I had been thinking and packing for this trip for weeks! Here is all the food for the trip. One bag for each day. I struggled to decided what to bring because we needed so much stuff. I'm embarrassed to say that we ended up with 3 big suitcases, 2 backpacks, a diaper bag, car seat and stroller. It was so much stuff but in the end we needed it so I was glad I had it all.
The day before our cruise we flew to Singapore. On the 2 flights Connor was great! Really great! One of my friends was moving and getting rid of this car seat. It is about 20 pounds lighter then Connor's regular one and because we got it for free I knew we could ditch it if we had to and I wouldn't feel bad. It ended up being one of the best things we brought!
On the first plane we secured it to the seat while Connor was standing and once we finished getting all his stuff out he actually asked to be put in it. As I was strapping it in about 4 of the Chinese flight attendants were all looking at the seat and talking about it. I asked if it was ok and one said they had never seen one like it and were curious. Maybe something was lost in translation.
I was so glad that Connor was happy to sit in it, snack and watch his iPad the whole flight! It worked so well! Maybe we need the carseat for church.... lol
We had a layover in Taipei and let Connor run and run. He thought Iron Man was pretty cool.
Right after we got on the second plane he was asleep before we even took off. He took a short nap and woke up but gave us no problems on the long second flight. It was a huge blessing. He did get a little restless once and so I let him run around a bit then he was good again. See the truck he is holding, I had bought that at the 100 yen store (package of 2) a few days before and it ended up being one of the best toys to keep Connor occupied. His favorite when I held him was to roll it up over the side of my face and down the other side. The little hard plastic wheels felt great (not) but it kept him happy when we were in line so I let him.
We got into Singapore pretty late but Logan lived there for 4 months so he was great at getting us around. We meet up with Logan's parents at the hotel in Singapore got some dinner and got to bed. Connor hates sleeping in new places but after crying on and off for an hour he slept.
My shower curtain up in the first room! It stayed up all night and worked great!
Nov 29 - Day 1 Singapore
Connor slept from about 11pm-6:30am and then was done. Once it was clear that he was not going back to sleep we pulled him our bed and he actually laid/wiggled around with us for about an hour while we all pretended to sleep. Then he pooped and we all got up. We didn't board the ship until 1:30 so we spent the morning seeing downtown Singapore. Connor loved the Metro! It was a great jungle gym!
We took the subway and when we got out it was raining/sprinkling. Of course this was the one time it was raining and I didn't bring the umbrellas and rain cover for the stroller. I had brought all of them on the trip but they were back with our luggage at the hotel. I ended up putting Connor in the carrier and holding him that way until it stopped. We got to walk around Marina Bay and see the Merlion - the symbol of Singapore. The first picture is of Marina Bay Sands and its ArtScience Museum.
Connor liked this statue. He really wanted the "stick" but settled on getting a piggy back ride instead.
Close to the botanical Gardens Connor found birds. He LOVES birds!
We took the metro back to the hotel and then got in a taxi to take us to the port. I again held Connor and he fell asleep as we checked in and waited to get on the ship. He didn't sleep well the night before in the hotel so he was very tired. He woke up right before we boarded.
Our cruise path.
This was the first time we got a mini suit room and it was perfect!! Connor had room to run around inside and out on our deck. I wish I got a picture of the bathroom but it was nice and big too with a full tub for him to take baths in. As you can see Connor made himself at home and promptly started climbing everything. His favorite was to climb up on the desk and "talk on the phone". Another great perk of a mini suite is that they deliver your luggage faster!
Another great view of Singapore from our balcony. You can see it was plenty big and the width of our room.
Also I have to say my shower curtain and command hooks have worked AMAZINGLY to separate the rooms! Yay! It draped across when we needed it and then during the day hung to one side completely out of the way.
Connor was a good boy and after the first few nights he didn't cry anymore when we laid him down for bed (he has a hard time sleeping in new places). He did learn how to get into the pack n play all by himself by walking his feet up the side until he could lean his torso over the top and land on his back. At least he never got out! Every time he put his leg up we would tell him no and to wait for mommy or daddy to get him out. Eventually he stopped trying to get out and would wait for one of use to get him. So lucky!
One of my favorite parts of the cruise was family dinner time! Because they made special food for Connor only in the dining room we all ended up having dinner together each night. I set Connor up with his iPad and he ate great!
Nov 30 - Day 2 At Sea
On our last cruises I never cared for sea days but this time it was been great. No responsibilities, no cooking and no schedules to keep. It felt like a real vacation!
Unfortunately, I woke up this morning with really bad back pain like I've never had before. Probably a pinched nerve just below my left shoulder blade. I'm pretty sure it was from holding Connor in the carrier so long. I brought my small one because it was lighter and easier to pack but it doesn't have as good of support as the one I'm used to. I was in a lot of pain. Logan was great in chasing Connor around and I relaxed. I kept telling him I hurt a lot but was still happy!
This was the first of the formal nights so we took some family pictures!
My favorite dessert that Princess Cruises does is their Creme Brûlée! I got it almost every night!
Dec 1 - Day 3 Kota Kinabalu, Borneo, Indonesia
Early morning to meet up for our first tour. At most of our stops we signed up for the cruise tours. They ended up working great for us because we didn't have to schedule anything and they always use big busses (no need for a car seat). If we did things on our own, it would have taken a lot more time, research and we probably would have taken taxis and had to carry around the car seat everywhere. We liked the cruise tours. Of course we still had to wait for our bus and everything so I bribed Connor with suckers.
Below - a view from the bus window of the island's greenery.
First stop was at a port in Borneo. Fun geography fact - we learned it is the third largest island in the world. We took a tour that took us to a cultural museum and the zoo. Borneo is famous for pirates and headhunters but we didn't encounter any.
At the zoo we got to see lots of native animals like pigmy elephants, horn billed toucans, proboscis monkeys and orangutans. Connor had a blast running around the zoo. He liked looking at the animals too.
Tuckered out. That night we watched a beautiful sunset!
Dec 2 - Day 4 At Sea
My back was still really hurting. It was deep on the left side just under my shoulder blade. It hurt very badly when I slept or if I breathed in deeply. During the day I kept it under control with ibuprofen and by keeping my back straight (but not laying down). At night I kept waking up with nightmares because my meds had worn off and when I woke, I couldn't move it hurt so bad. Logan booked me a hot stone message on our Sea day to see if it helped. It felt great but the pain still bothered me.
We had fun exploring the ship. We played in the pool, watched movies and ate a lot! We also finally got in a good routine with feeding Connor. They deliver his milk to our room and we fed him out of the food I packed for his breakfast and lunch with a few things from the buffet like apples, Mandarin oranges and rice. At dinner they were great to specially make Connors food that we ordered the day before. Connor eats very well at dinner! Some things he has enjoyed are salmon, ground beef, rice, cheese, strawberries, watermelon, grapes, and broccoli. They even made him freshly made French fries so they don't have preservatives or corn in them but Connor mostly just squished them.
Dec 3 - Day 5 Nha Trang, Vietnam
I woke up this morning and didn't have any back pain at all!! It was such a relief! I think the heat of the message and some stretching took care of whatever the problem was. I was so grateful!
For this port we had a city bus tour. To get to town we had to take a tender (small passenger boat) from ship to shore. The water was really rough. We ended up being some of the last on the tender boat so we had to sit up top where there was only benches with rope around the outside. I made Logan hold Connor really tight.
On the bus again :)
The tour took us to a old Roman Catholic Church. Right out front was a huge intersection. There were so many motor bikes!
Next was a Buddhist temple where we climbed 158 steps to the top to see a big Buddha. Connor walked at least half of the stairs before asking to be picked up. I loved the picture I took from the top looking out over the city. It was hot when we got back down so we all shared some coconut water straight out of the coconut! It was really good and refreshing!
The last stop they took us to a place where they specialize in hand embroidered silk. It doesn't sound that cool but the displays were amazing! All so intricate and lifelike. We saw several that took 3 people over a year to make!
As we returned to where we had to catch the tender boats back to the ship there was a line of about 200 people ahead of us. I was worried about Connor lasting that long but as we started to walk to the back of the line, they directed us to the very front because we had a baby and stroller and got right on the very next tender that came. That was great! Sometimes having a baby pays off like not having to stand in line for an hour!
We took a picture of Connor scarfing down his dinner with the staff that served us every night! They were so good to him! It is hard to be a cruise staff. Their contracts are 8 months long and then 2-3 months off. All of our dinner servers were from the Philippines where it is common for a family member to leave and send their earnings home. The man in the middle said it had been 20 years since he was able to be home with his family for Christmas but at the end of our cruise he was finally going home to spend it with them!
That night I got the lamb because I had just finished the 7 seasons of Gilmore Girls and they ate lamb all the time - Rory likes it. I didn't care for it.
Logan's parents were so nice to watch Connor whenever we asked. This night was a fun dancing singing show. We put Connor to bed and had a fun time watching it while Dan sat in our room.
Dec 4 - Day 6 Phu My, Vietnam
This port was for Ho Chi Minh City but you had to pay $80 per person and it took over and hour by bus to get there so we took the free shuttle to Phu My. They dropped us off at the city market. It was fun but Connor had woken up before 5am and was so tired and done by the time we got there. Lots of the local people wanted to see and touch him. He was already in a bad mood and this just made it worse. Plus lots of sales people kept getting in our faces trying to get us to buy things. One even handed Connor a toy, that of course he then liked and asked me to pay her. I ended up having to take it away, making Connor scream and then the lady wouldn't take it so I put it on the ground and walk away.
Once we got back on the ship and Connor took a 4 hour nap he was much better. It was Sunday so we had a little family devotional that was really nice. Before dinner we watched the boats on the dock from our balcony.
This was the dinner choice that night. I thought it was fun to see how everything changed each night except the Princess Favorites. This wasn't my favorite night but everything we ate was good!
Connor always looked good at dinner.
We watched the disembarkation from our balcony and had a nice pleasant evening.
Dec 5 - Day 7 At Sea
Slept in and then played in the pool. Unfortunately the only pools that kids are allowed in (the rest are adults only) are both 5-7 feet deep. I feel like that is totally stupid. Because as the ship rocks the water spills up and over and I can't even stand in the shallow end. At least there is a large area around the pool for overflow and Connor likes to splash around that until he gets bored and then just runs laps around the decks.
Logan and I got a lunch date while Connor napped and his grandpa babysat. Connor didn't wake up until we woke him at 4:30! There was a pole in the corner of our deck that Connor totally broke! It was rusted really bad so it probably would have eventually broke anyway. whoops.
It was the last formal night. I enjoyed a double portion of lobster tails and we took a few pictures after dinner. Connor was dressed in his suit and tie again. Everyone who saw him run by thought he was the most handsome/adorable/sweet/precious little guy they had ever seen!
Dec 6 - Day 8 Pattaya, Thailand
Early morning. Connor was up again for a few hours in the middle of the night and then we all had to get up before 7 to make our tour for the tiger zoo. The zoo was well named and had over 200 tigers! Pretty much every other cage you saw them but that meant they didn't have much else. They had lots of tigers, crocodiles, pigs, elephants and goats. That's about it. The tour guide on the bus was pretty loud over the speakers and Connor totally plugged his ears all on his own. I thought it was hilarious and didn't know he knew how to do that.
We got to take a picture with a baby tiger! It was the size of a large house cat and cute! It didn't want to sit still (something I'm so used to) so they gave me a bottle to feed it. Logan tried to get Connor to pet it but Connor curled up his lip about as if to cry. I don't think he liked that they tiger got a bottle and he didn't too. That's what our picture was of. I can't look at it without laughing! We could have gotten a better one I'm sure but it captured the real moment and I kinda like that better.
We saw the crocodile show first where they were dragging the huge lizards around the stage and then stuck their heads in their open mouths a few times. It was crazy!
Outside was another enclosure of crocs! So many! I don't even want to know how they feed them all!
The next show was pig racing. The speakers were too loud for Connor and he started to get upset again so we left and found some statues for him to play with. The zoo had plaster/cement animal statues all over and Connor liked to climb on them.
This one was pretty cool! A huge winged tiger!
The next show was the tiger show. They had 7 large tigers out in the ring and they all took turns doing tricks, jumping through hoops and standing or walking across platforms. They are beautiful creatures.
Instead of watching the elephant show we ate some lunch. My stir fry was so good! We have been in Bali, Cambodia and now Thailand I have loved all the fresh stir fries with veggies and fresh herbs as long as they are not too spicy.
Connor was interested but also terrified of these baby goats! He kept running back to hide behind Logan's leg if they got too close. I bought some of their food and showed him how to feed them. Then he loved them! This was actually one of my favorite memories of the trip.
One area of the zoo they had tigers feeding piglets and a pig feeding tiger cubs.
One of the buildings was dedicated to all things crocodiles. We even got to walk into a incubator room full of real crocodile eggs!
After the zoo, they dropped us off at a souvenir shop but it was more expensive so we didn't get much.
Back on the ship. We talked to another couple the day before that had a 2 year old and found it that although Connor is too young for the kid programs we could take him to the activity room to play with the toys. So we took him up to the 3-12 year old kids room. They had toys but most of the kids were watching a movie when we came in. As soon as I put Connor down he thought it was great he had so much room to run! He ran around, making happy screams and after not too long I just took him out. haha
When we departed this port the captain said we would see lots of ships with green lights. He said they were squid boats!
Dec 7 - Day 9
We were supposed to stop in Ko Samui and play on the beach and go shopping but it got rained out and they ended up canceling the whole port stop. It was sad. In the cruise log they gave us they reported "We approached the island of Ko Samui and anchored off the western coast of the island. Shortly afterwards, the call was sadly aborted due to adverse weather conditions. The swell witnessed from the Bridge was unsafe for tender services and we received information from our local agent that there was substantial flooding and road closures on the island which made our stay unfeasible."
This picture on our deck with Thailand behind us was the closest we got to Ko Samui that day. We spent the day just hanging out like any normal Sea Day. Logan and I decided we had to come back to Thailand again.
Dec 8 - Day 10 At Sea
Last day on the ship. We went on a family walk in the morning and took a picture at the very front of the ship. In the afternoon Logan's parents watched Connor and we got another lunch date.
Kiddos! They can always find you!
Dinner was nice and Connor had fun afterwards! Then just after this he peed out of his diaper and it was time to go back to our room for bed.
Dec 9 - Singapore
We got off the ship in the morning and headed to our hotel. I didn't get a picture of the outside but this was the view from our balcony!
Also nice about our hotel was that it was just one block away from a huge shopping center and a City Bus Tour. We got tickets for the tour and got to see a lot of the city! Plus Connor took a good nap while we got to see everything so it was a win win.
These trees were all over. I decided they are my favorite tree! They are called a rain tree and they have long winding bare branches with a thin canopy on top. The other picture is the coolest building.
More views of Singapore. Christmas decorations all over town. Little India. We got back to our hotel just in time before a big cloud dumped a bunch of rain.
My genius curtain works again! That night the city looked amazing!
Dec 10 - Singapore to Home
Connor was definitely not as good on the way back. But we somehow got upgraded to busness class on the first plane! It was way nice! The seats laid back all the way and had foot rests plus the food was fancy too!
Layover in Taipei again on the way home.
To finish up our amazing vacation we then ended up in first class for our final flight! We wished it could have been a long flight (it was only an hour and half) but it sure was fun! Logan was across and I sat right behind Connor. It was a little interesting not really being able to sit by Connor but he did pretty good.
Check out the first class menu! I got the braised sea bass and I know it doesn't look great but it tasted so good!
So that was it. We got home late Saturday night. It was a little hard adjusting back to where I had to cook all our food and clean but it was all worth it! I was so glad Connor really was exceptional and he never got sick! It turned out to be a great trip!
