So we’re back from our vacation. (Yes, yes, I know I promised to post this yesterday – work just got crazy on my return.) Not that we’re unpacked yet, mind you, because we overpacked as we’re inclined to do, and so there are suitcases and duffel bags littering our foyer, but…
The short version, without going into things I’ll touch on in the review later this week – a week, for something like this, was probably the right amount of time.
The ship we were on, Anthem of the Seas, is huge. There’s a lot we didn’t get to do for lack of time, but there was plenty for our children to do without being bored. The Monster was iffy about the whole aspect of the pools sloshing back and forth, and R wasn’t as excited to go to the kids’ club as he’d been before getting on the ship, but.
We made it through the week with minimal meltdowns, thankfully. (And granted, we’d packed plenty of his preferred snacks to make sure he’d have them if he asked, so we could avoid that situation.) He had a big one on the pier at Nassau, but that had been a very long day with a lot of walking, so I don’t entirely blame him. There were a few occasions where R set him off, and I’ll try to believe that R wasn’t doing it intentionally. (I feel a little bit lately like he’s doing it intentionally, but that’s probably me reading too much into it.)
A few notes – Port Liberty, NJ, is poorly engineered for a crowd coming in for embarkation. No offense, Jersey, but seriously – you need more than a one-lane-each-way road leading to the port facility. I mean… our local port is right off the interstate. Also, we did a good thing in bringing extra bags in our luggage so we didn’t have to stress about packing to go home – we had extra space, and just got a porter when we got back (plus that expedited things out of the terminal for Monster’s sake).
Aside from the cruise, we managed to make our way over to the Liberty Science Center, which was also a good break for the kids after being on the ship for a week… save that by the time we were heading home, it’d been far, far too much of a disruption for the Monster and he was melting down again. (As I said, a week seems about right for his patience, when we’re massively disrupting his schedule.)
Do I know when we’ll try this again? Not really – we’re planning a trip for next year, but nothing before that… yet.
So, another thing, because I know I don’t write enough about R here – R lost his first tooth today. It’s interesting to think of the difference between how our children behave with regards to losing teeth and the Tooth Fairy, as the Monster couldn’t possibly care less (half the time, we have to keep him from swallowing them), and R was very reluctant to have the tooth come out.
But it’s out, so now we’re working on tooth #2…
Yes, I’d love this in book format. I’d read it all again.