Travelogue: Our 2nd Day at Sea and Disembarkation Day ending our amazing 5 Night Western Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Brilliance of the Seas.
Our 5-Night Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean‘s Brilliance of the Seas took us to Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico, with 2 Days at Seas. It was a fantastic family vacation that introduced our 7 month old son to cruising. We were able to have a great time sight seeing, eating delicious food, toasting with great drinks, and getting plenty of much needed rest. Our family loves cruising!
Day 5: Day at Sea #2
Our Second Day at Sea was just as fantastic as our First Day at Sea.
I love days at sea. Spending the day on the water going to our new port is so fun. It really makes the journey to the destination very exciting. Even if it meant that we were heading home. boooo!!!!
As usual, our day started early. Kids just don’t understand that they should sleep in while on vacation!
To keep Hunter quiet and allow Price and Autumn to get some more sleep, I took Hunter out for a walk. We wandered around for a while then grabbed breakfast at the Windjammer when that opened. It was early, but I had the cutest breakfast date. And coffee.
Then it was Price and Autumn’s turn for breakfast. They caught a beautiful sunrise.
There is something so special about capturing the sunrise, and sunset, while on the water. Just miles of ocean ahead of us, just like a full day ahead- so many possibilities.
Yep! Autumn still had her face painted from her fun night chasing aliens with the other kids in Adventure Ocean the night before. Just further evidence that she had a blast every second of the cruise. A faded painted face and a donut… life is good.
Then we all regrouped and got ready for the day, Hunter napped, and Autumn went to Adventure Ocean.
We all got back together for lunch in the Windjammer.
I got a massage in the Vitality Spa.
The massage was really good. The perfect way to spend part of the afternoon.
The one thing that bugged me about the whole experience was that I forgot to use a 20% discount when I was checking out. That was a bummer. Plus the pushiness of my massage therapist for some bath bomb thing. It was hilariously expensive. I understand it’s their job to up-sale clients on products, but this was somewhat insulting. Whatever, at least the massage was awesome.
After that, Price and I hung out in the afternoon while the kids were in the nursery and Adventure Ocean.
The pool was drained because a kid got sick in the pool (EW!) but that didn’t matter to us since it was too cold for swimming. Instead of getting some sun, we just wrapped out selves up in towels and laughed off how cold and breezy it was.
Prior to dinner, we also packed up our stuff so that our luggage could be taken that night for disembarkation the next morning.
Price and I originally planned on going to our scheduled dinner in the MDR while the kids were in the nursery & Adventure Ocean. However, while we were getting the kids their dinners in the Windjammer we figured that if we ate now, we could instead the hot tubs instead of dinner while they were gone. We certainly enjoyed our solo dinners without the kids, but the chance to do something “fun” outweighed that.
Once the kids were settled in the nursery and Adventure Ocean, we ran back to our room to get our bathing suits on. Drinks in the hot tub in the Solarium… yes, please!
While the Adventure Ocean is included and daycare is extra ($6/8 per hr), it still feels like it’s a steal to go out. Regularly, a sitter is $15/hr fr the 2 kids, even if they are both in bed. It just isn’t affordable to go out for us when you factor in a sitter and going out. However, just paying $8 for Hunter makes it much more affordable, so we used every, reasonable, opportunity to maxamize out “date nights” while on the ship.
Day 6: Disembarkation Day
Sadly, every cruise must come to an end.
Our time on the Brilliance of the Seas had come to end on Saturday morning, bringing us back into the Port of Tampa.
We enjoyed our early morning breakfast at the Windjammer.
I just don’t think it’s fair that I am now going to have to make breakfast every day again. I need hash browns, muesli, eggs, bacon, and endless coffee every day. That’s just not too much to ask for, is it?
The majority of the activity on the ship was happening on desks 4, 5, and 6. People were busy queuing up for their turn to disembark. But kids don’t really love waiting, so we just did loops walking around, killing time.
At the very last minute, we headed down to our station to wait in the Schooner Bar.
When our group was called, we proceeded to disembark the cruise ship. We wrapped our way through the luggage line, grabbed out stuff, and then headed towards customs. That process was really easy, but next time, we will hire a porter. The porter did a great job of cutting the line to get people through customs quickly. Lesson learned!
And that’s a wrap on our Brilliance of the Seas cruise vacation.
Back to realty now. boohoo
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