The kids and I have been on our hurricane Evacuation cruise ship for three days. It has been pretty nice for us but had taken some adjustments on all our parts. Friday (day 1) was a bit of a crazy day. Since this is a very special sailing with mostly Royal Caribbean employees and some back-to-back sailing customers, the main concern during check-in was to get everyone onboard and get out before the weather got bad. That means that actually getting our room assignment was chaos. We were given a paper, handwritten boarding pass and it was left up to the ships guest services to get everyone their room keys and room assignments. This process took all day and being alone with two kids 4 and under, trying to explain to them that we have to wait for our room keys for hours on end, in a huge long line, was not a fun experience. Once that was settled everything went a lot smoother.
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Yesterday, we headed to the pools and had fun splashing around all afternoon. The kids loved it and it was really the perfect day for the pool. The water was nice and refreshing when it was hot out and the kid’s pools they have onboard are perfect for my two.
This is an older ship than what I’m used to (I’m spoiled) because every other ship I’ve been on has been (at most) 5 years old. I’ve sailed on the Norwegians Epic twice and Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas and Harmony of the Seas. I sailed on Epic and Harmony their first year, and Oasis on its 4th year, so not only am I used to new ships but mega ships at that because all of these at one point or another were known as the worlds largest ships. Enchantment of the Seas was launched in 1996 and its gross tonnage is 82,910, whereas Harmony is 227,700. That’s a BIG difference in size.
This ship also has Royal Caribbean’s Adventure Ocean for the kids, so Sebastian has been able to go off with the Adventure Ocean staff and enjoy the activities they have for them while Madison and I have walked around the ship and relaxed. Day 1 at Adventure ocean was Super Hero day, so the kids made paper capes and had superhero fun! When I checked in on them, it looked like they were having a “how far can you jump” contest.
This morning was a dinosaur theme and this evening was space themed and he was excited about that. He always asks to go to Adventure Ocean and play with his friends. It’s a chance for him to have fun and do the things he wants with kids his own age and gives mom some time to do her own thing too.
We did get hit with some rain, which of course, happened the moment I walked away from the stroller on the pool deck and I came back to a soaking wet stroller.
This was the first cloud we’d seen this whole trip and the rain lasted no more than 2 minutes, but it rained hard enough to soak everything.
This whole trip has so far been a great alternative to staying home in a nasty storm or having to deal with traffic to get out of Florida. Since there is only one direction we could have gone, traffic out of the state was crazy. It took some of my friends 24 hours to get to Atlanta which is normally about a 12-hour trip, and a trip I was considering until this cruise became an option.
I’ve been in touch with my husband sporadically during our trip. Thankfully the storm hasn’t really caused any damage as of yet. They are currently without power and our aluminum roof over the boat and a portion of our patio got destroyed and there are a lot of trees down. Considering what could have been, I’ll take it!
As much as I am enjoying this trip, I am looking forward to getting back home. I miss my husband and I want to be there to help with the cleanup. I feel kind of guilty being on this cruise with my husband back home having to maintain the house and clean up without me. I know being away though is a blessing for him because the kids aren’t in the way, but I still feel bad for leaving everything up to him.
This trip has been a trip to nowhere. The ship has remained 40 miles from the south-west tip of Cuba and we are looking to start headed back to Miami I think tomorrow to be back at port by Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, if you follow my Instagram, I’ve been posting pictures there.
If you’re also from Florida, please share with me how your experience was with Irma. I truly hope no one experienced any extensive damage, injury or worse.
