Spring Break 2024 - Royal Caribbean Cruise Day 1 (Miami, FL)

 Our spring break was THE BEST!  We went on a Royal Caribbean cruise to two stops in the Bahamas and Jamaica! 

I kid you not when I tell you that my alarm was set for 12:55 am so we could catch a 2:20 Uber to the Logan Express for our 5:05 am flight. 5:05 AM!!!!!  Screw you, Spirit.  But these guys are pretty funny on the bus to the airport.

Naturally, when we were in the airport, we pointed out the sicked little kid in the entire airport and he sat directly behind Todd. Like, he could have sat ANYWHERE else on the plane... but nope. Right next to us.  But his dad was funny, photobombing our family photo!

Finally, we made it to Fort Lauderdale and then on to Miami, where we were staying at the Hampton Inn in Brickell.  We grabbed some hotel breakfast (after all, it was only about 9:30 am) and waited by the hotel pool for Ayala and Ellis to let us know when they were leaving.

We met up with them on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach - here are my clowns waiting among the palm trees.

Reunited and it feels so gooooood!  Happy hour started early on this particular day. Ellis and Natalie went off to check out some of the nearby shops (and the beach) while the rest of us... didn't!

I'm warm, I'm with a bestie, and I have a pina colada. Life is good.

But you knew this was coming next!!!

After spending a few hours enjoying some tapas and beverages in Miami Beach, we went back to the Brickell area to meet up with my Mom who landed from Tampa. 

I had a delicious Cortadito at Baires Grill! Thanks to Ellis for introducing me to this. I needed it, BAD. It was so good that even Grant and Natalie got one!

Dinner (even though I was pretty sure I would pop at this point from so much food and drink) was at Batch Gastropub at our hotel. They had a nice bourbon menu!

Finally, it was time to say goodbye to our beautiful friends (mostly because I needed to go to bed!) so we took a selfie in this mirror. I can't decide if my favorites are Ellis or my Mom... or perhaps Ayala paying for her parking in the background? Or maybe that lady photobombing us? Too hard to choose.

The next morning, we packed it up and hopped on the hotel bus that takes you directly to the cruise port. Are we moving onto the cruise ship? This is nearly the number of bags we had when we moved to Germany!

The traffic was bad on our way to the cruise port in the morning. I think it took us about 45 minutes to drive about 4 miles!

But alas, we made it to the cruise port. We passed the Virgin ship that my Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Dave literally got off of that morning!

And finally, we saw her! The Oasis of the Seas!

The boarding process was quick and easy and right now, my kids are about to start fighting about who will be the first one to get on the ship.

Natalie's reaction pretty much says it all about how big our rooms were, particularly when compared to the interior rooms we have always gotten in the past!

I got Todd the Happy Birthday package - which came with a decorated room and a cake on his actual birthday!  Here we are at room 11154!

We took the cutest pictures on Nana, Natalie and Grant's balcony. That water is super turquoise - and it really looked like that!

Bailey family selfie's must be taken as much as possible.

We dropped our bags off and headed straight for the fun things!  Natalie, Todd, Grant and I went to the Ultimate Abyss because my niece and nephew Greta and James said this was SUPER fun when they went on a cruise with Nana a few weeks ago (they were on Wonder of the Seas but it also had an Ultimate Abyss).

We got in line about 10 minutes before it opened and we were one of the first people to slide!  Here goes Grant!  

This slide was wicked fast - See ya about 10 floors down!

Todd landed at the bottom of the Ultimate Abyss last but he looks like he had a good time!

Whew, that is WAY up there!

Humans for scale in 0.5 on the Boardwalk. I'm glad our balcony faced the ocean rather than the interior!

Our next stop was Playmakers for a drink and a game of Jenga. Of course, there weren't enough Jenga blocks for a full game but we made it work anyway.

He's smiling now but he wasn't smiling when this tower fell and I won!!!

They have a series of wooden horses on the Boardwalk that range from a block of wood that resembles horse shape to a completely carved and painted wooden horse. They also have (not pictured here) a carousel for the kids.

The Rising Tide bar was packed as it rose up and down from floor five up to floor eight.

Eventually, we made it back to our room where our bags were waiting and we got ready to depart. We watched all of the other cruise ships sail past us and off onto their adventures.  The Carnival Celebration went to two stops in Mexico and Honduras.

Finally it was our turn!  Auf Wiedersehen, Miami!

Dang, Miami Beach was packed!

This is the actual color of the beautiful water. These two are pretty beautiful, too!

I don't know why I'm in Grant's room and he's in my room in this picture!

Adios, Miami!

We strolled down to Central Park to check things out - these two look like they're on an album cover.

I think we wanted to try every single bar on the ship, but I don't think it happened. I think we missed a couple but it was a good attempt though!

I don't know why this is still so funny to us!

After another cocktail, we all went to the arcade where my mom and I played a little skee ball!

Todd and Natalie played a racing game - I think Todd won this one (but she beat him in air hockey)!

Grant lost in a game of air hockey to his dad, but he beat me in another game.

We chose "My Time" dinner on the ship, but we thought that just meant we could show up at any time and immediately be seated for dinner. That's not what it means. You can show up at any time to get in line behind a bunch of other people and wait for a table to be open. No thanks. So when one of the workers asked if there was a group of 6 in line, I raised my hand and said, "Well, we have 5!" She gave us this card, and our waiter, Pely said we could come back every night at 6:45 and our table would be waiting for us. He was the BEST!  And 6:45 is a great time - not too early (if you're still on an island at 5pm, that time doesn't work, and who wants to eat at 9 pm?  Those were my options otherwise!)  We just flashed this card to the guy at the front and bam... we went right in for 6 out of the 7 dinners we ate when we were on board!

The hallways were quiet on the first evening after everyone grabbed their bags.

With our 6:45 pm dinner time, we missed sunset every evening, but we were still able to capture some light on the horizon.

At the end of our first day on the ship, Todd and I had a nightcap at the Globe and Atlas.  Next stop, Nassau, Bahamas and the Atlantis Resort!