All Family Caribbean Cruise

 When mom passed away 2 years ago this month, we sold her and dad's house and us 4 siblings received some money from the sale of the house.  We wanted to honor mom and dad and do something they would approve of with that money and decided to make family memories and remember them.  We booked a cruise for everyone in our family - all 14 of us, and it was amazing!  It was Noah's first ever cruise after hearing so many stories from each of us about cruises, so were really excited for him!

That last time we did this, was in November 2015 on the Carnival Breeze and we always remembered it fondly because we were all together as a family.

This time we chose MSC Seascape, their biggest/newest ship leaving from Miami over spring break.  Well, since it was spring break, flight prices from Salt Lake City were crazy high.  $800-$900 per person round trip.  I found if we left from Las Vegas, the price was around $250 pp.  With 14 people, that difference adds up quick making the 6 hour (each way) drive worth it, so that's what we did.

Meghan/Corey and family and us went 2 days early and spent an extra day in Miami.  Jacob/Aubrie, Marissa/Matt & Hannah/Noah joined us the next day.

Meghan found these blow-up cushions that allowed her kids to actually sleep laying down somewhat on the plane

In Miami, we went to the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens which were pretty cool

Jane found a new friend

We stayed at the Hyatt Regency Coral Gables (which we've stayed at before and loved it)

VIDEO Room Tour:

They brought us some special treats to welcome us back!

The next day we boarded the ship and had 2 relaxing days at sea as we headed to the Dominican Republic 

As expected, the ship was beautiful and amazing

Surprisingly, we were all at the same table! It was a HUGE table!

The sushi restaurant - the plates of food moved along a trackless table past you

Meghan and Hannah dared to get close to the wild animals

Hannah made us all door decorations and Meghan made our new family logo which we also had t-shirts made with it and we all wore them the first day

Here is our family logo Meghan made for us:

VIDEO -Room tour from Marissa:

VIDEO: Tunnel - they had different colors of lights every day

Being "Diamond" on MSC, we get special treats throughout the week in our cabin

VIDEO: Ordering dinner:

VIDEO: One night we all gathered around the bed in Meghan's cabin while her kids slept to play games:

The kids water area was pretty amazing and not just for little kids!

VIDEOS:

The water slides were pretty fast!

VIDEOS - Slides thanks to Marissa and Matt!

VIDEO: Sailing the seas

Master Chef at Sea Junior Edition

VIDEO: 

Jane is trying to be like Jacob and Hannah doing public handstands

    

VIDEO: Playing games

VIDEO: Evening entertainment

After two full days of sailing, we arrived at Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.  The adult kids went to the Damajagua Waterfalls which we'd been to before, so we stayed with Jane, Ethan, Anne and Grant and went to swimming pools, lazy rivers and water fun

    

VIDEOS:

The 'Pink Street' in Puerto Plata

    

Shelley's sister - Saundra and her husband and his siblings were on the same ship!!!  They also did the same tour in the DR!

The 'Umbrella Street'

Hannah taking it all in!

The ship had an 'infinity bridge' with glass floor with nothing underneath except the ocean 16 stories down

VIDEO: Playing games

        

The next day was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We decided to head to a 'local's beach' about a 15 minute city bus ride from the port.

It was beautiful!  Soft sand, palm trees, shade. Super relaxing and chill

Some of the kids decided to go visit the fort in San Juan (which we did a few months ago)

We were in San Juan until 11pm, so we went back to the ship for a quick nap, dinner and then back into San Juan to watch the sunset

Jane always got ice cream and jello for dessert

That night was the 'white party'

VIDEO:

The next day was another day at sea on the way to MSC's private island

The 'Jungle Pool' which had a retractable roof

Not quite sure what's happening here

Like most of MSC's newer ships, this one had a chocolate factory onboard. They were making chocolate Easter decorations

Lots of yummy chocolate treats

Being "Diamond" with MSC, we get to go to 1 specialty restaurant - we decided to go to the Taco/Mexican one and Marissa/Matt came with us. It was VERY good!!

VIDEO:

The next day we arrived at MSC's private island only to find we couldn't get any closer than about 500 yards due to 'excessive current and wind' - both the current and winds were going in the same direction.  The island has a very narrow passage and the ship couldn't stay in the lane due to the wind/current.  We waited several hours while the captain kept trying, but eventually he decided it was too dangerous.  We were looking forward to this relaxing beach stop as we loved it last time we were there.  Instead, we had another day at sea as we (slowly) headed back to Miami.

VIDEO: Italian night in the dining room

We stayed an extra day in Miami before heading back early the next morning, and went to the everglades and took a fan boat tour. It was a lot of fun!

   

VIDEOS:

They had cages with alligators and tigers....and the lovely sign warning you might get your fingers bitten off

On the way back from the everglades, we went down a dirt road our boat driver told us about - indicating we would likely see alligators all over on the side of the road. He was telling us the truth

The next day bright and early were on the plane headed back to Vegas.

We had a GREAT trip!  And so blessed that we were able to all be together again!