, there is a show there. It is called the Fine Line. Kenzie was sure it was superheroes and bad guys. I'm sure it was the weirdest story I have seen in a while... but it was absolutely one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. It used dancers, high divers, tightrope walkers, a girl on ropes flying above the theater, synchronized swimmers, and videos to make the coolest show.
7. Water slides. So there were three main water slides on the front of the ship. Two were tube slides that wove in and out of one another and another was a tube with a tub area that you spun around when you went down it before one more small drop into the bottom. Steven and I both tried the big green and yellow one with the tub area (I really don't know what else to call that thing) and then Kenzie decided to find her courage pants and try out one of the slides. Steven took her up the first time and I was convinced she would get up there and come back down. She came down. But not the stairs... she actually went down the yellow slide. She LOVED it. So I took her up so she could do the blue. She said she liked yellow better. Later her and Steven returned to do each one of the slides (the blue and yellow) one more time. There were also a couple of slides on the kids' splash pad. Will took a bit of convincing. He doesn't like water in his eyes, but it wasn't too long before he was going down both the tube slide and the one that shot water onto you as you went down it (though he did cover his eyes on that one). He did it over and over again. As did Kenzie when she was in the splash pad. Gave us a nice "break" while they played and we were able to lounge around watching them.
8. The Abyss. While we are on the subject of slides... there is a dry slide on the back of Harmony. That is 10 stories high. It is considered the tallest slide at sea, though I do think there is one on Symphony now, too. You sit in this little carpet thingy and plunge 10 stories in the dark. And it was so cool. Steven and I did it. Kenzie wanted to, but I think that she would have been iffy on holding onto the carpet thing the correct way so we told her it was a bit too much for her.
9. 1887. Harmony of the Seas actually has an ice skating rink. So why not have an ice skating show? This thing was amazing. Kenzie was absolutely enamored through the entire thing. There were trick skaters along with amazing skaters that told a love story that traveled through time.
10. The Pool Deck. I already mentioned the slides and the splash pad, but Harmony had something that was a bit different from what we know. Instead of one large pool and maybe another one hidden aboard the ship somewhere (though those do exist), there was a deck with 3 different pools. Each had a ledge on the side that was just a few inches deep and then the pools were all about 4.5 feet deep. Kenzie loved swimming in the pools and Will was happy as a clam sitting in the shallow end. They especially loved the "zero entry" pool with lounge chairs in the water.
11. Junkanoo Beach. This was a sort of accidental find. It was mentioned in our cruise newsletter thing and we decided to make the quick trip and walk over to it. First we had Steven walk the mile round trip to make sure it was worth making the kids walk to it. We initially didn't know if we would do it because it was a long way in the heat in a foreign country but when we went back onto Nassau in the afternoon, the kids were on a roll walking through the shops and before we knew it, we were almost to the beach so we decided to go for it. We didn't have long to spend there because we knew we needed to get back for dinner but the kids LOVED every minute of it. Too bad we didn't do it earlier and bring suits. The water was perfect. Such a gorgeous color and the kids loved the calm waves.
12. Kenzie getting her hair wrapped. This is something she has been looking forward to for a year. Granted, if we knew beforehand that you pay by the inch... she would have gotten a hair cut before we left. Kidding! Maybe... She chose three colors that seemed to be "mermaid-ish" and the woman doing it was great. She loved the entire thing from the experience to her reminder now of our trip. The woman said it should last 6-8 weeks so I'm sure it will be left in at least that long.
13. Our wait staff in the main dining room and the amazing food. We had a great wait staff pairing for dinner and got the same table every night despite being MyTime diners. Melvin (our assistant waiter) did magic for the kids nightly. They loved it and both of them kept trying to best each other the rest of the trip with "magic tricks." Our main waiter (whose name I completely cannot spell so I won't butcher it) was so nice. He was actually finishing up his last cruise before going home. It was going to a 25 hour travel day to get home for him but you could see his excitement. Despite being on the tail end of working on Harmony for the time being, he was still so amazing. We really loved having them every night. Then there was the food. We had everything from beef tenderloin, to lamb (which Kenzie really liked surprisingly), to lobster bisque, and tiger shrimp. Everything was yummy. My favorite was the apple pie dessert.
14. The views. I don't need to say any more than that about this one.
15. Family Time. We spent 3 days loving our time together as a family. We can't wait to do it again and make more memories.
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