Cruising

Note: Technical difficulties have prevented me from getting this post up sooner.  Sorry for the delay!

It was worth traveling through the night.  Noa's mom, Carol, has a December birthday and all her kids (and her grandson) would be gathering for a birthday surprise!  When she entered the restaurant, we could all tell she was shocked to see all her kids (and their families) there for her birthday dinner.  Surprise!

Left to right, top to bottom: Noa, Jack (Noa's dad), Megan (sister), JB (brother-in-law), me, Amy (sister), Hailey (Megan's friend), Anya (sister), Carol (Noa's mom), and Matthew (nephew)

But, that wasn't even the biggest part of the surprise.  The whole family would be leaving on a 5-day cruise the following day!  Double surprise!

The next day was COLD for Florida (in the 30s-40s and windy), but nothing could quell our excitement when this showed up at our place.  We'd be riding in style to the port!

Matthew, our nephew, kept saying, "I can't believe I'm not dreaming!"  Check out the interior:

Our cruise was on Royal Caribbean's "Navigator of the Seas."  Random fact: we (Noa and myself) had cruised on this vessel once before, back when we lived in Florida, with Mike and Jess.

Still, it was a new trip with the family and the ship had since gone through some cosmetic changes inside.  All the kids stayed in neighboring interior rooms.  We didn't spend much time here, considering their small size and lack of a window (if you look carefully, you can see Noa waving in the mirror).

We spent most of our hanging out time in the large suite that was for Noa's parents.  It was a happening place, let me tell you.  Not only did it have a large balcony, but it also had a spacious separate bedroom....

....and a living room, dining area, bar....

And yes, you saw right....a grand piano!

Nice, right?  As the Navigator left port, we all stood on the balcony and waved farewell to Fort Lauderdale.  Although chilly, it was still scenic...it reminded me of a postcard.

Once the cruise got going, the weather warmed up and it didn't take long for us to take advantage of all the ship had to offer.  After being in "cold" Florida, we were all ready for a little sun.  Matthew couldn't wait to take advantage of the pool with his uncle and aunts.

Jump, Matthew, jump!

The ship was beautiful both inside and out.  Here's the pool area and a random lady standing in the picture.  Thanks, lady.

And, I don't remember this from my last visit, but I liked this "artsy" sculpture they had in the stairwell.

On formal night, we had our pictures taken in front of it.  I think we look like a pretty classy bunch, don't you?  I proposed that we need to have an excuse to get dressed up more often.

Team Juloa looking classy!

Our one and only stop was to Cozumel, Mexico.  The family split up to do different activities on the island: Megan and dad went shopping, mom, Amy, JB, and Matthew went to see some Mayan ruins, and Anya, Noa, and I went to swim with dolphins!

On the way in, I couldn't resist having a turn holding a parrot and iguana.  The iguana kinda creeped me out because he kept climbing up my shoulder.  The guy that handled them didn't seem concerned, but I thought I saw him eying that parrot in a I-want-to-eat-you-for-lunch kind of way.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take my big ol'camera with me while we swam (we did get a cheap waterproof camera and are currently awaiting to see if any of those pics came out), so no pictures yet.  But, here's the view before we got in the water.  That dock area is where you enter the water (you can see some people getting in).  In the distance, you can also see the docked cruise ships.

Afterwards, we tried to get some sun on the beach.  No luck...I'm still super white.  Oh well, it was beautiful and relaxing, at least.

Later we met up with the rest of the family and explored the shops.  One guy said to us, "come to my shop.  Come, let me show you some Mexican junk.  Better prices than Wal-Mart."  Nice sales pitch, dude.

I love how Matthew is trying to break out the peace sign with Anya.

You may be wondering what's in Noa's large black bag?  We purchased two tacky Christmas themed sombreros for our small group Christmas gift exchange.  They were a hit!

On the way home, we enjoyed more of the ship.  A bunch of us went to check out the front of the ship, and yes, you can imagine there were plenty of "Titanic" references tossed about.

Like Noa's touristy Cozumel shirt?  Noa's dad picked up one for each of us.  See?

The food on the ship was tasty.  Noa and his dad ordered the escargot twice.  Apparently it was very good, but just not my taste.  I prefer not to chew on lemon-garlic flavored rubber bands.  But, to each his own.

Genevieve and "Charlie" (his nickname since his Thai name was difficult to pronounce), our nightly dinner servers, were excellent.  They always gave Matthew his food a little earlier than us and asked him how he wanted his ice cream after dinner.  It was nice to see their friendly faces each night.

Each night, we also looked forward to seeing what kind of towel animals awaited us after they prepped our rooms for the evening.  We think this one is a dog wearing my sunglasses.

And an elephant, we think, who again is sporting the sunglasses.

What a wonderful way to celebrate someone so loved in our family!  Noa's dad, Jack, is a superstar who spearheaded the whole trip and surprise.  We are so blessed to be part of a great family.  I hope there are more family trips in the future.

And hopefully, these technical issues will be resolved an blogging will continue smoothly!