I sat up in my bed, feeling the cold January breeze as it passed through the window, feeling the urge to hide under the warm blankets that felt so inviting to me. As I climbed out of bed, the air sent shivers throughout my body. We had a busy day ahead of us, my family and I all grabbed our suitcases, three total, and headed for the airport. It was still early and the sun hadn’t quite fully rose. The dew glistened on the grass from the morning sun, seeping through our shoes into our socks. We shoved our suitcases into the car, and drove off, beginning a two week long vacation.

As we arrived at the airport, we could see we weren’t the only ones with a getaway planned. Families rushed around throughout the building, pulling along suitcases big enough to fit in, along with the odd carriage or two, and searching around for someplace that had “Gate C” or whichever plane they had booked. We found our spot in the check-in line, and waited until we could weigh our bags and send them off, heading off to our designated gate. We took our plane down to Miami, a couple hours of flight, and arrived later that night. Personally, I love planes, but cannot sleep on them at all, but to me, planes signify adventure, the fact that you’re going somewhere new, or far away at least. Luckily it wasn’t an overnight flight, so sleeping wasn’t of any concern. After arriving, we left the airport, taking a taxi to our hotel, and unpacked everything in our room. Since it there was still time, we decided to walk around and check out the nearby shops, and because of the average temperature in Miami, what felt like everyday summer weather to us, felt like a late fall night to the locals.

The next morning, we planned on going down to the beach for the day, we packed some snacks and towels, and walked down to the beach, which luckily happened to be right across the street from our hotel. It was hot out that day, with the heat waves clearly visible, similar to a magic trick with the cars driving in the distance, resembling to drive on what seemed like nothing. We found a spot nearby the water, laying out towels on the fine sand, and walked down to test the waters. My brother and I, considering we were only seven and ten, couldn’t go too far into the water, as the strong waves could drag us in with ease (Which happened to me once, but that’s a story for another time). We stayed at the beach until sunset, then spent the rest of the night by the shops and restaurants. Every building was lit up, full of either locals or tourists, like us; although it was busy, it was still a great experience. We found a restaurant not too far from our hotel, and had a late dinner there. In total, we spent a couple days in the hotel, but the vacation had only just begun.

When the day finally came, we packed everything up, and took another taxi to the cruise terminal, there were lots of people there and line-ups were long. A couple hours later and we had everything ready, we dropped off our suitcases in our room, and waited in the main eating area until everyone was called into the main lobby to discuss safety measures. Once they finished the discussion, we were free to roam the ship, get our bearings. The ship was quite large, with multiple activities to do. Considering it was a cruise aimed towards younger kids, there weren’t many activities an adult could do, though there was a casino near the middle of the ship, and an “adults only” section on one of the sides. For us on the other hand, there was mini golf, giant chess, and a water park with a salt water pool.

We had a few days on sea planned, then about 4 excursions to different places in the Caribbean, and then finishing off with another day on sea to get back to the terminal. With the excursions came activities, such as swimming with stingrays, which to me resembled as flat swimming monsters that could attack me (I was only seven, turning eight on the cruise), which ruined the experience for me, as I instantly returned to the boat for the rest of the activity, something I deeply regret now. As well as swimming with stingrays, I got the chance to try out snorkeling for the first time. Now, snorkeling on an island in the Caribbean is definitely an experience worth trying, the sea life was vibrant, with fish of every colour dashing through the water, hiding underneath coral, and some even swimming practically right beside us. It was hands down the best activity from the whole vacation for me, even with the occasional mouth full of salt water. The other places we visited were more shopping excursions rather than activities, and although they were still a lot of fun, seeing the variety of shops and trying all the different foods, they didn’t bring the same kind of excitement that the activities did.

In total we spent a week on the ship, three days at sea and 4 at the stops. My brother and I spent the last night on the ship without sleeping, and with the plane ride the next day being overnight, I didn’t sleep at all that night either. When we got home, it was about 5am, and being the people we were, we stayed up that whole night, somehow not feeling tired at all, making it three days without sleep. Not the best idea, but it was fun for us; of course the next day it all hit us, and we were tired the whole day. All in all it was an amazing experience, we got to visit parts of the world we had never been to before, and saw places that we had only seen through photos; definitely a vacation well spent.