Our Trip - Part One
I know I'm late posting about the cruise that The Boy and I took, but here we go! In my defense, I have been sicker than a dog the past three days - I don't know what hit me, but I've been asleep for approximately the last48 hours STRAIGHT. Finally, I feel able to move about, and I've plied some yarn this afternoon while listening to LimeNViolet and Socks In The City, so I think I just may live!
So, for our trip, I think we accomplished our main goal of seeing whether or not we would survive a trip by ourselves. There was a bit of huffing and puffing over waiting in lines, but I quickly got over that. No, seriously, The Boy DOES NOT like to wait around for anything at all. The cruise-ship put him to the test! I'm hoping he gets the idea that when we go to visit Auntie Jenn and Uncle Scott, there will be lots of waiting. Lots. And no free, 24-hour pizza bar at the end! HA!
The first day of our trip was basically just travel. We took Amtrak from Union Station here in DC and it took us right to Penn Station in NY, about 6 blocks from the cruise ship pier. It was perfect, and much more manageable than the airport!! Wow - why hassle with the airport for all that time for a 1 hour flight to NY when you can spend equal (or less) time on getting yourself there by train! YES! One word of caution is to take a heavy sweater or jacket, though, because the train cars were FREEZING! I had to dig both our sweaters out of our packed bags and we cuddled up and read stories for the last half of the trip because we were so frozen!
We caught a cab to the pier, left our bags with an attendant as SOON as we got out of the cab, then got in line (yay) to wait our turn checking into the ship. All in all it wasn't bad, and we were on the ship in no time. We located our cabin, then headed off to explore. We checked out the pools and outside decks, wove our way in through the gym and spa areas (I signed up for a yoga class, but more on that later), and wound up outside again just as the ship started moving. I got some great pictures of Manhattan from the water, but the pics of the Statue of Liberty weren't too clear - we were actually a bit too far for good pictures (with my camera, at least!).
Once we headed out, The Boy started getting antsy and we both realized we were hungry. They were to start serving dinner at 6:00, but when we got there and saw the lines, we decided we'd do the serve-yourself walk-up buffet, and headed down to get some dinner. After a bit more exploring of the ship and an orientation for Camp Carnival (free babysitting!), we headed back to our cabin, checked out a movie on TV and CRASHED. That was a lot of traveling for two rookies like us!!
The next day was an "at sea" day for the ship. Basically, the ship took it's time getting to the first port, and we all got to relax and act like we were on vacation! The Boy was excited to check out Camp Carnival, so after we ate our breakfast (room service bagels, fruit, and coffee on our balcony), he took off into camp without even looking back at his mommy! Unfortunately, the yoga class I'd wanted to take started at the same exact time as the camp opened up, so I wound up missing it. I headed back to the room to try to yoga on the balcony, but wound up being bitten repeatedly by biting flies, so I finished in the room, which was not really ideal.
In the afternoon, I picked up The Boy, we ate lunch and then enjoyed the POOL! He got a big kick out of the fact that the pool was filled with ocean water, and that the water moved with the ship. With the depth of the pool, he could stand up just barely, until the wave of water moved back to his end of the pool. We hung out there for a while, then headed back to get dressed, because it was one of the formal nights in the dining room. What an experience! The food was great, but remember that little problem I mentioned about waiting. Yeah. Try in a dining room filled with other people trying to have a nice meal. He actually wasn't that bad - no one was disturbed by him and he didn't get loud, but I had to be "Mommy" and tell him that he could not have 10 pieces of bread while waiting for his dinner to be served (cause you KNOW they'd give it to him if he asked!!), and that no, he could not drink 5 glasses of cranberry juice IN HIS WINE GLASS!!! Whew. Good thing the food was tasty and he looked cute in his shirt and tie!
Before going into the dining room, we met a really nice family from South Carolina. We caught up with them again later, at the stage-show, and they wound up being our "cruise friends" that we seemed to run into everywhere we went! The show was a big hit with everyone (although I could have done without being on floor-level looking at a bunch of thongs!!!!) and we were all excited to have a shore day the next day!
Once we got back to our room, The Boy went out like a light, I knit on my Sasha skirt for a while, after making sure we were ready to leave the ship early in the morning.
Here's some pictures from what I've mentioned so far:
Our cabin, from The Boy's point of view. Beds to the right, balcony behind.
"I'm so excited the ship is MOVING, Mommy!"
The Boy on our balcony.
The Statue of Liberty
So, for our trip, I think we accomplished our main goal of seeing whether or not we would survive a trip by ourselves. There was a bit of huffing and puffing over waiting in lines, but I quickly got over that. No, seriously, The Boy DOES NOT like to wait around for anything at all. The cruise-ship put him to the test! I'm hoping he gets the idea that when we go to visit Auntie Jenn and Uncle Scott, there will be lots of waiting. Lots. And no free, 24-hour pizza bar at the end! HA!
The first day of our trip was basically just travel. We took Amtrak from Union Station here in DC and it took us right to Penn Station in NY, about 6 blocks from the cruise ship pier. It was perfect, and much more manageable than the airport!! Wow - why hassle with the airport for all that time for a 1 hour flight to NY when you can spend equal (or less) time on getting yourself there by train! YES! One word of caution is to take a heavy sweater or jacket, though, because the train cars were FREEZING! I had to dig both our sweaters out of our packed bags and we cuddled up and read stories for the last half of the trip because we were so frozen!
We caught a cab to the pier, left our bags with an attendant as SOON as we got out of the cab, then got in line (yay) to wait our turn checking into the ship. All in all it wasn't bad, and we were on the ship in no time. We located our cabin, then headed off to explore. We checked out the pools and outside decks, wove our way in through the gym and spa areas (I signed up for a yoga class, but more on that later), and wound up outside again just as the ship started moving. I got some great pictures of Manhattan from the water, but the pics of the Statue of Liberty weren't too clear - we were actually a bit too far for good pictures (with my camera, at least!).
Once we headed out, The Boy started getting antsy and we both realized we were hungry. They were to start serving dinner at 6:00, but when we got there and saw the lines, we decided we'd do the serve-yourself walk-up buffet, and headed down to get some dinner. After a bit more exploring of the ship and an orientation for Camp Carnival (free babysitting!), we headed back to our cabin, checked out a movie on TV and CRASHED. That was a lot of traveling for two rookies like us!!
The next day was an "at sea" day for the ship. Basically, the ship took it's time getting to the first port, and we all got to relax and act like we were on vacation! The Boy was excited to check out Camp Carnival, so after we ate our breakfast (room service bagels, fruit, and coffee on our balcony), he took off into camp without even looking back at his mommy! Unfortunately, the yoga class I'd wanted to take started at the same exact time as the camp opened up, so I wound up missing it. I headed back to the room to try to yoga on the balcony, but wound up being bitten repeatedly by biting flies, so I finished in the room, which was not really ideal.
In the afternoon, I picked up The Boy, we ate lunch and then enjoyed the POOL! He got a big kick out of the fact that the pool was filled with ocean water, and that the water moved with the ship. With the depth of the pool, he could stand up just barely, until the wave of water moved back to his end of the pool. We hung out there for a while, then headed back to get dressed, because it was one of the formal nights in the dining room. What an experience! The food was great, but remember that little problem I mentioned about waiting. Yeah. Try in a dining room filled with other people trying to have a nice meal. He actually wasn't that bad - no one was disturbed by him and he didn't get loud, but I had to be "Mommy" and tell him that he could not have 10 pieces of bread while waiting for his dinner to be served (cause you KNOW they'd give it to him if he asked!!), and that no, he could not drink 5 glasses of cranberry juice IN HIS WINE GLASS!!! Whew. Good thing the food was tasty and he looked cute in his shirt and tie!
Before going into the dining room, we met a really nice family from South Carolina. We caught up with them again later, at the stage-show, and they wound up being our "cruise friends" that we seemed to run into everywhere we went! The show was a big hit with everyone (although I could have done without being on floor-level looking at a bunch of thongs!!!!) and we were all excited to have a shore day the next day!
Once we got back to our room, The Boy went out like a light, I knit on my Sasha skirt for a while, after making sure we were ready to leave the ship early in the morning.
Here's some pictures from what I've mentioned so far:
Our cabin, from The Boy's point of view. Beds to the right, balcony behind.
"I'm so excited the ship is MOVING, Mommy!"
The Boy on our balcony.
The Statue of Liberty
Manhattan from the water.
More tomorrow!
:O)
:O)
posted by Heather at
8/16/2008 05:05:00 PM
3 Comments:
Oooo, I can't wait 'til our youngest is old enough to go cruising. It's great that you get a mom & son trip. He's adorable...and they're ALL impatient! lol
So far, so good! Good call on getting the balcony! That's the only way I'll go now. Look forward to hearing the next installment as I've never tried Carnival before.
I have NEVER seen the Statue of Liberty. That seems almost unAmerican.
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