Birthday in the Caribbean

Our youngest daughter turned 10 during our vacation.  It was the second year in a row that her birthday fell during our vacation.  At first she wasn’t very excited about having to celebrate her birthday away from home….but turns out a Caribbean cruise isn’t too bad a place to celebrate ones birthday. 

She has told me in the past that SOMEDAY, she would like to have an ice skating party.  Um, Ice skating parties in July can be a tad tricky…. unless you are on the worlds largest cruise ship! 

 

Once on board we learned that the ice rink was only open certain days and times…. While it wasn’t open on her birthday, it was going to be available the evening before… so her party got started a little early!

After dinner on Monday we all went to the ice rink. 

The next morning Scott and I decorated our room with balloons and streamers (from Solomon's :-) to surprise her when she woke up in the morning.  She really liked it.

 

Her birthday was on a port day, and it just happened that it was on the port day where our entire group would stay together.  We planned an excursion to USVI National Park (more details on that in another post)…. after a day of snorkeling, swimming, and paddle boarding we returned to the ship. 

Due to the extended day excursion, we didn’t have our normal formal dining plan.  This actually worked out well for the birthday girl, b/c she did NOT want to be sung to by the wait staff.  This girl does not enjoy being the center of attention.  We ate up at the buffet where everyone found something yummy to eat.

 

We did sing her happy birthday in a whisper and then we topped the day off by going to see a ventriloquist show.  The show had us all laughing and was a perfect ending to a fun family day. 

The rest of the week the wait staff at the formal dining room tried to sing happy birthday to her and she always refused.  One night the head waiter performed a magic trick for us and she begged him to tell her how he did it.  He said, “You let me sing Happy Birthday to you and I’ll tell you.”  She shook her head and said, “I want to know, but I don’t want to know THAT bad!”  

It was a truly fun birthday for her.  It was my favorite 24 hours of the entire week.  Even our oldest son said, “Man, it is her birthday, but this was MY favorite day of the entire year!”  She decided it was a great way to celebrate turning double digits… and she’d like to return to a cruise when she moves from double to triple digits on her 100th Birthday!