Cruising - Last Day

We spent that last day of the cruise at sea.  We played and relaxed at the pool for most of the day.

They had a Parade of Nations where they had flags representing every country of the employees who worked on the ship.

Lately Sammy has become extremely brave.  She decided she wanted to try climbing the rock wall that is on the top of the back of the ship.  She's never done it before, I wasn't sure how she would do.  Megan is a monkey, and has always been great at climbing.

Waiting in line.

Gear on, ready to climb.

Off she goes.

Halfway there.

And she rings the bell!  She did awesome!!

And now Megan.

Up she goes.

All the way to the top.  I think it took her all of 30 seconds.

Dinner that night was fun.  The staff sang us a goodbye song.  We went crazy taking lots of pictures at the table.

Devouring her chocolate cake!

We had the same awesome wait-staff every night of the cruise.  They were the best, and we were sad to say goodbye to them.  Eva was our server, she was from the Philippines.  Dika was her assistant, he was from Indonesia.  Robert was the head waiter.  He would cut the kids food up for them every night.  It was so nice to have someone else do that for me!

Eva and Dika loved Sammy and Noah.  They both have young kids at home that they don't see for many months while on the ship.  They were always doing extra things for the kids.  When Noah ordered ice cream, Eva added the 2 cookies as an extra treat.  She knew he liked fresh fruit, so she would have his ready when we got there, all cut up for him.

The extra attention embarrassed him.

Neat trick that they did for the kids.

After dinner we wandered around, checking things out for the last time.

The water was very rough and choppy that night.

And it was so windy!

Looking up at the rock wall from a lower deck of the ship.

Top deck of the ship.  The blue stripe on the ground is the running track.  I got up a couple of the mornings and went running.  It was so neat to run on the top of a boat in the middle of the ocean.

Our towel creation for the day was a chicken hanging from a hangar.

Cruising - Cozumel, Mexico

As we cruised into Cozumel the next morning, we realized that the rain had unfortunately followed us there.  It stayed with us most of the day.

They other thing we saw as we came into Cozumel was that we were going to be docked next to the Mother of all Cruise ships.

This ship was seriously ginormous.

It towered above ours.  It was twice as big, but also had twice as many people.

We wanted to do something in Cozumel that would have appeal to everyone in our group.  We chose the Cozumel Island tour.

The first stop of our tour was an unplanned one.  The air conditioner in our bus stopped working shortly after we got started.  They decided to stop us off at a tequila farm for a tour while we waited for a new bus.

The girls enjoyed every minute of it.

Noah with the agave plants.

This is the agave fruit.  It is mashed up, and then left to ferment.

Our next stop was El Mirador.  It's on the other side of the island, and is a popular look-out, famous for it's unusual limestone formations.

We searched for seashells every chance we got.

Grammy and Grampy supervising the search.

Next we went to El Cedral, an ancient city once populated by the Mayans.  Historians think the first Catholic Mass in the American Continent was held here.

This Mayan-dressed woman was walking around with an extra headdress to try on and take pictures - for a tip of course.

Mayan Temple

Catholic Church next to the Mayan Temple.

Ready to move on!

Our last stop was to Playa Mia Beach Adventure Park.  The kids were looking forward to this because they wanted to have time at the beach.  Unfortunately, due to our unplanned tour of the tequila factory, our beach time was short.  Luckily the rain had stopped, and the sun had come out by the time we got to the beach.

Searching for more shells.

Check out the color of the ocean - gorgeous!

Before going back to the ship, we walked around the shops a little bit.  The vendors there are relentless!

Getting ready to get back on the ship.

Walking between the two ships.

Our towel animal for the night - a turtle!

Megan made a great group of friends on the cruise.  There were about 10 guys and girls that hung out together.  We hardly ever saw Megan after dinner each night.

After dinner that night we went to a Magic/Comedy show.  Following that we stayed up and watch Planet 51 in the theater.  It was a fun and exhausting day!

Hanging out before the show.

Waiting for the show to start.