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Saturday 18th - Families gather at the
SailPort Waterfronts Suites - Tampa, Florida |
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Kini and Kimi
were very excited to finally be getting on the way and heading to the
cruise ship! The families had been planning this trip for almost one year!
Melissa and Amy bought everyone a boonie hat and made hatbands for each
one with the International flag code (see above) on the front & each
person's initials on the back. Everyone looked great in them!
Kimi and I (Kini) thought we better introduce everyone
in our group before we start telling our stories:
First is Melissa - she is also known as mom or Nana
to her grandchildren and children.
Second is Cooper & Jessica, & their kids, Nathan & Rachel. Cooper is
Melissa's son.
Next is Amy & Bob. They are our adoptive parents - Amy is Melissa's
daughter.
And finally, Jennifer & Scott, last to be listed because Jennifer is
Melissa's youngest.
Cooper & Jessica, & their two children, Nathan &
Rachel, left for Tampa on Thursday the 16th. They wanted to have a few
days together before we got on the ship. Cooper rented a car and picked
all of us up at the airport. Thanks Cooper!
After a swim in the
SailPort
pool & a good night's sleep, the 11 of us were off to the ship!
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Sunday 19th - Board the ship, set sail at
4:00pm |
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| Kini & Kimi are checking out the
Miracle's ship map that is by every elevator. We boarded the
ship on the Promenade Deck, level 2. Our rooms were on level 5, &
the 3 pools were on the Lido Deck, level 9.
The ship is 963 feet long, and has 11 stories.
It will hold 2,124 guests and we heard that there are about 1,000
people on the staff to take care of the guests. |
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After boarding the ship, Scott,
Nana, Amy & Nathan headed to the bow, or front of the boat, to watch
us set sail. Kimi asked where the sails were. Amy explained that the
words, "set sail" were used along time ago for big sailing ships,
and although our ship uses a big engine and not sails, people still
use the old language. |
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Monday 20th - Fun day at sea |
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We all spent most of the first
day exploring the ship and catching up with each other's lives. The
kids had a great time in the pools & the adults had a great time
watching them. |
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The first thing Kini & Kimi
wanted to do was ride the glass elevators. They went up 10 stories
so that you could look down. There was also a glass staircase that
was really scary to climb! |
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Then K&K got their picture
taken with Bob in front of another elevator that had inlayed wooden
doors. |
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Tuesday 21st - Nana's 70th birthday, Stingray
City - Georgetown, Grand Cayman |
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Today is Nana's 70th
Birthday!
We all got up early, put on our
hats & got on a tender to go ashore on Grand Cayman. A
"tender" is a small boat used to take people to & from the land.
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| Cooper, Jessica,
Nathan & Rachel are on shore in Grand Cayman with the ship Miracle
behind them. |
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We had a bit of
time to kill before going to Stingray City so the kids and Jessica &
Cooper played on the shore for a while. The little ship in the
middle of the photo is a replica of a pirate ship - everyone loved
that! |
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We all boarded a smaller boat to go
to Stingray City. There were only K&K, our family of 9, and 4 others from
our ship. We heard that the trips run by the Carnival Cruise Line had BIG
boats with LOTS of people on them - we were glad to be on a little boat
that we booked through
ShoreTrips.com!
Our boat captain was great! Nana was
impressed that he drove the boat using his toes! It is a bit hard to see
in the last photo, but he has the throttle (like a gas pedal in a car)
tied with a string to keep the boat going at a steady pace. Kimi, Bob,
Amy, & I were used to seeing this on our other adventures. |
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After a short snorkel trip, we finally arrived at
Stingray City!!!!
K&K looked at the water and saw HUGE black shapes swimming in the
water. They were afraid! Bob & Amy had been to Stingray City scuba
diving in 1995, a year before they met K&K, so they told K&K about
stingrays & calmed them down. |
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Stingrays are related to the
sharks even though stingrays have very flat bodies. Neither one has
bones - their skeletons are made of cartilage which is hard and
flexible. They look like they fly through the water with their
"wings" & have long tails with sharp barbs on them.
K&K watched Nana get very excited! She had
swam with dolphins in Hawaii & Florida, but never with stingrays.
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This is a
picture of Nana with a female stingray. The females can get up to
six feet, but the males stay much smaller. Both are very soft and
rub against you the whole time you are in the
water! They were looking for food.
Nathan was also very excited
about snorkeling with the stingrays - he hopped right in the water
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their head, so they have to find food by smell. They eat shellfish,
squid, and shrimp. We fed them chopped up squid. We would put some
squid in our hand and open it flat, the stingrays would fly by and
suck the food into their mouth. They don't have teeth, but they do
leave bruised hicky marks on your skin if they suck too hard. Nathan
ended up with one by his elbow! |
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Rachel is a GREAT swimmer - she
can swim across a pool with no help and is just turning 4 years old.
However, Rachel wasn't to thrilled with the
stingrays or, it seemed, the ocean itself. K&K wondered if being in the middle of the ocean on a
boat was a bit frightening for her. K&K sometimes think the big
ocean is scary too.
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a
stingray and held it up - the stingray spit out salt water right
into Nathan's face!! He did it to Nana & Jenny too - Nana thought it
was funny - Jenny, well, she wasn't as impressed. :)
Stingray City started many years
ago when the fishermen
would catch & clean their
fish, tossing the waste overboard. The stingrays would swim up about
200 feet from the ocean depths and feed on the leftovers.
Many years later divers
started to feed the stingrays and eventually found that more people
wanted to do this. The Grand Caymans are known around the world for
Stingray City. We heard that over 100,000 people come to feed the
stingrays a year!! |
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are pictures from Bob & Amy's scuba diving trip to Grand Cayman in
1995, a year before they met K&K!
They had a lot of fun! |
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That evening we celebrated Nana's
birthday.... |
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Wednesday 22nd - Cooper & Jessica's 8th
anniversary - Costa Maya, Mexico |
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In
the morning, and after an awesome breakfast, we watched our ship
Miracle make some incredible maneuvers and dock at the pier in
Costa Maya, Mexico. It was amazing. In the pictures below, we
were backing in to the dock. Costa Maya has deep enough water by
shore that the cruise ships can actually let the people off on a
pier! Just walk ashore!!! Nathan loved this! The last picture has
Scott (center, blue shirt) & Jennifer (in front of him, pink shirt /
white shorts) waving to Cooper, Bob, & Amy, aft, on deck 10.
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After docking,
Cooper, Jessica, the kids, Bob & Amy, went ashore mid-morning to
take a look around & do some shopping. Jenny, Scott, Nana, K&K slept
in and stayed aboard for a bit.
Nathan & Bob were delighted to climb a replica
of a Mayan pyramid a & have their picture taken. |
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While most of us were ashore,
Nana had a bit of an accident. She slipped in the tiny bathroom on
the cloth bathmat and ended up in the stand-up shower with a broken
wrist. Fortunately, Jennifer was in the room & Scott was close by.
K&K were freaked out - Jennifer was too - but just a bit.
The ship doctor was wonderful!
Mom got a temporary cast and her x-rays on a CD. K&K found the
Doctor's picture on the wall and wanted to thank her again. |
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| That night,
Cooper & Jessica celebrated their 8th wedding anniversary.
Congratulations! |
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Thursday 23rd - Rachel's 4th birthday, Scuba
diving - Belize City, Belize |
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Nana's broken wrist changed a few of our plans. Originally, Cooper, Jessica,
Jenny, Amy, & K&K were going to go scuba diving, while Nana watched
the kids, & Bob & Scott played together. Instead, Cooper & Jessica
did go diving, but Jenny & Amy stayed aboard to help with the kids.
Scott spent the day reading, while Bob went ashore to tour some
Mayan ruins. |
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Cooper & Jessica got to make 2 dives in
Belize. They make loving dive buddies! |
Jessica gave a wave to Cooper. |
And Cooper waved back! |
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Both had a great time & saw some cool fish
& reefs. |
Jessica is holding a sea cucumber. |
And then, she found & held out a spider
shrimp. |
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| Bob took a trip
ashore to the Mayan ruins called Altun Ha. First stop, hold the boa! |
He loved the
ruins. |
Even climbed up to
the top of one of the temples! |
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After dinner, Rachel opened her
presents and then got to dance with Vlado, our head waiter, for her
birthday. "New guy" (sorry we did not get your name, but you were
great in training) & Andrej, our other waiters, also joined in!
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Friday 24th - Dune Buggies & Walk-abouts -
Cozumel, Mexico |
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Today, as
usual, the family broke into groups and went their different ways. Nana
stayed on board reading and keeping her arm elevated. Cooper,
Jessica, and the kids got some rest & went ashore to do some shopping.
Jenny, Scott, Bob, Amy, & K&K set off to do some off-road dune buggying.
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Every time we stopped, one of the
leaders would come around with a beer for passengers! Our buggy even had a
built in cooler to keep beer & water in! The biggest problem? Keeping the
any drink in the bottle while bouncing down the trail - it was a challenge! |
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On the way to dinner, K&K and
Nana stopped in the casino. K&K were tickled by the fact that
they blended in so well! They are crawling on the top of the slot
machine & are very well camouflaged! |
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Saturday 25th - Fun day at sea, celebrate all
other birthdays & anniversaries |
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Today was a
relaxing day.... A bit of sun, a dip in the pool for all but Nana, & a
test of the
two-story super slide! OH YEA! |
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Bob & Nathan had a great time
going down the slide that curled and whirled from deck 10 down to
deck 9!
Cooper took Rachel up to the
top, but she was a bit too small to be able to come down the slide.
She had a lot of fun in the pool though! |
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At sunset, we all started
to dress & get together for our last dinner aboard ship. We
had rooms with balconies next to each other. Cooper is waving
to Nana & K&K from his balcony. It was another beautiful
evening & the seas were so calm.
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On the way to dinner we stopped
to play the slots again. Nana had found that her new & gorgeous bag
Jenny made was working out to be a wonderful sling for her arm.
It was hard to get her to
dinner - she was on a major winning streak!
K&K were very excited! |
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was the night to celebrate all the other birthdays, anniversaries, &
holidays that were going to occur within days of our leaving the
ship.
Bob & Amy were going to be married for 22
years on July 1st.
Nathan was going to be six on July 13th.
Jenny & Scott were celebrating 16 years
together.
K&K??? They were celebrating three things -
First, nine years of living with Bob & Amy. Second, three years of
marriage. And finally, Nana's winning at the slots!
(See photo) |
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The evening was delightful!
After dinner, we went back to the slots & Nana ended up losing her
winnings but not losing her starting monies. A good time was had by
all! |
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Sunday 26th - Back in Tampa, depart ship, fly
home |
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| Nana, Bob, Amy, &
K&K had to leave for the airport early when the ship docked in
Tampa, Florida. The ship gave us V.I.P. passes for our luggage so
that we could leave early & Nana would have an easier time getting
off the ship with her broken arm. Thank You Carnival!
K&K loved watching our ship's track all week. The
first photo below shows our return trip to Tampa. We also LOVED the
towel animals that were left on our beds every evening. Amy was so
impressed that she bought a book about how to fold them. She hopes
to practice over the summer. "Towel Dude" (the second photo) is
wearing Amy's sunglasses - she really liked that! |
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The flight back was wonderful - and
our dogs, Tai Chi & Tiki were very happy to see us.
A special thanks goes out to our "critter sitters"...
In the morning was Robin & Leslie - THANK YOU!!!
In the evening was Ellen & Patty Manor - WE CAN'T THANK YOU
ENOUGH!!!!
They even fed the birds!!!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!
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When we got home, Nana, K&K, & Amy
got her permanent cast put on. She seriously considered the
glow-in-the-dark version, but decided against it. "Who wants to go to
sleep looking at a 30 minute major night-light wrapped around your arm!!"
Sea foam blue was her choice.
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On to the
decoration!!! Yes, blue dolphins,
silver stingrays, sea foam, & the international flag code "W" for
both Whiskey (as a letter) & "need medical assistance" when flown
alone - makes up the design.
The stingray tails wrap around the cast, & the
dolphins are leaping. The cool thing is that this puppy can get
totally wet - as in, can hit the shower & go swimming! |
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| We all loved
the trip - but if you want intellectual stimulation, this may not be your
perfect vacation. If you are looking for spending time with your 10-20
family members, this is not may not be your perfect family vacation
(keeping up with everyone & coming together on a "lets all do it plan" is
not that easy.) One must love sunning, eating, 3
saltwater pools, 24/7 ice-cream bars, & total hand & foot service. It was
AWESOME - but likely a one time trip for most of us. |
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| As a sideline,
anyone who donates blood should check with their blood bank before
donating & after you have visited any country out of the USA. Some trips
have the potential to introduce complications & contaminations of our
blood supplies. Be diligent & ask about travel issues at
www.redcross.com.
Also remember that the need for a passport to travel
overseas, even on a cruise ship, will change at the end of the 2005 year.
Apply early and be sure to have a passport for everyone! |
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