March 20, 2015 Mostly just the Crocs Store
 |
| Sun Trolley |
Today we headed to Las Olas Blvd to do some shopping and
sightseeing. We took the Sun Trolley
from our hotel until we saw a Crocs store.
Zoe needed to get some shoes because her flip flops were bothering
her. So we got her shoes and of course
the second pair was half price so we picked up some for Jacob who said his flip
flops were bothering him also.
 |
| Fort Lauderdale Beach |
Then we
walked over to where we were supposed to pick up the trolley to go down Las
Olas, but it was really hot out, and everyone was walking super slow and we
waited a long time for a trolley that never came. Eventually, we decided it was about time for
lunch and we saw some places by the Crocs store, so we headed back over there.
 |
| Policemen on horseback |
We ate lunch at The Drunken Tac
o. The food was really good,
but Zach was only interested in the smoothie that we bribed Zoe with when she
was upset about her lunch choices. Even
the smoothie didn’t keep Zach’s attention too well and he wanted to leave much
sooner than the rest of us did. We
managed to keep him happy enough. By the
time lunch was over, Max was complaining about
his shoes, so back to the Crocs store we went and ended up getting
Max and Ella new shoes. By the time we
were done with all that we just wanted to head back to the hotel for a
swim/nap.
 |
| Four new pairs of Crocs |
After a long, but relaxing, trolley ride we arrived at our
hotel and split up between nappers and swimmers.
 |
| A napping swimmer? |
Meanwhile, back in Illinois, Mom and Greg
were delayed in their flight to Fort Lauderdale because the windshield needed to be replaced! I wonder how often that happens? Well, luckily they got a new plane instead,
because who knows how long it would take to get a new windshield! They arrived in Ft. Lauderdale a few hours
late, but still in time to join us for dinner.
We took the Sun Trolley to Da Big Kahuna for dinner. We had a good time enjoying the panoramic ocean
view and the good food. Zach had fun
walking around the table and getting attention from the waitresses. We ended up walking back to the hotel because
the trolley stops running at 6:30pm
 |
| Da Big Kahuna on third floor overlooking the ocean and beach |
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| Outdoor seating with a beautiful view |
.
March 21, 2015
Embarkation Day – Oasis of the Seas
 |
| Grandma keeping Zach safe while we loaded up |
Today we began our cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the
Seas.
Marc called for two taxis to pick the nine of us up, but they couldn't guarantee vans so they made him order three. He wanted to cancel that and try another company. The front desk recommended a shuttle. Everything got kind of confused and we ended up sending away the taxis that showed up and catching a shuttle. The timing was great!...only it wasn't OUR shuttle. Whatever. The guy loaded us up and we had the fastest transportation to port imaginable. The driver got a call as we pulled into port inquiring when he'd be at the Best Western to pick up the big group who had actually called him. He unloaded us incredibly fast and zipped back to get them.
We all met up with Melissa and her
family at the port at 11:00am and were on the ship before noon.
 |
| Deck 4, The Grande Dining Room |
The first order of business on the ship was to check out our MDR (Main Dining Room) assignment and request one big table if possible. Not possible, and they had actually assigned all the kids to a table right by the adults and we decided we would reluctantly give that a try.
 |
| Jacob's shirt eerily matched the boy's in the retro poster above him |
We had planned on going to the specialty
restaurant Sabor for lunch, but decided on Johnny Rockets instead because the
Sabor restaurant didn’t have a very kid friendly menu. Johnny Rockets was a big hit and we still
were able to avoid the embarkation crowd at the buffet.
 |
| Grandma, Grandpa, and Zoe |
 |
| Avery and Ella enjoyed the smiley face ketchup plate |
 |
| Kids Pools and Splash Areas |
 |
| Beach Pool and one of the many whirlpools |
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| Muster drill is pretty boring - except the "wash your hands" song! |
After lunch, we registered the kids at the kids club and then everyone except me, Kyrie and napping Zach headed to the pool for a quick swim before it was time for the Muster drill.
The whole day has really been a whirlwind of activity, just trying to get organized with all of our clothes and stuff. It’s tough getting all the kids clothes organized in a way where we’ll be able to find them when we need them!
(Even though I packed in a very organized way and took pictures of the clothes the kids are to wear each day and pasted them on our itinerary as I packed them.)
Marc's family surprised us with room decorations and chocolate covered strawberries in honor of our 20th anniversary. We were definitely surprised and it was very nice!
After the muster drill, the kids were hungry, so we headed
down to the Promenade for some pizza at Sorrento’s before the sail away
“party”.
 |
| Sail Away Party |
It was a nice little show, but there wasn’t much of a crowd (especially out of 6,000 people.) And those of us who were there, weren’t very enthusiastic. Even the kids couldn’t muster up much excitement.
Part of the problem is that the Aqua Theater where the sail away “party” is held is sunken. (Maybe a poor word choice.) So that you can’t see the ocean as you sail away. Also we started sailing before the show began. It’s anticlimactic.
 |
| Our kids just sitting there. No Dancing, no clapping. |
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| Grandma and Grandpa getting into it a bit |
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| While Zach was still sitting |
March 22, 2015
Nassau, Bahamas
Bright
(actually it was still pitch dark) and early this morning we arrived at the Bahamas. Kyrie accidentally woke up extra early because she thought it was two hours later and then couldn’t go back to sleep when she realized what time it actual was. Everyone in her room was up in time to see the sunrise and to see the ship dock.
Jacob and Zoe went to the kids club and I returned to help Marc take the others to the Windjammer buffet for breakfast. My room was restless in the morning, but we definitely slept a lot longer than Kyrie's room.
 |
| The Zach Method: Dip the spoon in, then grab the cereal with your other hand |
After breakfast, Zach, Kyle and all of the grown-ups except
Kyrie went to the straw market in Nassau.
It was pretty much what I expected - plenty of souvenirs, including some
unique ones, and lots of people trying to sell them. Meanwhile, Kyrie and the kids that stayed on
the ship went swimming.
It was a nice time to swim. Since many people were off of the ship, the
pools were a lot less crowded. The kids
kept switching between playing pool games like Sharks and Minnows and sitting
in the very hot hot tub.
Jacob, Max, Ella and
Zoe decided to have lunch with the kids club – Zoe complained later that she
had to hold hands with a boy on the way to lunch. Kyrie, Zach and I had lunch at the Park Café
which was quite good.
The rest of the afternoon was relaxing. Zach and Zoe enjoyed playing on the balcony
while we watched the ship leave the Bahamas.
Later, I took them to the baby play area where they had a blast trying
out all the different toys.
It was quite a chore getting everyone cleaned up and dressed for formal night. Not to mention packing special clothes and shoes times seven and we have decided on future cruises we will skip it.
We wanted to get a nice picture of our family so we were ready ahead of dinner time and on the Promenade where they had many extra photographers tonight. The process was a bit torturous and I could add a whole blooper wheel of pics here, but we managed to get one that would do, thankfully.
 |
| I blame it on Formal Night |
Then, came dinner – Zach is really not interested in dinner
at the dining room, which is understandable for an energetic 1 year old. Still, today was especially difficult. I eventually had to just take him back to the
room. I had a nice dinner on the balcony
later though. The waiter sent three freshly prepared main dishes and
dessert to go for Marc.
Marc wanted to see a movie that was playing in the Aqua heater tonight, but cranky Zs took up all the time and he missed it. Everyone (especially the Baby Zs) took a very long time to settle down and go to sleep again tonight even though everyone (especially the Baby Zs) were exhausted.
March 23, 2015 – Day at Sea
Today was our first day at sea and I was definitely
ready. Even though we didn’t do much in
the Bahamas, it still made for a busy day and I am ready for a slower
pace. Today we had the whole day without
much of a schedule which was nice.
My room was up early as usual. Again, we found ourselves waiting for our chosen breakfast venue to open. The MDR was hosting a DreamWorks Character Breakfast this morning. We did this the last time we sailed on Oasis and chose not to do it this time. But we were seated so close to the group that unfortunately it just made are breakfast loud and slow. We didn't return to the MDR for a table service breakfast again until departure day although I'm sure days without the character breakfast were better here.
 |
| Uncle Jay on the Zip Line |
We
got up whenever we wanted and I took the “sleep in” group to breakfast at the
buffet. By that point, everyone else was
already by the pool and some were even going on the zip line – bunch of early
birds! Jacob wanted to zip line, but was
5lbs under the 75lb requirement. He said
he needed to eat a lot today to gain the weight, but that would be pretty tough
for him.
We spent all morning and some
of the afternoon at the pool and several had a bit too much sun. Everyone had fun though and I don’t think
anyone was hurting too badly.
Some of us opted to try out Sabor for a light lunch today. Most had the tableside guacamole and chips and I tried the barbacoa tacos. Everything tasted very fresh and delicious! The others had lunch at The Dog House and played around the Boardwalk. Grandpa Greg and Uncle Jay spent a long time babysitting on the boardwalk while the rest of us had a leisurely lunch at Sabor.
 |
| The boys decided to ride on every animal of the carousel while we ate our lunch - They succeeded! |
 |
| Crazy Hat |
Zach took
a long nap in the afternoon while the rest of my kids played at the kids
club. Can’t remember what their cousins
were up to, but I’m sure they were having a good time too.
Zach was still sleeping when it was time to leave for the
dining room, which was just as well because I was planning on waiting a half
hour to bring him anyway. He woke up
soon enough and had a really good dinner for a change (although the food could
have been better!)
Marc and Zach arriving to dinner a half hour late became our strategy for the rest of the trip. I ordered for them and they arrived about the time our appetizers did too. I worked a *little* better.
 |
| Stripes |
 |
| Solids |
After dinner, the
boys stayed with Kyrie while I dropped off Zoe at the kids club. She really wanted to go even though there was
only about an hour until the show we were going to.
While we were waiting to pick up Zoe, I took Ella and Zach
to see Abbacadabra (an Abba tribute band).
I was surprised to find the main theater packed for this show. I didn’t know that Abba had that big of a
following these days, but I guess I was wrong or else the people are just
starved for entertainment. We could only
stay for about 15 minutes, but Ella and Zach both enjoyed the show.
Then I picked up the boys and Zoe and we all
headed to the Oasis of Dreams show in the Aqua Theater. The show was great. It’s kind of like a Cirque du Soleil show. There’s a lot going on and the
kids loved sitting in the splash zone (which was definitely quite wet!) Now, I would just like to take a moment to
say that the Aqua Theater is not a good place to show movies. Several times on each cruise they show movies
at the Aqua Theater which would be fine except that the seats face towards the
center of the theater and the two screens are on the sides. So, you have to turn your head the whole time
you watch the movie. Personally, I think
they should add a screen in the center, but I don’t know how feasible it is. Anyway, just my opinion.
March 24, 2015 St.
Thomas
We arrived in St. Thomas today. After a quick breakfast at the Park Café
(highly recommended.)
 |
| St. Thomas |
We headed off the ship with the intention of going to
Sapphire Beach. After some not so
successful haggling with the taxi drivers we settled on $250 for the 13 of us
to go to Sapphire beach and back. During
the ride over, the driver recommended that we go to Coqui beach instead. He said that there would be more restaurants
and better snorkeling. Well, we’ve been
to Sapphire beach before and really liked it, but I knew it only had one food
stand and figured it would be helpful to have more choices and I trusted the
taxi guy to know what he was talking about, so we went with the driver’s
recommendation and went to Coqui beach.
That was a mistake.
!!!
 |
| Crowded Coqui Beach |
It was obvious from the time
we arrived that the taxi driver had a vested interest in dropping us off there with the chair attendant and server. It
was a complete shameless set-up. There
were more restaurants, but the beach
was ridiculously crowded and we could barely walk to the beach from our chairs
without stepping over people.
We were sitting behind at least
three rows of tightly packed chairs with not even a peek-a-boo view of the
ocean. Not relaxing or desirable in
anyway.
 |
| Don't eat here! |
I didn’t have a lot of chance to check out the snorkeling,
but the little bit I did was nowhere near as good as we had at Sapphire
beach. And finally, the restaurant we
picked (the only one that had anything more than a hot dog, I think, took
so, so, so, long to get us our
food. We sat down at a table at the
restaurant, but we should have just ordered from our chairs. It took seriously, two hours, to get our
food. It was crazy, and they kept
telling us that it wasn’t going to be much longer! It really ruined our experience.
Some of the kids were in tears
before the food came and when it finally did, it came one plate at a time and
we were paying our bill before little Ella even got her grilled cheese with no
guarantee it would ever come.
Ridiculous.
By the way, the food was good when we finally got it and the real fruit smoothies were amazing and they came quite a bit faster than the food. Just wanted to put in some positives!
We’ve been to Maegan's Bay and Sapphire Beach and I would
highly recommend both of those over Coqui beach.
Now, with that being said, I would still say that we had a decent
time. The kids (and we) had a really
good time playing in the water. Jacob and Kyle tried snorkeling for the
first time and overall it was better than not going. It just probably would have been a lot better
if we had stuck to our original plan.
 |
| The band of 3-5 year old Pirates |
Ella led the way to the Pirate Show trying to get us there on time… “Come on… I can’t let my sister down.” The three to five year olds in this Pirate Show were adorable and hilarious. At one point a little girl interrupted the show with some funny and unplanned comments that would have won the grand prize on AFV if only we had captured it on video. Zoe looked so surprised and pleased to see us all there watching her. So cute!
 |
| Meanest pirate look she could muster |
March 25, 2015 St.
Maarten
This morning we arrived at St. Maarten, my favorite island of the Caribbean. The girls ate breakfast and got off of the ship early so that they could go get the girls hair braided.
Ella, Zoe, Vannessa and I ate at the small buffet in the MDR this morning. The offerings are a lot fewer than the Windjammer, but it's a lot less hassle when you have kids that can't serve themselves. They pretty much just ate cereal anyway.
Sorry to complain again, but I wasn't happy with breakfast on this ship. There should be more diverse options. Every place seemed to have pretty much the same thing. At best, cooked to order eggs; but trying to find a made to order omelet with real eggs was not an option. The quality of the food was better in MDR but not worth the wait.
The guys got off the ship
about an hour later and met up with the ladies, only to find out that they
didn’t find a place to do the hair braiding.
They were told that they would have to go to the beach for that so they
waited for us.
So, instead of going to
Little Bay Beach as we had planned, we just went to the big beach that you can
take the water taxi to (or walk to in about 15 minutes.) We knew that
there was a hair braiding place there and decided that was more important than
going to the correct beach.
 |
| Oasis looks like the mama. I'd say papa, but there all girls, right? |
Max and I did some shopping at the port. We were too sunburned from the previous days that we needed to stay out of the sun today. Wouldn’t you know, as soon as we walked around the corner after leaving the others in line for the water taxi, we saw a hair braiding place. Ahh, well. Max carefully looked through each shop for something suitable to replace his confiscated conch shell. He eventually did find a cool spikey shell that made a lot of “ocean noise.” We also got him a baseball cap which he wore backward to keep the sun off of his neck. He wanted to make sure that didn’t count as a souvenir though.
The girls did get their hair braided and they all looked adorable. We were able to get chairs right up front this time and the beach experience was much better than yesterday. The waves were pretty big, so it was a job to keep Zach safe, but we managed and everyone had a good time.
When we arrived back on the ship in the afternoon we all
rested for a while before watching the ship leave and then heading to
dinner. It was another good meal, and
we’ve all been enjoying having the kids at their own table.
After dinner, Zoe went to the kids club, Avery and Ella went
to the dance party and the boys and I took a walk around the jogging
track. The boys had a lot of fun running
around and Zach fell asleep in the stroller. Kyrie headed to the adult comedy show which she said was really
funny.
March 26, 2015 Day
at Sea #2
Today was my favorite day of the vacation so far. I’m always a big fan of days at sea because
it gives me plenty of time to explore the ship.
We had a lot of fun today finally getting around to doing a few of the
things around the ship that we’ve been trying to get to.
Jacob did rock climbing in the morning and
Max, Ella, Jay and I did it a little later.
Grandpa Greg wanted to give it a try, but they didn’t have a big enough
pair of climbing shoes for him. I didn’t
have much success myself. I’d like to
blame it on the loose rocks in the section that I was in, but Jay managed to climb
all the way to the top in the same section.
 |
| Cool Spectator |
The kids got their faces painted in the Promenade. They loved that! Zoe passed on her standard scorpion and picked a pretty design for her forehead.
 |
| We weren't thinking about how long this would take to wash off before dinner |
 |
| Pizza at Sorrento's while waiting for parade |
A while later we saw the DreamWorks parade which was a lot better than I expected. They really should have had something like that at the beginning of the cruise - it was the most energy I’ve seen on this ship!
Max and Jacob tried the boogie board. It was harder than it looked, and we only had time for them to try it once before we had to leave to get to the movie.
I don't have any pictures of the boys on the boogie boards because I took video. I did take a few pics before it was their turn. One boogie boarder thought he was being funny splashing the attendant on purpose. The attendant laid on the area the water shoots out splashing the heck out out of the guy for a minute straight. Pretty funny!
 |
| Ella and Zoe observing the boogie boarders |
 |
| Jake and Max switching out |
The movie was supposed to be Penguins of
Madagascar (which we haven’t seen), but instead they showed How I Trained My
Dragon 2 (which we have seen). So that
was a disappointment, but we still watched it and it gave Zoe and Zach a good
nap. Kyrie left after awhile to go to the Splish Splash comedy
diving show which she said was entertaining.
After dinner most went to the Come Fly Away show which was
supposed to be good. I don’t really like
that kind of show, so for the second time during the trip I tried watching The
Theory of Everything which was showing at the Aqua Theater, but I took Zach
with me since I figured he could play on the little bus and boat that are
nearby. Unfortunately, the music from the Mexican restaurant was too loud for me to hear
the movie without actually being down in the theater.
The kids persuaded the waiter to bring them double dessert and were so jittery it was tough for them to wait the 30 minutes in their seats before the show began. Come Fly Away was better than I remembered and the girls especially seemed to enjoy it.
 |
| Come Fly with Me |
Today there was so much to do on
the ship that we couldn’t even do everything we wanted. I can’t believe we missed the belly flop
competition. None of the others days had
enough good entertainment and the kids are bored with the Kids’ Clubs.
|
| Sometime earlier today, Zach got another visit to the play area. Didn't want to leave it out! |
March 27, 2015 Day
at Sea #3
 |
| We finally ate at Windjammer for breakfast. It was meh just like all the rest, |
Our last day on the ship was a quiet one. After a quick breakfast, we took Zach, Zoe
and Max to the puppet show in the kids club.
They all enjoyed it. Zoe was up
way too early this morning, so she’s been difficult to keep happy. After the show I had to take her to the
Wipeout Café for a snack.
Jacob’s been spending the morning with Kyle. They were swimming at the beach pool and then
headed to the Solarium for lunch.
I took Zoe to the matinee showing of CATS. She fell asleep on my lap
within five minutes of the start. She
slept through the first half and I needed to move around after being trapped in
one position so long, so we left at intermission. The nap was just what Zoe needed! The scenery , costumes, and performance of
CATS was quite good, but not so compelling that I felt I was missing out by
leaving at intermission.
 |
| He actually made it to dessert! |
Before long it was time for dinner. Everything was good as usual, and Zach
managed to sit in his seat some of the time.
Tonight they had a family comedy show. It definitely wasn’t geared towards kids, but
at least it wasn’t terribly inappropriate.
The comedians were the same as the adult
show the other night. The headliner was
very good. Zoe wanted to go the Kids Club after dinner, but then was disappointed that she had missed the show.
 |
| My little copy cat |
The Zs bid a final farewell to the play area before we all laid down for one more night's sleep on this ship.
I literally had to drag Zach out of here! At least he enjoyed his Kids Club.
March 28, 2015
Everglades Holiday Park
I woke up to this view this morning. I miss the ocean and island views, but I am ready for the next leg of our trip.
Marc and I decided to eat breakfast as a family for the first time on this ship. We went to the main dining room together. Ironic that we were celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary and we spent so much time apart on this cruise. From now on, we'll be sure to get connecting rooms.
This morning we disembarked the ship, which was quite an
ordeal. We had the 8:45am group, but we
weren’t off the ship until about 10:30am and we didn’t get out of customs until
about 11:30am. A week ago we were
boarding the ship at that time! I didn’t
hear any official reason for the delay, but one of the security people
speculated that it was because of spring break and the fact that more teenagers
were on the ship than usual. Because of
that, they speculated, a lot of people who would have been off the ship early,
waited until later and caused a large backup.
In addition to the long delay, we also had a missing booster seat when
we picked up our luggage. I looked
around the entire place but couldn’t find it. Luckily one of the people in
charge of finding luggage had better luck than me. They found it under a suitcase on the
complete opposite side of the building.
They found it just in time for Marc to meet up with us at
the other side of the huge snaking line to clear customs. Our porter was great in facilitating this
process.
After we finally got out, we headed to the rental car
shuttles and headed to Sixt Car Rental.
I was concerned about renting from a place I’ve never heard of, but they
were great. First of all, they had a
food truck there with free lunch for everyone renting from them. Also, I had accidentally reserved the wrong
day for my Mom’s rental, but they were able to fix it and didn’t give them any
trouble about it. Unfortunately, we
didn’t take advantage of the free lunch because the food was a little too
adventurous for my kids (like parmesan and truffle oil on the french
fries).
 |
| A lot of crying going on in both vehicles as we headed to the Everglades |
We headed to Everglades Holiday Park for an airboat tour of
the Everglades and an alligator show. We
had planned this trip because Mom and Melissa’s flight home wasn’t until
8:40pm. Everglades Holiday Park is on
what seems to be the edge of the Everglades.
They said that in total, the Everglades cover over 4000 miles of
southern Florida. This place is fairly
small, but the airboat tour was fun.
 |
| Alligator |
 |
| Vultures |
We immediately saw an alligator, and they say they saw another one swim across the water. Soon after that, the driver cranked up the motors and sent us full speed down the canal. Within a minute we heard a loud “ding” and then the driver stopped the boat and said he needed to take care of something. A few minutes later he said that the microphone had gone through the propeller, so he would have to stop the boat every once in a while and crawl in it to tell us stuff, instead of just saying it along the way.
 |
| Some kind of bird related to a chicken |
 |
| Another one |
That worked out
alright and it was a very informative and interesting tour even though we
didn’t see any more alligators. We saw a
lot of birds and fish. We saw a fish
jump out of the water and then Jay pointed towards the water to show someone
where there were other fish and then one jumped out of the water and tried to
get his finger! We joked that it must
have been a piranha, but the driver said that the fish in the water were oscars
and bluegills. The tour lasted about an
hour and was a lot of fun.
 |
| A herron... alligators worst enemy (eats eggs) |
 |
| Our own wildlife show |
We decided
not to stay for the alligator show because we were all tired from the long
morning and we just didn’t want to stand in yet another line to wait for the
show. My family headed up the coast to
finish our vacation at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort while the others headed to
the airport to fly back home. I think it
took about 3 1/2 hours to get to the resort, but that included a stop for
groceries.
Arriving at Disney’s Vero Beach Resort was like a breath of
fresh air. There must really be pixie
dust in their lobby, because it felt absolutely magical walking in there. We have enjoyed the rest of our vacation, but
Kyrie and I have hardly seen each other and we were a little bored on our
cruise. When we walked in to Vero Beach
we just had this feeling like our vacation was saved.
It was pretty late when we arrived and we hadn’t eaten
dinner yet, so we basically headed straight for Shutters, the casual sit down
restaurant at the resort. I had a really
delicious Fig and Goat Cheese flatbread and I think everyone else enjoyed their
dinner as well. We had a fun waitress
and had a good time – even Zach cooperated a little!
Marc’s Mai Tai
and my Bahama Mama helped too!
 |
| Shutters |
 |
| Frowns turned upside down when we stepped foot on Disney property |
Our room is very nice.
It’s a 2-bedroom villa which looks nice like all of the Disney Vacation
Club resorts. The layout is a little
different, but it works well and has 2 balconies, including one that doubles as
an eating area. The only thing missing
is an ocean view. I don’t remember if
that was a choice when making the reservation or if it’s just random. It’s dark, so I haven’t seen much of the
resort, but will comment on that later.
Our villa seems like a mansion
after the tiny staterooms that are typical on cruise ships. It’s adorably decorated in a casual beach
house theme.
 |
| Living room |
 |
| Dining area and balcony |
 |
| Kitchen |
 |
| Master bedroom |
 |
| Master Bathroom Pt1 |
 |
| Master Bath Pt2 |
 |
| Kids Bathroom |
 |
| Kids Bedroom |
March 29, 2015
Kennedy Space Center
One of my favorite things about
staying in a DVC villa (or any nice timeshare) is the full kitchen.
Might sound silly, but it was great to just make eggs and cinnamon toast
for breakfast this morning. A few
strawberries on the side and it’s the best breakfast we’ve had since we left
home. Not to mention saving big bucks by
not having to go out. We bought $90 worth of groceries and it fed us three breakfasts and two lunches. Considering we spent $70 to $100 per meal on this trip, the grocery stop really paid off!
 |
| Happy Zs! |
Our plan today was to just stay at the resort and spend some
time at the pool and beach, but it was chilly today (like the mid 60’s), so we
decided to shuffle our schedule a little and head to Kennedy Space Center. It’s a pretty good drive from here – about an
hour and a half and it took a little longer because there was a bad accident on
the other side of the road. We saw a medical helicopter
land on the road, so traffic slowed down quite a bit to see what was going
on.
 |
| The Rocket Garden |
The space center is pretty expensive ($50 for adults). If you sign up for the NASA passport program
(a free email registration), they send you a coupon for $5 off per person. Although I would question the cost compared
to other museums, science centers, etc. that we have visited in the past, we
did have a good time and it certainly is a one of kind place.
I think with the two IMAX movies and the launch
simulator, the price is not out of line. Not to mention the rare opportunity to
see a real space shuttle. But the food costs are too high.
As soon as we entered the place, the kids immediately say a
large playground thing that they have setup near the rocket garden (a bunch of
different kinds of rockets displayed outside.)
The kids loved that. There were
large slides and a lot of climbing areas inside the structure.
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| Mural of the International Space Station |
After a while of letting them play, we moved
on to a building that has displays about the future of space travel. This was sort of interesting, but the little
show they put on there was kind of cheesy.
It was really funny (not intentionally) when the lady giving the
presentation was pretending to interact with this large screen like it was a
touch screen monitor that was actually just a video.
Then Kyrie, Jacob and Ella watched an IMAX video about the
International Space Station and I took the others back to the playground where
they wanted to go and to a small display about technology and nature which had
a diorama about Florida wildlife and somehow they tied this in to the space
program.
When the movie was over (and everyone had ice cream), we
headed over to the space shuttle Atlantis exhibit. This was definitely the big draw at the space
center. They have quite a bit going on
in this building. First you watch two 12
minute movies about the space shuttle and then the screen opens up to the room
with Atlantis actually on display which is pretty impressive. It was definitely neat to see the space shuttle
up close.
I was surprised to see that
every single tile and part that was visible was labeled – almost like it was a
big puzzle that someone had to put together.
Definitely looked like a lot of wear and tear, most likely from reentry
into the atmosphere. The way they have
it set up allows you to see inside the cargo bay and to walk around the
outside, but not see in the cockpit at all.
That was disappointing since it didn’t give you any feel for what it was
like to be in the shuttle as an astronaut.
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| Mocked up cockpit |
Now, in the building they do have a simulator that lets you “feel” what it’s like to launch in a space shuttle. But that was really just simulating G-forces and gave no sense of what the space was actually like at the controls. It was clear however, from seeing just the outside of the shuttle, that there isn’t a lot of space in there for 7 astronauts.
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| Another crawl through area for the kids |
They have a crawl through replica for little kids that ends in a clear tube suspended way above the ground. I was surprised that Zach would crawl in it.
In addition to the shuttle itself and the simulator, they also have a big slide that you can go down to see the near vertical angle the shuttle had to descend at in order to land. I’m glad planes don’t have to do that! Also, in the building are a few displays about the International Space Station which are interesting.
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| Ella and Jacob |
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| Zoe and Max |
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| Space Toilet |
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| Space Kitchen |
We spent most of our time in that building since that’s
where most of the stuff is. We didn’t
get to much else. There is another IMAX
movie, an early spaceflight building, and a “Meet the Astronaut” exhibit (I
don’t remember what it was really called).
There is also a bus tour out to the launch building which would have
been interesting for the adults and the big kids, but probably would have been
torture for the little ones, so we decided to save that for some time in the
future.
We got back late and decided to have dinner at the quick service restaurant by the pool rather than brave a sit down meal with tired kids. It was just right!
March 30, 2015
Disney’s Vero Beach Resort
Today we just spent the day here at the resort. The resort consists of several buildings that
contain the one and two bedroom units.
The studios seem to all be in the main building and the grand villas are
in individual beach cottages that face the ocean. Besides the grand villas, it doesn’t appear
that many of the villas have an ocean view.
The vegetation blocks the view from at least the first floor, and
other buildings block views from the upper floors. We can see the ocean a little from out on our
balcony, but not much. The villa is very
nicely decorated and has sleeping capacity for 9. That includes a king size and a
queen size bed and then two sleeper sofas and a sleeper chair. The layout seems similar to the Old Key West Resort from what I remember. The resort
isn’t very big – easily walkable from one end to the other
(which is nice.
) There is one pool area that gets pretty busy,
plus of course the beach that has some chair rentals available.
But the resort was probably full this week and it wasn't too crowded to enjoy everything.
The water here is pretty rough – 1’ to 3’
waves today, but lots of shells for the kids to find. In addition to the pool and beach, there is
mini golf, an outdoor pool table and ping pong table, shuffleboard, a playground and an arts and
craft area. There are 4 restaurants onsite. Shutters is the casual restaurant
that we ate at the first night. Sonya’s
is a fancier restaurant which I probably won’t see. Bleachers is a quick service place by the
pool. Lastly, is the Green Cabin Room
which is mostly a bar, but also serves appetizers and a light dinner menu.
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| Jacob is reluctantly dancing here. He just can't resist organized activities. |
The girls went to the UnBirthday Party and had fun playing games and decorating cupcakes.
We also spent some time at the beach looking for shells and playing in the sand.
I’m impressed by all of the
advertised organized activities and surprise activities too that this resort
has going on. Besides the pool party
daily, there are various other things going on almost hourly from sun gazing to
campfires. We’ve been considering
letting Jacob take a 3 ½hr surf lesson on Wednesday and Max take a fishing
fundamentals class. Both have extra
charges but sound pretty cool. There’s
more stuff like that too as well as lots of free activities.
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| Woke Zach up from a nap for dinner. It's gonna be another great dinner! :( |
March 31, 2015
Another pool/beach day
The girls started the day at the beach today, while the boys lounged around for a while before heading to the pool. I'm happy to say that the last of many loads of laundry has been started - yea!
The beach isn’t too crowded and
is just lovely. I enjoyed watching all
the kids looking for and collecting sea shells.
They are more than plentiful… the shells… not just the kids.
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| Seagull in foreground, Pelicans in background |
But my favorite experience here has been
observing the pelicans. I love when they
fly in flocks. I saw a flock fly down
close to a wave, skim the surface, then fly away. Beautiful. I never got a good picture of my pelicans though.
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| Ella doing the limbo at the pool party |
The kids played at the pool party again and Zach played a lot in the pool and at the playground. After lunch we went to the beach. The waves were quite a bit gentler today.
I’ve finally had a chance to get some reading done the past two days. I’m about two thirds through a book I was supposed to read for a seminar I missed during this trip. I still wanted to read the book and it is good.
After a little break, I took Max and Zach out for a drive to
look for Manatees. We stopped at a
couple of places, but didn’t have any luck.
We did manage to see a little sting ray though, which was a nice
surprise. We had a nice time looking for
the Manatees. Maybe we’ll find some
tomorrow!
For dinner tonight we ate at Pizzoodles. We were trying to eat at Mr. Manatee’s, but
the wait was at least an hour.
Pizzoodles turned out to be really good though and I think we all agreed
that we were better off there.
Pizzoodles, as you might expect, serves pizza and pasta. The restaurant is very small, but the food
was delicious and didn’t take too long.
On the way back to the resort, I noticed that we were
passing the power plant where manatees like to hang out near the discharge
water. So we made an impromptu stop, but
no luck.
April 1, 2015 Last
day
Jacob, Ella, Zoe and I started the day at the pool... you have to get there early to get any chairs. We got pretty much the last three chairs poolside at 8:30am. But surprisingly, the pool hours changed today from the 8am-10pm it had been on the other days to 10am - 8pm even though it was the warmest day of our trip and we know the resort is pretty full or completely full.
There was a lifeguard stationed to be sure all the people there hours early stayed out of the pool. The cast members soon passed out hula hoops to occupy the kids. Bleachers was open so many people had breakfast by the pool.
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| Kids Splash Area |
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| Dare Devil Zach used the slide as a monkey bar for quite a while swinging back and forth |
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| Pool games at the daily |
Today we have simply enjoyed the resort. We had to change rooms because the 2 bedroom unit was only available until today, so now we have 2 studio units instead and most of our luggage is packed away in the car – ready for the airport
early tomorrow morning.
Time passed super quickly today. I never even had time to finish my book (or read any more of it.) We had lunch at Bleachers. Then the Zs really needed a nap.
Well, another vacation is coming to an end. The Z’s are taking a nap right now, which is
quite a break for Kyrie and me. Those
little ones have been quite a handful on this trip. I know it’s tough for them to have their
schedules all disrupted and have so much going on all the time, but this
vacation has seemed harder than usual.
Anyway, I know that we’ve all had a good time and also look forward to
getting back to the routines of being home.
The kids played games at the pool again and right now the
boys are at the UnBirthday Party that the girls went to a couple days ago. We questioned whether they really wanted to
go to it since it seems geared towards younger kids, but they both said yes, so
we’ll see how they liked it.
They liked it.
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| The original sensitive child aka honorary "Z" |
I got a little time to swim with the big kids until Max got mad at me during a splash fight he initiated.
This afternoon we played some mini-golf and then headed to
dinner at Shutters again.
After the pool we went back to our hotel for a break. Before long it was time to walk to
dinner. It’s kind of a pain not having a
car. We can’t take a taxi because then
we have to carry 2 car seats everywhere.
So, we’re a little stuck here, but not too bad. (We didn’t know about the Sun Trolley yet which could have taken us
anywhere we needed for a $1pp per ride.) 
Tonight we went to Oasis Café where we had a very unique dining
experience. The booths here are all
swings! The kids loved swinging back and
forth while we waited for our food. Zach
liked chasing the pigeons around. The
food here was okay, nothing special, but it was a nice setting with a decent
view of the ocean except for a very busy road in between.
Next, it was time for
the Frozen in Time ice show. It’s a nice
show, especially considering the small (and probably poor) ice surface that
they have to work with. My favorite part
is the sand artist, Sergei that performs during a break in the ice part of the
show (although I’m not sure that it’s too smart to have a guy working with sand
right above the ice that people have to skate on!)
Once we’d been through all the shops that aren’t jewelry stores (most are), we boarded the ship and ate a couple slices of pizza for lunch then toured the other dining venues sampling desserts from each.
Max and Ella went to lunch and then hung out with the rest of the family. Kyrie and I took the Z’s to Sabor for lunch. That kept Zoe happy for a bit, but Zach was restless and had no interest in sitting in his seat or even the restaurant in general.
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