Yorton Family Vacation

Cruising with the Yortons

So as you may know, the Yorton family loves to cruise. I honestly think it might be something in the Yorton blood. Before Jacob and I got together, I never even thought about going on a cruise. To be completely honest, Titanic scared the ship  out of me. I thought that every cruise ship was going to sink… I know a bit crazy of a thought… especially since a lot of cruises cruise where it is warm and NO icebergs (haha). But then, I went on my first cruise, 16 weeks pregnant with Marley and I had fun!

And I’ve been a cruiser ever since! The fact that this “floating hotel” can take you to different places to experience a snippet of their culture is so much fun for me. Seeing bits and pieces of a country then deciding if I want to come back and see more is totally fine by me. I love that I can spend some time on the beach or go shopping and get different things and experiences at each location. AND we get to go to multiple countries in one trip! I will take it!!

All Inclusive (basically)!

Another great thing about cruising: it is BASICALLY all inclusive. The only thing that isn’t included is drinks. On Carnival, you have the option of juices and coffee or tea with breakfast and then the rest of the day, you can have lemonade, iced tea, hot tea and coffee! We like to stock up on the juices in the morning and put them in our cabin fridge for the kids or for a fun “adult” drink with dinner. Carnival also allows a 750ml bottle of wine for each adult over 21 years old. If you like wine, it is a great deal! Wine on the ship can be pricey but if you can bring a bottle in, that can cut some of your costs!

There is so much FOOD on cruises. And the range of food is wonderful! You can have a hot breakfast buffet, continental breakfast, omelettes, tacos, or pizza for breakfast. And then there is also pizza, burgers, Mongolian, buffet, deli sandwiches, and tacos for lunch or dinner. At specific times during the day, you can also go into the main dining room for a meal! I love all the options! But enough about food.

One of my favorite aspects of cruising is the shows! These shows are high quality! There is singing and dancing! I wanted to get up and sing and dance with them. I did sing all of the songs I knew, very loudly! haha. My favorite show was America Rocks. I love LIVE music and this one had it! Honestly, I am not the biggest rock ‘n roll fan but I LOVE live music!

Carnival Magic

I want to tell you all about our recent trip on the Carnival Magic. This was Jacob’s 10th cruise, my 4th cruise, Marley’s 3rd cruise and Jackson’s 2nd cruise and all on Carnival. Carnival is such a family friendly fleet of ships so we keep coming back. Also, Carnival has wonderful prices! I mean I am 100% sure Disney cruises are worth the big price point but I (personally) would rather go on 2.5 Carnival cruises for the price of one Disney cruise!

This time we had a balcony cabin! Oh My Gosh! I loved it. We were on deck 8 so closer to the food and the fact that we could go out and enjoy the salty air at anytime was great! I drank my morning coffee every morning out on our balcony! It gave me a moment to myself before starting my day!

If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably seen some of my updates! I keep myself motivated while traveling because I always have fitness goals for myself. My goals are number 1 and vacationing is number 2. Meaning, yes I want to enjoy my vacation (and I did) but I will still work hard to make sure I am hitting my goals. Even with the temptation of all the food, I was able to enjoy what I wanted but in moderation!

So Much Fun!!

The kids had so much fun! This is the first cruise where I felt it was very much for the kids. They enjoyed Camp Ocean (the child care area). Both kids LOVED the water slide!! They loved the all you can eat ice cream…. Me, not so much (haha). But the only thing they did not like, getting off the ship. Three of the four ports we stopped at were basically shopping ports and the kids didn’t like the heat and walking from store to store. Shopping is my favorite so I had a blast with that!

We decided to not get off the ship when we got to Puerto Rico because we the two days before were just shopping ports and the kids did NOT want to get off the ship. It was nice to be on the ship with only a few people! This was my first time on a cruise were we stayed on the ship while in port. It was relaxing! We got to go to the water slides, the kids went to Camp Ocean and the lines for food weren’t long! It was a nice day, however, it rained a few times but I’ll take a Caribbean rain over a Wisconsin rain anyday!!!

Only a Few Issues

I will be completely honest with you. There were some small issues on this trip. I had a few instances were my food was cold, which I understand because they are serving 3500 plus people! Room service doesn’t have much for protein options for breakfast except dairy (dairy doesn’t agree with me). And the water slide put a hole in my favorite swimsuit. But it is all good, because, I just ate something else and I had 5 other swimsuits packed!

Overall, we had an amazing time! The kids got their fill of Mac and Cheese and Hotdogs AND ice cream. I got my fill of tiny peanut butter cookies! Jacob got his Chocolate Melting Cake. We all left happy and sad. Happy because we definitely needed that week vacation and sad because we didn’t want to leave the ship!

Until next time Carnival!

Have you been on a cruise? What was your favorite part?