Max gets to play in the ocean

For our second day on the cruise, we were heading to Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas called Coco Cay.  I didn't want Max to spend too much time in the sun so we weren't in any hurry to get off the boat.

In the morning after breakfast we went to one of the 3 toddlers classes that the ship had each day.  The classes were focused on children not old enough to participate in the "real" kids programs.  These classes required the participation of a parent and were usually free time with some focus and led by a cruise staff member.  This morning was about more about physical play with things like tunnels, mats, steps,etc. There were only a couple other kids there but that worked for Max since he's so shy.  (I KNOW there were a few more kids on the ship than that.  Those other parents must have been selfish and been more concerned with the buffet than letting their kids have some fun.)

Caught ya!!!  (Peter was checking out his muscles.)

After a nap (I stayed with Max, Peter wandered the ship), it was time to get ready to hit the beach!  We had to tender in to the island from the ship.

Ready to go

We had lunch on the island of hamburgers and hot dogs.  Max enjoyed a few bites of apple and cantaloupe but really only wanted to eat pickle after pickle after pickle.

Max's first time in the ocean!!

Video - Max starting to play in the water.  (Sorry for all the wind!  I didn't realize the mic on the camera would pick it up so much!)

The water was kinda cold but Max didn't mind.  He LOVED it!

Video - It's like a big bathtub with lots of opportunity for splashing!  He did a good job of taking the waves. (Again, sorry for the wind.)

We brought a pail and shovel for him to play with.

Dad wimped out due to the temperature of the water.  But Momma and Max had fun!

When Max started getting cold, we took a break and hung out on the lounge chairs.

Parent Fail of the Day #1 - Usually on cruises, your room attendant leaves beach towels for you on your bed before you are going to port.  This way you have beach towels to use and don't have to bring them from home.  We didn't get any on our bed.  I was going to ask the room attendant about it that morning but Peter was rushing us to hurry and get to breakfast.  I figured that since we were stopping at RCCL's private island, perhaps they had towels for us on the island so we didn't have to carry them with us to the island.  Once we got to the island we saw lots of people with towels.  I asked someone where they picked up their towel and they said, "on the boat".  HUH!?  Apparently you had to go up by the pools and they were handing out the beach towels up there.  There were no towels available on the beach.  I was so frustrated.  There was ZERO communication about this.  It wasn't in the daily planner that gives all the details about the day.  It wasn't announced (at least that I heard) over the intercom.  So now we were on the beach with zero towels for us to use.

Max was happy to sit here playing with the sand but didn't want to sit directly in the sand.

The afternoon was passing quickly so we went back in the ocean.  It was so much fun to play with Max and see him enjoying himself.

Our ship is in the background.  I love the beautiful Caribbean waters.

Parent Fail of the Day #2 - Max's lips were starting to go purple he was so cold, so we decided it was time to head back to the ship.  Since we didn't have a towel to warm Max up in, I wanted to get his cold swimsuit off him.  However, when I hadn't packed anything in our beach bag to change him into.  I had only brought an extra diaper and some wipes.  So we took his swimsuit off and I changed his diaper.  Here we encountered the first issue.  Wipes don't work well when trying to wipe away sand.  Max had sand all over him and I tried unsuccessfully to remove it.  I quickly realized it wasn't worth trying and just put the new diaper on top of his sandy bum.  Now I have my cold son in a dry, sandy diaper but nothing else and he's cold.  So we decided to put him in my swimsuit cover up and I'd just wear my swimsuit back to the ship.  (Which makes me uncomfortable but hey, my son comes first, right?)   

(Unintentional) Parent Fail of the Day #3 - I really wanted to take some pictures of the sweet little footprints Max left in the sand when he was walking along the beach.  But I put it off and then it was time to go.  Peter didn't want to wait any longer and pointed out that we would be back at a beach tomorrow and could do it then.  So, I didn't get the pictures I wanted.

Waiting in a LONG line to tender back to the ship.  He looks like a girl thanks to my cover up.  I felt like I should tell everyone around us that he was a boy.

Max and Momma

Silly boy.  I love his expression in this picture (ignore my fantastic quadruple chins).

Max wrapped up in his sundress.

Goodbye Coco Cay!

At least we had some snacks to give Max so he wasn't hungry, too.

He wanted to share with daddy.

After we got all showered and cleaned up, it was time for another toddler class!  This time the focus was on "art" so Max got to color.

There were also always fun toys to play with too.

Peter was so engaged, he fell asleep.

My cute boys.

Again, enjoying the wind.

Vacations are the best!!!

We got good at finding places that weren't too crowded where Max could run around and play since there wasn't basically zero space in our cabin thanks to the pack-n-play for Max.  We couldn't let him walk around just anywhere since there were many places that were crowded.

Video - Peter is such a fun playmate for Maxwell.

Sad Max.

Momma and Max before nap time in a dark cabin.

We decided to try the formal dining room again.  This time our strategy was to have them bring food to Max first rather than wait until we were eating our main courses.  That was a good strategy until Max was done eating (and we weren't even close to being done).  Again the meal turned into more torture than pleasure as we worked to keep Max happy/entertained while we ate.

Playing with the camera on the iPhone.

Coloring

More playing with the iPhone.

Enjoying my dessert. 

Where's Max?  Under the table playing with Peter's phone.  Oh yeah, we were THOSE parents.

Family pic in front of the GIANT Christmas tree.  It was fun to cruise during the holidays.  The decorations were fantastic.

Tonight Peter stayed with Max and I went by myself to one of the shows put on by the cruise staff.  It was fun but I wish I wouldn't have been alone.  Peter and I typically enjoy playing trivia during the day, the shows in the theater (which we didn't see once on this cruise) plus the comedy/game shows that go on late at night as well.  While we absolutely love being with Max, it's hard to not be able to enjoy all the things that we usually would, including dinner.