I was new to the whole cruise thing so a lot of things came as a surprise to me and traveling with a days away from being 8yr old and a 1yr old had it's own set of nuances. I found the ship super confusing. It was like the first week of college. There were three sets of elevators and if you took the wrong ones you simply couldn't get where you were going. Sometimes getting somewhere would mean taking one set of elevators up a floor to get to another set and then going down. Also like college a ton of people piled on to take the elevator even if they were only going one floor and none of them batted an eyelash at squeezing past the lady in the wheelchair with the kid in her lap. Jerks.
One of the places we went most was the kid area. Floor 17, the elevator farthest from our room. It was ages 3 and up so Isaac could hang out and play, but Riley was only allowed to go in if I stayed with her. Isaac won jumping contests, built roller coasters and competitively stacked cups among other fun goings on. He loved it up there. One of the child activities staff was his favorite "Kenny Ketchup" he wrote about him all over the vacation journal his teacher had assigned him. I had been banking on being able to take Riley to the pool during the day, but they didn't allow children under 3 in or even near the pools or splash pad. One day I tried to entertain her by the pool (which had a short wall surrounding it) by letting her splash in puddles on the deck. I was swiftly reprimanded.
She found ways to amuse herself mostly with pen and paper. This trip was all about drawing for her. She also played with the room phone, hid from her brother under the bed, opened and closed the tiny fridge and tried on our clothes. On the whole the staff was very accommodating. They provided a crib, took special food orders for the baby and brought highchairs. It was incredibly difficult to get Riley to take a nap if her brother was in the room. I spent a lot of time reading in the room while Riley slept and Mike ran around with Isaac. At night the seas tended to get rougher and once or twice the rocking knocked her crib against the wall and woke her up.
We also picked "late dining" so we could eat with the rest of the family, but it would be well past the baby's bedtime before we got served. If we ate early we'd miss seeing everyone and if we split up one person would be stuck in the room with the kids. I wouldn't bring a child under 3 on a cruise again. It wasn't much of a vacation for me because she had to be everywhere I was. Mike took the kids to Princess Cays for a day to the beach where Riley Finally got to swim. Mike's dad took Riley for a walk around the ship one morning, but other than that she was tiny shadow.
In general, despite the popularity with the septuagenarian set, cruise ships are not very wheelchair accessible. I grew up around sea faring vessels and I never encountered one that was, but this was my first time on a week long cruise. The hallways are super narrow and 2 or 3 times a day there would be cleaning carts in them. Crossing from one end of the ship to the other with the wheelchair and the baby in my lap or pushing the stroller was quite the chore. Aside from that the room was small so with the roll away cot the steward originally brought for Isaac I couldn't get around in the chair. We did have a spacious bathroom with accessible shower though.
The staff was very friendly about carrying things and moving chair for me, but overall I found getting around challenging and exhausting. Off the ship things were hit or miss. At some ports there was no way to get off in a wheelchair because they weren't pulling into a dock. They were ferrying people to and from the ships on tender boats. We decided to do an excursion to some Mayan ruins in Mexico and even though we were warned it wasn't "recommended for those with limited mobility" I was determined.
I hoofed it on crutches up the looooooooooong dock through the touristy drop off spot down another long dock and onto a little boat which took us from Cozumel to the mainland. The ride on that boat was one I wish I could forget, one word folks: Dramamine. I've never been seasick before but there's a first time for everything. We got off the little boat and onto a bus were we heard all about Mayan culture. When we got to the site we hired a "taxi" (a bicycle attached to a bench) to take us around. It really amazing. Tucked away in the trees there was a huge pyramid. I sat at the bottom and took pictures while Mike and Riley climbed to the top and back down again. I couldn't help but wonder what kind of life my daughter would lead having scaled a Mayan pyramid before the age of two. I hope there is always beauty and adventure for her.
I was understandably spent on the way back, but it was so worth it. We also got off in Honduras, but I used my wheelchair. I watched people zip cording through the trees and wondered what the rest of my life would hold now that that exact type adventure was out of my reach. Instead we went on the "magic beach chair" aka sky ride. It was gorgeous there, so green. Other than those to adventures I stuck to the ship.
It was good not to be home. It was nice to have some else in charge of cooking and cleaning. I was in no hurry to get back to reality and the hip surgery awaiting me. It was an adventure for sure, but by the end of the trip I was tired of our room. I was tired of rocking (which doesn't immediately stop when you get back on dry land) and tipping people. I'd seen enough out stretched hands to last me awhile. Alot of folks really earned their tips, but after awhile you start feeling like a human ATM, or is that just a bank teller?
Disembarkation was a serious undertaking. You had to have your bags packed and in the hallway by dinner time the night before. You were assigned a color and corresponding leaving the ship time. We got 8:30am and sure enough we were whisked away just like when the we got on. A very nice man helped us and our bags to the curb and Mike went for the car. It had been an entire week since we'd parked and after 10ish minutes my cell phone was ringing because he couldn't find it.
After that auspicious start we were off and limping. Actually loading the car was hardest part. The four hours home (plus time to stop for lunch) passed really quickly even though we finished our audio book on the way there. I think it always takes longer to get somewhere than to get home.
Hopefully this was the first of many vacations to come
After hearing about your experience, I was discouraged about my own upcoming cruise. The ship I was on , I kept acting suprised when something was cool or fun. Our ship was fun. They should be since they are "The Fun ship" We had a balacony which really was the icing on the cake. Fresh air was great. we were two disabled out of four women. They took great care of us, ALL of us.
ReplyDeleteNext,I took you skiing at 5yrs old. When you did ski,it reassured me you would KNOW, that YOU could do anything you want. And you did;)