Lindblom Cruise 2024

 It's finally here!! The Lindblom family cruise!! It's been in the works for 2 years! I honestly thought the world might end before this happened. The biggest bummer is that Marcie and Austin's family didn't come. Jane isn't old enough yet. David and Abbey left their kids at home with a sitter so they could actually enjoy the vacation haha. 

The kids had two weeks of fall break and the cruise fell on the second week for Weston, Olive and Tanner and the first week for Collin. We flew to Orlando Saturday, Oct. 5 at 10:25am and got there with one layover at 8:30pm. It was general conference and we were so lucky to be able to listen to the morning session before takeoff, the afternoon session during the layover and the evening session on the 50 min. drive to our hotel. Well, I got to listen. Travis was being friendly, talking to the Uber driver in Spanish. 

I have versed them all well in the germs of the airport.

We stayed at the same hotel as the Goodmans and got there about the same time. I ordered pizza to be delivered to the hotel and after we ate we piled into their rental car to get some ice cream!

 12 people in one mini-van. They fell out like a bunch of circus clowns!

So funny, it looks like Olive is taking a big whiff of Shelley's cone.

Our hotel was a couple miles from Port Canaveral. We boarded around 11am.

 We did it! We made it on the massive Wonder of the Seas!! It's only a year and a half old. Its maiden voyage was March 2022. It certainly is much nicer, bigger and fancier than our last cruise ship. It holds almost 7,000 people at max capacity and has 16 floors. We did a little exploring waiting for the rest of the family to come aboard.

It is hurricane season and Hurricane Helene hit Florida just days after we left from our other cruise. We thought we avoided trouble, but then Hurricane Milton started brewing and our cruise got affected. We were supposed to make 4 stops: Cococay Bahamas, Cozumel, Roatan Honduras and Puerto Costa Maya. They canceled Honduras and Puerto Costa Maya and gave us Jamaica. It was a bummer to lose out on sloths in Honduras but it was fun to see Jamaica. 

The boys had their trendy St. Christopher necklaces that apparently wards off harm to travelers when on journeys. Very fitting!

The first day was rain, rain rain! Sadness. The departure party had to be moved indoors. We still enjoyed ourselves with lots of dancing!

The nightly photographers at dinner were entertainment in and of themselves. 

We tried sitting adults at one table and kids at another but that only lasted three nights before we felt the poor waiters needed a break from the slaughterhouse that resulted from one of the little ones. Then, Shelley, Casey, Travis and I sat with our younger kids at the "kids" table and everyone else was at the other one for a couple nights. Dinners were fun and we all got our fill of fine dining. 

These three hamming it up for the photographers!

This ship had pizza all hours of the day and night! Plus soft serve ice cream almost constantly. 

We had reservations for the water show but the rain canceled it the first night.

Our first port was Cococay. It's a beautiful, private island owned by Royal Caribbean. We were first off the ship and went straight to the water park. They had a band singing "Perfect day and Cococay!" Except it was most definitely NOT a perfect day! It was overcast and drizzly but we were determined to make the most of it! We hit the water slides and lily pads and waited for the Goodmans but they slept in and didn't get there for a few hours. I'm not a big fan of slides but I was a fun mom and went on most of them! The sun peeked out a few times and the rain would let up intermittently so we held onto hope. They had delicious food all ready to be served the minute you ordered and all sorts of unlimited drinks and juices. We ate in the rain, trying to be brave. The rest of the family had gone to the beach area so we got a golf cart ride out to meet them.  

David and Abbey and Christopher's family had already called it quits and gone back to the boat. The wind was so strong they wouldn't let us open the umbrellas so we ran out to the ocean, trying to make the most of things. Some people weren't cold but I was shivering and my lips were blue! I don't know how long we tried but it became apparent the storm wasn't going anywhere. Only getting worse. The rains started coming down in sheets and everyone ran for the golf carts. It was too far to walk but we had to wait quite a while for a ride. I was MISERABLE! It was almost comical how bad it was. When the first golf cart train came, the mob surged at it and half our family got left behind. Women and children first. I had kids on my lap and we waved sadly at Travis and the older boys who had to wait longer. You would have thought we were deciding who got the life boats on the Titanic. We still had to walk a few hundred yards to the ship and as we trudged along, cold and hyperventilating and I had to laugh. This was going to be a core memory for sure, for all the worst reasons!! Collin did find a sweet conk shell while the boys were snorkeling and he even made it past the security and metal detectors getting back on the boat, but the live thing inside died of course and started rotting so it smelled to high heaven and he chucked it overboard.

On our last cruise EVERYONE dressed on theme each night! On this cruise NOBODY did haha. Nobody except us! We got stares all night. I thought we looked tubular on 80's night!

The kids were NOT fans of the kids club. Ugh. But they were willing to go to the kids theater room to watch a movie most nights.

We decided to do an embarrassing t-shirt swap and exchanged names before the cruise. We had planned to wear them one day but somehow we ran out of time so we just exchanged them and wore them one night. Christopher is a huge Utah Utes fan so the BYU shirt had me rolling. So did my mom's Kamala dog shirt! She hates Kamala and dogs!

You had to have a parent with you to do the rock wall. We only did it once, but Olive made it to the very top and rung the bell!

The Flo rider was definitely the biggest hit. All the boys were on that thing daily. 

I was happy to go to the gym every morning.

Formal night in our "fancy" duds. 

There was a game room we'd retreat to most evenings. Even the kids played games and enjoyed their late night pizza.

There was a "silent" dance party one night that Christopher, David, Craig and I went to. It was in the adults only solarium, which was already humid because of the hot tubs, but after dancing we were drenched in sweat! We kind of just went to check it out but ended up closing that place down haha. It was pretty full at first but by the end we were the only ones there. We danced our hearts out and it was probably a top 3 favorite memory of the whole cruise! 

In Jamaica, we booked an excursion to tube down a river then go to some waterfalls to swim. Casey had a friend who served his mission here and he recommended the waterfalls. We thought the bus ride was only 30 min but it was actually 1 1/2 hours! The Goodmans, David and Abbey and my parents and us went but we were so sad when we got separated from my parents and they wouldn't let us add them to our group. We thought everyone would be in the same group. So that was a bust. But we did get to do part of the waterfalls with them. It was interesting to see the island on the long bus ride and hear some interesting facts from our tour guide. It reminded me of Africa. Very poor and primitive. The school kids all had uniforms just like in Africa. 

But they do have KFC and Pizza Hut!

The Sandals resort made us laugh from The Office episode where Michael Scott can't stop talking about it. 

Getting fitted with helmets and life jackets there were some wild looking spiders that Weston was willing to hold.

The water wasn't warm but it wasn't cold. It was like floating in the jungle. Not many rapids. 

No, Tanner. Don't pet the mangy dogs!

After tubing we got on the buses again and drove about 30 min. to the falls. It was a whole experience of climbing around and jumping into the water at different spots then taking a rope swing into the last pool. It was very beautiful and a lot of fun!

There goes Tanner!

We ended at a smokehouse restaurant for a late lunch of jerk chicken.

Apparently this is a jail!

Hawaiian night!

Shelley and her 3 desserts!

Even at night they were doing the flo-rider.

We finally got to see the water show and oh my word it was AMAZING!!! The coolest dance numbers in the water and diving off insane heights! Two women did a performance bouncing off of tight ropes that looked so difficult. I was in awe the entire time. 

School never stops so I brought my lap top to get some assignments submitted and snuck in some blogging too. Very serene getting to work with the ocean as my view. Then the cleaners kicked me out so they could clean the cabin. 

So grateful for sunny days and warmth after those first two days of rain! There were multiple pools and a sweet nacho bar not too far. Wish I had figured that out sooner!

We went to a game show and Abbey volunteered to be a contestant. Little did she know it would require lots of wittiness and thinking on your feet! It was supposed to be PG but got a little naughty. They had to complete the sentence and the one that got the most applause won the point. 

Nothing to see here. Just a ginormous bag of candy we all pounded.

In Cozumel we booked a dolphin encounter and it was next level incredible! I had high expectations and it was still better than I could have imagined. It was David and Abbey, my parents, the Goodmans and us again. The older boys got put into another group because our group was too big. We got to touch, play and be pulled through the water with the dolphins. They "kissed" us on the cheek and were so happy and playful. They have to be the happiest animals on earth. You can't bring your phone but they have photographers who are happy to charge you a mortgage to get the pictures. My mom sprang for them and we were so grateful. I think they ended up being $900 or something crazy like that. This was probably my favorite activity of the whole cruise. After our time with the dolphins, we walked upstairs to their restaurant with the most gorgeous view and feasted on nachos, quesadillas and pina coladas.

We still had half the day after that so we caught some taxis to a private beach. Apparently, there are no public beaches so we had to pay to enter but it was a sweet spot. Lots of trampolines and slides and places to snorkle. Plenty of lounge chairs and umbrellas and the snoozies hit me right as we got there so I conked out. Jefferson's family and Craig and Camille were also there! Olive got her hair braided and I paid for a sweet massage. Abbey made me do it, haha! We also indulged in some Miami Vices. The weather was beautiful and the water was warm. What more could we ask for?! 

Never considered how fun it would be to twin with my son!

Lucy was very indecisive when it came to ordering. Shelley and the waiter were very patient!

We went to an ice skating show that night with some incredible skaters. Modest costumes optional.

We also went to a show in the big theater called The Effectors II. It was kind of a spin on a superhero show, but super super weird. Which is too bad because the costumes, sets, dancing and singing were phenomenal. I just have a short attention span when that all is applied to a psychedelic storyline with bizarro characters. At the very end, the villain takes off in a massive "spaceship" that flies through the audience. It honestly was pretty cool. There was also a drone show that was very amazing. I wish it all just been a drone show haha. 

Gotta work off these 5,000 calorie days!

They had a family, carnival style activity on the boardwalk with games, fondue and prizes. 

Lucky me, I was the designated adult who got to ice skate with the kiddos! Why do they make rental skis torture devices?? Why?!

Finally got to wear our Family Cruise swag! Thanks to Abbey for making that happen. We wanted to on our first day but the rain had other plans. 

Dancing with the waiters! We had the nicest waiters. I tried hard to suppress my empathetic guilt that they are working 7 days a week because they happened to be born on some exotic island and this is what they do to stay out of poverty. 

It is always a FEAT to gather the entire family for a group picture. The lighting outside was magical, but the wind was trying to throw us off the ship!

Our last, late night pizza. We gathered in the solarium with our snackies and to visit. I was so sad for it to be over! What an experience. We are pretty darn lucky we have parents willing to pay for the entire family to be together on an exotic, Caribbean cruise! 

What helped me be OK that it was over was not having to worry about Weston falling off the side of the boat. He sleep walks and talks so I was pretty terrified he was going to sleep walk off the side of the boat. A crazy thing to be worried about, but I was. It kind of felt like being in a packed amusement park for 7 days. People everywhere. A little suffocating. So having space, alone time and quiet in my own home was appealing. That's about it. Having all the meals taken care of was amazing. No cleaning. No laundry. Just time with my family and fun, fun, fun! Plus 3 course meals?! Heaven. And now, finally... FINALLY I can say I've been to the Caribbean!! Ya man!