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My 6-year-old's eyes widened in near disbelief at the news. His favorite talking yellow Porifera, SpongeBob SquarePants, had plans to emerge from his pineapple under the sea and host the first-ever Nickelodeon cruise for kids. What's more, the voyage would take place aboard the biggest ship in the world, Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas ... and Tyler was going to go. Then came the icing on his sponge cake: Little sister Tess would be staying home with Dad and it would just be the two of us. He was about as excited as I've ever seen him, sharing every detail of the cruise with unbridled enthusiasm to friends and neighbors, and as the day grew nearer, eagerly crossing off the days on a hand-made calendar he charted out just for the occasion.
And me? As an active and involved mom with two young kids, I'm as tolerant of goofy antics and in-your-face commercialism as the next parent, but could I really handle an entire week of Dora sing-alongs, endless character shows and fluorescent slime? Images of a thousand misbehaving little urchins threatened to cloud my excitement: tots packing water guns and ducking into corners, armies of bored and brooding pre-teens rolling their eyes at me over the dinner table night after night. A thousand of them? Maybe more? All on one ship?
Relax, I love kids. And I'm also a closet "Backyardigans" fan. Surely, I could handle it. But would I enjoy it?
Preparing for the slime-fest
Ty's first order of business, after bouncing off the walls for an hour or so after learning of the trip, was obvious: Google everything related to the ship, the agenda and our ports of call —Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Labadee (Royal Caribbean's private island) and Jamaica. Together we uncovered a bevy of handy information. We viewed and printed the deck plans for the Freedom of the Seas, and dug up every picture of the ship we could get our hands on, so that we knew it like the back of our hands before we ever treaded onboard. Why waste time getting lost for the first two days? We found the ingredients for the coveted slime, and made an ill-fated and messy attempt at reproducing it. We even researched our ports of call. Did you know that the Cayman Islands were named after a marine crocodile (otherwise known as a turtle) which was found there, and that they were accidentally discovered after Columbus' final voyage to the new world veered off track? Or that Ocho Rios is really a misnomer, as it is home only to the famous Dunn's River chorreos, or rapids — not "eight rivers," from which the name is mistakenly derived? Heck, I didn't. It was a fun and educational experience for us both.
Getting gone
Aside from arriving at the Atlantic City airport at the ungodly hour of 4:30 a.m. on departure day, our travel to Miami proved miraculously painless. Flights and transfers cooperated with us; and even though I hate the darn thing, we packed the Nintendo DS for times when we were forced to wait. Upon arrival at Port of Miami, things went just as well. Despite the massive volume of passengers (Freedom of the Seas holds 3,634 passengers and the cruise was sold out), and mind-boggling number of children, strollers and all the fixin's in tow, the embarkation process went surprisingly smoothly. We arrived to the terminal around 10:30 a.m. and while we were told embarkation would begin at 1 p.m., they managed to get us moving well before that. We stepped onto the ship around noon. Everyone was in good spirits, despite a few stray showers, as a genuinely excited Nickelodeon staff had entertained the kids in the terminal with games and chit-chat, getting everyone psyched for the trip. Just before boarding, we noticed some last-minute scrambling to get things finished, as the giant Nickelodeon slime decal was being adhered to the side of the ship while we looked on. If stepping aboard the Freedom makes a grown-up feel tiny, imagine what it feels like to a 6-year-old.
"Did this use to be an aircraft carrier?" Tyler asked, in all sincerity.
No, but it cost about as much to build.
Talking 'bout freedom
Few would argue that Royal Caribbean's Freedom-class ships are some of the most family-friendly vessels afloat. And so, Nickelodeon made a wise choice coming aboard here. After boarding and grabbing a quick snack from the Cafe Promenade, a quaint coffeehouse with snacks, pastries, and sandwiches, we gave ourselves a quick "highlights tour." We first shot up to Deck 11, as Ty was visibly bursting to see the pool area and famous H2O Zone he had heard so much about. With a colorful array of soakers, sprayers and geysers, along with a lazy river and kids' pool, this area was a big hit with his age group. In fact, my son would have spent all day there if I let him. However, had I brought my youngest child, I might have been a tad disappointed. Children who are not potty-trained are not allowed anywhere in the H2O zone, not even with swimmy diapers, save for a tiny square wading pool to the side. And throughout most of the cruise they were monitoring this pretty closely. This upset some of the parents who were not aware of this fact beforehand, as the zero-depth entry spray area is otherwise ideal for these youngest cruisers.
We also checked out the much-anticipated Deck 13, where we stopped to stand in awe of the enormous 43-foot rock wall, and took in a quick round of mini-golf, which we found to be surprisingly uncrowded then — and for most of the cruise. Then, the big Kahuna: We went to check out the FlowRider, which is a 40-ft long wave-simulator that allows you to test your skills at boogie boarding or surfing. Picture 30,000 gallons of water flying at your body while you try to remain upright, either on your belly, or even less likely, on your feet. It was a shame, but Ty missed out on that experience, as he didn't reach the 52-inch requirement for the boogie board or the 58-inch requirement for surfing. Still, several times during the trip we sat on the bleachers adjacent to this ingenious contraption, and watched the hilarious antics of many of our fellow passengers — from young kids to grandparents — as they attempted to ride the wave. We also paused to check out the arcade, where my son was delighted to see they had all of his favorite games from the boardwalk near our New Jersey home. His mother, however, was less-delighted to see that they cost about 10 times the price. Well, nearly. The ones he was interested in were close to $2 a pop, and when I realized that we'd have to walk through this arcade repeatedly to get to the Adventure Ocean Explorer's room, I put the kibosh on that right away. Another must-see was the ice rink in Studio B. Tyler was all fired up when he saw this awesome frozen playground, complete with mini-zambonis, which he quickly dubbed "the little cleaning robots."
Read the entire blog:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27055546/ |
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