Carnival Cruise to Western Caribbean--part 1 Onboard ship

From Dec 28 to Jan 4, my daughter Timna, her two boys Jonah (almost 7) and Zekey (age 4) and I went on a cruise from Miami to Cozumel, Mezico, Belize, Roatan Island off of Honduras, and Grand Caiman. We traveled on the Carnival Liberty with almost 3000 other passengers and a crew of over 1100.  Carnival is a good ship for families and for young adults.  I was delighted to be with my daughter and grandsons.

I flew the day before (via Chicago and luckily in between storms--though I did get trip insurance) and stayed overnight in a simple hotel called the Runway Inn.  I found out that flying to Miami during winter break is super expensive.  My RT ticket was $850 from Seattle.  The Inn did pick me up at the airport and take me to the port the next a.m. at 10.

I met up with Timna and the boys as they were checking in.  Our first picture was taken then:

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Our cabin was identical to the one on Carnival Pride two years ago.  We had a balcony but used it very little.

The boys alternated sleeping on the top bunk at night, with Jonah having the first, 3rd, 5th, and 7th nights and Zekey the 2nd, 4th, and 6th nights.  They did fine in separate beds, tho Zekey appreciated cuddling with an adult as he fell asleep.

We and the boys played a number of games in the room.  Zekey had played Bingo the first day at sea in Camp Carnival.  Jonah wanted to play Bingo too, so I got some paper from the customer service desk and made one.

 I gave Jonah Apople Letters for Hanukkah.  He created a new game with it, organizing the letters by quantity.

The boys also colored a bit too.

They also liked to play the card game War with their Candy Land cards.

But they also loved to play games on the IPhone.
And play with the vintage Little Miss and Little Mr dolls that Savta gave them for Hanukkah.

The first night at dinner a pirate came to our table!

Jonah, Jamie, Sammi, Zekey

 They "discovered" the game Montezuma on my Iphone.  Zekey called it "Mommazuma."  They also discovered a bubble game on it.  Often I gave each a time limit....ten minutes each at a time.  It usually worked quite well.

The boys didn't remember much from the cruise two years ago.  I think Jonah remembered a bit.  Jonah loved the towel animals made by our steward.  (Pachi is from Thailand and has three children ages 17 to 20 that her sister or aunt has been raising while she has been working.)

Zekey was fascinated by the towels and took the first one apart (penguin?) to see how it was made--I think.  Jonah was very sad, so I hurried down the hall and caught Pachi and she "repaired" it for us.

I probably should have taken Zekey's photo with the froggie.

The monkey the second night was a favorite....and hung from the mirror near the ceiling so Zekey could not take it down.

Sunday we were at sea.  It was warm enough to go down the 3-story high slide and also use the hot tub.  I went down the slide more than Timna!

 

Timna and I also used the gym several times.

That night was one of the two dress-up nights on the cruise.  Both boys wore suits--Jonah with a tie and Zekey without--it was too uncomfortable to him to have the top button closed.  They both looked sharp.  Jonah was really up to having his picture taken, but Zekey was not.

 Jonah was interviewed while we were on the steps.  We later saw almost all of the interview on the ship TV.  It was very cool!

The day before we returned to Miami, there was an towel animal zoo around the pool.

We had several nice photos taken on (and near) the ship.