Cruisin' For a Bruisin'

Dan and I get along so well, but there are probably five "discussions" in our marriage that are ongoing. I finally won one a few years ago--the argument that would come up every December--and which we would periodically revisit throughout the year--of whether it might have been better for George Bailey to take Mr. Potter's job offer in the movie It's a Wonderful Life. Dan once ventured that George could have taken the large salary that Mr. Potter promised him and reinvested it in the town, while also being able to keep a close eye on Mr. Potter and use his personal influence over Mr. Potter's decisions. WHAT!?!?! Does anyone else remember Pottersville?!?! I was always adamant that there are certain people whose motives are so bad that you can't make any deals with them. Of course, I think there are times when people feel like they can't work with people who just disagree with them. This isn't a Mr. Potter situation at all, but rather one of the most important things we must do--work with people who differ from us. But Mr. Potter was rooted in evil. Eventually, Dan agreed with me, and now you can often hear the phrase, "Don't make a deal with Mr. Potter" in the Jolley household when we feel like there is a sketchy situation that should be avoided.

I don't know why I told you all that except that my ego is such that I must tell you about a time that Dan gave in before I tell you about a time I gave in. Which is how we ended up going on a cruise. For years, Dan has wanted to take our family on a cruise. It seemed that everyone around us was always returning from a cruise, which prompted us to constantly poll friends when we were together. Have you cruised? Did you like it? Is it worth the money? Did you get sick?

Sickness was my main fear of cruising. I'm the type of person that gets carsick just going to the grocery store. I pictured myself stuck on a huge ship, trapped in a tiny bedroom whilst swaying back and forth, back and forth. This caused feelings of panic. But somehow I finally let all of our close friends convince me to try it out.

We left our house for the Philly airport at 1:00 a.m. I kid you not. 

I have a dear friend who cruises often, and she prepped us for the trip. By "prepped us", I do not mean "helped us prep". I mean she did everything. I kept having this mentality that we would just figure it out when we got there, that surely since it was a vacation we could just show up, and it would be fine. Now that we have cruised, I can see we would have had a much harder time had she not prepped us. On top of helping us check in ahead of time, showing me how to get my luggage tickets, bringing things for us to use to help organize our stuff in the tiny rooms, helping me procure the appropriate covid testing  kits required for the ship, helping me schedule out our days, and about a zillion other things, she also made these cute name tag magnets for our doors so that we could find them easier. I'm not the type of mom that ever makes cutesy things for anything, and I gained a huge appreciation for moms who do because it was so helpful and just so thoughtful too.

This is the type of picture you get when a five-year-old takes it.

Which isn't all that different from when I'm the one taking the photo.

We had a lot of fun! The kids really enjoyed all of the amenities of the boat, and I enjoyed not cooking or cleaning. I could have kissed the people who cleaned up our rooms 3 times a day. 

Gwen takes after Dan in the rock climbing department. Straight to the top with seemingly no problems. Looking down doesn't even bother them.

June and I went up halfway and came right back down. I was so freaked out!!!

Dan and the three older kids went the silent disco party one night and had a blast.  

My kids loved taking the stairs to visit this Clifford the Dog every day.

Dressy night on the ship was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Dressing up feels good!

Do you think it's alright if I use this photo for our Christmas card this year or is it too dark? It might be the best I can do.

And worst-photographer-of-all award goes to the nice passerby who took this photo. She took several, and they are all like this but I'm fine with it because I have finally been outdone by someone else with regard to taking bad photos.

One of our stops was to Nassau, Bahamas. A lot of people told us that they just stayed on the boat this day because they didn't like it, but we really liked it!

The best day of all, though was our day at the private beach of Coco Cay. It was amazing.

We were the only ship there that day. It was so unbusy. There were really good tacos with tortillas made from scratch. We saw a shark when we went snorkeling. We had fun at the pool. We didn't have to worry about packing towels, snacks, chairs, etc. I'm such a beach bum--emphasis on bum. I don't like to do hard work to go to the beach. It was amazing.

Overall verdict of the cruise? Dan and the kids LOVED it, and I liked it a lot. I'm not sure if I could ever be one of those people that goes on a cruise every year for vacation. The food kinda got to me after awhile. I didn't think it was super good. I also feel like it's a lot of money, and I'd rather just get to a beach and stay there. Coco Cay might make me take a cruise again though.

The End.