over a year ago, we had made plans for Greta to go on a trip to Paris over Holy Week 2026 with her elementary school choir (pinch me now!). since Cece was going with Nick on an epic European pilgrimage in the summer of 2025, we decided it was only fair for me to accompany Greta. ;) also, Holy Week is Nick's absolute busiest time of year as a church musician and he definitely would not be able to take the week off to travel.
a few months after sending in the deposit, we learned that not enough families had signed up and the trip was canceled, so our deposit was refunded. we both were quite disappointed! then Nick said that she and I should pick another place to go for a mother/daughter trip in its place. after much deliberating over various options, including a trip to NYC for shopping/shows, a visit to North Carolina to visit my sister and hopefully see one of the shows she and her fiancé are involved with in the local theater they run, a trip to the beach, or a cruise, Greta finally settled on -- a cruise!
I absolutely love cruising. it's the best of both worlds: an opportunity to travel to different countries while also enjoying all of the different activities and amenities on board the ship. Nick and I went on a Caribbean cruise for our honeymoon, and then a few years later (but before kids) we went on another with friends. we haven't been on one since, although I do think it would be lots of fun to go with the kids.
we scored a great deal on a 4-night MSC cruise from Port Canaveral in March, with a stop at MSC's private island and a stop in Nassau with a day at sea in between. for the two of us in a balcony room, it was just $900. we could have done it for even cheaper with an interior room, but it was worth it to me to spend the extra few hundred dollars on a balcony for two reasons -- 1) balcony!!! and 2) I wanted Greta to have a safe, private space to enjoy being outside if she woke up early or if I decided to take a second trimester afternoon nap.
the day before we left, I met Sabrina with the 3 youngest so they could stay with her for the weekend. then Greta and I went to a local salon to get a pedicure and subsequently to the Saturday vigil mass since Sunday was our travel day and I didn't want to risk missing mass.
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| all ready for her weekend with Nana! |
our only snafu was an expensive one. we were booked on a Spirit Airlines flight out of Pittsburgh at 6 AM on Sunday morning, slated to arrive in Orlando at 8:30 AM, and then to catch a shuttle to the port at 10 AM for a 3 PM cruise boarding time (with a 5 PM departure). I thought this left us plenty of wiggle room for delays. at 7 PM on Saturday, I got a text and email from Spirit that the morning flight had been canceled -- ostensibly for weather reasons, but there were no reports of bad weather at either Pittsburgh or Orlando that day or the next. the next Spirit flight out from Pittsburgh didn't depart until Sunday evening. Nick got on the phone and talked with about four different customer service agents (none of whom had any more information than what the text had said) and gave us no recourse other than to be refunded for the price we paid for the Spirit flight. the only other flight options that would get us to Orlando on time were through the major commercial airlines and they all were priced at $800+ per person -- which was the price when I looked months ago, hence why I booked Spirit in the first place ($89 per person). I had purchased travel insurance for our cruise, so we technically could have rescheduled, except for the fact that I was already 20 weeks pregnant and the cruise lines prohibit cruising after 24 weeks -- plus all the logistics of time taken off work, etc. rather than forfeit the whole trip, we bought the last-minute flights and our budget vacation was suddenly not quite such a steal.
Sunday morning, Nick dropped us off at the airport before there was even a crack of dawn to be seen, and we were off! the flights went smoothly (with a connection in Atlanta). I had booked shuttle service through Go Port for the 45-minute drive from the Orlando airport to the cruise port, and it was great -- transportation on a charter bus with free wifi, outlets, and extendable foot rests.
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| beautiful rainbow spotted during our layover in Atlanta |
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| Greta's trip preparations were largely focused on packing her snackle box ... she was none too pleased when I told her this could not be her breakfast at 7:30 AM |
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| about ten minutes into our shuttle drive |
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| first glimpse of the ship! |
we checked into our room, changed into bathing suits, and headed out to explore!
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| the balcony is always the right choice! |
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| the jungle pool |
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| Greta's face upon seeing the pool |
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| in the hot tub -- fortunately warm enough to be pleasant, but not too hot for a pregnant mama! |
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| the sail away party |
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| first strawberry daiquiri of the cruise. I opted not to buy a drink package since neither of us would be drinking alcohol, and after our very expensive flight switcharoo, I told Greta we could get one "special" drink per day. this was a major difference from previous adults-only cruises where we definitely got our money's worth out of the package! |
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| I was so excited about these slides but Greta wasn't feeling it the first day. I amused myself by watching people shoot through the transparent sections of the slide |
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| back to our balcony for some reading and relaxation. Greta has been consistent in saying she wants to be a marine biologist and she brought along a very appropriate book! |
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| documenting our pedicures. ALSO after a day of flights and travel, look at those puffy ankles!! thank goodness they were back to normal the next day. |
we had dinner reservations for the 7:30 seating at the main restaurant. we were seated at a table with another mother/daughter duo (although the daughter was in her late teens) and we really hit it off with them. I was worried we might be seated with a pair of frat bros or just a couple with very different personalities than us (you have the same table for the duration of the cruise). it was a pleasant surprise!
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| MSC is an Italian cruise line, and their Italian food was phenomenal -- this lasagna was perfection. I was most impressed that the pasta was always cooked perfectly al dente (quite the feat when serving hundreds of meals at once) -- which meant that Greta complained it was too chewy! |
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| at least you can't go wrong with ice cream |
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| exploring the ship by night |
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| there were plenty of Instagrammable photo ops sprinkled around the ship |
the next day we awoke to find ourselves docked at MSC's private island in the Caribbean, Ocean Cay. the cruise offered lots of excursions you could book for special experiences like swimming with stingrays, snorkeling, or a tram tour of the island. I had opted to just explore on our own, bringing our own snorkeling masks with us. it was absolutely gorgeous and the weather was perfect!
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| the water didn't even look real |
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| looking out over the infinity bridge on our walk down to the exit point |
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| view of the adults-only infinity pool at the rear of the ship |
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| shortly after this we stopped into one of the island gift shops to purchase sunglasses for Greta (she hadn't wanted to pack a pair before we left ... I should have insisted!). none of them had price tags or a brand listed, and they looked like fairly standard issue gas station sunglasses. when I took them to the register, they rang up as $125!! the cashier said they all cost that much so... we put them back and I let Greta wear my sunglasses for the day! |
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| this fish cone sort of tasted like a drier version of a twinkie, not the crunchy waffle cone we expected. the key lime ice cream hit the spot though! |
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| this first beach was a shallow cove perfect for little ones |
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| we walked around the island, scoping out the different beaches |
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| Bimini Beach was much rockier but had lots of amazing shells |
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| an "E" shell for Elizabeth |
we had buffet lunch on the island and then came back to the ship to relax for a bit before heading back out to do some snorkeling.
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| the main beach section |
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| well, and, we stopped by the ship buffet for lunch round 2. the pizza was absolutely fabulous. pretty sure Greta ate at least 3 pieces every day. |
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| the desserts looked super cute but didn't always taste the best, on par for our experience with desserts in Italy |
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| I was so excited to see ACE juice in the drink dispenser. this is a classic Italian juice named after its three ingredients: arancia (orange), carota (carrot), and limone (lemon) and pronounced "ah-chay". |
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| back at the beach! |
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| one day shy of 21 weeks |
at one point I told Greta that if we were going to snorkel, we needed to do it soon because there was a scheduled light show at the lighthouse by the ship at 7 PM, and everybody had to be back on board the ship by 8 PM. she paused from her shell collecting and asked me, "am I allowed to just keep playing on the beach?" sweet girl! she later told me she felt bad that I had gone to the trouble to bring the snorkeling masks and we didn't even use them. meanwhile there was nothing I wanted more than for her to just be fully present in the moment. needless to say, we kept perusing the beach for cool shells for the next hour!
around 6 PM, the beach had mostly emptied out, and a couple employees on jet skis zoomed up next to us and told us that the beach was closing (this was the one farthest away from the ship), so we started the walk back towards the ship. lots of people had flocked to the small beach between the ship and the lighthouse, all dressed up to take pictures. we felt a little incongruous in our swim suits but when we spotted a few women snorkeling by the rocks near the walkway, we asked them if there was anything to see and they said yes: lots of fish, some crabs, and a stingray! that spooked Greta and she really didn't want to go far out into the water, but I was determined to have a look. it was amazing for how clear the water is that you really didn't see the fish until you were looking underwater with the snorkel mask -- there were so many, darting in and out from the rocks! I did not see the stingray but there were several black crabs scuttling around the rocks.
I kept waiting for the promised light show (they said there would be one at 7 PM and one at 9 PM). finally at 7:15 some lights appeared on the lighthouse, but it was hard to see with the sunset. we finally boarded the ship again, got showers, and hit up the buffet for dinner. while we were eating, we were able to see the second light show as we glided away from the island. I tried unsuccessfully to take some pictures through the dining room window. in the dark, it was much easier to see but still somewhat underwhelming.
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| Greta got at least two or three compliments every day on her shark shoes. we had to take a picture with another pair we saw on the pool deck |
after dinner, we went to see a comedy show. the same comedian performed two different shows on different nights -- this was the family friendly show, and he was hilarious!
as we were leaving the show around 10:15 PM, suddenly three long blasts sounded on the ship's horn, and an announcement came over the speakers: "man overboard. man overboard. all crew to the assembly stations." we headed back to our room and looked over the balcony where you could see a spotlight scanning the water, but no person to be found.
over the course of the next three hours, they gave periodic updates over the PA system, including that the Coast Guard and other nearby cruise ships were joining the search. the longer that time went on without an announcement of a person safely recovered, the more I feared the worst. the ship kept paging certain passengers by name. Greta and I went to bed, but I couldn't fall asleep, just praying and thinking about what possibly could have happened. finally they announced that they believed it was a false alarm -- after reviewing all of the ship's camera and motion sensors, there was no evidence of a person overboard. to confirm, they were ordering a mandatory count of all passengers and crew. everyone was to return to their cabin to be counted and have their cruise card scanned. they accomplished this remarkably fast, with each cabin steward responsible for counting their own section of the hallway. the all-clear was a huge relief, but of course we wondered for the remainder of the cruise what had happened! I hadn't purchased the wifi package for our ship, but as soon as we got back to the US and I had cell service again, I googled it and discovered that it was a prank pulled by college students on spring break. the two students deemed responsible were held in the ship's jail that night and put off the ship when we docked in Nassau, facing thousands of dollars in fines. obviously, a huge relief that no one was injured or hurt, but what a waste of resources, not to mention the emotional toll on everyone on board.
part two to come!
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