Winter Cruise 2011: Part 1 {Grand Turk}

We bravely decided to take on a cruise a week or so after we got back from our Las Vegas/Yo Gabba Trip! Boy, that was rough! It was the end of the semester so we had a TON of stuff to get done, we had to get prepared for Christmas in advance as well as recooperate from the Las Vegas trip (laundry, cleaning, repacking, etc..).

We flew out (6 hours flight!) and headed to Ft. Lauderdale the day prior to our cruise. We decided to cruise on Holland America - it seemed like a nicer cruise line than Norwegian and was rather affordable as well. The ship was WAAAAAY nicer however the crowd was significantly older This posed a few issues with patience with traveling with a little one. One night we were out for the "midnight snack" time (which with the time difference was actually 8 pm NM time) and she let out a shriek. I immediately took her out to reprimand her and put her in time out - in my absence Justin had to listen to people complain about a baby being out so "late" and being on the cruise period. This was definitely a geriatric cruise and at times I felt as if we had been placed in a floating assisted living facility. The excursions on the cruise were absolutely NOT tailored to people with toddlers so we had to get creative with what we could do. When we signed up for the cruise there were no minimum ages for excursions but when we got on the ship we found out that many excursions had had a minimum age of 4 or older.....even to do something as dumb as ride a ferry or to go on a bus ride....ridiculosity!!

We got creative and with the excursions and spent a lot of time relaxing in our room.....and we ended up having quite a good time!!

Our first stop was Grand Turks and Caicos and boy was it beautiful there! We decided to spend the day in the shopping/beach area by the port and we just relaxed.

{Ellie and dada at Grand Turks!}

{Towel animal....}

{A dragonfly?!?}

{ms eurodam}

{so gorgeous}

{Ellie and dada looking at the "astro-a-nauts")

{After lunch at Margaritaville}

{Ellie Bellie!!}

{Family in front of the ship!}

{Grand Turk gained international attention in 1962 when John Glenn's Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft landed in the vicinity of Grand Turk Island off the southeast shoreline --- Thank you wikipedia}

{Ellie's pineapple juice}

{At the beach}

The water was a little cold so we didn't head in her but we sat and watched other people (as is our favorite past time) and enjoyed a break!