We made it back from our vacation safely but my brain is still out on the beach somewhere. Who knew “vacation brain” was even a thing? Myan got a cold a few days before we left Seattle so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The flight to Florida was bearable. He was a little cranky at first but then slept for 4 hours. We were all exhausted by the time we got to Orlando so we got a hotel for a few hours since we had a while before we needed to get on the ship. My dad and stepmom joined us on the cruise so we could have an extra set of hands to help with Myan.
I didn’t know toddlers knew what vacation really meant until my son became the life of the party. As soon as the welcome party started he forgot about how tired he was and he became a dancing machine. Myan waved and said hi to every single person that walked by us on the cruise. The ship crew fell in love with him from day one. The Royal Caribbean crew had impeccable service and made sure we were all happy and comfortable. 
I think our vacation was successful (no tantrums or meltdowns) because we went with the flow and paid attention to Myan’s cues. If he was tired we took him back to the room to take a nap. Most days he didn’t need a nap because he was so busy playing. We made sure to let him have some down time anyway to avoid a meltdown. We ate or snacked on stuff all day long so he was never cranky from being hungry.
I thought Myan’s cold would make him cranky but he was perfect. An occasional runny nose was the only way to tell something was going on. Even though he had a cold I decided to let him go to the beach and I’m glad I did. He LOVED it. He held on tight and didn’t let go but he really enjoyed the water. Seeing the birds on the beach was the highlight of his vacation. After each beach day, we would rinse off and go hang out in the pool (to tire him out…and it worked). This was his first beach and pool experience so everything was super exciting. 
I didn’t plan excursions or activities in advance because I didn’t want to “have” to go do anything every day. I would look at things to do the night before to get an idea of what our day may look like. We made it to some of the activities (I was one X away from winning $300 at BINGO) and some we didn’t. The only thing I rushed to do was eat breakfast. Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day and I wasn’t about to miss it, no matter how much I wanted to sleep in.
We were going to take Myan to the nursery and each night they were completely full. Milan and I took turns going out each night and decided we would go out together on the last night. Well, I’m sure you all heard about hurricane Florence and all the other tropical storms that were out there last week. The ride back to Florida on the cruise was ROUGH. It put another meaning to “rock the boat” that’s for sure. I had a cute dress out and ready to go party with husband. After putting Myan to sleep I got extremely seasick. Then Milan and my dad got seasick. Welp, the party ended before it even started. Luckily we had Tums in our bag because the guest service line was wrapped around the ship with people closing out their balances. We looked out of our window to see lightning and the water moving like something in a movie. I’m not going to lie…I was scared. The Tums worked it’s magic, I said a prayer and fell asleep. We woke up to the sun shining in Florida like nothing ever happened.
Other than the last night I think everybody had a great time. I know Myan enjoyed it because his new favorite word is “boat”. We can’t wait to plan our next family vacation. 
Click here to check my Instagram story highlights to see all of our videos and pictures from the cruise.
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