One of the best parts of being a parent is witnessing life from the vantage point of our children. Many of things we think are mundane are absolutely amazing to them. For example, during a simple walk on the beach our kids will scream out in excitement over finding a colorful seashell or when the waves crash against the sand.
Speaking of sandy beaches, I recently took my family on an 8-day western Caribbean cruise courtesy of Carnival, and I noticed how my daughters’ eyes lit up from the moment we set foot on the beautiful Carnival Freedom until the time we went home.
Remember, my daughters are 5 and almost 3 years old, so a lot of what they witnessed was completely new to them. Here are some examples of how all of that went down.
Aggggghhhh! Frogs!
Carnival knows exactly what to do to keep kids happy. For example, they’re famous for their amazing towel animals. And yes, the clever crew put a frog towel in my room and I received a nice chuckle out of it (for those of you who don’t know, I have a frog phobia – but at least Carnival’s towel frog was cute).
Every night after dinner, my daughters would rush back to our cabin to see what the crew created for them.
But that wasn’t all.
The cool thing is the girls had a chance to see the towel animals come to life during an awesome puppet show.
Yes, the folks at Carnival even had a tutorial on how to create the towel animals, but let’s be real – nobody can do it better than the experts.
Views, baby. Views.
We live in California, and there are some spectacular views in my state, but nothing compares to what my kids saw from our ocean view cabin. Getting them to actually leave our room was a challenge at times because of how amazing the scenery was.
Green eggs and ham!
But wait, there’s more. Carnival puts on an amazing Seuss at Sea brunch where they serve Green Eggs & Ham and other goodies while the characters from the iconic books come to life. My daughters became really excited when Thing 1 and 2 came by our table. As you can see here, Thing 1 and my daughter had a nice bonding moment once they realized they share the same hairstylist.
Time to get down!
My kids love music and the performers on the Carnival Freedom were top notch. Every night after dinner, my girls would hit the dance floor and strut their stuff. And let’s be real — few things are more adorable than watching a toddler completely own the dance floor.
Time off of the ship.
We had a lot of fun visiting Cozumel, Belize, and Mahogany Bay. The girls loved seeing and swimming with the dolphins, and were locked into a constant state of wonderment the entire time.
People say that kids keep us young, and that was the case during our cruise. With every smile that my kids shared, I provided an even bigger smile in return. Nothing in the world mattered when I saw how happy they were, and Carnival did an amazing job of making that happen.
This post was created for Away We Go with Carnival, the destination for getting in the getaway state of mind.
