That is the mantra I repeated to myself once we made it aboard the ship. While my husband grew up cruising for the majority of his vacations, I grew up on the beach or sightseeing and together we mostly have enjoyed active vacations until now.
The rationale for active vacations BS (before Sophia) was that once we had a family, we’d have to embrace a difference pace and a new radius of travel-able places. As predicted, we embraced a cruise over an active jaunt to somewhere exotic and are happy to have done it.
We visited quite a few islands and each had many offerings. St. Lucia for example has the Pitons, lots of hiking and of course the famous baths, Dominica has world class snorkeling/diving, St. Kitts has the beaches and snorkeling and St. Thomas and St. Maarten offer relaxation and shopping. We embraced our new status of a young family and focused more on the beach side of things.
Sophia still takes two naps (which I honestly find to be a blessing), but that makes it difficult to fit in serious beach time between the naps, meals and bottles. Here’s what our family opted to do to maximize our enjoyment:
- If a beach was not at most 15 minutes away from the ship, we were not going there
- Brought a spoon, a water bottle and a snack for Sophia to extend the amount of time we could spend on the beach
- Tried our best to have her nap at the beach for her first nap so that we can relax too
When not walking around and interacting with the locals or soaking up the rays on a beach, we were back on the ship exploring every its nook. Sophia loved exploring and the open spaces and got good and tired by the evening which meant better sleep patterns. The great sleep patterns have since vanished as if they never existed and my in-laws insist I must return to the ship :-).
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