I felt it rather appropriate to begin my blog about our trip to Hawaii with a picture of King Rory - because really, when you get right down to it, this vacation totally revolved around him.
The plane ride there (including getting through airport security) was definitely not fun. We were seated at the very back of the airplane, and since we didn't know any better, we hadn't gotten Rory his own seat and it was a very full plane. As people were taking their seats, I could see them eyeing my feisty toddler with a wary eye, and who could blame them? But then Ro fell asleep the minute the plane took off and I could feel all the passengers around us sigh in collective relief - and no one was sighing louder than ME. But an hour later, the peace was shattered when Rory suddenly popped his head up, looked around wildly at the tight quarters and then proceeded to kick the seat in front of him in an effort to be "released" from my lap. (To the people in seats 40C and D - I'm SOOOOO SORRY!) And then the marathon of running up and down the aisles began...
We arrived in Hawaii feeling unbelievably travel weary, only to have to wait outside in the withering heat for our bus to come and take us to the Hilton Hawaiian Village for two nights before the cruise. And so started the endless waiting in lines... lines to get to the bus, lines to check in, lines for the elevator - just what you want to be doing after having sat on a plane with a toddler for 5 hours. Ugh. But once we got to our room and saw our beautiful view of the ocean, we finally started to feel like we were on vacation.
Fast forward two days later when we were herded in large groups to wait in more lines in the burning sun in order to board buses to take us to the port terminal. Tempers were about as hot as the temperature and people were really pissed off about how un-organized this whole supposedly "seamless" process was. Don't they do this several times a week? Never did being stuffed into a bus - an AIR CONDITIONED BUS - sound so good! But once we got to the port terminal, there were even MORE lines and poor Rory was so tired of being either in his stroller or in someone's lap - and who can blame him? By the time we actually got on the ship, we were one grouchy bunch.
The ship itself was interesting - there were 12 restaurants onboard, a large pool with a slide, a basketball court, and an enormous Broadway style theater. Our stateroom was a little larger than we expected it to be, which was good considering that we ended up spending quite a bit of time in there with Rory while he napped. But it was an all American crew that was totally burned out and a brand new ship that still had a lot of kinks to be worked out, and the service onboard was not what it should have been. They were trying this new type of dining called "Freestyle Cruising", which is advertised as meaning that you can just walk into any restaurant you want on the ship whenever you want - no specific seating times and no specific table that you have to sit at. What it really was: long, long lines of people waiting to get into restaurants that were under staffed. Thank goodness my Dad had the foresight to make us reservations - most people didn't know to do that, and so they had to wait to eat, sometimes for hours, every night. Not cool.
But enough about that.
We were in port every day, so each morning we would get up, have breakfast in the buffet, and then prepare Rory for a day of fun in the sun by gooping him up with tons of sunscreen.
Then we would head off the ship to see the sights or in search of a decent beach to hang out at. Rory spent a lot of time riding around the Hawaiian islands in his stroller looking like this:
The beach was interesting with our little man since he seems to have a slight aversion to sand. At first, we'd have to lay out towels and various other items like surf boards so that he could maneuver around without his feet touching the beach. Hoby and I would just look at each other and think, "Where on Earth did this kid come from?" Who ever heard of a kid not liking sand? Oye!
Here he is after a long day of avoiding getting sandy:
Luckily, by the end of the trip he started getting the hang of things and he would even sit on the sand with a shovel and bucket, just like a normal child (thank god!).
Sometimes we could get Rory to nap during the day at some point, but many times he was just too riled up to try and close his eyes. So you can imagine what would happen when it came time to sit down for a two hour dinner. TOTAL MELT DOWN. Nope, it was not a pretty sight. Not pretty at all. But what toddler could sit through that long of a dinner after being cooped up in a stroller all day? After all, my kid isn't super human.
So basically, after dinner, Hoby and I would be so exhausted that we'd just take Rory and we'd all go to sleep in our nice, dark room. That doesn't leave a whole lot of night life to speak of, which is actually kind of okay, because the couple of shows that I did catch were so bad that they were painful to watch. Just a little example for you: They had a crew talent show one night and one of the performers read a poem that she had written. I was politely tuning out her monotone voice when I heard her say "like a bomb in Hiroshima with flesh eating bacteria melting their faces..." Um, WHAT???? Did I really just hear that? This is ENTERTAINMENT??? And there was this magic show with a magician who's only trick for his ENTIRE HOUR LONG SHOW was to make plastic flowers appear. WOOHOO. Definitely two thumbs down.
But even though the onboard entertainment sucked, we were entertained in other ways, like when Rory would play at the pool on the ship and go down the big slide with his Dada:
And the fact that Rory got to spend quality time with his Nana, Papa and Uncle Jer for nine days - PRICELESS.
And this look on his face - well, this made it ALL WORTH IT:
Thanks to Grandma Jo and Grandpa Al for Rory's first vacation paid for by NBD (National Bank of Dad).
We love you!
