Johnson Family Reunion July 2017 Cruise SeaWorld Discovery Cove Busch Gardens

Thursday July 20th 2017.  Escape-Vacation!!

Here we go! 3 a.m. wake up! Well, for Kevin, it was an all-nighter. We had tried to go to bed early, but that didn't work for him and he was up most of the night thinking or pacing. Jadeyn woke up on his own and got dressed. I really have to admire Kevin’s attitude. No Sleep, 3 a.m. and he's down in the kitchen singing. The wrong words to a song: I'm going on an airplane (Leaving on a jet plane!) The drive to the airport was uneventful. On the flight Southwest, we got unlimited goodies which is awesome after all our Frontier flights. So our first experience with Uber was today. Uber is like a freelance taxi service. We hailed one on the app on our phone. An available car was sent and we got to watch her arrival on the map on our phone and all we had to do was watch for the car description and license plate and off we went.  It works great and helped make up the money we lost on our last taxi snafu!

We couldn't believe when we pulled up to our hotel. We have been trying to remember where we stayed in 2014, and guess what? Same Hotel! Wow! We were of course way too early to check in so we checked our luggage at the front desk and got our tickets out for the park. We were too late to catch the shuttle to the park, so we decided to walk the 1.4 miles. Boy oh boy, was it hot! The humidity felt wonderful, but our bodies weren't prepared for the humidity and heat together! Jadeyn took his glasses off in his whole face was spotted and dripping in sweat! Kevin and I were both dripping from it too. Wow! Welcome to SeaWorld in summer. We so enjoyed reminiscing through all the familiar places where so many precious memories came from when Jadeyn was little. The place where we took the first picture of Jadeyn holding his penguin Puck in front of the lighthouse. Seeing the gangly flamingos that Jadeyn was so excited about. Even walking up to the Dolphin Show and remembering back in 2009. It was the first time Jadeyn had held still for longer than 20 minutes while he watched that show for the first time!

Around 4:30 p.m. the sky seemed to go from bright, shiny and hot to dark and stormy. We decided it was time to walk home to check into our hotel. About a quarter of a mile away from the park it started to drizzle. About two minutes later it started to rain, four minutes later it started to downpour! And about a quarter of a mile away from our hotel it was a complete torrent! Don't get me wrong, we love walking in the rain, but it was pretty difficult when we couldn't even see because of the water streaming in our eyes. We had three different cars stop to offer us a ride. We must have looked like drowned rats! When we got to the hotel to check in they immediately called the janitors to set up slippery signs all along our route to the elevator. When we got to the room we had to ring out our shorts and t-shirts and it was hilarious to see just how much water our clothes had collected. The amazing thing was as both our phones still worked even though we didn't have a scrap of clothing on us that was still dry! What a welcome to Florida Summers.

Friday July 21, 2017

Friday Busch Gardens!! Okay ready for a potentially crazy day! Today is the day we get to tell Jadeyn about the surprise for the trip. We gave him hints like it is a park, he's been there before, we have to take a bus to get there, etc. When Kevin told him that they had watched a video of a coaster online together, he said Cobra Curse Busch Gardens! He doesn't forget anything! We had breakfast at the hotel, packed our backpack and barely caught the shuttle to SeaWorld. We had about 30 minutes to wait for the bus then to Busch Gardens. We didn't get on the first bus, so got on the 2nd and that's where all the chaos started. Our bus waited 20 minutes longer for a family member who finally did not show up. Then went to a second stop which the other bus didn't have to do. It made it but we didn't arrive to Busch Gardens until almost 11! Dang! We went straight to Cheetah Hunt. Jadeyn was so excited because he is tall enough finally! We raced to get in the 65-minute line which is officially The longest ride line we have been in for at least 5 years! The ride: awesome! It is a three and a half minute ride that winds and twists up and down through the African Savanna with three bursts of speed. It was great and Jadeyn really liked it!

Because we know that the lines would get longer as the day progressed, we hurried and got in the 75-minute line for the new Cobra Curse. This is actually a new twist on coasters. First the car is lifted by elevator, then joined on to a track and then takes off! A slight pause and the car turns around for a stretch of backward track! Then the latch releases and we spin freely for the rest of the ride! Luckily, we were able to bring our backpack in line with us we ate plenty of snacks for lunch while in line. About 30 minutes into our line it started to rain, then really rain, then the lightning started. Oh no! Sure enough, the announcement came that all the rides were temporarily closed. Because everything was down, we might as well stay in line. It shouldn't rain too long right? Almost 3 hours later of being stuck in line with people lacking a sense of personal space, a group of school kids who felt no need to regulate their volume and also meeting a really nice family of 5 from New Jersey, the storm still wasn't far enough away. All rides still closed down. We finally left the line and instead ran into one of the shows. It was a pretty good show dancing on ice.

Back outside, the rides were all still closed due to lightning even though the rains had stopped. We all wandered around the park re-living precious memories from when Jadeyn was little! We peeked in on the Kangaroos and all the other animals, flamingos, Tigers, orangutans, etc. Jadeyn was incredibly disappointed about the Cobra Curse. We got a big soft pretzel and Dippin Dots for the show and he perked up but it still didn't look good for more rides. Around 5:30, we went up on a balcony in the light rain and looked out over the Savannah. While there, we saw six people in line for Cobra. We watched carefully with nothing happening, suddenly they all cheered! We jumped! Ran all the way around to the entrance of the ride, asked the dude is it running. He said they are testing it. We told him how we had waited 3 hours and he said that they would let us on the Quick Queue. We ran and were on the right in 4 minutes! No way! How sweet is that! Well, we had 14 minutes to be on the bus so we ran over to Cheetah Hunt to find out they were having technical difficulties. Oh no! We ran back to Cobra Curse along with a large crowd who had heard the rumor too, but jumped in quick que again. After almost waiting the whole day for this one ride, we got to go on it twice! It was a crazy strange day, but it ended up a success!

Saturday 21, 2017

Discovery Cove day! This day has been about 9 months in planning and we can't believe it is finally here! We got up early and walked to Discovery Cove about a half a mile and waited among the amazingly huge greenery with our fellow vacationers until they let us in. We were lucky enough to get an 8 a.m. dolphin swim so we quickly grabbed some breakfast at an amazing all you can eat buffet and then picked up our wetsuits. Here we go. We got a few short instructions and then headed to the water. We stood waist deep in the water talking with the trainer and suddenly our dolphin appeared right on cue. Her name is Kaleia and she is 9 years old. It was amazing to be in the water right next to her and get to interact and look her right in the eye. We learned several hand instructions like speak, waive right or left flipper, whistle or dive. She responded perfectly. She swam up and down our row of people and we got to pat her back and rub her belly. She was quite soft. The best description of how she felt which was pretty accurate, was a hot dog!

Ready for our swim? We each got to swim about 20 yards towards the center of the bay where our sweet dolphin met us. One hand on her fin and one in front of her flipper and off she flew in a fast swim! It took a lot to hang on! We each took a turn and Jadeyn and Kevin looked like pros! I looked like I was drowning! After each swim, she received a fish and a kiss! There was one moment when everyone had to get out of the water because one dolphin in another group decided to rebel. She swam out to the center and started breaching, jumping way out of the water and splashing back down hard. They told us that it could just be an itch, or rebelling or showing off, but because the other Dolphins could respond unpredictably, we all needed to get out. It was only a few minutes and we got back in. Wow, what a special experience to share with an amazing creature!  One funny moment came when each of us got to put our hand under her chin and give her a kiss on the nose for a picture. Kevin decided to just hold his face near hers and not kiss her. She responded by a raspberry sound like she was sticking her tongue out at him! After the Dolphins, we wanted to go see the Aviary. Birds everywhere! Even three peacocks up in the trees and one of them pure white! Ibis, spoonbill and so many other birds that we don't know the names of. We fed them chunks of fruit and they ate by sitting on our hands. We soon realized that we would get a better view of the enclosure if we got in the Lazy River. 

Wait a second, the lazy river goes through part of the Aviary too! The way they keep the birds from flying out was a wall of waterfall! We quickly took the camera back to the locker and ran back to jump in the amazing 85 degree River. Ahh! With our wetsuits and noodles we floated perfectly winding around and around the many curves and corners, through waterfalls, canopies of trees and caves. Beautiful. It was relaxing and invigorating and beautiful. One section of the river circled around the marmosets, tiny furry monkeys. A tunnel led us along the sea otter area! And then through the aviary again which was beautiful.

Ready to try our hand at snorkeling? See if these Cottrell boys sink or float? We were grateful for the wetsuits because the salt water was much colder. We got our snorkel gear on, made sure we knew how to use it and plunged in! There were a few snags at the beginning figuring it all out but right away we were all so enthralled with the fish that it became easy. Kevin was awesome. He was totally thrilled that it was so easy to float in the salt water. He said that he had never enjoyed snorkeling before because he had only done it in fresh water. He loves it in salt water!

We practically had to chase Jadeyn down a few times when he just swam and floated away on his own. A lot of the fish were about 16 inches long, but then there were plenty that were much larger. Then there were the Stingrays. Wow. Some beautiful chocolate brown smaller ones and then some the were at least six feet across resting along the bottom. Find one in motion and swim above it and it felt like the whole world was moving with you! We were able to touch several of them and that is always so thrilling! There is a section of large sharks behind a glass wall and the way it is arranged you can be right beside and above them! We saw one large puffer fish to. This was definitely a highlight of the trip and day!

We took a break for lunch with another great all you can eat buffet. Jadeyn could hardly believe that it was all you can drink Icees too! After lunch we returned to snorkeling. Honestly, it was a beautiful day and within 10 minutes the whole sky darkened and we heard rumbling. Sure enough: everyone out of the water. We watched the whole place transform as all the canvas flaps came down on the shops, areas cleared and then the wind and rain came. At first it was just raining hard, then it really down poured like it did when we walked home. Everyone huddled where we could find space to wait it out. It lasted almost an hour when at least the rain slowed down. Finally they let us back in the Winding River and then eventually the whole place opened again what fun we had! Right before 3 p.m. we jumped in line for more food before they closed down the food. Then back to the river.

By the time 5 p.m. rolled around and it was time to get ready to leave, we really didn't want to go. We changed into our clothes and wandered around seeing all the places we missed. We loaded up on snacks and Icees before we left too!

Overall, we had an exceptional experience at Discovery Cove. Memories to last a lifetime. We walked back to our hotel to regroup and then continued our walk to SeaWorld. We went on several more rides and watched the Orca show. Wow! Everytime the massive creatures blow us away. They are So Graceful and Powerful! We were planning on staying for the night show and fireworks, but seeing Jadeyn nod off every few minutes, we decided that it had been a really full day and we had better head home.

Sunday, July 22, 2017

We actually got to sleep in a tiny bit this morning. At least until about 6:45 a.m. Breakfast and then off to the park. We were there right as they open the gates and ran to the back of the park to ride the Kraken! Now this is a fun coaster that we have done plenty of times before, but they have retrofitted it to be a virtual reality coaster. This will be a totally new experience for both of us. Kevin went first world Jadeyn and I waited. He ended up on the front row but I guess it really didn't matter where you ended up! He came out smiling and off I went. They fit each person with a headset covering your eyes and ears and off we went! It was a journey to find Atlantis that went awry and we got attacked by the Kraken. Overall it was a fun experience, but we both agreed we don't need to repeat it. It took away from the feeling of the coaster.

We enjoyed Antarctica again and several other fun stuff, but the highlight of the day is feeding the manta rays! We got there early in the day to make sure they were good and hungry. Kevin bought Jadeyn five fish to feed them and he loved it. For some funny reason, they both kept getting splashed and I hardly got wet! We held our hands low and flat in the water so they could swim right over to us thinking we had a fish. They would suction on our hands and we could pet their bellies. Such beautiful creatures. We did the turtle experience to and learned all about the manatees and manatee rescue program. There were several in their rescue tank recovering from injuries and several babies with their mamas in the regular tank. We went to the underwater dolphin viewing area and loved watching them swim and play. Underwater Orca viewing was awesome. They were quite entertaining doing all sorts of interesting things. One even swim belly up across the bottom of the tank circling around and around before coming up for air. They would swim so close to the glass that we could see when they blinked or close their eyes! We watch them for quite some time.

We went to a pet talent show called Pets Ahoy! This is a corny animal show but makes a smile and laugh every time. Trained dogs cats, weasels, Ducks, even a pig entertained us.

We got to go to the Orca show that happens during the day. It is different than the evening show but just as fun. Kevin and Jadeyn sat right up close to the glass so they were able to get soaked by orca water! We also went to the sealine parody show which was a riot. They were able to poke fun at all the different aspects of SeaWorld including parking, all the other shows, even asking for money for every little part of your entertainment.

Monday, July 23, 2017

Family reunion time! Today is the day we set sail! We had everything planned out for how this day was supposed to go! We gave ourselves two hours cushion to get to the ship and we used up every scrap of it. It all started when we decided to Google our rental car place and it popped up as a Holiday Inn. What? We decided to call them before doing are over to verify address. When we called, they said they would pick us up at 9 a.m. So we waited until 9 and they didn't come, by 9:10 they called and where the wrong Fairfield Inn! By the time they picked us up and brought us to the rental place (inside a holiday in!) it was 10 a.m. There went our window. We also chose not to take the Florida turnpike, so we could avoid the toll roads so it was a full four hour drive to Miami. I was sweating bullets so afraid we wouldn't make it in time. We pulled in at 2:15 p.m. but couldn't figure out how to get to the parking garage. Finally on our fourth time around, we found it. On to security. While in line Kevin remembered he still had his pocket knife in his suitcase. He had to run it back to the car! We got checked in and well, we were so overwhelmed by the ship. We found our room, but no tickets on the door like they said. What? I went to and found someone to help us out. He comes over but before unlocking the door, he asked for a boarding pass. Sweetie, it says 1243 not 1234! Oh my goodness! Well, I think it won't be the first time we get lost!

Well, cruise ships are huge! We arrived and found half our family. So glad to see everyone. Julie's kids have grown so much! We got there just in time for muster. It's a safety drill where we all report to where we should be in case of an emergency. It was chaotic, hectic, hot and it took a while. But we did meet some nice kids from Georgia while waiting.

After muster we got some pizza, we were starving, and ate on the top of the deck with Mom and Dad as we watch the Miami Beach go by and drift into the distance. It is amazing how steady the ship is. We can feel a little bit of movement, but not much. Our room is great. We upgraded to an outside estate room with a window so Kevin would feel more comfortable, and we were glad we did it.

Dinner was in the banquet dining hall, a beautiful place where we were treated like royalty. We could order anything we wanted off the menu, and if we didn't like it, we could order something else! Jadeyn proudly order calamari and swordfish! Kevin and I both had one of the pork dishes. It was fun to joke and catch up with everyone we laughed and laughed.

After dinner we all went up to the top deck to enjoy the sunset. We were at the dining room from 6 to 8 p.m.! We were the last table to leave. Beautiful sky over the water! Jadeyn left with Julie's family to play Miniature Golf while Jerica and I beat Kevin with bean bags! We enjoyed the evening air.

Around 10 p.m., Mom, Dad, Jericca and our family went to the opening night welcome show in the ballroom. Fun show was singing and dancing, but where it really came to life was when the cruise director started asking the audience questions. He eventually got around to who has been married the longest. My parents won with an amazing 54 years! He stood them up and ask them how they keep the marriage going. Dad said some very sweet things about friendship, respect and mom’s bubbly way of showing her love for him. Then it is then it got funny. He asked Mom how often Dad shows his love for her. Words got tangled and one thing led to another and my mom said, well, we have sex almost every day! What? To a room full of people? Apparently her joke continued with almost on Monday almost on Tuesday etc, but everyone was roaring so loudly that not many heard her joke. Jadeyn leans over, what did she say? Did Grandma just say sex? We didn't even know that he knew that word! Oh my goodness. It was an hilarious moment and the cruise director even ran off stage and brought them out a bottle of champagne! Fun and funny night.

Jadeyn of course can't let go of anything that he doesn't fully understand so the questions just kept coming. How do we answer these? It's just like you love chocolate and you almost had chocolate on Monday and almost on Tuesday. That's how Grandma tried to explain it but Jadeyn said, but you didn't say chocolate! Back in the room: but what did she mean by sex, what does that mean? Kevin said when we get home will get a science book out and explain it to you. Why do you need a science book, what does that have to do with anything? I started singing the birds and the bees and he got even more confused he said he knew it had something to do with an egg and Kevin said humans don't lay eggs. But that's what Mom said! Oh my, back to science. What do you mean by science? Does it have anything to do with genes? We're not going to have the birds and the bees discussion with you tonight. What does it have to do with these? It has to do where babies come from! Does it have anything to do with eggs? Finally we said: Okay it's mating. He replied: Oh, of course, well that's easy, you could have just said that in the first place. Jadeyn learned about The Facts of Life on a cruise ship from his grandma!

Tuesday, July 24th, 2017

Sleeping in on the ship was a little difficult with a bright sun shining in our window. We woke up by 7 a.m. (nice) and Jadeyn had been awake since 6! Today we docked in Key West. Breakfast was great with a lot of variety of course. Our boat docked and at a naval base where we all loaded into trolleys which took us to Key West. It was just about as we remembered it, only much much hotter! Wow. Humidity in Orlando was Heavy, Miami even more, but Key West was almost oppressive. whew! It turns out that we were the only ones from the family to go ashore, not sure why, but we enjoyed ourselves meandering up and down the salt Warren Street. We found the boardwalk along the reef and ambled up and down. To our surprise there were quite a few roosters and chickens wandering around freely. They were the pretty ones and it really added to the quality of the town. In one parking area near an aquarium, we spotted a huge iguana being chased by a bird. He was a good 3 ft long and bright green! We found another smaller one too. Jadeyn said that the iguana's make Key West worth it!

It took us a while, but we finally found Mallory Square where we had seen street performers the last time we were here, but they weren't out because it was still so early in the day. We wandered through the shops to where most and were most impressed by some of the shell collections. You really have to love a certain kind of lifestyle or have a certain attitude to live with the island life. It was fun to people-watch.

We headed back to the boat around 11:45 and we're glad to reboard before the rush at 12:30. We were able to grab some awesome Chinese food before all the rest of the boat decided they were hungry. At the very end of our lunch, we found Mom and Dad! Kevin and Jadeyn went for a walk and I got to enjoy some time with mom and dad. They are having random people greet them by name after last night's show! At 12:30 I started calling Kevin. We only have about 15 minutes before we leave port and won't have cell coverage. We need to make a few calls. I tried at least 15 times and no answer. I finally went back to the cabin and he finally answered. His phone didn't even show it and that any of my calls are gone through! We call Dan our real estate guy and got half a conversation through before we lost him. Then we struggle for the next 10 minutes to get any emails to go through. By the time we were done, my headache exploded I had to lay down with a wet washcloth blocking out the light. Ouch.

After 30 minutes I was good. Me and Jadeyn went swimming and Kevin read on the deck. The pools are pretty small, more soaking pools in swimming pools, but they are saltwater which is cool. We played for about an hour and had a lot of fun! Back to the room to get ready for dinner and we accidentally ran into Julie! We got to see her rooms and Jadeyn and Jonah got to hang out before dinner.

Tonight is elegant night so we all dressed up. It was such fun to be altogether. We all laughed, joked and quoted movies etc the food was great. Jadeyn, clear at the other end of the table, ordered his own food. Shrimp for his appetizer, crab ravioli for his main course. Lots of fun and laughter we got a group picture of everyone together finally too.

After dinner, the kids all went to the Beauty and the Beast movie around the pool and Mom, Dad, Kevin and I and Jerrica and McKayla went to The Living in America evening show. Well, talk about high-energy! The singers and dancers were amazing with such a variety of songs! We loved it.

Jadeyn and the kids had gone back to the room and were all watching a movie together so we found Julie and Sheri and husbands watching Kong around the pool. We watch with them for about 45 minutes then picked up Jadeyn and headed to bed. Fun day!

Wednesday, July 25th, 2017

Beautiful morning. We went up to the track to watch the sunrise and get a little exercise. Crazy though, this morning while lying peacefully in bed, the boat felt totally still. Sit up, and boy could you feel it rocking! Gentle slow swaying but definitely swaying. We felt it for a few hours this morning. We had a beautiful walk around and around the ship. Eliza joined us and then joined us again for breakfast in the dining room. They made a delicious breakfast for us French toast, eggs benedict, and hot chocolate. Eliza's comment was I had no idea they can make frosted flakes look so fancy. She had oatmeal to that came with a bowl of raisins a bowl of brown sugar and a pitcher of cream! She and Jadeyn both had chocolate milk that came in wine glasses!

After breakfast we checked out more of the ship and even did a little window-shopping. Kevin is determined to get me a necklace so we spent some time in one of the expensive jewellery shops right when they were doing their big special a percentage of everything, Raffles, mimosas. Jadeyn and Jonah played hide-and-seek in the theater while we browsed.

Today we docked at Cozumel Mexico! After so many hours of seeing the ocean, it seriously was strange to start seeing land and other ships in the distance. Cozumel is an island off the mainland of Mexico. it was a little chaotic trying to figure out how to get on Shore all of us together, but we decided that we should stick together since none of us are doing any excursions. It ended up being perfect.

Once on Shore, we passed through the duty-free shops and then shop after Mexican shop. Jadeyn was dreading that we might get distracted and decide to shop instead of doing something fun. Well, there were quite a few non-official salesman out there offering tours. We were looking for a taxi to take us to a beach, instead we found at or service with a 14-passenger van offering to take us to a resort beach where we could have access to snorkeling equipment and all the services of the resort. Had we done it through the cruise, it would have been around $60 each, we've got the whole thing for $350 total. Nice. We all gathered around Pedro our guide, and received our instructions, then piled into the van. He gave us a great tour of the Town telling us about the local Customs, buildings Etc. It was a beautiful Beach Town mixed with a picturesque Mexican architecture. We even got to see several more iguanas!

It was a 20-minute drive to our destination. We pulled through a grove of palm trees and in between white stucco and the buildings to an open-air restaurant and Villa. It was beautiful! We all got suited up with our gear and headed out to a small dock extending over the water. The blue water under us was crystal clear and amazing. Rather than wait for our ladder to be free, Jadeyn and Kevin jumped the eight feet right in! In went the rest of us. Normally there would be a shock of the cold ocean water, but it was so perfectly warm that it felt like jumping into air. So warm! There were brightly colored fish everywhere. All around us, big and small, darting all around. We were all so excited to be snorkeling among them. Jadeyn in particular was ecstatic! The water around us was quite choppy but once our faces were under the surface it was awesome. I expected to see some sweet small fish, but didn't expect the big ones. There were some about 16 inches long. Jadeyn took two snorkeling again like a pro and we had to keep track of him or he would end up way ahead. What a little fish! We even saw a small flounder camouflaged on the bottom! The current carried us along the shoreline toward the beach area so when we got out, we carried all of our gear, walked up the beach and did it all again!

The crazy part was getting out! The waves were crashing into the sandy beach and with flippers on, it really made it difficult but kind of crazy fun. We turned our gear in and while most of the adults headed for shade, Kevin first took a turn watching and playing with the kids in the waves and then I did. Oh my goodness, they had so much fun! I think I could have stayed out there forever to floating in the salt water with the fish around me. It was also fun to watch the people around us. Some of the ladies really wanted to see the fish but they were terrified of them and we're so afraid that one would touch them!

Under the palm trees was a lot of fun talking with everyone and taking pictures. There was also a small pool to swim in and showers to rinse the salt water off. Beautiful place. When it was time to go back we had to convince the kids to get out of the water! Back in the van and around the island to Port.

Our family decided to go straight back to the boat and not wander through all the shops. We are so happy to have been able to do this excursion together. Great fun.

We all decided to have dinner in the dining hall but we discovered we were famished! Our phone had reset to Mexico time while on shore, so we didn't realize it was almost 7:30 by the time we got to dinner. When we arrived we asked if any of our family was seated yet. The server said oh yes, Morgan's. So we followed him to a large round table with three teenage boys sitting there staring at us! Wrong family. The server didn't seem to understand and even pulled the chairs out to try to get us to sit down again!

We sat ourselves and began to order, we caught mom and dad just in time to have them join us too. It was really nice to have a quiet meal with them. Sheri and Julie sat a ways away. Great meal, tortilla soup spring rolls and of course melting chocolate cake! What a day!

Thursday, July 26th, 2017

Last night I went to everyone's room with note saying that we would be arriving at breakfast at 9:20 instead of 9:30 since Jadeyn wanted to go to the program at 10:30. We were up early, walked the track, played mini golf and checked out the art gallery to take up the time until 9:20 only to find the whole family had arrived before us. Oh dear. Breakfast, Brunch was excellent again. We are getting the hang of cruise food, don't be afraid to order multiple things and to enjoy as much as possible. Great fun and conversation too.

Last night we had been talking about how we have felt about the cruise. We have decided that the cruise part has been much better than expected. The customer service has been Top Notch. Even if breakfast the server saw me take a piece of my dad's bacon and the next thing I knew, he brought me a whole plate of my own.

Today is our full day at Sea and we seem to really be hauling. Around 4 a.m. The rolling of the boat woke me up. You can see the waves mirrored on the ceiling as the moon shone on the waves and reflected it on the ceiling. As soon as breakfast was over, we went to the main theater to watch the towel animals come to life. Every day we have had a different towel animal show up in our room. An elephant, pig, monkey and Stingray. It was awesome. The kids gathered in the theater and got to learn how to make the animals and then whole musical puppet show took place with them. Cute.

Jadeyn went swimming with the cousins and having a blast while Kevin and I headed back to the room.  At lunch there was a Chocolate Extravaganza. Well, it was nowhere near as good as our favorite dessert of Molten Lava Cakes in the dining hall, but it was fun. Dipping chocolate, chocolate cake and cheesecake Etc. It was all we had for lunch and there was plenty!

When afternoon rolled around, we checked Jadeyn into the kids lounge and we went to the love and marriage game show. We knew Sheri and Julie went to but we couldn't find them. Oh my, it was funny! It was just like the Newlywed Game, a little Ruckus and lots of laughs. My parents didn’t show their faces!!

After picking Jadeyn up, we went on a search for any family members and finally succeeded in finally Julie. She was on her way up to me Sheri and Terry and Jared in the Serenity Lounge. So that's where they've been hiding out. Jadeyn joined Julie's kids for fun in their room and then I went to the lounge. Kevin joined us at the end. And it turns out the kids spend most of the time playing games with my parents and their room. It was fun to talk in the hot tub since we had all just gone to the love game, we all talked about how we met and answered all of the questions. Also talking about early marriage life etc. We also made up a plan to have hopefully and finally do catamaran trip with the parents. Hopefully it will all work out.

Time to get ready for the last dinner in the dining hall. It has been so fun to have the family dining experience every night. Tonight Jadeyn even told us all the firsts he had on the trip. Swordfish, duck and tonight he had escargot! I watched Sheri offer him a bite and he politely accepted. Smelled it, and finally ate it! He said it wasn't good, but it wasn't bad either! In the middle of dinner all the servers gathered together and sing us Leaving on a Jet Plane. All as loud and semi off key and heartfelt as they could. We loved having the same group with us for each dinner. We even had the magician come by our table and he did an amazing trick that blew us away. He had Jared shuffle an imaginary deck, pick an imaginary card and memorize it, shuffle it back and hand the deck back to him. Suddenly it was a real deck and one card was upside down. He asked what Jared's imaginary card was and then pulled out that exact card!

As soon as dinner was over it was time for a show: a drive through the decades. Wow, what energy! Same group of singers and dancers and it was non-stop song after song, dance, costume changes every 3 minutes and tons of fun! All the songs were ones we loved except for the Motown section and then we were lost. Pretty great entertainment!

We set Jadeyn up with everyone else for the drive-in movie Lego Batman and went to see the 80s and 90s sing along. This took place in the center Lounge where you could stand on any balcony and look down on the show. It was our cruise director Felipe and two other guys and it was a ride! Snippets of the best songs, dancing and hilarious stuff! Finally our last stop was the 80s dance off. Oh dear. The music was fun of course but only for people on the Dance Floor. Way too few for me to be brave enough to even go out there!

Friday, July 27, 2017

Wow what a fun family reunion. It has been so wonderful to see almost everyone and catch up in person. We are also sad not to have Shelly's family come. It would have been even better and more chaotic with a whole family more! Julie's family and Mom and Dad are leaving as early as they can so they can get on the road back to Virginia. I joined them for breakfast in the dining hall at 6:30. Last dining hall moment! Kevin and Jadeyn joined us for the hugs were given all around. Jadeyn and Jonah had become great friends again. It was awesome.

Back at our room we packed everything up and decided to wait until our specific specific floor was called to deboard. We learned our lesson for the next time, either get off as early as possible, or as late as possible. We were to be at 9:45, but by 9, they halted the deboarding because customs had become so busy. But, it gave us plenty of time to track down Sheri and Terry in the mess hall so we got to say goodbye to them too! While waiting for the line to open up again, we wandered around the up top and enjoy the humidity and heat of Miami.

Deboarding wasn't as bad as we thought it would be. The lines were long, but customs went fast. Back to our little rental car and we were on our way. Thankfully, the way back was much less chaotic and rushed as the way there. We contemplated several times taking the toll roads because it would be about 30 minutes faster, but thankfully, we didn't. When we got to the rental return place we found out it would have been over $80 if we had due to the extra charges per toll from the rental place. Ouch.

We made it back to the hotel just in time for our afternoon rain and lightning storm and then off to the park! We are so happy that we made it in time for the last performance of POP! It was awesome again and so entertaining. I love the creativity and Magic that the bubblologist has put into his craft. Wow! We did several of our favorite coasters, visited the Shark Expedition area, and play with the Manta Rays again. Oh, we weighed ourselves by the walruses to see if we had gained any weight during the cruise. We still don't weigh as much as a female harbor seal, in fact, we were one pound less than before! We stayed long enough to see the evening Orca show which blew us away! Then our nightly run to the shuttle bus. We accidentally went the wrong way out of the stadium and ended up going all the way around the park. It's a good thing we ran, because we made it with 1 minute to spare!

Oh and on a side note, we are staying in the same hotel as earlier in the week, and they upgraded us to a two-room suite.

Saturday, July 28, 207

Last full day of a wonderful vacation. We saved this day for Aquatica! Seaworld water park. We have taken full advantage of the amazing deal, first Kevin was able to get Discovery Cove at 50% off on Black Friday, then they added in access to SeaWorld, Aquatica, and Busch Gardens for free for 14 days! No wonder we did the parks before and after the cruise!

We got on our swimsuits and swim shorts loaded ourselves up with sunscreen and walk to the park! There was only one day where we took the shuttle both to and from any of the parks. We have done a lot of walking!

Wow! Saturday at a waterpark was crazy busy. We are so happy that we got there at opening so we were able to get a locker fast and hit the big rides. We did all the tubes first and they were awesome. Jadeyn loves water so much and was giggling and laughing the whole way. We loved all his exclamations, I was backward the whole time! I hit a bump so hard I almost flew out of my two! That was crazy! There were both single and double tube rides and one with a large round draft. We flew through them a few times in the first hour before it really got busy.

Lazy River. So disappointing. It was so full of floating empty double tubes and people that it was like bumper cars. But we were able to pull over on the side jaunt and see the fish tube and the commissary dolphins too. That was when we discovered the second not-so-lazy river! We could just float in life jackets and no tube. We found it! The best Lazy River out there! The Rapids were so fast that we practically whipped around and around often losing contact with each other when one of us caught the fast current in the other didn't. There were jets along the side that would give you a total speed burst. We all absolutely loved it and stayed in for at least 90 minutes. On to my other favorite, the wave pool! I love staying in the wave pool until I'm completely exhausted. We got plenty of water in our eyes and up our noses but had a ton of fun. It was just after noon and was predicted to have a nice thunderstorm, so we found a few chairs under an umbrella to have lunch and wait it out. Luckily I blew over, and we had kind of been hoping for a little rain to clear out some of the crowds.

So, back at it. We hopped in the Rapids and around and around again we went. So much fun! Would we were completely waterlogged, we decided to get out but oops, Jadeyn missed the exit and we went around again. That time I missed the exit and we had to go around another time. We finally made it out! We were trying to decide when to leave when we chose one more time for the wave pool. Wow, now we are good and exhausted!

We headed out for the walk home just in time. The clouds dark into the wind picked up. We are about 3 minutes from our hotel when it started drizzling and waited until we were inside before downpouring! We chose to walk to KFC for lunch and had a bit of a fiasco trying to cross the street with all the construction. Great dinner, chicken, biscuits and pot pie! Then another walk to SeaWorld. Woo wee it's hot! We spent the evening strolling through and enjoying our favorites. We enjoyed the sea lions all lazy and sleeping this time of day with their babies. So cute to see all the adults locked out in the babies just couldn't hold still! The harbor seals were adorable and entertaining too. When kept chasing his own tail spinning around and around under the water. we saw a baby king penguin in Antarctica, big and fluffy. At 2 months old they're almost the size of an adult, but won't get there waterproof feathers until 12 months.

Jadeyn finally picked up a souvenir. He has been so stubborn about not spending any money and we were so happy he found something he was really excited about, a SeaWorld water bottle. Fun and practical, that's our boy!

One last night to enjoy the Orca show! So special to enjoy it with my best boys! We went to the electric ocean party afterwards and Jadeyn and I were forced to dance again, at least jump around a bit. The fireworks, Fountain and fire show was awesome again. My favorite part is when you feel the heat so strong from the fire immediately followed by the cool blue lasers and Mist Of The Fountains. Wow. Amazing and fun trip, we really don't want to go home.