Panama Canal Part 3 April 27-May 2

April 27

We woke up to quite the choppy sea that day. They told us that the waves were up to 21 feet high. Not surprisingly it made us just a little sick. It was odd to wake up in the middle of the night or in the morning and feel your weight shift like it was trying to roll you over. But is not too surprising considering we slept on the 14th floor. 

This really isn't showing it very well, but the waves hitting the side of the ship was insane. Huge splashes and sprays, so much so that the glass near the top of the ship got all dirty from the salt water sprays. It made me wonder how they possibly clean the windows on the outside of the ship because clearly they need to and do. 

Later in the afternoon the sea calmed, and we had beautiful blue sea and water. 

John had to work again that day, but was in for a real treat when he looked down off the balcony and saw the distinct outline of a hammerhead shark! Later John, Eliza, and Miriam saw some dolphins off the side of the ship. I was so crazy jealous of both of those sightings. 

The ship had a bunch of restaurants, bars, and dessert places that were not included in the cruise faire. Not surprisingly we didn't bother to spend any money and eat at those places. There was so much fancy, fun food without paying extra. However, one of the times we ran into one of the head restaurant guys, he wrote a note on one of his business cards and gave it to Holland for our family to get free gelato at the fancy gelato place on the Waterfront. It was delightful. We think it was the same guy who sent us the 3 platters of chocolate goodies. 

For dinner that night we tried out the much more casual dining option of the Local. It was open most hours of the day and was a fun change. The loaded nachos were pretty impressive.

I don't think we every got tired of watching the sunset from our balcony.

Happy baby helping herself to Mommy and Daddy's bed. 

That night we tried out laser tag at the very back of the ship on the top. It was a blast. There was only a couple of other people playing and so the workers jumped in to help us. The laser tag course was themed as being a giant serpent with old time ruins around.

We were fierce and our team won! It was super fun. 

April 28

Another relaxing day at sea. Bright eyed baby waking up for the day. 

Since we had another relaxing morning we decided to enjoy the restaurant breakfast. We loved the little tea pots of hot chocolate that had to been made with much cream. So good. 

The only challenge is keeping the little one happy in her seat. 

Today she loved the blueberries in cream of wheat, as you can see with the condition of her face. 

Miriam and I decided to try out the ping pong table. Turns out it is difficult to do ping pong with the moving ship and the wind. Mostly because the ball rolls so erratically. 

Daddy had to put in some work time, but he might have seen some whales so not all bad. Not to shabby of a place to put in a few hours work. 

Later we decided to spend the bulk of the credit Miriam and Holland got at the the Galaxy Pavilion. 

John and I both enjoyed the VR maze the best, but there were plenty of other ride type games. There was a dinosaur game, hang-gliding, space, and it turns out they all make me a little motion sick. The VR maze was just fine though. We loved it. 

Later that afternoon we had to go enjoy the sunshine and Grandma and Grandpa even joined us in the hot tubs. At this point we had both of the hot tubs on this side to ourselves. The half empty ship really was magical. 

Wrinkly baby feet. 

Towel butterfly

I don't know what this was, but I want to eat it. 

Sleepy babies at the end of another full day of fun.

 April 29 Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Puerto Vallarta was our first stop in Mexico! We were waiting in a line to get out of the port, and I had to try to capture the ship in a large panorama shot. It was so looming and seemed to go on forever. 

We took a city tour of Puerto Vallarta. Unfortunately my mom woke up with a cold on this morning so she didn't feel up to going on the excursion. We boarded the bus with a very chatty tour guide who waxed on about the virtues of "Vallarta." Check out the picture of the security truck. 

I enjoyed the regular statues along the coast in Puerto Vallarta. 

This place was crowded with tourists, but I still had to try to get a photo of the sign.

Check out this cathedral. That crown on top is something else!

Apparently it is the only cathedral in the world that has the door directly below the tower. Normally they are to the sides.

We had to wait for our bus to swing around, and Miriam was the designated hat holder in that moment. 

We loved all of the fun doors and pretty bougainvillea around. We were taken to a silver jeweler, where they went into detail about their production process. I got some silver earrings inlaid with some shell.  

We stopped by this recommended restaurant for a free lemonade, and then continued down the street for souvenir shopping. Miriam bought an entire bag of conch sea shells. 

I didn't get really any photos of this, but my favorite thing about this stop was all of street decorations. They had streamers and other decorations lining the tops of many streets. There was one street that was topped with yellow umbrellas. The papel picado was darling. 

I got one photo of the papel picado. Isn't it so cute?!

We had to get a photo of the heart bench also.

While we were waiting to get back on the ship they had these shades up with places to sit, drinks, and cool cloths. Yeah, we weren't spoiled at all...

Puerto Vallarta!

Fortunately my mom wasn't too terribly sick, but still had to sleep a lot that day. I feel bad she missed it though. 

April 30 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Dolphin Day! Because my mom paid for this amazing vacation for us, we decided that we could use some of our money to indulge in an activity that would normally be out of reach because we spent so much money on the overall trip. This meant that we splurged on a dolphin swim. 

Darcy was too little, and my dad wasn't interested. So he agreed to watch her on the ship while we took mom and did our dolphin swim. Unfortunately Mom wasn't feeling up to going that morning so it was just John and I and our three oldest. We didn't love leaving them on the ship by themselves, but knew that this excursion wasn't too long so we went for it. In Cabo, passengers exit the cruise ship by tender boats, which enabled us to have a nice view of the ship. 

We also got a nice view of Land's End. 

We brought a bunch of towels and the wet suits. 

That is absurdly huge.

There were a lot of boats out in the bay and many going to go see the sea arch. 

There was a lot of fun shopping and picture points around Cabo, but we hardly even paused because we wanted to get back to our baby! 

So one so cool/not so cool thing about this dolphin experience was that there was no pictures allowed at all. We had to buy their pricey photographs, but that also meant that I could be totally present and not trying to get the right angle or the cute smile. I could just enjoy the experience. Unfortunately it was just at the expense of $$$. 

I thought that the photographer did a great job though, and almost a year later I don't regret spending that money at all. 

There was another couple with a mom that was in our group with us, and that was it. It was so nice to just have so much one on one time with the dolphins. The trainer did such a good job too. He spoke pretty broken English. I couldn't believe all the things he did to have us interact with the dolphins. These photos don't even do it justice. 

We had a male and female dolphin to interact with: Mirai and Alli. They were so impressive. 

I couldn't believe how much we were allowed to touch and pet the dolphins. Their skin was smooth and leathery, and they were way bigger up close than I think of them being. 

They were rewarded with little frozen fish after doing various tricks. And they sure did a lot of tricks. They did flips right in front of us. It was like our own personal Sea World show. 

We bought the nicer package that included a ride on the dolphin. We don't regret that at all. It was, for sure, the best part. 

I love these smiles. Holland told me afterwards that riding on the dolphin, "was my dream!" Holland said, "Well, I was thrilled to be here. And dolphins are my favorite animal, so it was super fun because the dolphin danced with me, let me ride on his tummy, and stuck out their tongue at me." Miriam said, "The dolphin's skin was weirdly rubbery. It was super exciting, splashy, and extremely fun."

Mommy and Ellie got a chance to go on a tummy ride too. It was truly amazing. I couldn't believe how powerful and strong those animals are. Eliza said, "The dolphins were really, really big and strong. They were super fast and amazing in every way. The best part was riding them. It was really cool."   

I love how happy the dolphins look. 

We were all surprised when those dolphin tongues came out and gave Miriam a good lick. 

Dancing with the dolphin. The dolphin and trainer whistled a tune to dance too. 

Ahh, Holland looks so tiny and sweet. 

Oh I love that grin. You can see that there were several other groups in the arena, but our trainer had us stay the longest. 

They told us to cross our hands in front of us to not scare the dolphin. 

Oh, I love the laughing face.

There was so much time like this: petting the dolphin and listening to interesting fact about them. I thought it was so fun to hear them whistle different tunes, and once he even had them make a sound like a baby crying. It was pretty remarkable. 

He had the dolphin yell right by each of us, and whoa that is really loud by your ears. 

John said, "I saw it was awesome being so close to the dolphins and getting in the water with them, and feeling how easy it was for them to go through the water. It was really cute to see the kids interact with them." 

John getting a good lick. :) 

To my surprise the trainer let each of us take a second turn riding the dolphin. It was amazing, and considering how expensive this was, I thought it was generous of him to throw in another ride for free. 

We don't have any photos of the rides with John, Eliza, and me because we got to do underwater rides!! It was spectacular. I couldn't believe how fast the the dolphin dived down in the water. So fast and deep that our ears felt some pressure. It was amazing. 

One of the tricks that the dolphin did was to go under the water and let out a giant air bubble. It was probably three feet across. Pretty impressive. Also, it is so impressive that the trainers can get them to learn all of these things. How on earth do that do that?

I love the progression of these photos of the dolphin jumping behind our family. What an amazing day. 

I can't believe that arch on that dolphin jump!

We hurried back to our little one and found all three of them happily eating and chilling in the observation lounge. (Chilling = following Darcy around)

Air dried hair from the dolphins. 

This photo makes me a little crazy because the person taking it put us directly in front of the sea arch. I guess you can't count on anything when someone takes your picture for you. 

Seals in the water behind the ship.

Couldn't believe these giant yachts in the bay. 

Sea arch!

The icing on the cake of this day was to spot three whales jumping out in the distance. There was a mama and a baby, and they just jumped and jumped. We wished we could have been closer, but it was still spectacular. 

Holland took some photos for us. 

We got matching bracelets for the girls and Grandma.

The girls picked out a little souvenir from every stop.

Dad is riveted by his book. 

I love this sweet girl. 

May 1 Last full day!

We had to go get the fancy restaurant breakfast one more time. Check out this grapefruit! It came cut up-I love cruises.

Darcy's favorites: berries and croissants. Truth be told, they are my favorite too. 

Not a shabby restaurant view.

We have to be creative keeping our little one entertained. I spy water color painting and the boogie board.

It was pretty chilly and a little extra stormy that day. I felt bad for the workers manning the water slides with exactly no one using them because it was too cold. 

We decided to use the last of our credit money in the arcade. We were only allowed to use it in the Galaxy Pavilion and the arcade. So we had to try it out. My favorites were ski ball and basketball. 

Our last dinner in Savor!

We got two folded napkin animals at dinner: a bird and a penguin. Man we were so spoiled on that trip!

Kisses for the birdy.

The penguin had fork feet. 

This was our favorite appetizer of the entire trip--Shrimp Louie. I don't really know what it was but it was fantastic. 

Miriam made a thank you poster for the workers in Splash Academy. I loved how much they loved that program. They had so much fun and got so much attention from those fun adults. 

Darcy's dinner was an entire plate of watermelon. 

One of the crafts from Splash Academy was a sand painting.

I can't believe we went all those places. Amazing.

May 2 Last Day

We woke up in the morning to sea lions relaxing in the bay in Las Angeles. And then we saw FIVE dolphins swimming right by the ship! I'd wanted to see them the whole time and on our last morning I finally saw them! 

More watermelon for breakfast! Because Darcy was eating so much fruit she went through diapers much faster than normal. We started to get nervous that we were going to run out before the end of the trip. They had no extra diapers for purchase on board so it was kind of a big deal. Thankfully we made them last until we got home. 

A long line to exit the ship, but we had to get one last photo by Splash Academy. What a fun activity!

One tender mercy that day was that when we exited the ship and picked up our luggage it hit us again how difficult it was to travel with my parents and all of our kids. We just have too much stuff for us to move. We were actually having to move my parents' stuff too because my dad was pushing my mom and she could only hold so much on her lap. It was an ordeal to say the least. We thought we would take an Uber to the airport, but it seemed hard in that moment to get over to where we could be picked up. The bus attendant took pity on us and said we could all take the close bus to the airport for $100 instead of the $200 it was supposed to be. That was really appreciated. We made our flight and flew home. Our house is over there in the distance. 

Sleepy baby on the flight after nursing. I love her. 

We feel so lucky to have gone on this trip. What a special experience. My mom's health actually declined pretty quickly after this trip and later in the fall they found out she had cancer in her uterus, which could have been contributing a lot to the difficulties she was enduring. She had surgery to remove the tumor and has been doing a little better since then. We are so grateful that we went on this trip when we did. 

We still can't believe it all worked out the way it did. With the cancelled Carnival cruise less than two weeks before departure, this ended up being a better cruise for us hands down. The balcony rooms were such a luxury that we thoroughly enjoyed. It was pretty frustrating and stressful when it was all going down, but it worked out better than we even hoped. The whole thing was a miracle.