Shelby's first cruise!

We took our first family cruise a couple of weeks ago and had a great time! We went on the Navigator of the Seas Western Caribbean cruise. Grandma Linda and Aunt Mary came with us as we knew it would be a challenging trip with Shelby! We were right, we couldn’t have done it without them.

Cale, Linda, Shelby, and I left on Thursday night for Venice, FL to stay a few days in Don & Linda’s condo! Shelby did great on the flight down and slept MOST of the flight, and the 2 hour drive from Orlando airport!! We spent a few days just relaxing and doing last minute shopping for the cruise!!

On Sunday morning, we loaded up the rental beyond capacity (we took a lot of stuff with us) and headed for Ft. Lauderdale. We got there about noon and after a challenging trip in the rental car bus to the cruise port!! We spent the first day getting set up in our room….the cruise line put a pack-n-play in the room and we brought our own sheets. I also brought a lot of toys and other things to play with (plastic spoons, measuring cups, things I could get at a dollar store and not feel bad leaving behind).

The first day was at sea and we explored the ship with Shelby. There were over 800 children on board (Thanksgiving week) and a ton of babies, I guess I’ve never noticed them before!

First stop was Cozumel and since we had all been there a couple of times before, Linda and Mary offered to stay on the ship with Shelby most of the day while Cale & I went to the beach….we took them up on that offer and had a relaxing four hours at a beach with great Mexican food and cervasa’s. We met them in the shopping area near the ship and we all went to Senor Frog’s for a drink! Shelby’s first trip to a bar (I know, Bad Mommy!)

Second stop was Belize, and the night before we went to the concierge, and he told us unless we had a scheduled excursion, we needed to stay in the fenced area as it wasn’t the safest place. We got off the ship for about 90 minutes and that included a 30 minute each way tender ride to town…we were not impressed with Belize. (Although, if you snorkel or scuba, I heard it is one of the best places in the world to go.)

Third stop was Roatan, Honduras. This is also a fairly new port and didn’t seem to be the safest place. However, Cale had done some research and we had a plan. We found a taxi for the day and they took us to a resort on the other end of the island. We paid 10 bucks to use the beach and facilities and we were happily surprised at the BEAUTIFUL beach!!
Shelby went in the ocean and then also in the pool!!!

Last day was at sea again and we just walked around, getting pictures and souvenirs.

Overall, Shelby was great! Except for the sleep!! She had a very hard time sleeping on this cruise. I would nurse her and put her down about 8:00 and she would sleep really good until about midnight. (Cale and I would usually go out until about 10 or 11, while Linda watched her in the adjoining room). She would then wake up often and since I didn’t want to let her cry as a courtesy to other passengers, I would usually calm her down by rocking her on the balcony (calming noises from the ocean). By the third night, she wouldn’t even sleep in her pack-n-play, we had to bring her into bed with us. I didn’t like doing this as we aren’t used to sleeping with her before, therefore, I did not get hardly any sleep at all.

So, the routine was I would stay up with her at night (catching an hour or two here and there) and at 6:00am, I would hand her off to Linda after nursing her and sleep until about 10:00. She would take her down for breakfast and around the ship!

The crew was great with her!!! They called her “cereal baby” as she developed a slight addiction to cheerios. She left a trail of cheerios wherever she went!!!
She did try a lot of other foods on the cruise as well!!! Soups, macaroni & cheese, fruits, cheese, and did great with all of them!!!

However, it was very challenging at times. Being an active 10 mo old, Shelby wanted to crawl around everywhere and obviously I didn’t want to let this happen on a cruise ship. We let her crawl out some of her energy on the bed and in the pack n play, but there was definitely not a very good outlet for getting out her energy. She was definitely sick of her stroller by the end of the week.

We did get another 4 hours in Venice on the last day and Shelby got to go swimming in the pool and had a lot of fun!!

Overall, we had a great time, we had good weather the whole week, and we can’t wait to our next cruise with Shelby!

Here is the link to the pictures!!


http://tinyurl.com/2zqgpu