10 year old girls trip report (long)

[cruisnfamily]

This trip report was written by my daughter as a homework assignment for work missed during our 4 day cruise 9/22/02. This was written completely by her with no input from us at all. This was her version of the cruise and it's highlights!

Here it is:

Saturday-Kennedy Space Center
Today is the first day of my vacation. First we drove in the car for about three hours. I was coloring with colored pencils for a long time. I got carsick so I tried to sleep but it was no use. I was carsick so my stomach hurt really bad. Then we went to Kennedy Space Center. We went on a bus tour. We learned about the Saturn V. Saturn V (five) is the biggest rocket in the world {mom says: I don't think that's true} that's gone to the moon. When people sleep over at Kennedy Space Center, they sleep under the Saturn V rocket.{mom says: Our elementary school has a field trip at the end of the year where the kids do this} After that, we checked into our hotel and had pizza{mom says:Our hotel was the Raddison and the pizza place was Kelsey's} Our hotel room is huge! It is a double room with a couch, desk, five chairs, two TV's a table, two king sized beds, a bathroom with a cool shower and guess what, our own jacuzzi We swam in our pool, it has two waterfalls. Tomorrow we go on the cruise. It's gonna be fun! Our friends will meet us tomorrow.

Sunday-Getting on board
Today we boarded the ship. We did lots of other stuff too. Then we went to a lunch buffet. After the buffet we swam, did the lifeboat drill, and explored the ship. We also had a sail away party. We sang and danced. Then we went back to the state room and changed into our outfits for dinner. After dinner, my mom and dad and our friend's parents let us go to the kids club. We checked ourselves out a while later and then went to the arcade and explored. We were having fun! We went to the front of the boat with our parents at 11:15. It was really windy!{mom says: REALLY, REALLY WINDY!}

Monday-Nassau
Today my mom and dad went off the boat at Nassau. I decided to stay on the boat in the kids club. First I stayed in the kids club for a while and made jewelery. I also made other fun crafts. Then, I went to see Lilo and Stitch for a while and then I went back to the kids lab for some more time to make friendship bracelets. After, I went and ate lunch at one of the restaurants with the kids club. Then, we went for ice cream. I checked out and got my hair braided on the ship. It looks sooo cool! After, we went to the pool. Then we went to dinner. After dinner, we went to a concert. It was the Baha Men!!! I got all of their autographs!!! Then we went to see Monsters,Inc. Then we checked back into the kids club. We played hockey. After that, We made flubber! It was so fun. We got to keep it. We had activity time next. My friend Megan, that I met on the boat, and I went to a deck party and danced all night long until we had to go inside. My mom and dad got me color changing rings, nail polish, and a t-shirt from Nasau.{mom saysel Sol, Very, very, cool store!}

Tuesday-Freeport
All morning until 2:30 I was at the dolphin encounter. When we got back, we went to Studio sSea and plyed a really fun game called "go fetch", and the girls won. Then we played a game that was kind of like a treasure hung. Again, the girls won. We got medals. Then, we went to dinner. We had a pool party after that. I went back to the room after. When I was changing, I forgot my room key in my room. I was trapped outside for an hour until my mom came back. I couldn't get into the kids club because you need your room key to go to the club.{Mom says: I'm sure the lab would have helped her out but she never went and asked for assistance, just asssumed she couldn't go.}

Wednesday-Castaway Cay
Today was soooo fun! First I went on the banana boat with my mom. On my side, everyone fell off. Then I played on the playground in the water. After, I went snorkeling. There were soo many different kinds of fish! They were so cool. Then we went to lunch. I went on the banana boat again after that and sat in the front this time. It was so bumpy and fun. I rented a paddle boat afterwards and went really far out with my friend. It was so much work that our parents said we could have ten desserts! When we got back on the boat, the kids club put on a play for the parents. It was the last night so I got to eat with the kids club. After dinner, we did Karaoke. It was so much fun. We played a game called See-ya which was kind of like truth or dare and then we played Character heads.

Thursday-Home
Today we woke up got off the boat and drove for one hour. Then we stopped at Bob Evans for breakfast and drove for two more hours until we got home.



Well folks, that's it. From a 10 year old girls own mouth. Please feel free to ask lots of questions, she'd love to answer them!

 

[vicnmickey]

It sounds like Amanda had a great time on vacation. My daughter will be 10 and my son will be 11 on our cruise in May 2003. It sounds like you were comfortable letting Amanda have her own check in out privelages. How did this work and were you ever worried about something happening?
I can't believe your vacation is already over. It seems like just yesterday I was reading post of you wishing the time would go by quicker till Sept. :> Tell Amanda thanks for the 10 year olds input, I really enjoyed it.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Yes, we all had a great time!

I think this little taste of independence was really the highlight of Amanda's trip. We are relatively cautious parents and don't often allow her this kind of freedom. Yes, we were very comfortable giving her this freedom on the ship and it worked out fabulously for all concerned. She has moved up another notch in showing us her maturity and responsibility.

The way it worked is that we got one pager for our two children. DS6 and DD10. When DS6 wanted out of the club, they would page us and we would go and get him. Pretty simple. We worked out our own rules with Amanda. They were as follows:
1)She could sign out with a friend only...never by herself.
2)She must have a destination in mind...no signing out to wander the ship
3)She would have the lab page us with her destination.."Amanda signed out to go to the movies with friend", "Amanda is back at the lab", etc.

By the way, we were also traveling with friends who have a 10 year old boy who also enjoyed the club. She gave her perspective of activities but of course there were activities available for the guys too like when they were making bracelets, he was doing something else.

That was it. The lab made it clear to us that it was Amanda's responsibility to have them page us. Once we gave the OK for her to have sign in/out ability, it was not their job to notify us, it was hers. It worked out great! We always knew where she was.

The only problem we had was the time she left the key in the room but even that was really no big deal...I know the lab would have paged us for her but she insists she could not sign in without that card.

Any more questions???

 

[vicnmickey]

Independence already, just kidding. Its hard to let them grow up but you have to let them. The checking out with a friend was a great idea and putting the destination on there too. I will have to remember that. Thank you!

 

[4nana]

Amanda,

Thanks for sharing your trip report with us. I cannot believe you are only 10, you sound so grown up. What grade are you in?

It sounds like you had a wonderful time on your cruise w/lots of activities and things to keep you busy. We are doing a family reunion cruise in Dec and our 7 grands (ages 1-15) will join us, so I hope they have as much fun as it seems you did. It will be their first cruise and we are really looking forward to a good time.

I am glad to hear the Radisson is nice, that is where we are staying the night before our cruise. Do you think they would like
Kelsey's Pizza? Thanks again and take care!

 

[cruisnfamily]

Amanda is really 9, she'll be 10 in 2 weeks. I called it a 10 yr old's trip report because we put her in the 10-12 group and I wanted to avoid confusion. She is in the 4th grade as we live in FL and the cutoff is Sept 1st.

Kelsey's was OK. It was fine for some quick pizza but next time I would try somewhere else. We had breakfast at Zachary's and I thought that was really great. We might try them for dinner next time or else Grill's.

Our room at the Radison was the 2 king bed suite for $99 and it was worth it! We really liked this resort and the pool area was really great too.

 

[Credit Man]

Amanda, WOW!!! What a great report. You have the makings of a fine writer.

 

[shefor24]

Amanda seemed to skip over detailing the dolphin encounter. I wanted my twin girls (10) to do this, but it is booked so far. I heard if you hustle on the ship and run to the excursions counter then you may have a chance of getting in. So I want to know-- did your 10 year old girl have wonderful time doing this? It is an awfully lot of money..... but if it's awesome, then I don't have a problem with the money, but she just kinda said "all morning until 2:30 I did the dolphin encounter" and that was it. Yikes.

 

[cruisnfamily]

We booked the dolphin encounter in Freeport after having been told that it is the exact same one as in Nassau but without the "beach day" portion of the day. We really wish now that we had gone with the one in Nassau. I don't want to say it was terrible because the time with the dolphins was very cool however, it was a 5 hour ordeal for 5 minutes with the dolphins.

Here's a summary of our experience:
Meet at 9:30am on board to get towels, stickers, and disembark as a group
Board a bus to travel to the dolphin peoples headquarters...there is also a market and shops here. The bus ride was maybe 15-20 minutes and this was fine.
Arrive at the dolphin headquarters and wait in line to be assigned a time to get on a boat. (Boat??We didn't know about any boat). We are assigned a time of 11:00am...it's now 10:15ish...what to do to kill the time? Shop in their little store? Stand out in the very hot sun?
Anyway, 11am comes and we board the boat. The boat ride was very fast (scary for my son, fun for the rest of us). It took about 15 mins as well.
Get to the docks where the dolphin encounter takes place and get undressed and leave all things which you don't want to get wet in a certain area.
Finally, finally, we are seated on a dock which is like a square shaped pen. There are approximately 50 of us seated around the dock. We are briefed somewhat about the dolphins and then take turns (groups of 8) getting in the water with the dolphins. When it is your turn, you stroke the dolphin's back for about 5 minutes and then pose for a picture with the dolphin. This part was cool, but I'm not sure it was cool enough to be worth the rest of it.
Well, before and after your turn, you are required to remain sitting there on the dock while the other people have their turns. This process took at least one hour if not more.
After all have had their turn, we boarded the boat again and rode back to the main area. At this point my husband took our DS and friends DS and hightailed it back to the Ship. He didn't wait to buy pictures or anything. He was back on the ship at 2:30...this makes it an absolute minimum excursion of 5 hours. I of course waited to see the pictures...I bought one of the four for $10. The others were foggy or out of focus. Then shopped a bit and headed back to the ship. I got back on board at 3:30pm. Of course this means we missed the "island magic" show we wanted our kids to see and we missed the wine tasting we wanted to participate in. We thought we would be on board about 1pm.
Overall, it wasn't worth it for us, we wouldn't do it again, and we are writing a letter of complaint to Disney.
My daughter glossed over the whole thing because unfortunately some of our irritation rubbed of on her leaving her less than thrilled with the experience. We would like to do this again but we will book the "swim" on our own in Nassau.

So, there's my story. Hope it wasn't too long but I wanted you to have all the facts before you made your decision. Good luck with the Dolphins!
Anyway,

 

[nativetxn]

Amanda did a great job with her journal. It sounds like she really enjoyed the cruise. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Katholyn

 

[bdheiman]

Amanda,

Thank you so much for your review. I have been concerned about going on the cruise in October.

I have an 8 (will turn 9 during the cruise) year old son who gets bored easily. It sounded like you had a lot of fun. I am not going to worry so much about him anymore.

Thanks again.

Brenda

 

[2tinksmom]

Amanda,
Great trip report! I hope you got a good grade. I would love for my daughter, who is 10 but will be 11 when we cruise in May, to read this report, but the cruise is a complete surprise! She won't know until we get to the port (at least that's the plan)! I think it's great that you were so responsible in checking out. I feel better now about letting my daughter, Savannah, check out and have a little more freedom! Thanks again!!

 

[mitcam]

The Baha Men! My boys would freak! They are 6 & 4 and love them.

I have to say, I love them too! (Shhh - don't tell)

Glad to hear you had a great time.