So Fascinating--Southern Caribbean (plus 3 days in PR) with Kids

[lolavix]

 

 

See? Tons of fish in schools.

 

 

DD demonstrating snorkeling in very shallow water.

 

At some point, DH came and escorted each one of us beyond the shore, around near these rocks:

 

Here he is in the distance with DS2. I went first, and we went out quite a ways.

 

[lolavix]

Again, I am struck by how well the fish are camouflaged. The one dead center is easy to miss.

 

 

 

Pretty blue fish.

 

Another, not-so-camouflaged fish.

 

DH coming up for "air". I think he and I had been snorkeling for about 20-25 minutes, so it was time to head back and get one of the kids. Note how sunny it was here? About 30 minutes after this photo, it rained. And then it was sunny again. I love how the showers are just a brief punctuation to an otherwise gorgeous beach day.

[lolavix]

Oops. I just realized I left this photo out of my Mountaintop series.

 

If anyone cares about the history of banana daiquiris, you are all set now.

 

_______________________________________________________

 

Back to Coki.

 

The beach was starting to fill up. Note the darker clouds. You can also see Coral World off in the distance. We did not visit, although DH and I had talked about it way back when. We didn't miss it, but it is an option.

 

You might have noticed the rocks we camped near. When we first settled down, I noticed this guy:

 

and figured he wouldn't bother us.

 

He got a little braver as the morning wore on.

 

and he brought a bunch of friends.

 

Evidently, at lunch time, the iguanas come on down to visit the folks on the beach. People do feed them, so why not?

 

It was pretty funny because we also had humans coming down to check them out. As I went about my business of tidying up and trying to dry the rain-soaked clothes, someone asked me if I realized that there were a bunch of iguanas near me. I told her I did.

 

I don't have a photo of it, but they would come right under the chairs of people sitting, scavenging for food. It was comical to watch.

 

We got burgers from the stand and a couple of waters. I think the five burgers cost around $35 to $38, so a bit pricey as they didn't include fries or any other sides. We figured we could eat more when we got back to the ship.

 

After lunch, time for more snorkeling:

 

 

I'll be back later today.

[lolavix]

 

Guy was feeding the fish and they flocked to him.

 

It was like swimming in a giant aquarium...

 

and then peace.

 

 

 

Just hangin' out.

 

 

I think DS1 took this selfie, during his turn out with DH.

[lolavix]

One little blue fish.

 

It was about 2 PM and time to pack it up. This was the beach as we were getting ready to leave.

 

Dean was waiting for us where he said he'd be.

 

The trip back was a heck of a lot faster, without all the stops. I think Coki is about 20 minutes back to the pier. I never would have guessed that, since it took us 2.5 hours to get to the beach.

 

I think we hit a busy time to get back on the ship (a little after 3 PM). We probably had to wait about 20 minutes to board.

 

he boys and DH decided to go get a snack and go to the pool. DD and I each showered and she went to Circle C and I went up to meet the rest of my family.

 

What I found was a super long line at the grill. I understand that everyone probably wants something to eat, but what I didn't understand is why only the grill was open. If you wanted a cookie, they were placed at the end of the grill line, and you couldn't really cut the line to grab one. If you wanted make your own nachos, you had to wait in the same line as the burgers/fries/hot dog folks. I found this extremely frustrating, since these lines seemed to creep and the breakfast lines did not. I also wondered why they didn't have more 'grab and go' type snacks out, like fruit or the cookies/brownies, etc. Again, we've only been on one other cruise, but I don't recall having such a problem getting a snack on our other cruise. We didn't have a lot of time before our 6 PM seating, so having a little something close to 4 was what we wanted. Not a big huge snack at 4:30 or so when we'd get through the line. I suppose I could have had ice cream, but with all the options that could be, I just wish there had been a bit more without a super long line. I grabbed some iced tea and gave up.

 

Anyway, I found my family at the pool and DH said he wanted to go get a shower and a quick nap. The boys wanted to go to Waterworks, so I found a comfy place to sit and watch them slide to their hearts' content.

 

 

 

The boys going down the larger slides feet first and on their stomachs.

 

I didn't get any photos today of them on the twisty slide.

 

I finished my iced tea and found myself dozing off...not for too long, though, since the boys kept on checking in and asking for me to watch them.

 

Soon, it was time for sail-away.

 

 

We obviously didn't get here, but it's right at the dock.

[lolavix]

Some last views of St. Thomas as we float away.

 

 

 

 

Looking down on the Serenity Deck. This is about the closest we got to it. Next time!

 

Around this time, DH came back with a plate of food for us to share! :) He said the line wasn't so long and he was able to approach and get a few chicken nuggets, I think. It was enough to take the edge off, since dinner was less than an hour away.

[lolavix]

I mentioned in a comment that we had the 6 PM seating in the Imagination MDR. I chose that for obvious reasons, with the kids. I think we made the right decision, since when I'd pass by the Sensation dining room, there always seemed to be a line and we are five. I really didn't want to have to spend time every night waiting for a table. Ideally, the early seating would be at 6:30 on this itinerary, since sail away is at 5 every day, but we dealt with it just fine.

 

We were seated with another family of five. DD knew the younger child from Circle C, and they always sat next to one another and chatted, which made her happy.

 

Tonight's menu:

 

I apologize for the blurriness. I felt a bit self-conscious photographing the menus and food at the table with others, so I took most of the menu photos going forward outside the restaurant on our way out. There are not as many food photos going forward, but I can still talk about what we liked.

 

I had the French Onion soup for dinner, which I really liked. I had the Penne Mariscos for my main dish, and while I liked the seafood, the pasta was undercooked and I left some of it behind. DH and I each ordered a drink--he had a Hard Lemonade and I had a beer. I think the beer might have filled me a bit as well.

 

Dessert:

I tried the lemon cake. It was refreshing, which is how I like lemony things in the summer.

 

This was the night that a pirate traveled around the dining room. While most times, the pirate posed with diners with the sword by their necks, DH decided to fight back with his butter knife:

 

 

After dinner, the kids asked to go to their respective kids' clubs. I was happy that tomorrow was our sea day, since I think we all needed a "down" day.

 

DH and I decided to go to Punchliners and see one of the comedians, Al Romero.

We shared a Chocolatini drink, which hit the spot for my chocolate craving for the night. (While I did like the lemon cake, I still was looking for chocolate.) He was funny, and to our surprise, when we got up to leave, we spied DD with the kids from Circle C. The 8:30 show was a family show, so it was fine, but we just didn't expect to bump into her there.

 

The boys stayed at the kids club until 10. The 9-11 year olds club was usually held in a conference room, quite a distance from the actual kids' club. This was a bit of a disappointment, as they did not have access to all the games and toys that are in the regular space. I found it a bit odd, since all the other age groups had spots to hang. The boys still had fun, but on two nights, they called us to ask for us to pick them up before 10 PM.

 

At 10:30, it was time for the "welcome aboard" show.

 

 

I enjoy going to shows, although this one lasted for over an hour and by 11:30, I was ready for it to be done.

 

Felipe, our cruise director.

[lolavix]

The show consisted of a short talk by Felipe advertising some of the other shows for the week, our introducing ourselves to people sitting near us, a gag with two couples on stage and a preview of the Carnival entertainment.

 

 

The show culminated in the audience dancing with the pros to Uptown Funk, and then the show continuing out in the atrium. I headed back to deck 6 to my bed.

 

Our towel animal for the night.

 

And that concludes the day in St. Thomas. Phew!

[lolavix]

It's our only Sea Day!

 

 

You can see that DH already marked the Hasbro show for the kids. This becomes important later on.

 

 

 

 

Despite it being our sea day, we were still up by around 7:30 or so. We didn't have a tour, but we did have 8:45 reservations for:

 

 

Well, we weren't doing all the activities on the right side, but we were going to do the breakfast. We had signed up for it when we signed the kids up for the kids' clubs. We figured it would be fun. The only regret was that the sea day brunch was the same day, and while we could have attended for lunch, it was also elegant night and really, just too much food for one day. (And as an aside, I completely forgot about the sea day brunch once we got involved in the day's activities).

Edited September 5, 2016 by lolavix

[ontheweb]

Lolavix, the pizza would have been open as well as the grill. Unfortunately, the problem you ran into of coming back and food was harder to find is not uncommon on cruises during the period that the buffet switches over from lunch to dinner.

[htkodiak]

What a great review.Very informative without being to windy ;-).This is one of the cruises we would like to plan.

[lolavix]

ontheweb--Pizza (and deli) had a line as well, although we did do that a few times. The issue is that they had large swaths of their available space closed and combined all the other foods in one long line. No reason to put desserts at the end of the grill line; no reason to not have any fruit out whatsoever. We did not really encounter this on the other cruise. We were usually able to walk through and just grab something. Not sure why it was impossible to do this at 9:30 at night, either.

 

htkodiak--Thank you, although I feel pretty windy at times. I would highly recommend it. The islands are gorgeous.

________________________________________________________________

 

There were all sorts of photo ops at this breakfast.

 

 

 

DS1 is thrilled to be in this photo, no?

 

 

 

We were impressed with this.

[lolavix]

I thought this was really cute.

 

 

What are we serving?

 

I went with the Scrambled Super-Dee-Dooper-Dee-Booper, Special de Luxe a-la-Peter T Hooper Omelet. We also had the Truffula Tree Pancakes, From There to Here, From Here to There, Belgian Waffles Everywhere, and Fox in Socks Steak and Eggs. We were seated with another family of five who had a toddler, and he was fun to watch with his reactions to the characters as they came through. As expected, he didn't know what to make of them.

 

But my kids knew what to do.

 

 

I guess DS1 likes posing with the "real" thing.

 

[lolavix]

We got a kick out of these parfaits. We didn't order these; they were brought to the table and you just randomly took one.

 

I thought this looked very fun and in keeping with the theme.

 

I wasn't sure if this was something related to Seuss or not, but this was the other option. No matter, everyone enjoyed their fruit parfait.

 

Time for the main courses:

I did not photograph my omelet. I will caution anyone who orders the omelet to perhaps ask for a side or two, since you are just brought an omelet on a big plate. After we had been eating a bit, bacon and hash browns were brought out for the entire table. I'm wondering if they were meant for the omelet folks and were put in the middle by mistake. It was just a little odd to not have anything else on the plate with my omelet. It was good since you could add whatever you'd like to customize it.

 

Similar to the singing shows in the MDR at night, there was entertainment.

 

 

I loved their 'uniforms'. There was only one Thing 1 and Thing 2. We saw lots of different numbers, like Thing 26 and Thing 99. Each one was unique.

[lolavix]

By then it was approaching 10 AM and the kids wanted to go see the Towel Animal Theater. On our way out, we bumped into

 

 

This is actually a better photo, but DS1 is blocking Sam-I-Am.

 

Overall, we enjoyed the Green Eggs and Ham Breakfast. I'll mention that it was $5 per person. For us, it was definitely more for the theming than the food, since I'm guessing you could get the same food at the sea day brunch.

 

The show was in the Palace Theater. When we arrived, a towel folding clinic was finishing up.

 

This looks like it was fun.

 

The towel animal theater show was fun for kids. DD wanted to come and then she went to sit with kids from Circle C. DS2 went to sit on stage with other kids. DS1 just hung with us.

 

These photos were cropped from a distance. I had my wide-angle lens with me for the breakfast and didn't have a chance to get back to the cabin to switch it out. I think you get the gist, though.

 

 

Bubbles add to the festive show.

 

 

 

So does dancing. DS2 is in the gray, blue and white shirt.

[cyntil8ing]

This was the night that a pirate traveled around the dining room. While most times, the pirate posed with diners with the sword by their necks, DH decided to fight back with his butter knife:

 

 

Ha. This reminded me of our very first Carnival Cruise on the Imagination in 2008. We fought back too!

 

[ontheweb]

I went to that towel animal show also (though I missed the very beginning). It was a lot of fun. Earlier that morning there was a class in making towel animals which I also attended and was on the stage with everyone else.

[lolavix]

cyntil8ing--Love it! Great minds think alike!

ontheweb--We missed you there. I do have a photo of the class (in that post), which was finishing up when we first arrived. I know we would have enjoyed that as well.

 

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The towel animal show had the animals singing and dancing some popular songs (many from the 80s, my DD groaned). At the end, there were even streamers:

 

 

 

 

After the show, we split up for a bit. DD went off with her friends to Circle K and the boys went to Camp Carnival. DH and I stayed and watched the "Fun Ashore and Fun Abroad" show, hosted by Felipe. Although we had all of our tours set up, I wanted to see if there were any stops we wanted to add at any of the islands. Felipe went through and described each island and pointed out highlights. There were raffles, where two tickets to different excursions were given away. It would have been nice, but probably a bit complicated to rearrange our plans.

 

We retrieved the boys and went to see the "Pop Up Magic Show", held in the atrium. This was a 15 minute demonstration, with the illusionist letting us know that he'd be performing a full length show on Saturday night.

 

He managed to have Bella's card switch with his card. Do you see DS2 right in front of the action? He loves magic.

 

After the show, we weren't yet hungry and the boys wanted to go back to Camp Carnival. I think DH was ready for a nap, but I wasn't. I tried to see if the washers were available and it was crazy! There was a huge line for the iron, since tonight was elegant night. On Deck 6, there were four washer/dryer combos, and I think there was the same on Deck 7. One was out of order and the other three were being used. We really did need to do laundry, as this was part of our plan. We hadn't brought 11 days worth of clothes for five people. I figured I'd check back later.

 

I took a walk up to the Lido deck, where I grabbed a bit of salad and some chocolate goodies from the buffet. I took them outside and sat and watched the Mixologist contest, which was fun. I was starting to get hot in the sun and I figured, it was time to go find my family. As I went back inside, I saw DH and the boys coming to find me. They got some food and I got a little more and we sat inside. We laughed when DD came in with her friends and sat right near us, without realizing it.

 

After lunch, it was back to Camp Carnival for the boys and I had some success in starting the laundry. On the Fascination, it's $3 for the washer, $3 for 45 minutes for the dryer and I think it was either $1.50 or $2 for the laundry soap. Definitely worth it to us, rather than to tote more clothes for five people or paying per bag. We had two large loads to do, so it would have cost us quite a bit to have Carnival do it. We still had some leftover laundry, but so be it. Note that the line for the iron was still pretty long.

 

It was now time for:

 

This show consisted of audience members playing life-sized Hasbro games to win non-life-sized Hasbro games. In order to get on stage, the audience members needed to answer various questions in order to win.

 

For the first team fielded, they needed to watch clips of people acting out different activities (a la Guesstures) and identify what they were doing. DS2 really wanted to get on stage, and he was selected by Felipe when he started jumping up and down and waving wildly. The crazier you acted, the more likely you'd be selected.

 

You can see the screen behind him. Turns out that the person on the screen was conveying that he had a sore throat, which DS2 correctly identified. He was a member of the red team.

 

Four members of the red team were selected, and then we moved on to the blue team. I don't recall what they had to do to get on stage, but it was a different game.

 

Now they were ready to play:

They were going to play Yahtzee, where they rolled a large ball to knock down those dice pins. The captain, whom I later learned was Rencas on my roll call here, decided which dice to keep and which to reset to try again. The goal is to get the best hand (which would be five of a kind, just like in regular Yahtzee).

 

Kris with a K helping DS2 with the ball:

 

After everyone took their turn, the Red Team ended up with a large straight, if I recall. When the blue team took their turn, they beat them with either four of a kind or a Yahtzee.

[lolavix]

The red team, courtesy of Rencas:

Rencas didn't realize that DS2 was a member of his team until after we got home and I started my review. There was no organized Meet and Mingle on the ship so we never had a chance to meet in person.

 

The Red Team received a consolation prize. DS2 received Boggle Slam, a card game which would be nice for travel.

 

After a short commercial break, which was an advertisement for Mr. Potato Head from the 1950s or 1960s ($2!), it was time for round 2. More questions ensued to get the next two teams assembled.

 

This time, DH was chosen to answer a Trivial Pursuit question. You can see the question behind him.

 

I think he took a guess, because Volkswagen is what comes to mind when you think of a German car. I suppose it could have been BMW as well, but it wasn't.

 

DH was chosen for the Red Team as well.

 

Once the entire team was assembled:

 

they got to play Operation, which was essentially a Skee Ball game.

 

 

Turns out that the Red Team won this time, so DH go to move on to the Monopoly round, for the grand prize.

 

Celebrating their win

 

The Monopoly round, where the winners of Round 1 and Round 2 (so 8 people in total) get to select one of those cards. Each card has one of the Monopoly game pieces on it.

[lolavix]

DH chose the race car.

 

Each contestant put their card in the Monopoly ATM machine. The machine read their cards and told us how many points were on it. The contestant with the most points wins.

 

 

 

 

DH got 33,000 points and took the lead. High-5 from Felipe for that.

 

DH remained the leader for the rest of the contestants. It came down to him and this last one.

[JohnSpo]

Those games looks like a lot of fun. I'm not sure why so many people don't like them. You don't have to have a production show every night. I look forward to checking out those game shows when I am on Paradise.:cool:

[lolavix]

Good luck!

 

33,000 points stood. DH was the winner!

 

 

 

The prizes. DH wound up with a travel Simon, another copy of the Boggle Slam that DS2 won, Cluedo, Monopoly Deal card game, Trivial Pursuit card game, and $150 gift card to Hasbro.com.

 

We were so surprised that he had won. I had read in at least one other review that kids usually win, which is what I would have expected. The boys were very excited. It was a lot of fun to have a vested interest in the game, for both rounds.

 

 

 

And that was our exciting afternoon at the Hasbro Game Show.

[tgirl25]

This looks like so much fun. Somehow I always have missed the game show and not sure how. So glad you all won and I bet your kids have a sneaking suspicion as to some of what they might be getting for Christmas!!

[ontheweb]

AW, those Dr. Seuss pictures are so cute. When I was a school board member, one of our elementary schools always had a Dr. Seuss Day. I would read Horton Hears a Who to one of the classes.

 

Funny story--we were once on a ship (NCL Epic in the Western Mediterranean for our 35th anniversary) that had Sesame Street on it. I was on an elevator, and a couple with two young children boarded the elevator. The mother said to the father, "You know you have to get slimed." He replied, "No way." She then asked the kids who they would rather slime Mom or Dad. They both loudly said, "Dad!" He was the last of the 4 to get off the elevator.

 

I wished him good luck, and he replied, "Thank you.".

[minnieiowa]

Great review! We are booked for March and love reading about everyone else's experiences and seeing the pictures :)