Spring Break Cruise 2018: Day at Sea

Cruises are just the best.

I love them.

Our whole family loves them.

Spring break was the first week of April this year. We sailed out of Port Canaveral, which is close to Orlando. We drove down on Easter Sunday, listening to General Conference in the van as we drove. The drive was quick and easy. Well, as quick as 600 miles can be.

We liked our hotel and it was within walking distance of Cocoa Beach. Even though we got there at sunset, I couldn't resist walking across the street to the beach.

We were doing a Flat Stanley for Quinn,

so you'll see him appear in several of our pics. :)

The next morning we were off to the ship!

Eeeek!

Almost all of our past cruises have been with Carnival. We decided to give Royal Caribbean (RC) a try this year. There were pros and cons to the switch, but overall we were happy with it.

Here we go!

Our ship was called Majesty of the Seas.

It's one of their older and smaller ships.

Next time I book a cruise, I will pay more attention

to the reviews of the ship itself.
It was fine, but I think I would've liked a newer
ship even more.

Flat Stanley likes cruises now, too.

Lounging on the deck

Here was the kids' room.

Isn't it TEENY?

Good thing we're little people.

Oh, wait...

There was a pod of dolphins swimming right around the ship

before we took off. Love that!

Caroline, especially, was SO happy to see them.

One of the major highlights of our cruise happened before we even pulled out of port.

Our captain announced that we were going to delay departure by thirty minutes

so we could WATCH A ROCKET LAUNCH!!!

What???

Lucky!!!

It was AMAZING to watch.

I was busy watching it with my own eyes, 

so my videos are iffy.

But you'll get an idea.

I love the chants of "USA! USA!" in the background.

A couple of pics of the rocket in the air.

 I was trying to get the rocket in the background,

but at least you can see the smoke trail. :) 

One of the BEST parts about RC is that their ships

have climbing walls. Perfect for these two!

B-train just FLIES up the walls.

The employees timed him and he was the

fastest climber they'd ever seen on one of the routes.

One of our favorite things about cruising:

all the yummy food!

 We love the dinners in the nice restaurant.

The appetizers and entrees were very similar to 

Carnival. But the desserts were a little better.

The first night, the kids and I all ordered creme brulee.

And our server didn't want Andrew to feel left out,

so he brought one as a second dessert for him.

The kids didn't love it.

I did.

I went with the teenagers to the big show on the ship that night.

It was Disco night.

Not necessarily our favorite type of music.

But the singing and dancing were good.

And they did a whole ABBA montage, which we loved.

The first full day on the ship was our day at sea.

We spent time reading and relaxing on the deck. 

They don't have an adults-only deck on this ship.

Andrew and I missed that.

We played several quiz games.

We teamed up with this couple and took first place in one of them. 

The girls and I did a scavenger hunt around the ship

and took second place.

We had our share of ice cream cones.

One of the things we DIDN'T like about RC

was that the ice cream WASN'T SELF SERVE.

Lame!!!

It wasn't open 24 hours (like it is on Carnival).

They had a little employee stationed there making you

modest-sized cones. NOT Andrew-sized.

 And there was always a line,

which never happened on Carnival or Disney,

where they let you serve yourself.

On the upside, RC has self-serve CRISPY 

bacon on the breakfast buffet.

I'm not a big bacon eater,

but Andrew LOVED that.