Growing up, my family always traveled. And by family, I mean me, my mom, sister, brother, aunts, uncle, and cousins.
We are a close family. I always said that when I had kids, we were growing to travel. And do fun things for spring break and summer. Fast forward, and here we are with 4 kids in the house. So between the kid’s school schedule and hubby’s work schedule, It is always a task to try to plan something for the family.
Normally we always do our family vacation during spring break. Last year, we did the big amusement parks in San Diego. Every day was something new – we also tried new restaurants. My family are foodies. Lol. This year, I wanted to do something different with the kids. I and the hubby love to cruise, so why not make it a family cruise to celebrate the end of a school year, and my oldest graduating 5th grade (insert the tear). I mean we are cruisers and we’ve got this, right???
So, cruising with kids is completely different from going alone. It was an eye-opener and we learned that cruising with kids takes a bit of work but is sooo fun and made the best memories for my kids. The drop-off times for Camp Ocean on Carnival changed a bit each day. But we got the hang of it. We loved the smiles that the kids had. We loved having the waterslide area to ourselves while everyone was in Ensenada, Mexico. They loved going to Camp Ocean and even made friends, and made sure to wave to their friends while walking through the boat.
We let them go with us to the main dining room every night for dinner and we sat there laughing, talking, eating, dancing and loving it. They went to every show and danced while the performers sang and danced. I and hubby did trivia, (we are kinda nerds and love to relax while cruising). Getting pizza and snacks at 10 o’clock at night with them and carrying it all while catching an elevator and everyone telling them “You are smart.” And taking all of the pics with the kids, and seeing their reaction trying their first 5 Guys burger (omg, the best part of a cruise besides drinking.)
Despite it being a different experience with taking kids, we had a blast and loved it. My kids still ask when our next one is. If you can, do a Carnival cruise with your kids. It was very reasonable for the 6 of us. Little do they know, we will be doing a Christmas Cruise 2019. Here’s to making more memories with our kids and having fun.
