We are Cruising!

We went on a Cruise last week!

It was fabulous!!

We found this awesome deal back in May, and booked it.  It seemed so far away back then, but before we knew it, we were cruising!

There are a lot of pictures in this post, so scroll through at will.  This post is dedicated to our ship and ship experience, then I will do separate posts for all our stops.  We went on a Greek Island Cruise, mainly because it seemed the most cost effective way to see all the places I wanted to see in Greece.  Ferrying a car back and forth can get really expensive, especially to some of the outlying islands like Santorini, so we decided to let a cruise boat do the work for us.  Early Friday morning we drove the 6 hours to Venice, Italy.  After parking our car, grabbing some lunch, it was time to board our ship!  We decided to go through MSC, mainly because they have a "kids cruise free" policy which makes them so much more affordable then other cruise lines!  I was worried, since they aren't known for "high end" cruising, but we knew others who had cruised with them and they had decent experiences.   In the end, what sold me were A) price...we just couldn't beat the price with anyone else...plus they had the itinerary of stops that I wanted. And B) they are totally family friendly!!

Here we are, in front of our home for the next 7 days!

Girls room!

We had to get two cabins, because we are such a "large" family.  The girls got to share a cabin, because we were able to get cabins assigned that were right next door to each other.

Boys room + one mama

Matt, the boys and I shared the other cabin.  I was worried about the boys sleeping on the bunks at first...but they did great!  And they loved it!  Our rooms were very clean (cleaned morning and night by housekeeping....boy I could get used to this!  Can I take them home with me!!!) and spacious considering we are on a cruise boat.

We had paid for two inside cabins, and found out upon arrival that we had been upgraded to ocean-view cabins!  

I was expecting a small port hole of a window (similar to what I had when on a Carnival cruise years ago), but no, we got a huge "bay" type window!  You could even sit in the sill like a window seat and read a book if you wanted.  It was great, because one morning we were sitting there, looking out at the sea with the boys while we were cruising, and we say a pod of dolphins.  Complete with air acrobatics...it was so awesome!!  Jack thought it was pretty cool when he saw the dolphins jump out of the water!

 This is mostly what our room looked like...complete with rowdy boys!

 The girls liked going to fancy dinners.  

Especially having fancy glasses to drink their sprite out of!

Yes, we braved the dining with all the kids.  The boys did really well, and mastered the art of buttering bread with a knife while on this trip!

Can I just take a moment to ode to food...!

It.was.fabulous.

You always had choices: restaurant  buffet, pizzeria or grill (which turned into a waffle bar for breakfast, complete with chocolate sauce as toppings...can you guess where the girls liked to eat?)

We chose to eat dinner in the dining room when we could...and this is an Italian cruise ship, so we had Italian style dining...which meant lots and lots of courses.  If you chose too (which we tried once...but could not finish!) you could eat like so: appetizer, then soup or salad, followed by the pasta course, next comes the main dish, then the cheese plate to cleanse the palate, then dessert.

We never went hungry!

 Did I mention that the cruise was incredibly family friendly (am I sounding a bit like a commercial?)

They had a teen club, junior club and mini club.

The girls opted for the junior club and would go hang out with them for hours playing wii tournaments, having a carnival, dressing up for parades, scavenger hunts, going to shows, playing on the indoor playground...you name it!

 I think the favorite thing they did in the clubs was decorate their own T-shirts.

 The cruise also had lots of on board activities like ping-pong, fooseball, an arcade (which was not free, and very expensive :(...but what the kids liked most was the mini-golf course!

 I think we played a round almost every day.

The boys loved it so much!!

 There was also a sports deck, which is typical I think.

we played catch, soccer and basketball.

It was a great place to run off some energy!

 One of our favorite places to hang out was the pool!

There were two kiddie pools, two adult pools and two hot tubs.

As well as a splash zone, but that wasn't always turned on?

 We loved hanging by the pool, drinking our pina coladas (virgin of course)

and slushies for the kiddos.

my little pirates

so much fun!

 As we left Italy, it was light jacket weather, but as we got further and further into Greece the warmer it got.  It was perfect!  Especially for a late fall vacation!

We saw some amazing sunsets, and most of all enjoyed how relaxing this vacation was.

Usually we are on the go, go, go, trying to see and do everything.  With the cruise you have to be back on ship by afternoon...then you are kind of forced to just chill by the pool, read a book, or take a nap.

We loved the built in relax time the most, I think!

It turned out to be a great vacation!