Baja Mexico Cruise Royal Caribbean - Monarch of the Seas The Baja Mexico Cruise is always a fun get-away... This was a family trip on Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the Seas Aunt Julie was brave enough to join us :) The boys really enjoyed their first cruise... even though the weather was not the best.
Monday, May 19th
Our Ship... 
Unpacking the car at the port of LA in San Pedro 
lots of luggage! 
The boys checking out our ship before we started boarding. 
Let's get on the ship already! 
Julie, Me (Cathy), Jim, Ryan, Shea & Jake 
Just before boarding... 
Just on the ship in the atrium 
Julie took a Family picture! 
Jake with a drink of the day (non alcoholic of course ;) lol)... 
Ryan, Shea & Jake with smoothies by the pool 
Posing by the pool... 
Ready for some fun! 
The view was gorgeous... 
Exploring the ship... (Jake) 
Shea on the sports deck 
"This ship is awesome!" 
Time to see our cabins! Shea begging for the key! 
Jake, Ryan & Shea's cabin #8088 
Cathy & Jim's cabin #8090 
Inside our cabin! Julie surprised us by ordering "Happy Anniversary" decorations for our cabin to help us celebrate our 11th Anniversary :) (thanks so much Julie!) 
Inside the boys adjoining cabin... Julie ordered them "Bon Voyage" decorations! They were so excited! (Julie & Jake looking out the window) 
The boys loved their "own" cabin :) 
More ship exploring... of course we found the casino! lol 
The boys loved spinning the stools and checking out the closed casino... 
Too young for blackjack? 
Schooner bar... taking a break! 
Shuffle Board on deck 7 
Of course we had no idea what we were doing, lol. 
.The windows to our cabins (parents on left/kids on right) 
Ryan & Shea LOVED the floor to ceiling windows! 
Ocean Adventure Kids Club... signed up but never went-lol. 
Arcade in the Kids Club 
Time to swim - the ONLY sun we had the whole trip! 
Shea 
Ryan 
Jake & Ryan 
Jacuzzi time... the ocean water filled pool was COLD! 
Julie & Jim 
Shea & his Mommy 
Lifeboat drill... fun fun fun! The boys were so cute Royal Caribbean's Camera Crew filmed them during the lifeboat drill and they're on the "Cruise in Review" video (Jake falling asleep?) 
Ryan & Shea 
Back to the cabin to test out the beds, lol (Shea) 
Ryan & Jake 
Sail Away Party! 
Julie 
The Carnival Paradise ship in the distance. 
...and the Good Year Blimp, which we drove by earlier parked! 
Sunset from Julie's cabin. 
Dinner time on the first night... Shea LOVED the window view at sunset 
Ryan & Daddy 
Jake & Daddy 
Sisters! (Cathy & Julie) 
Jake eating prawns off of the adult menu. 
Anniversary Cake... 
11 Years and still smiling :) 
awwwww... 
TRYING hard to keep the boys awake during the Welcome Aboard Show in the Sound of Music Theatre. I ended up carrying a sleeping Ryan and a half asleep Shea back to the cabins mid-show. Jim, Julie & Jake stayed and then checked out nearby Kareoke 
Tuesday, May 20th
Jake… sneaking into my bed as soon as I get up lol. 
Good Morning! Ryan & Shea checking out the port of San Diego 
Getting off the ship on our way to Seaport Village 
What a view! 
On the shuttle to Seaport Village 
Riding the carousel… 
Ryan had to have a golden horse. 
Jake wanted the dragon. 
Very cute bear… 
Shopping and exploring in seaport village. 
Looks like a painting! 
Uh… Shea hugging a little too hard. 
lol… Imitating the wooden statues. 
Peek-a-boo! 
Ryan has the funniest personality! 
Bye Seaport Village... 
Back on the Ship… drinks with Jake & Julie in the Viking Crown Lounge… 
While Jim took Ryan & Shea to the Maritime Museum Looking in the torpedo tubes of a Russian Sub. 
Their view of our ship from the Museum 
Top deck of the Russian Sub 
Front of the Pirate’s ship 
Ryan steering the Pirate ship 
Shea steering! 
”Firing” cannons at the RC Ship from the Pirate Ship 
Scary!!!! 
On deck of the Star of India 
Model Boat for the kids to play on 
Star of India Ship 
Formal Night Dinner... The boys picked out their own shirts and ties… Shea was very excited to get to wear a tie! Lol Ryan looking handsome! 
and Jake... 
...and Shea 
In line for pictures. 
The boys with their aunt Julie 
The Smith Family all dressed up : ) 
Formal Pictures… 
The boys with Aunt Julie 
Looking out the window at the white caps… the ship was really rocking! 
Jim at dinner 
Jake 
Shea loved those rolls! 
Ryan 
The little boys with their mommy 
Jake and his daddy 
Shea and his mommy 
Ryan 
Shea 
Jake… he loved the soups! 
Our Head Waiter doing magic tricks for the boys (Assistant Waiter behind him) 
Ryan loved the magic tricks! 
Julie’s fun light up cup (Ryan behind) 
The boys’ towel animal rabbit with Shea’s sunglasses 
The towel animal in mine and Jim’s room. 
Ryan ready for bed... 
Shea ready for bed… 
After the boys went to bed Julie and I went to the ship's casino... I won $700.00 playing video poker!!! : )
Wednesday, May 21st We were scheduled to visit Catalina Island but because of the stormy weather causing rough seas we weren't able to make the port. Instead, we had a very rough day at sea... the ship was rocking so much at times just walking felt like we had too many drinks (before we had any!) The weather was windy and much too cold for a day at the pool. We make the most of it and had a great day anyhow. : )
Shea being goofy at breakfast. 
The buffet was at the front of the ship and the rocking of the ship was the worst in the buffet. 
View from the Viking Crown Lounge... Notice the people at the pool covered up with towels, lol. There was a great BBQ set up on the pool deck too. 
After walking all over the ship exploring… Julie, Jim and the boys taking a break in the atrium. 
My 4 boys 
The boys loved the glass elevators in the atrium. 
Ryan with his mom 
Back up to the Viking Crown Lounge to watch a movie and play cards. 
Shea learned how to play WAR, his new favorite game! Here he is playing with Ryan. 
Shea and I got restless so we decided to go hang out together and do some shopping and exploring. 
Steering the ship? lol 
After shopping with Shea, we stopped at Ben & Jerry’s for some ice cream, his favorite. 
YUMMY! 
Later at the Jade Lounge for MORE afternoon snacks... The ship was rocking a lot and Jake was so nauseous I took him back to our room and away from the big floor to ceiling windows that amplified the horizon going up and down and up and down etc… lol 
Back in the room I was reading and Jake played his DS… then the gang came back and Ryan jumped in the middle of us, : ) 
Back at Julie’s room... Ryan 
Ryan buggin Jake, who was nauseous from the rough seas. Julie took the boys to her cabin on the 3rd deck because the rocking was less noticeable there… (thanks Julie!) 
Back in our cabin... hanging out. 
Jake playing with the nightlight, lol.... 
Jim, Jake and Ryan were playing cards in the library and Shea insisted on swimming in the pool. He didn’t care that it was cold and windy and the pool was filled with OCEAN WATER. He just wanted to swim in the waves that the ships rocking created in the pool! 
I called his bluff and let him put his bathing suit on. 
He lasted about 2 minutes in the pool before he got out with purple lips and begged to take a hot shower! 
Dinner Time Again… Ryan and Shea 
Jim 
Julie 
Jake and Me 
Ryan and Jim 
Me and Jake again 
Shea and Jim 
Ryan and Shea 
Jake took the camera and took a LOT of funny pictures... Ryan coloring. 
Julie and Me 
Eating dessert... 
Julie (or Chewy as Shea calls her-lol) 
Shea having MORE ice cream… 
Our towel animal rabbit… 
The boys got a monkey! 
At midnight there was a Getting the chocolate buffet ready… Ice sculpture 
It’s ALL CHOCOLATE! 
YUM! 
The chefs 
Setting up the buffet 
Fruit scewers 
More chocolate 
FRUIT! 
The boys ready for chocolate at midnight! 
lol 
YUMMY!!! 
Thursday, May 22nd
Getting off the ship in Ensenada 
Inside the tourist shops… 
On our way downtown… I love this picture of the boys with the Mexican flag 
It was a cool, windy day! 
2 more blocks to downtown 
Map of the area 
Underneath the enormous Mexican Flag looking up! 
The base if the flag pole 
It was huge… 
The grates at the base of the flag pole were filled with big cockroaches!!! 
View of our ship :) 
The boys posing for me again! 
...and being goofy! 
Shopping at a kiosk downtown 
The boys were obviously moved by the poverty they saw in Ensenada. They saw many children begging or selling trinkets on the street dirty and shoeless. They wanted to know why they weren’t in school on a Thursday. I think it was a great life lesson learned that day. 
On the way back to the ship we saw a whale… but we weren’t allowed to get any closer. 
Shea back at the tourist shops 
almost back to the ship 
Cervesa anyone? 
Silly Shea... 
Our ship! 
Julie wasn’t excited to venture into downtown Ensenada with us… Just as we were talking about looking for her when we got to the ship Jake looked up …and there she was! In her cabin window waving at us, lol. 
lol 
She took this picture of us from her window on deck 3. 
The boys back in Julie’s cabin checking out the tourists boarding the ship. 
Back to the buffet for some lunch… Ryan and Aunt Julie 
(Jake taking random pictures again…) 
The rest of the afternoon wasn’t exactly pool weather, so we pulled out the video camera and started exploring the ship again… it was day 4 and the boys were starting to get a little wild. Our first stop was the pool bar where Julie, Jim and I felt the need to order some strong drinks. (We were beginning to understand why my mom had a martini every night before dinner, lol.) Since we were video taping, we don’t have pictures of this other than the one below. Ryan in the pool although it was freezing and very windy, lol.
Back by the Jade lounge for the “BBQ” that was there rather than the outside pool deck… Shea bird watching! 
Back to the room, just out of the shower and about to get ready for dinner… 
watching tv... 
Dinnertime! Jake being goofy. 
Ryan & Aunt Julie 
Shea 
Our table (minus Julie) 
Ryan 
Jim and me 
MMmmm, dessert! 
Our favorite bar waiter… 
I told him he reminded me of Eddie Murphy, lol 
The wait staff had fun dancing to “Hot Hot Hot”… a fun cruise tradition on the last night. 
That’s our waiter 
...and our assistant waiter doing the “Macarena” 
Our awesome waiter and assistant waiter 
The boys loved her, especially Shea… 
The boys loved our waiter too... he missed his kids at home : ( 
That night we got swan towel animals... although Jake says it was a snake! Lol 
Shea... YUCK! 
Ryan literally asked me to take this picture and to label it ”Ryan feeling homesick” – lol 
I guess the chocolate on his pillow made him feel better : ) 
Jim went to the casino and I stayed in with the boys we had fun taking pictures! 
The boys playing “war” 
Mine and Jim's cabin… last night getting ready to pack. |
