Cruising 2019: It's a big boat. Surprise! Now, hop on!

Shane had to be suspicious about what was going on. Then again, he may have been too excited in general to think deeply on it. He knew about the cruise, and he knew about Grandma and Grandpa. He didn't know about my parents. 

At one point, he said, "I wish Nana and Pop could come, too."

I replied, "You normally don't get to visit both sets of grandparents at once. They don't live near each other." 

Yet, he should have noticed we kept talking to Nana on the phone for some reason or other. I flat out mentioned coordinating with them in front of him. Carrie's eyes bugged, but the TV was on. Shane's eyes, ears, and soul were attuned to Spongebob Squarepants.

He really wanted to play in the fountain when we went down to breakfast in the morning. 

He was bouncing around all through breakfast.

He was chatting our ears off with a one-way dialogue and I thought he wasn't looking when I flashed Carrie a hand-sign. Shane happened to turn around and stopped talking. "I know what that means," he said.

I felt far from slick, but curiosity started to nudge in. "What does it mean?" I asked.

"I'm talking too much."

Well, he was right. I'll have to drop it from my repertoire. I thought he was so zoned into his story he wasn't paying attention to anything else.

Shane pulled a me and walked all over the low walls afterward. I would have done the same thing if it wouldn't have pushed Carrie's embarrassment meter over the top!

We packed out and headed to the port. Shane didn't realize the monster in front of us was the boat we'd be on until we clued him in. Effusive excitement ensued.

Shane still didn't seem to figure it out when I pointed out Pop to Carrie. She shushed me and said, "We cannot get out of this line."

We met up with Nana and Pop at the escalator after we got our boarding passes.

Huzzah! The secret was kept safe and everyone had a good laugh!

Shane wanted to look for Pokemon on the ship when we got on!

We took care of some business and then found some tables in the buffet to snack and wait for Grandma, Grandpa, and our rooms to be ready.

There were plenty of things to look at in the harbor. Shane spotted the Empire State building quickly. He told us about a story he'd read in school about it.

It was fun talking with everyone while we waited.

Our rooms were in the very front of the shop on Deck 11.

Our cabin was directly underneath where the Captain should have been. (Side note: It was really easy to hit your head on the slanted window).

We had a 'hidden gem' of a room. It was bigger than the other cabins in the same class, because it was on a rounded corner of the ship (Carrie specializes in finding those types of things).

Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, and Pop were all right around the corner from us! We didn't share walls, but we were within 6 doors of each other or so.

We settled in and then took Shane to sign up for Adventure Ocean.

Carrie talked up the kid programs on Royal Caribbean ships, so I was eager to see how Shane felt about it. The Dogman books signaled a good start.

Shane watched the safety video at least three times through before we saw it again at the muster stations.!

That made it easy for us to settle in. Carrie is the most organized packer I know.

We all shared a table for dinner! Unfortunately, Shane was the only kid, but that allowed him more electronics time than he normally would have been allowed (it was everyone's vacation, after all!).

Shane tried to play camera-shy to start.

He didn't expect to get double-teamed by both branches of the family!

Shane got his inagural trip to play in Adventure Ocean after dinner. He was sad when we showed up before 10 PM to pick him up, too!

I'm going to enjoy dumping him off to play with other kids. I know it. He'll have a blast, so everyone wins!

Spring break has begun!