{"id":173,"date":"2019-08-14T06:30:26","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T11:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/?p=173"},"modified":"2020-07-13T12:31:01","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T17:31:01","slug":"family-reunion-cruise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/?p=173","title":{"rendered":"Family Reunion Cruise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

About a year and a half ago my dad came to me with an idea. He wanted to know what the cost would be if he were to take me, and all of his nieces and nephews, on a cruise. I priced everything out and came up with an estimate, and my dad told me to reach out to my cousins to see if they would be interested in going on an all-expense paid cruise with the family. Everyone was thrilled, and the date was set for March 3rd<\/sup>, 2019. About six months after booking, NCL chartered our ship and we were forced to change dates. As an alternate I picked March 17th<\/sup>, 2019, which had special meaning for the family since it was my late Uncle Gary\u2019s birthday. Several months after that, NCL made another change, this time swapping Harvest Caye for Belize City. Two weeks after that, NCL made one final change, reinstating Harvest Caye, but reordering the ports. Since I was organizing travel plans for a group of 15 people, the repeated changes made arrangements more difficult than they needed to be. Anyway, that all aside, plans were finally set, and we would have our family reunion cruise to the Western Caribbean. The guest list would include 1) me, 2) my husband, Dave, 3) my stepson, Jared, 4) my dad, 5) his companion, Sue, 6) my cousin, Lori, 7) my cousin, Cheryl, 8) Cheryl\u2019s husband, Aaron, 9) Cheryl\u2019s daughter, Emma, 10) my cousin, Michelle, 11) Michelle\u2019s fianc\u00e9, Michael, 12) my cousin, Jennifer, 13) Jennifer\u2019s daughter, Emilee, 14) my cousin, Ryan, and 15) my dad\u2019s cousin, Dee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday, March 16th<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had made arrangements for everyone (except my dad, Sue\n& Dee) to fly into Tampa, and to stay at the Tahitian Inn for the night.\nDee would be flying into Orlando and spending the night at my dad\u2019s house in\nKissimmee, then driving over to Tampa together the next morning. Anyway, the\nTahitian Inn is a family-owned boutique hotel with a tiki bar by the pool. It\u2019s\nnothing fancy, but it did include shuttle from the airport to the hotel, and\nthe hotel to the port, so it worked out great for our group. Everyone\u2019s flights\nlanded within 20 minutes of each other, but the shuttle van only held 11 so we\nsplit into two groups. The rooms weren\u2019t quite ready upon arrival, so we put\nour luggage behind the desk, and all hung out at the tiki bar. Since my cousins\nare from a mix of Connecticut, Texas, and California, we don\u2019t get to see each\nother often, and it was great catching up. I had arranged a dinner for everyone\nat the hotel restaurant at 6pm that night, so once the rooms were ready we all\nchecked in and met up for dinner. I went over a few items before the food came\n(shuttle times, cruise paperwork, etc.) and then we all had dinner. Lori\nactually got me a couple of cute \u201ctravel agent\u201d gifts: a heart pendant with a\nblue gemstone pawprint on it, and a sparkly dolphin keychain, both of which I\nloved. By the time we finished it was about 7:30pm, and most of my family\ndecided to call it a night. I went to the pool bar for a bit, but headed to the\nroom around 9ish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday, March 17th<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 4am I got up to use the bathroom, and the toilet\nwouldn\u2019t flush. Now, since it\u2019s 4am, it\u2019s not like I can call maintenance to\ncome, but the five minutes I spent trying to fix it fully woke me up. I tried\nto go back to bed, but could no longer sleep, and actually needed a second\nbathroom visit. Since mine was inoperable, that left the lobby restrooms, so I\nquietly wheeled my suitcase into the bathroom, got dressed, and headed\ndownstairs. After using the facilities, I was super thirsty and spotted a\nvending machine off the lobby. I put in my two dollars, but it was out of\nwater, Dr Pepper, and Sprite. The front desk happily refunded my two dollars,\nmade arrangements to send a repair person to the room after 10am, and replaced\nmy room key (I had been unable to find it before I left the room). They also\ntold me that there was a 24 hour gas station store about a block up where I\ncould buy some water, so I ended up walking up Dale Mabry Hwy at 5:00 in the\nmorning. It was exciting, but luckily they had crosswalks with signals, so I made\nit there and back safely. It was still super early, though, so I decided to\nread in the hotel lobby for awhile before I could go to breakfast at 6am. I had\nbreakfast, and then went back to the room around 7am. Dave had fixed the toilet\nin my absence (hooray!), and Jared was just getting up. Dave got up shortly\nafter, and I joined them for breakfast (I did not eat again, but did have some\njuice). Because the shuttle van only held 11, we again split into two vans, one\nat 11am and one at noon. I went in the first van with Cheryl, Aaron, Emma &\nLori (also known as the Connecticut crew), and everyone else took the noon\nshuttle (we\u2019ll call them the Texas crew). Now, I\u2019ve sailed out of terminal 3 in\nTampa before, and it\u2019s always gone very smoothly, but today we would be going\nout of terminal 2, and it was a total fiasco. First, there is massive road\nconstruction surrounding the port area. You\u2019d think they would wait till the\noff season when ships aren\u2019t in port, but apparently not. At terminal 2 it was\na seemingly never-ending series of queues, and it took us an hour and twenty\nminutes to get checked in. Since I had done all the paperwork for everybody,\nonce we were checked in, I waited in the terminal another 40 minutes for Dave\nand the Texas crew to make it through the line. Finally we had everyone checked\nin, but it was too late to go to lunch in the sit down restaurant by this time,\nso the only option was the buffet. Unfortunately, by the time we had checked\nout our rooms and headed to the buffet, it was just closing in prep for the\nmuster drill. I did grab an apple, but would have to wait till dinner for\nanything more substantial. After the muster drill we all met up at Magnum\u2019s and\ngot a round of drinks so we could toast to my late Uncle Gary (today would have\nbeen his birthday). My dad gave the toast, and everyone got a bit misty-eyed.\nWhile there, those of us who had cruised from Tampa before mentioned how cool\nit is sailing out under the Sunshine Bridge, and several of us decided to meet\nup at the Sky High Bar around 6pm to check it out. I grabbed a quick bite in\nbetween, and then met with everyone up top. From there I went to the Welcome\nAboard Show, and then had a couple of cocktails at Magnum\u2019s, while Peter played\nthe piano. He was a great entertainer, and really knew how to get the crowd\ninvolved. Eventually I decided to call it a night. Sea day tomorrow!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday, March 18th<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I got up around 7ish,\nand decided to head to breakfast. I ran into my dad and Sue there, and learned\ntheir regular breakfast schedule for the week (I ate with them most mornings).\nAt 11am we were all scheduled to attend the Cruise Critic meet & greet in\nBliss, and the majority of my family made it. All the officers, as well as the\nCaptain, made an appearance, and they told us that on this ship they did\nsomething a little different. In addition to today\u2019s meeting, we would be\ninvited back on Saturday to share any feedback we had from the rest of the\ncruise. It was a nice touch, and one I\u2019ve not encountered before. After the\nmeet & greet Dave, Jared, Emilee & I decided to grab some lunch at the\nsushi bar, which was amazing, and then I headed to the theater for Deal or No\nDeal, which was unfortunately canceled due to technical difficulties. I spent a\nlittle time in the casino, but then I headed back to the room to get changed\nfor the family photo, scheduled to be at 4:30. We had run into a bit of a snag\nin trying to schedule the photo, but my dad mentioned it to the hotel director\nat the meet & greet, and he assured us there would be a photographer there\nfor us at 4:30. The photographer did a great job, and we were all thrilled with\nthe final product. After the photo was taken, I hung out in Magnum\u2019s for\ncocktails, and then we all headed up to La Cucina for our 6pm dinner\nreservation. Dinner was excellent, and everybody had a great time. They split\nus into two table for eight, but back to back, which worked out perfectly. At\n9pm Jeri Seger would be performing in the theater, and I convinced Sue, Dee\n& Michelle to join me there. I had seen Jeri before on a previous cruise,\nand she is an amazingly talented Broadway performer. She was just as good as I\nremembered, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the show. From there we found my dad\nlistening to Peter in Magnum\u2019s, and then one by one we headed to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday, March 19th<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I woke up at 2:45am and my stepson had not made it back to\nthe room yet. I woke his dad, and he went out to look for him. The last I had\nknown he and Ryan had been heading to the bowling alley around 11am, but I had\nnot seen him since. Dave walked the ship but did not find him, so I told him to\nnotify guest services. Guest services notified security, and they were able to\ntrack Jared and Ryan\u2019s movements through the previous few hours, although they\nlost sight of them around 2am. Dave walked through behind the scenes areas with\nsecurity, and while waiting in the room for news I remembered that Ryan had the\nsocial media internet package, so I sent him a message through Facebook. Three\nminutes later, Jared showed up at the room, and I notified the front desk that\nhe had turned up. They had been sitting in the cigar lounge. The whole thing\nwas the result of a miscommunication between Dave & Jared, but it was\npretty impressive how security sprung into action. Anyway, today we were\nscheduled to visit Harvest Caye. Dave would be ziplining in the morning, and\nthen he and Jared were doing the parasail in the afternoon. As it turned out,\nJared would be ziplining as well, although he was unaware of that until he got\nthere. Anyway, I went to the beach with my dad, and despite being in the shade\nthe entire time, ended up with a minor sunburn. I did try to video Dave on the\nzipline, but there was no way to recognize him in time to catch him on video\ngoing by the beach. He did have a GoPro camera attached to his helmet, though,\nso he got amazing video without my help. He and Jared found us after the\nzipline was done, and I hung out with them for awhile before deciding to hit\nthe shops on my way back to the ship. Harvest Caye, while nice, is incredibly\nexpensive for food & drink, so heading back to the ship for lunch was\nadvisable. Once back onboard I grabbed some lunch at O\u2019Sheehan\u2019s, where I ran\ninto my dad, and then we headed back to our rooms for awhile before hitting up\nRock & Roll trivia in Spinnaker. After trivia I changed for dinner, and\nthen met up with everyone at Magnum\u2019s for pre-dinner cocktails. After dinner we\nheaded back to Magnum\u2019s for some of Peter\u2019s piano playing entertainment, and\nthen after a quick casino stop I said goodnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, March 20th<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No early morning shenanigans today! I woke up around 7am,\nand headed to Summer Palace for breakfast. We would be tendering today in\nRoatan, which was a first for me for that port, so we had to meet in the\nStardust Theater at 8:50 for our excursion to Maya Key. It was a fairly short\ntender ride to the dock, and then a five minute water taxi to Maya Key. Due to holdups\nin the theater and on the dock, we didn\u2019t actually get to Maya Key till 10am. I\nopted to do the ruins and animal sanctuary tour at 11:30, which Dee joined me\nfor. Everyone else was either at the beach or in the pool. After the tour I\ngrabbed lunch, which was as excellent as I remembered, and then around 2ish I\ndecided to head back to the dock for a little shopping. Everyone was mostly\ndone by that time, so the majority of us left together. Emilee had the most\nentertaining comment of the day, when she read a price tag that said USD on it,\nand exclaimed, \u201cWhy would I want to buy a used souvenir?\u201d Everyone got a good\nchuckle out of that, and we quickly explained the actual meaning of USD. Dave\n& I would be dining at Le Bistro that evening, while Jared ate with my dad\nand Sue in Summer Palace. Dinner was very good, although my duck was a bit\ndifferent than I pictured (it was shredded duck, with mashed potato on top,\nalmost like a shepherd\u2019s pie). We had a truly ghastly painting above our table,\nwhich Dave & I had differing opinions about. After dinner we stopped at\nMagnum\u2019s briefly, and then headed to the casino for a bit before calling it a\nnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, March 21st<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cozumel today, where Michael and I would be doing the Jose\nCuervo Tequila Tasting Seminar. Dave & Jared were doing the speedboats,\nCheryl, Emma & Aaron were doing Dolphin True Connection, and Jennifer,\nEmilee & Ryan were doing the Dolphin Ride & Swim. Oddly, the tequila\ntasting was the earliest of anyone\u2019s excursions, so Michael and I headed off\naround 9am to the meeting point, where we quickly met Bou, our guide\/host for\nthe day. There were about 24 of us taking that excursions, and we were split\ninto 3 taxis for the transportation to Discover Mexico Park. Upon arrival they\nbrought us over the blue agave plants, and gave us a brief overview of how\ntequila is made, before bringing us into our nice, air-conditioned classroom\nfor the tasting. Full disclosure, I was a bit hesitant, mainly because I think\nCuervo is rotgut, but I was really impressed with the whole thing. I learned\nmany new facts, and while the 1800 series that we tried wouldn\u2019t be my first\nchoice, it was palatable for our purposes. After the tasting we went through\nthe gift shop, where they told us they would hold any purchases for us till the\nend of our tour. Then we saw a cultural show, called the Papantla Flyers. It\nwas very cool, and I took quite a bit of video of it. From there we went to the\nbar for our complimentary margaritas. They were mango, and quite delicious.\nOnce finished with those we were able to take a leisurely walk through the\ndioramas depicting the history of Mexico, on our way to the taco buffet for\nlunch. Overall I would give the whole experience two thumbs up. There was one\nlittle hiccup, when a lady in our group who used a walker had one of the wheels\ndetach and she took a bad fall. The people at Discover Mexico Park, including\nour guide, jumped into immediate action to take care of her. It was so fast and\nefficient, you would have thought you were in Disney World! Truly, the\nresponsiveness was impressive. We took taxis back to the port, and while\nMichael decided to shop a bit, I wanted to bring my \u201cTequila Aficianado\u201d\ncertificate to my stateroom before I damaged it, so we parted ways. Once back\nonboard I looked for anyone else from my group, but didn\u2019t find anybody right\naway so I headed up to the Sky High Bar to read for a bit. Within 5 minutes,\nseveral of my family members turned up, and we all had cocktails until Health\n& Medical trivia began. This was by far the worst trivia of the cruise, as\nwe ended up with a whopping 3 correct answers, despite having three team\nmembers who actually work in medical facilities. The questions were just\nabsurd, and the answers even more so. We still had a good time, and about ten\nof us made plans to have dinner in the Lotus Garden, which serves Asian Fusion\nstyle food. Dinner was great, and we even had some more of that amazing\nsushi!  That night was the White Hot\nParty, so we switched into some white attire after dinner and headed up to\nSpinakker. I am not sure why it was held there instead of on deck, but it was a\nhopping party even inside. That said, it is not my scene, so I headed to bed\nabout 30 minutes later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday, March 22nd<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costa Maya and our last port day! Ten of our group would be\nspending the day at Jaime\u2019s at the Blue Reef, and the rest were going to enjoy\nthe day onboard. We were slated to meet in the atrium at 9am to head into\nMahahual, and while I was waiting I ran into the lady whose walker broke at the\nprior day\u2019s tequila seminar. She was very nice, and very appreciative for\neveryone\u2019s care and concern. Other than some cuts and bruises, she was doing\nvery well, and NCL was wheeling her around the ship wherever she needed to go.\nAnyway, once we all met up we disembarked and made our way to the taxis.\nUnfortunately, due to the restrictions of the port, to get a taxi you need to\nweave your way through the entire shopping area. There is a shortcut through\nthe bakery, which will save you about ten minutes, but still, it\u2019s a long walk.\nAnyway, we split into three taxis and headed to Jaime\u2019s. Jaime\u2019s is a day\nall-inclusive beach club. Jaime was not there when we arrived, but he got there\nabout 45 minutes later. I knew him from his previous beach club, Nohoch Kay,\nwhich went downhill after the left. I am happy to report that his new space is\nwonderful! They had ten chaise lounges setup for us upon arrival, as well as a\ntable with four chairs in case anyone wanted to sit to eat. Kayaks and snorkel\ngear were included in the base price, as well as all you can eat or drink. They\ncould not have been more pleasant or accommodating, and in the afternoon they\neven had a band! My only complaint would be the number of vendors on the beach,\nbut a quick \u201cno\u201d sent them away promptly. Everyone who went there agreed it was\nthe highlight of the trip. After a few hours of eating and drinking on the\nbeach, Jaime came to us to see if we were ready for lunch. Lunch? Okay\u2026so I got\neveryone up to the restaurant itself, and they served us this crazy huge\nplatter of food. It had a bit of everything on it, and everyone was stuffed by\nthe time we were done. Around 2:30 we all decided to head back to the ship, so\nJaime called a taxi bus that would hold all ten of us. We all shopped our way around\nthe port on the way back to the ship. On the way back I mentioned that my\nsunburn was likely worse than I thought, because the feel of the sun on my\nshoulders was actually painful. Some random guy walking by heard me and said\n\u201cI\u2019m not gonna lie, it doesn\u2019t look good\u201d\u2026lol A note on the sunburn: I did use\nsunblock, and reapplied at the recommended intervals, but apparently it was\nsome sort of defective batch, because I had an extreme burn, as did Jared, who\nused the same sunblock. I did go to dinner that night in Summer Palace, but I\nwas incredibly uncomfortable by the time dinner was over, so I headed back to\nthe room for a bit. My intention was to go back out for Legends in Concert, but\nI did not feel up to it and instead called it a night. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday, March 23rd<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sea Day! I missed my dad & Sue at breakfast, but I\ncaught up to them at the morning trivia. From there we checked out the\nOfficer\u2019s Q&A. The first question ended up being some idiot who scalded\nhimself in the shower, and was full of \u201csuggestions\u201d as to how they could fix\ntheir water temperature problem for the entire ship. Suffice it to say he was\nan idiot. All other questions were reasonable, and they cut it short before he\ncould interject with anything else exceptionally stupid. From there I spent a\nlittle time in the casino before meeting my dad & Sue for lunch at\nO\u2019Sheehan\u2019s. We ran into Jared, Dave & Emilee there, so they joined us,\nwhich was nice. At 1:30 was the follow-up cruise critic meetup, which my dad,\nSue, Dave & I attended. It lasted about 30 minutes, and elicited some\nuseful feedback, in my opinion. I did go to the crew talent show immediately\nafterward, but it was super chilly in the main theater for some reason, so I\nleft about halfway through. Midafternoon was Movie Kiss trivia, at which we did\npretty well. We had our final family dinner that night in Summer Palace, which\ngave everyone a chance to say goodbye, since we would all be leaving separately\nthe next morning. Lori gave my dad a cute Mickey and Minnie figurine as a thank\nyou gift, which was very nice, and everyone agreed it was a fantastic week!\nSome of the group decided to go to Bliss after dinner, and while Dave &\nJared joined them, I was coming down with the start of a head cold and just\nwasn\u2019t feeling up to it, so I crashed early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sunday, March 24th<\/sup>, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly, our last morning onboard! I was up first, and I headed to the buffet for a bite, where my dad found me and joined me. Sue was back in the room, and we both headed there for a bit after eating, since I had told the boys they could sleep till 8am. I ran into Emilee in the hallway and offered to let her wake Dave & Jared, but they were already up. The Connecticut crew was disembarking the latest at 9:30, while Dee and the Texas crew were all scheduled to disembark at 8:30. My dad and Sue could leave whenever, and since they had priority disembarkation they were off first, and home before I even checked in for my flight. I did see everyone except Dee that morning, albeit briefly. When we got off the ship, the porter we grabbed was new and gave us bad directions to the NCL shuttles, so instead of just turning right when we came out of the terminal, she brought us across the street to the underside of the parking garage. We waited there about ten minutes before figuring out that it was the wrong location, and then we had to re-cross the street to get back to the shuttle buses. Due to the construction, and the cop directing traffic, crossing the street was not as easy as you\u2019d expect. Anyway, we finally made it to the airport, but since our flight wasn\u2019t till 2:55 and regulations won\u2019t allow you to check your bags more than four hours in advance, we had to kill 25 minutes before we could even check in. Dave, Jared & I all have TSA PreCheck, and while the lines were equal, it took my cousins about ten minutes longer to get through security, and with a lot more hassle. Dave, Jared & I decided to grab some lunch, and I texted Jennifer to tell her where we were, since she was in the same terminal awaiting her flight. She and Emilee joined us for one last bite, and then we had to see them off for their flight. Our flight had a connection through Baltimore with a two hour layover, and by an unfortunate stroke of luck, the second leg to Hartford was delayed by 30 minutes. Anyway, we finally made it to Bradley, picked up Dave\u2019s truck, said goodbye to my Connecticut cousins, and hit the road, making it home around 10:30pm. Long day! But it was a great trip. We got to spend lots of time with each other, but not in an overwhelming or nonstop way. It truly could not have worked out better overall, and I think I will wrap this up here. If you’d like to see the video I recorded on this trip, here is a link – https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KCvlRAw4Lkc<\/a>. Good night!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

About a year and a half ago my dad came to me with an idea. He wanted to know what the cost would be if he were to take me, and all of his nieces and nephews, on a cruise. I priced everything out and came up with an estimate, and my dad told me…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173\/revisions\/190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aprilrichards.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}