Schauers Family Cruise Day 7

 Friday March 13, 2026

Our last day was another Sea Day. Sav said this was her favorite day. She hung out with us most of the morning, I love that my babies are just down the hall.  I'm going to miss them when this is over. We had all agreed to meet at Locals for lunch at 11 am and didn't eat breakfast, all sick of the same buffet breakfast. We went to the observation deck to get some tea and Juliette made that a little difficult. Jared whisked me away to watch a trivia which was super boring. He kept being worried about me, I had a far off look in my eyes with the sickness that never quits. Jared had the patience of a Saint on this trip and despite our lack of alone time was always concerned, upbeat, and happy. 

Jared insisted I needed rest so we watched a movie in our stateroom til 11. The lunch together was fun and when Juju's sit-battery expired we took turns walking her around the outside of the pub. Someone left little toy ducks all over the ship and it's fun to find them with her. We decided to meet again at 3:45 at another trivia game and parted ways. I took a nap and W and J watched another movie. S and Juju took a nap and after took her to the wading pools which she loved. Jared took me to the speedway and we waited in line for that. It was admittedly kind of fun, but cost us each $18 to do it. I'm glad we tried it. I slid down the dry slide called the Drop and W, M and J all followed me. It was fun to hear them yell dropping down from deck 18 to 8. 

The super hero trivia at 3:45 was also very boring and Jared took Juliette for a spell while the rest of us split up again. Jared and juju disappeared for 40 minutes! They found a swinging lounge chair and rocked for like 5 minutes and he followed her all over to boat. We all eventually met up again in our stateroom at 4:30. The kids all left to eat at the Indulge.

Dinner this night was Jared and I solo--date night at the Hudson. Our only alone time haha. We enjoyed the food and talking about everything about the trip--so fast, so much work so much fun, miracles and disappointments, new experiences and surprises. I loved it.  I could still taste the food thankfully (my sinuses clogged up the next day and I couldn't taste anything for a while). Jared made me go to Indulge after our nice three course meal and try the naan bread and Indian chicken there, it was good but I was so full after that he had to roll me out of there. 

Fiora watched the baby monitor this night and we all went to the "Prom" concert. Wes like it but S and M left straight away, too loud and obnoxious. I left a bit early myself all that food was rolling in my gut not well and I needed to go to bed. Great last day! Everyone had some kind of adversity on this trip--McKay a sinus infection, Sav and I sick, David a horrible rash allergic to something, Fiora's fractured wrist, Jared slipped his disc again, and Weston missing his girlfriend and feeling the odd one out. Yet everyone was so positive and thankful. Despite the hard work being in mom and grandma mode, I came away amazed at everyone in my family and honored to be part of their family.

The next day was a long travel day. But one more miracle occurred. Sav and McKay ran out of diapers and were going to have to make her wait til they got to the airport to buy more bc on the ship they were $10 a diaper. I walked around the ship a found a family with a little boy and timidly asked if he was in diapers and if they had any spare because my granddaughter ran out. They graciously, happily gave us 3 diapers to get through the day! Wouldn't' let me pay either. We were so thankful. We all disembarked and had different Ubers because of different flights. S and M were flying out of an entirely different airport. F and D stayed in Houston all day and visited the zoo bc their flight wasn't til 11:00 pm! It was a long uber, bad traffic made ours 2.25 hours and Sav, Mckay and Jujus nearly 4 hours, poor things. They had to wait in SLC too because we had a connecting flight in phoenix that was delayed, and they lost McKay's luggage. So we had to stop at Walmart on the way home to get another binky and baby monitor. Juliette endured it amazingly well. We all did. Thankful we all got home safe. 

Schauers Family Cruise Day 6

 Thursday March 12, 2026

Our final stop was Costa Maya Mexico. We had a short port time this day, only 8-12, and they moved the clocks ahead an hour to be on local time so if felt very early getting off the ship. But we pushed it knowing we only had til noon. W, J, M, D and F all left together to rent golf cars and drive around the island and go to Crazy Lobster to get tacos/mexican food. M got a massage for $25! They had a huge plate of nachos and Wes tried a local taco stand. They took great pictures of their adventures.

Sav and H and Juju left a little later, making sure to feed Juju a good breakfast first. I worked out in the fitness center and had already eaten so I was able to help Sav feed little miss. Sav and I were both in good moods considering the sickness we both had, she was very thankful for my help so McKay could go have a fun day. We took our time getting off the boat and to the pool by the port. There were 4 huge cruise ships docked so we were lucky to find a couple chairs by the pool to set our stuff on. BUT, they made us buy drinks in order to rent the chairs--$22 for a pina colada! They were huge but I couldn't finish it. By 9:30 am we were in the pool with Juju, this time no lifeguards kicking us out. The problem was it was salt water and kind of cold. She didn't seem to care for it. So I let Savanna lounge and I followed Juju as she explored the shops and port. We found a different pool a little farther off with a large wading area only 1 foot deep which was warm and Juliette could walk in. She liked that! we stayed there for as long as I dared knowing Sav would wonder where we were. We walked back to let her know where we were, and Sav followed us back to the wading pool and we tried to put her back in. Juju was done exploring that and wanted to walk around the pool not in it, so Sav went back to our original loungers while I followed Juju. I got some bad blisters between my toes walking all over in sand-covered flipflops.

There were people everywhere and it was hard to keep Juju out from under people's feet. She got hungry so we went back to our chairs and I told Sav to go buy tacos while I gave Juju some peanut butter snack. It took Sav a while but she brought back the nicest looking Al Pastor tacos. Sadly Juju was really done by then and wouldn't eat anything on the tacos but kept trying to grab the plates so we had to eat fast and separately. It was a trick keeping her awake on our walk back to the ship, she was really mad at us trying to wake her up in the stroller so I had to carry her and pretend drop her all the way. She slept nearly 2 hours for her nap that day!

My head cold was at its peak and it was all I could do to keep smiling and keep awake when everyone came back on the ship at noon, excited to talk about their funny golf carts and mexican dogs and cats. The cleaners hadn't gotten to our room yet and sadly knocked on the door right when I was able to fall asleep to ask if we wanted the room serviced. Argh. Everyone sensed my frustration, I just stayed in the bed, sleep or no sleep, until 3 while everyone else tried the dry slides. Jared and the kids somehow pulled together and had a little meeting amongst themselves. (i.e. mom's sick lets take over). They decided tonight was formal night and family pictures were happening! They came to my room before dinner, told me to put on my fancy dress and makeup, and Sav curled my hair. The boys cleaned up nicely and my girls were beautiful. We went to the stairs to take family pictures and they turned out so cute! With little to no effort on my part, my greatest desire of our trip was granted! 

We got to the dining room Hudson's before the crowds came and got a big round table with an ocean view and we all took turns helping Juju while we ate our meal. Felt like a miracle occurred how lovely the evening was and how fun everyone was being. Other than my runny nose it was perfect. Even the food was better than mediocre--I got a brie salad with puff pasty, asparagus soup that felt so nice on my sore throat, pecan encrusted turkey medallions and cuscus and kale. And a no sugar added cheesecake. Jared took me to ICONS concert at 7 which was the best show of the cruise. I came back to listen to the monitor while everyone else went out. D,F,and M participated in the male vs female games which were apparantly hilarious. J, W, M and S stayed out late and sung karaoke and had a great time! Best night ever.