Anniversary Cruise at Christmas - the golden couple

Our happy couple celebrating on the cruise

and at their party back in November

We love you, George & Lorraine. 💖💙💚💛💜💝

Thank you for all the love and support you show each and everyone of us!

Anniversary Cruise at Christmas - the family fun

Where to start with the on-board family fun?!

One of the real treats was how much there was to do as an inter-generational group in the evenings.

Karaoke bar  - with Adam shining on stage

The piano bar - where Annabel was a household name

The 2 all-ages comedy shows each night; the themed performance every night; the movies by the pool. And yes, Seb spent a lot of evenings with the teen club, but we all found some fun things to do.

The sit-down dinners for 11 were delicious and a great way to catch up about the day and plan the evening. The molten chocolate cake was a huge hit but no, Adam didn't eat that whole thing alone.

Mark & Sarah treated us to the Seuss brunch one day at sea. We met the Grinch!

Sophie had spectacular pancakes

and yes, there were green eggs and ham

Seb met the Things

And we even had our own Things 1, 2 and 3!

Sarah had her own Mother of All Things shirt & the decorations were delightful

Some fun and chat in the cabins

Did I mention the soft-serve self-serve ice cream? Available 24/7. Sebastian had 4 on the first day alone, and suffice to say that everyone enjoyed some.

One day was afternoon tea with Nana

She had all her offspring and their offspring with her

But when there were just too many people, too much noise, there was always the "serenity" deck - and the much coveted pods for reading

and sharing

and then after 7 lovely days afloat, we were heading back to the airport in grand style

wouldn't he just love to!

It was an early morning and all that wine went to her head (not!)

Anniversary Cruise at Christmas - fashion

A rocker - In the hopes that a talent scout might see and sign her

Beach wear of course

Prudent beach wear whenever possible

Getting ready

Glammed for the anniversary

Glammed just because!

Fabulous footwear

Hopefully some more snaps will be shared soon but I think this offers a glimpse of the fun that was had in putting together some cruise wear looks!

Anniversary Cruise at Christmas - the stops

We sailed the seas (though just to be pedantic, we were in the Caribbean for oh about 8 hours...) the glorious blue seas for 3 days and put into port 3 times (plus Miami - the world's busiest cruise ship terminal). Stealing a page from Ros & Marc's book, each child chose a destination and did a brief presentation to the family. They were wonderful and diverse:

Annabel - Puerto Rico: music

Alex - Dominican Republic: baseball

Adam - Turks and Caicos: cuisine

Sophie - US Virgin Islands (which was cancelled b/c of the hurricane): indigenous people of the islands

Seb - Miami: economy & trade

First stop, Turks & Caicos for our wonderful snorkelling and beach bash.

Then Amber Cove in the Dominican Republic - where some of us nipped off to see Puerto Plata, others ambled about and shopped for rum and a leather belt 9and had an interesting chat with the tourist office staff), and others went zip lining. Yup, zip lining with 5 kids at 70!!

And then San Juan, Puerto Rico with thousands of other cruisers. The city struck me as Havana without the sanctions - not that we have ever been to Cuba!

A statue of Christopher Columbus, which reminded us mightily of the one in Seville. His boat - la nina - capsized off these shores on Christmas Day no less

M and his maps; S and her style

One of the 3 kings - we are in a former slave-holding colony

The iguanas

Here in la Perla, you can see some of the hurricane damage. 50% of the population on the island still didn't have electricity. We saw something that might have been a distribution point.

Art as resistance

It was hot & humid and a certain teen had been roaming the ship with squads of youth until all hours. A nap did him some good!

We came across an amazing restaurant built on avocadoes.

and we loved it!

Seb & I were amused by these sets supposedly depicting the nativity around the world. They were 100% stereotyped and some even blatantly racist. 

Anniversary Cruise at Christmas - Christmas on the seas

We realised that a) Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without the tinsel tree and b) the cousins didn't know its history. We gathered round it on Christmas Eve and Mark read The Gift of the Magi. And on Christmas night we came together again and shared our one gift a piece, which were so thoughtful and fun.

Speaking of gifts, the big Christmas gift from George & Lorraine to all of us was a snorkelling trip off Grand Turk - on Christmas Day no less!

Child 1

Child 2 (it was hard to tell underwater)

Man 1

The rays of light were captivating

Making her way down the stairs. Flippers are tricky things; she abandoned them on the 2nd swim

The gang

What we did and might have seen

And then it was time to hit the beach!

None of us tanned exactly but we didn't burn either!

Great fish lunch and local beer from the snack shack

and yes, I was indeed there too