Bud and Karen Little Family: November 2023

2023 Caribbean Birthday Cruise

We decided to celebrate Bud's 70th Birthday by taking the grown kids and their spouses on a Caribbean Cruise. The trip was a year in the making with Karen arranging the tickets on Black Friday - 2022. Actually it was closer to Karen's birthday, so two celebrations in one.

This is the first time we've had all 4 children and their spouses (without grand-kids) together for 8 days. It is something that we will always cherish.

Fort Lauderdale

We met in Ft. Lauderdale, the night before the cruise. Tyler, Hye Won, Becky, Joshua, and Bud & Karen all had a sleep-over in one motel room. Pretty tight, but lots of fun.

Hanging out in lobby before cruise

The backpack

Normally Ryan always carries his traveling backpack with him. For some reason he decided to check in his backpack to be carried up to his room. When he got ready to check in he discovered that their passports were in one of the backpacks. The rest of us started checking in around 1:30 or 2:00.

The Cruise People were not going to let Ryan and Monica on the ship without their passports, because Monica was born in Canada. This was a dilemma because their bags were on the way to the holding spot to take up to their room. He search as many of the loads of bags he could. Everyone started to panic. Karen went to the Guest Services area and Ryan sent her a picture of the backpack. I went up to the room to check if it had been delivered. The porters had a copy of the backpack and were looking for it. They said if they hadn't found it by 5:00, they would leave them off the cruise ship. I think we all said many prayers.

Luckily, at around 5:15 they found the backpack. Ryan found the passports and got on board. We felt it was some tender mercies.

Cruise

We traveled on the MSC Seascape. It is a huge ship able to carry over 5000 passengers that is in it's first year of operation, so it it very new. It was a very nice ship.

Note the size differences between the MCS Seascape and and smaller cruise ship in front. It make the other cruise ship look like a dwarf.

The kids joined in a ping pong tournament. It ended up with Becky going the furthest. (However no 1st places)

Hot tubs were a hit. Also, we enjoyed the entertainment.

We enjoyed games, games and more games

Did I mention eating ?

Eating is one of the main activities. We basically ate in the Dining Room for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Then after the shows, to the buffet for a late night snack.

Jamaica - Dunn's River Falls

Dunn's River Falls is a famous waterfall near Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Basically you climb up the river on rocks and enjoy the falls when in the river.

Rock water slides

After climbing up the falls we enjoyed a dip in the ocean.

Cayman Islands -

Snorkeling and hanging out with the Stingrays.

We had two stops snorkeling - one for the Coral Gardens and another for a Barrier Reef. Both were fun and a little different.

Hye Won's first time snorkeling and she took to it very well.

The highlight was Stingray City. We got to pet, feed, hold and even KISS the stingrays. All were in the wild.

After the snorkeling, Bud decided to hang out with the local pirates.

He even bought a bracelet at a local artisans fair. Hand made from Rosemary.

The rest of the group did a little shopping

Cozumel -

We landed in Cozumel and took a ferry to Playa Del Carmen. There we met Jason who took us on tour of Tulum. (12 years earlier we took a tour from his Father-in-law, Helaman.)

Helaman's tour was very Old Testament and Book of Mormon focused in the symbolism of the Mayan's. Jason was an archaeology major so he compared the Mayan and Book of Mormon cultures in an archaeological context. Both were very interesting.

Ferry to Playa Del Carmen