Cruisin'!

When we look at options for a vacation, we ALWAYS consider a cruise. Both Dan and I love them, and Ethan has developed a love of cruising as well. We looked at several options, and decided on the Carnival Splendor. It is a new ship, and our sailing was the first for the vessel. We chose Carnival because they have a reputation for having a GREAT kid's program (they accept kids age 2 and up for their Camp Carnival program, and they will change diapers!). We chose this sailing of the Splendor because of the ports, length of the cruise, and dates it was sailing. We departed on 2 July from Genoa, Italy, and sailed to Monaco, Barcelona, Lisbon, Le Harve, and ended in Dover.

We flew in Milan on 1 July. Our flight from Brussels to Milan was delayed more than 2 hours. We arrived in Milan, took the shuttle bus from the airport to the train station (a 30 minute trip that ended up taking close to an hour). Our plan was to spend some time in Milan, but as we arrived to late, we decided to just get on the train to Genoa. So, from the train station, we took the rail from Milan to Genoa (2 hour trip). Thank goodness we packed light (we got everything into 2 suitcases and one soft sided garment bag, plus a few small carry-ons...and that was for all four of us!) Once we arrived in Genoa, we took a cab to our hotel and got checked in. We then headed out for dinner and then called it a night. We were exhausted from traveling all day.

Waiting at the cruise terminal at the Genoa Port:

Boarding:

Our first meal on board:

The muster drill. Dylan did much better this time than he did last year. Neither of the boys complained, and it finished up quickly.

We had cabin number 2250, an outside, ocean view cabin on the Main Deck. It was quite a large room. Dan and I had a large king size bed, Ethan slept on the pullman bunk, and Dylan slept on the sofa which converted to a single bed. There was lots of storage space in the room and plenty of room for us to move around. I don't know if that is the standard on all Carnival ships, but we were very pleased!

Here is a picture of the boys enjoying their room service breakfast one morning:

The first night onboard, we went to the "Welcome Aboard" show. We took Ethan and Dylan with us, but sat in the back of the large theater, just incase we had to make a quick exit with the kids. During the part show, the cruise director, John Heald, was one stage and he invited two young children up on stage. I turned to Dylan and said, "would you like to go up on stage?" He replied "Yes!", and took off running to the stage! Dan ran after him, but Dylan already made it up the stairs before Dan got to him. To make a long story short, Dylan stole the show! Here are some pictures Dan took, and a link to the cruise director's blog page video of what happened with Dylan http://johnhealdsblog.com/2008/07/03/john-on-stage-with-guests/