Cruise to Barcelona
This first section is on the cruise to Barcelona. I will cover the ports we stopped at in the next section
Party Van to Miami
We had a great time in the party van to Miami. We stopped along the way
for donuts at Dunkin Donuts to celebrate Ryan Bell’s birthday (Monica’s
deceased husband and father of 3 of the kids.) Donuts for his birthday is
a tradition in their family because when it was his turn to fix breakfast he
bought donuts.
It got a little crazy in Miami but Ryan managed to drop us off at the cruise terminal, then dropped off the van at the car rental and rejoined us an hour later.
Ping Pong
They had a ping pong tournament for two of the mornings. Ryan was the only one of our group brave enough to join in the fun. He came in 2nd place one morning and in the semi-finals the other.
Foosball –
Bryson and Hudson wanted to have a family Foosball Tournament. Bryson and Ryan challenged Hudson and Grandpa. Both games to TEN were pretty close but Hudson and Grandpa came through as winners.
Eating is a big part of cruising
We had a blast on the cruise boat on the first two days at sea. I think the grand-kids loved all the food the most. Well...who doesn’t? We had fun in the dining room as well as the buffet lines. Hudson loved ordering chocolate everything - chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup on them, chocolate chip cookies, donuts dipped in chocolate frosting, and chocolate croissants. The dining room is a lot of fun for both the kids and adults, and eating has been one of the highlights of the trip.
Hot Tubs and Swimming for the kids were a blast.
Monica's Birthday
One night at the Dining Room, much to everyone’s surprise the Staff sang Happy Birthday to Monica and brought her out a birthday cake. The funny part is that Monica will be celebrating her birthday on the cruise, however, it wasn't for a few days yet. No one figured out why the staff gave her a birthday cake early, but we all had a lot of laughs from Monica's surprise and embarrassment.
GAMES , GAMES , GAMES
We played several different card games. One night we decided to have a Pictionary Tournament between the girls and guys. Everyone got into the drawing and guessing. It was petty close but I think the girls won by one point - but then again the girls were keeping score.
Kids Club
Master Chef with Gracie and Bryson
The dance party in the Black and White Lounge.
Here the kids are queuing up.
The big dance party.
The Kids Club had handicrafts periodically.
Here Hudson is modeling his 'Scary' T-shirt
Handicrafts
Bud, Karen, Connie and Kim designed the T-shirts and the kids modeled them
Making sock bears
Making cards and macrame
We even had a clay sculpting day.
Bud's master piece
Fan Day in handicrafts
Gift box day.
Entertainment
One of Bryson's and the other kids highlights was opening the newest version of Zelda, that Ryan bought for their SWITCH, especially for the sea days.
Demonstrations
We had several demonstrations on towel folding, cooking, cake decorating, fruit sculpture, etc. We also attended some classes from a Psychologist who taught classes on Personality Traits, Memory, Persuasion, and Stress.
The one on napkin folding caught everyone's attention, especially Gracie.
Our waiter showed Gracie and the gang some new napkin folding techniques.
Even Bryson got into the act.
Bryson even found a girl friend and she would come and visit him each day in the Dining Room
Gracie made some friends from Georgia who were also members of the church. In addition to breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the Dining Room they introduced us to getting treats between times. (The kids would also hit the buffet in the evening for some pizza and goodies.)
