We had a lot to celebrate this year… Mike and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary on June 25th!  (Wahoo!), my brother and his wife celebrated their 10th… My mom celebrated her 60th birthday, and Mike will be celebrating his 40th in August.  In a last minute decision, we all decided to celebrate together.  (So sad my sister and her family couldn’t join us… apparently babies under 6 month old can’t cruise… we sure missed having them with us and can’t wait to do it again when Hannah is a bit older!)

So, here’s a re-cap from our week…  Mike and I weren’t so sure about doing a Carnival Cruise – we have been spoiled in the past, but read amazing reviews about their family-friendly ship, Carnival Magic.  I will have to say, we were pleasantly surprised about our experience.  We all had an amazing time.  They were great with the kids, had plenty of activities to keep everyone happy, and the food, of course, was great and plentiful!  I was so proud of my Ryan for trying the DIDJA (as in “did you ever want the chance to try something different?”) everynight.  We had escargot (he loved it), frogs legs (his favorite), alligator (2nd favorite), shark (not a huge fan), mussels, and some interesting seafood medleys.  Parker’s favorite was the all you could eat self serve soft ice cream, and Kate loved being served 3-course fancy meals every day.

We had a blast on the ship with their waterslides and giant splash pad, pools, basketball, mini-golf, and of course the terrifyingly high rope course.  The kids loved the family-friendly comedy shows at night and the kids club.  We explored Hondorus, Belize, and Cozumel.  The kids each took one country and did a report to the rest of us on the country, so they were extra excited to go visit “their countries”.

It was amazing to take a full week of being completely unconnected and spending time with my family.  I can’t wait to do it again sometime!

Family Cruise 2014 from Marnee Marriott on Vimeo.