Family Cruise

In March, my Dad died. Not totally unexpected, but we didn't think it would happen so soon. A month or so later, my Mom told me she was going to cash out my Dad's retirement savings. They had saved religiously, expecting a long life, perhaps needing a care home. Since that didn't happen, this money was extra and tax-wise, better off in our accounts than waiting until she died too. We had some ideas for this "bonus" money. Rob has always talked if he got an inheritance, he'd top up our RSPs. When you actually get the money, it's a different story. Mom thought we'd put it towards a new vehicle. I'm not ready to give up my truck though LOL and I didn't want to put the gifted money towards something we'd be doing anyway, and I didn't want to put it towards something that would just end up rusting away at some point. I thought of taking mom on a cruise. I didn't say anything though, but one day, Rob suggested it, and I was ready to take off planning! I think I already had done some looking LOL.

We visited my mom one weekend and watched some YouTube videos on her cool "smart" TV...secretly researching what interested her. No San Juan, LOL. Rob wanted a new ship, no San Juan, Coco Cay instead of Labadee. The girls said they couldn't miss the first week of school/second semester (we weren't telling them but just "asking"). I looked at early February (Mom's birthday month) and mid-September. February was expensive. I contacted our travel agent, who unfortunately couldn't take us on at the moment and passed us on to her co-worker. We got prices and itineraries and it came down to Sept 14 on Symphony of the Seas out of Miami. I chose an inside for Rob and I, and a balcony guarantee for "the girls" (Mom and our two girls). I didn't tell Rob we'd fly on Friday, Sept 13. He once nixed a cruise just for that reason.

I didn't want to tell Mom until close to the date. Rob wanted to tell her everything right.now. We compromised and said we'd tell her we're taking her away, but not how or where. A skating mom friend is a stamping consultant (like Tupperware, or essential oils, or Scentsy). She was having an open house, so Rob and I went to see if she had any cards, or could make one. She's a flamingo freak so we thought that would be appropriate.

 It was blank on the inside and I asked if she had a stamp for like a party invite (Place/Time/RSVP etc). She didn't but suggested printing something from online. Oh yah!

I was talking to Mom just before Father's Day weekend and she mentioned she knew it would be a hard weekend. Bingo. We headed on up. It took until Sunday for the "time to be right". She was so excited!! But it was still secret from the girls!

We had to figure out what to do with Skippy. Normally when we go away, he goes to my parents. They have a tenant on their property who has sort of adopted their dog (the dog has a lot of anxiety and my parents were away alot for my Dad's treatments). After touring kennels of all different styles, and chatting with people who dog sit in their home, and then finding out at the end of the summer that our old babysitter (daughter of our regular travel agent) does house/pet sitting, we opted to leave Skippy with my Mom's tenant. They're good to the dogs, he's used to being there.

In early August, my sister-in-law died suddenly. She had a genetic disorder and had been on dialysis for 7 years, with many periods of very poor health but had always bounced back. Not this time. My brother had taken his dog (brother to Mom's and ours) to Mom's because he was spending all his time at the hospital (or part time job) and the dog needed more attention as his health was being affected. A week after my SIL died, the dog went for a walk and was hit by a motorcyclist on the highway.  This has not been a good year.

Rob really wanted to tell Mom what our trip was. I agreed to start sending her clues--she was feeling horrible and needed some cheering up. We figured she assumed it was a cruise but I wouldn't say anything. I told her that instead of checking a suitcase we might go to a K-Mart to buy supplies once we get there. She paused and her mouth gaped "You mean we're NOT going on a cruise?!" LOL. No answer! I sent her a screenshot of the map showing K-Mart:

I wondered if she'd try looking up K-Mart locations based on the few street names there. I also sent her this picture:

I didn't tell her it was Miami, but I think Rob mentioned it. She thought maybe we were going to our dentist's condo LOL.

I decided to send her some photos of possible activities:

When we saw my Mom before the funeral, she mentioned we were going to Australia to see kangaroos! No! The girls heard it and it was phrased in a way that indicated we actually were going on a trip. We had suspicions that they knew--Megan had very detailed questions and knowledge about the itinerary and ship.

The day of my SIL's funeral was my other SIL's birthday, and my Mom and Dad's anniversary was two days later. The day after the funeral Rob and I headed over to my SIL's where Mom stayed for the funeral. I wanted to take her a little gift for her anniversary, and I finally relented and agreed to tell her it was a cruise. I found a Royal Caribbean fanny bag in the cupboard and took that.

We went to my brother's house and they admitted to using Google/Alexa to find out where that K-Mart was! So they knew Miami. I knew I had to be smart with future clues! We gave Mom the fanny bag and she says "So it IS on a boat!"  No Mom, it's on a SHIP! Lesson #1!

The next week  I sent her a vague outline of the itinerary and some excursion ideas, including hints such as "Place we've never been". She was also worried about hurricanes and I said they don't usually affect where we're going at this time of year. She was thinking Mexico but I wouldn't comment.

That was all I would reveal. I sent her a video with a message to watch at a certain point, to see how this woman dresses for a formal dinner. It just so happened that it was our ship, but I was hoping she wouldn't watch more of the video. Of course, she did. She commented on how large, crowded and noisey it was. Uh oh!

When to tell the girls? We took Hugh back to Kingston, and told them on the way home! And indeed...they both knew already! Back in May, Megan had gone to our emails to get something about art camp. She saw the email about our booking being confirmed. It was strange it went to that email because all the emails with the travel agent were to/from my yahoo mail. And then one day Rob left a window open on the computer, logged into our Royal account. I had recently messaged Lucy's BFF to see if she would do Lucy's papers. I didn't realize they were together, and her friend started reading the message out loud before reading it to herself! I didn't give a lot of details, just the dates. Oh well. Lucy was much better at keeping it secret that she knew about the secret.

So much to do in the last two weeks, now that the girls knew. Bathing suit shopping with Megan, getting suitcases, etc.