7 Night Cruise with Twins!

3 years ago, Aaron and I took the twins on a fun weekend cruise. Just the 4 of us!

What a vacation?!! A few years ago, Royal Caribbean partnered with our family by bringing us out to explore their new ships! This was a dream since Aaron and I have loved cruising, starting with our honeymoon 13+ years ago, and it’s the easiest and (in my opinion) most affordable way to travel and see the world! We LOVE visiting different islands all while not having to cook meals or clean up. So last month, Royal announced their brand new ship was going to sail its maiden voyage March 4-11th to Haiti, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, and CocoCay. The kids had spring break, Aaron was super busy with patients, so I swept away with just my 8 year olds Ethan + Charlotte to board the Wonder of The Seas!

I shared a zillion story videos on Instagram and a post HERE. And if you want to see the sweetest grow-up of the twins in this reel HERE. You can also check out our sailing 3 years ago with the twins HERE. We sailed on the Symphony Of The Seas HERE. And my big sister and I jumped on a cruise sailing on the Odyssey Of The Seas HERE.

It’s spring break so I took off with my twins for a week of uninterrupted vacationnnnnn! Best tradition ever with solo vacations with our kiddos😍 Caught a flight to Florida and boarded a brand new ship and i kinda wanna cry with how sweet it’s been to *just* be with them. We started taking our kids on individual trips 3 years ago. They loved it and so did it we. Royal Caribbean called me with a beautiful new sailing and I took my 8 year old twins! Aaron is always booked out with patients a few months in advance and so I took our twins for their 2022 trip by myself and I’m literally crying rn😭🤣 because it’s been the sweetest trip. If you have kiddos you know what it’s like to be busy in sports and activities… We all love our kids but sometimes we don’t feel as connected as we’d hope 100% of the time. And I’m ridiculously protective of the time I’m away from my kiddos… So the tradition of being with even HALF my kids for a beautiful vacation created the most memorable memories I could ask for. I see them perfectly and more importantly, I see them feel perfectly loved by me bc I’m not distracted🤪 Even when i’m not my best. It’s true what they say.. about wisdom not being wasted on our youth. They’re so much more forgiving and full of joy and empathy than us in our “wise years”. Cheers to 100 more years of solo trips with my babies. When will I ever stop calling them my babies?!😭😭😭 (oh my gosh I’m literally crying in the middle of our cruise ship during a musical show while they’re sleeping in my lap😅) I’m ridiculous, along with my tan lines 5 days in🙆🏼‍♀️😂

Covid restrictions? Yep! Adults and children over the age of 12 need to be vaccinated to sail. I also needed to take a Covid test 2 days before our cruise and provide the negative test result the day we boarded. Since Ethan & Charlotte are not covid vaccinated, they were required to take a total of 3 Covid tests. The first test was with me (2 days before setting sail). The 2nd test was at the ship pier on the first day of the cruise. The 3rd and final test was on the last day of the cruise. Every test was a simple and gentle nose swab. The twins never flinched or fussed which made it feel like not a big deal! We never wore face masks except a short period while stepping on the pier in Puerto Rico and Florida. Also an FYI, since the twins are not vaccinated I was required to book a shore excursion at every non-private island through Royal Caribbean in order to be allowed off the ship. I booked a family pirate treasure hunt excursion in Puerto Rico and the kids wanted to stay on the ship to ride slides on the Bahamas port day. Sometimes it’s super fun to stay on the ship during a port day because there are less people on deck and all the food & drinks are free 😉 We were able to attend all the fun evening shows and try out a ton of restaurants.

COOL non-water slide that drops 10 flights down! We LOVE it!
Yummy outdoor Mexican restaurant on the cruise next to the pools! Favorite snack!
Royal Caribbean’s private island in Labadee, Haiti
All the Pina Coladas a girl could ask for!
Trying out the brand new restaurant, The Mason Jar. Exclusive to Wonder of the Seas!
The southern China was the sweetest touch!
Fresh-pressed juice every morning. Also tried the protein shakes and they were delish! Free when you have the basic refreshment beverage package
Robot Bar! Order your drinks on an ipad and watch the magic! I know TONS of y’all loved seeing these Bionic Bar videos on my IG stories!
Dinner time with my babies
Our favorite interactive restaurant, Wonderland! The Mad Hatter visited our table MANY times to chat with us and he stayed in character perfectly.
Banana split covered in cotton candy and caramel popcorn! Also and chocolate shell covering a peanut butter rice crispies dessert. DELISH!
Ethan was so sweet with Mad Hatter that it caused the Hatter to cry. It was tender and a beautiful experience for Ethan & him. Kids never seem to understand how much their sweet energy and spirits affect us.
Their favorite!! This pic was from a video I snapped at 10pm lol
Miami Vice! Pina Colada + Strawberry Daiquiri. YUM. Unlimited virgin drinks all free with the refreshment beverage package
Visited Ocean Club and the kids had the best time! They kept begging to return! We never had to wait and there was no appointment necessary
Scheduled dinner for a few nights at the Solarium. Healthy, yummy, and beautiful!
Late night pizza snack at Sorrentos! Who doesn’t want pizza at 11pm 😉
Uninterrupted quality time with these two
San Juan, Puerto Rico!
Stunning views of a beautiful city
Yummy popsicles while hunting for treasure with these pirate mates! Nutella and birthday cake
Flying kites at the Fort in San Juan
Matching dresses for a fancy dinner. Our dinner conversations chatting about all the things we did that day was the highlight for me
The views in the Beach Club on Coco Cay island are beautiful
Charlotte snapped this pic of me while I tried racing across these leap frogs. She and I were all laughing together haha. She clearly won!
Visited another privately owned island called CocoCay! Our favorite!
Ethan + Charlotte slid down the tallest slide in North America. Brave babies!
Cheers to many more years with these 2!

4 Comments

  1. Erica
    March 20, 2022 / 5:20 pm

    Beautiful – you, your sweet twins, and the cruise!!!! (That last picture: stunner!) I love the idea of vacations with individual kids; I want to definitely remember that for our family – thank you for sharing your family tradition!

  2. December 8, 2022 / 6:03 am

    Lovely family! Looking great together. You are so beautiful and like your necklace. Thanks for the nice post.

  3. December 14, 2022 / 6:44 am

    Nice Post! Thanks for sharing a great post.

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