Traveling with the Jones

We had visited three new countries, zip-lined, para-sailed, snorkeled, and climbed the hard side of Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica.

But my traveling companion, my 12-year-old niece, Justina, and I were not ready for our cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas to be over. 

We decided to make the most of Day 7, a day at sea as the ship sailed back to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

We started Day 7 with breakfast from the Park Cafe on Deck 8. Rather than eating inside the cafe, we sat outside right in the midst of Central Park.

The fresh fruit, breakfast burritos and Maui Morning muffins had become our favorites, as was the beautiful surroundings.

A hint: this Cafe is popular.  Arrive before 8:30 for a quieter experience.

On the other sea days, I mostly did whatever Justina wanted to do.

For the last day, however, I made some schedule negotiations. There were two events I wanted to attend. And, I would do whatever she wanted to do the rest of the day.

We both agreed we’d head to the Opal Theater around 4:30 pm, to get good seats for Hairspray at 5 pm. (We had reservations for the show on the first night of our cruise, but the show was canceled and rescheduled due to a sick performer.)

First, we attended the 9:30 am Central Park Tour with the Oasis’ Landscape Specialist. (This was not the 12-year-old’s idea, but she indulged her aunt.)

It was fascinating to learn about the challenges of having this garden at sea. (Washing the salt water off of the plants is one of the daily tasks for the gardeners.)

At 10 am, we headed to Studio B, where we both put on ice skates.

Actually skating on the rink made me admire the ice show performers even more.

The rink is relatively tiny to launch the jumps and complicated choreography that they displayed.

We both had a blast ice skating. Both of us managed to stay upright and the grandparents enjoyed watching.

Note: you must have long pants to ice skate. Luckily, Justina’s sweat pants qualified.

Next, I was off to change and meet with some adult friends in the Viking Crown Lounge. We heard a little of the “Meet the Stars” Experience for Crown & Anchor members.

Meanwhile, Justina and her grandparents took the Backstage Tour in the Opal Theater, getting an up-close view of the sets.

At 1 pm, we met for the Captain’s Corner in the Opal Theater.

After playing a video about the bridge and some other non-public areas of the Oasis of the Seas, Captain Trym Selvag spent a full hour answering the audiences’ questions, from the interesting to the ridiculous. He is a well-spoken and charming captain.

After sitting for an hour, Justina was ready for some activity.

We headed to the AquaTheater and watched up zip up the wall one last time. She says getting over that last “bump” before reaching the bell is the toughest. (See photo above.)

After rock climbing, we grabbed some quick lunch at the Park Cafe, and changed into clothes for “zipping” and “flowing.”

Justina went first on the zip line, and then took photos.

How to impress an adventurous 12-year-old? Do the activities they do. Yes, I zipped. (See above.)

One note: I took socks and used the Oasis “loaner” shoes for the Zip Line.  Next time, I’ll wear my tennis shoes. They have better padding when you land.

All cruise, I had been trying to get Justina on the Flow Rider. For some reason, she was holding back.

But, she agreed she would try it if I would.

This takes courage – to hold the board and dive in.

The result was pretty, but I managed to stay on the board.

Wow, it was fun. I pretended to be 12 again.

Our day has flown by. We run to our cabin to change for the 5 pm show.

You aren’t allowed to take photos of the Hairspray show; this is the curtain before the show begins.

We loved the show.

The rescheduled time, however, made us very late to dinner. We had asked Eunice about it and she said it wasn’t a problem to come late.

Eunice, our waiter in the Main Dining Room is one of the best dining room servers at sea.  She made our dining experience special every single night.

After a lovely last dinner, we had to go and pack. We used the Luggage Valet service for two bags, so they had to be outside of our cabin door by 11 pm.

I also had to return my book to the library. I usually read several books during a cruise.

On the Oasis with a 12-year-old, there was no time for reading.

We also made time for a few last laps around the jogging/walking deck.

This day was the perfect end to a fabulous, adventure-packed cruise.

If you’ve cruised on the Oasis of the Seas, what did you do on your last day on the ship? Please share in comments below.

If you haven’t already seen them, check out these other posts detailing the rest of Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas adventure:

• Cruising With a 12-Year-Old: Para-sailing from Cozumel, Mexico
• Cruising With a 12-Year-Old: Snorkeling and Climbing Dunn’s River Falls from Falmouth, Jamaica
• Cruising With a 12-Year-Old: Labadee, Royal Caribbean’s Private Resort in Haiti
• Cruising With a 12-Year-Old: A Day at Sea on the Oasis
• Traveling With a 12-Year-Old: Boarding Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas
• Traveling With a 12-Year-Old: Driving, Flying and Trying New Foods
• Traveling With a 12-Year-Old: The Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina Hotel
• A Look Inside Interior Cabin #10425 on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas

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Traveler Interview:  Megan Bryde 

Originally from Kansas City, Missouri, Megan has been attending Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri which is where she currently resides.

Yearning for opportunities to grow, Megan continuously seeks experience that help her thrive in life. Currently she is a barista making coffee for the good people of Kirksville but hopes to move beyond a small town atmosphere.

Travel opportunities have broadened Megan’s horizons, and have impacted her life in many ways that merely reading a book cannot.

We wanted to learn more about Megan’s travel insights and her thoughts on the benefits of travel.

The Jones: What inspires you to travel?

Megan: Honestly, the opportunity to grow as a human being.

Many times I have found that the experience of meeting new people, new cultures, new food, is more of anything that anyone can learn from a textbook or a silly list online that says “ten things that Bosnians and Americans have in common”.

Just by meeting someone from a different culture – watching how they interact and socialize – is an opportunity to learn who you want to be because it exposes you to something new, and something palatable.

Have you always enjoyed travel? What contributed to your love of travel?

No. When I was a little kid, my family would take these car rides from Kansas City, Missouri to Lima, Ohio and the trip would last 13 hours instead of the 8 hours it was capable of being.

The trip only took so long because we had five kids under the age of 8. That was the only time I hated it.

Otherwise, my family always made an effort to take a vacation every year when I was younger. What did contribute to my love of traveling was that, one year, we deviated from our Ohio plans and visited some family in South Carolina.

This was the first time I had seen the ocean, been in an different climate, saw intricate colonial architecture, and I even got to watch my sister get stung by a jelly fish. It was fantastic – not the part where my sister was stung – but my eight-year-old self couldn’t get enough of my surroundings.

The same feeling happened when I went on a choir tour in Boston, Massachusetts. I could not get enough.

Just recently, have I had my first-time-out-of-the-country experience to Austria, Hungary, and Germany on another choir trip.

The reverberations from the numerous cathedrals that we had sang in will ever evade my memories. The short ten days that I spent among those countries were such a tease that it seems that a lot of my daily thoughts center around getting out of America, and into countries whose ancient, musty cultures will forever have an impact upon my being.

What is your favorite destination?  Why?         

The Hohensaltzburg Castle, in Salzburg, Austria.

It lies on top of the Festungsberg, which is just a small little hill. Not only is it’s incomprehensible beauty absolutely archaic, but the town that surrounds the palace still emits the same road structure that it had used back in 1077 C.E.

These roads I got lost in. There is a longer version to this story. It includes me deviating from the group, getting lost, running like a mad person to a taxi, to get me to my train – otherwise an absolute mess.

But, this place is the only place where I panicked, and got lost in all of my ten days in Europe. I suppose it is my favorite destination because of that memory, and the fact that I tried so hard to be not too interested in my surroundings, but my mouth kept opening in awe. It was inevitable.

What destination has surprised you the most, either good or bad?

Hmmm, Ich vermute. I suspect the place that surprised me the most, or, at least definitely perplexed me the most, was a church in Wien that had mixed very modern art over the ancient beautiful architecture. Literally.

To me, it was if a little kid took a carton of Crayola markers to the Mona Lisa and decided that he could do a better job than Leonardo Da Vinci. The story was that the church had chosen a modern artist to incorporate the modern era into the old. To me, if I was a member of the church, and the artist decided to paint whatever he during the week, and I came back to find it there for Sunday mass, I would be devastated – mortified even. I would be yelling, “What did you DO to our beautiful church?”

The priest there, however, explained the project, and that it took to some getting used to when it was done.

Suddenly, the art grew on me. I decided it was not so bad. That was a learning experience.

Why do you consider travel important?         

You can learn more about yourself. Simply.

You plan, you budget, you watch other people, you eat differently, you find out what you like and what you don’t.

Traveling ensures that we aren’t missing out on anything in regards to the process of life.

From your travels, do you have a practice or insight that makes your travel experiences more enjoyable?

Being polite and patient will get you farther than not being so. Tone of voice is everything.

Remember that you are a guest in all of your traveling. That has helped me in more situations than I know, even with people visiting America. Politeness helps with language barriers and cultural differences across the U.S. and countries around the world.

What have you learned about yourself from your travels? Share your own insights in the comments below!

Other traveler interviews from student travelers:

• “There are so many beautiful countries and cultures in the world, why not explore them?” A Travel Chat with a Communications Student
• “Travel is refreshing and rejuvenating for me.” A Travel Chat with a University of Arkansas Grad Student
• “It’s one thing to read about the world and another to actually experience the world for yourself.” A Travel Chat With a New Mexico State University Student
• Travel Insights from 25 Travelers

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Last week my 12-year-old niece Justina accompanied me on a Western Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas.

When we visited the port of Cozumel, Mexico, on day 6 of our cruise, we still had a couple of items to cross off of Justina’s “wish list” for her first cruise.

Her priorities were to:

• go para-sailing,
• get her hair braided,
• do a little shopping.

While we had done shore excursions through the ship at the other two ports, I thought Cozumel was a good place to strike out on our own.

Justina and I hopped into a taxi and headed to San Francisco Beach. The current fare is $14 dollars for up to 4 people sharing a taxi.

We arrived around 11 am, so the San Francisco Beach Club was still fairly quiet, and we got lounger chairs, an umbrella and a table with a front-row view of the water.

The chairs are free of charge, but require a $10 per person minimum spend on food and/or drinks, which I knew from past experience wasn’t difficult to accomplish.

Shortly, a man approached us for para-sailing. The cost was $50 per person for a 15-minute flight.

The only problem: I did not want to para-sail, and my niece was too little to go up on her own.

No problem, the guy said he would find someone else to “fly” with her while I watched from the boat.

Soon we were in the para-sailing boat heading away from the shore, and Justina was getting harnessed for her “flight.”

The cameraman fitted a video camera on her head.

Then, Justina and the local lady were harnessed into place.

Up and away they went.

Higher and higher.

And, even higher into the clouds.

All good things must end. Here (above) the para-sailors are being pulled back into the boat.

Justina loved the ride and the views. Now we were ready for a little beach snack and rest.

The San Francisco Bay Club’s shrimp ceviche was just as great as I remember it from a visit years ago.

Justina stuck with nachos.

After a swim, she was ready to get her hair braided. I questioned if she really wanted to do this.

Smart girl that she is, she decided to get three partial braids on one side of her head.

The result was very nice.

After a taxi ride back to the pier, we did a little shopping right there.

When we got back on the ship, Justina couldn’t wait to try one of her purchases.

It was a fun day.

Have you visited Cozumel via a cruise ship? If so, what did you do while you were in port? Please share in comments below.

Check out these other posts detailing other parts of our Royal Caribbean Oasis of the Seas adventure:

• Cruising With a 12-Year-Old: Snorkeling and Climbing Dunn’s River Falls from Falmouth, Jamaica
• Cruising With a 12-Year-Old: Labadee, Royal Caribbean’s Private Resort in Haiti
• Cruising With a 12-Year-Old: A Day at Sea on the Oasis
• Traveling With a 12-Year-Old: Boarding Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas
• Traveling With a 12-Year-Old: Driving, Flying and Trying New Foods
• Traveling With a 12-Year-Old: The Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina Hotel
• A Look Inside Interior Cabin #10425 on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas

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