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The Adventures of a Twin Mom

Motherhood and Travel Blog

August 7, 2017

Jamaica

Earlier this summer, I surprised my husband for his 30th birthday with a short trip to Jamaica!  We had the best time and it was so nice to relax for a few days.  Special thanks to my parents for watching our infant twins and 2 furbabies while we were gone!

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We stayed at the Grand Palladium Jamaica Resort and Spa in Montego Bay. This was our 5th all-inclusive and it was one of our favorites! I HIGHLY recommend this resort.  The resort is the biggest in Jamaica and the main pool is to die for.  There are 7 restaurants and 3 buffets, tons and tons of bars, several pools and different beaches, and endless outdoor activities to choose from.

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This post is shorter than my other travel posts because we didn’t do our “normal crazy” adventures…

Our trip consisted of sleeping…

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 Eating….

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 Drinking…

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Give me all the banana coladas!IMG_4113IMG_4048

 Hanging out by the beach…

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Hanging out by the pool…

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Reading and chatting in these private coves…

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And did I mention eating? 😉

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It was perfection and just what these new twin parents needed…relaxation!

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Traveling (and this guy) make my heart happy! I’m already looking forward to our next adventure!

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January 19, 2015

Southern Caribbean Cruise

Here is Part 2/2 about our most recent vacation.
We went on a 7 night cruise through the southern Caribbean (Carnival Valor was the cruise boat). Here are the ports we visited and my opinions about the ports/our activities:
1. San Juan- Our cruise left from San Juan and returned here. We arrived a couple days early and stayed in Old San Juan. It  reminded me of Europe with a Caribbean flare.

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After the cruise we stayed a couple more days in San Juan at the Caribe Hilton. This resort was right on the beach. The resort was beautiful! We enjoyed this section of San Juan better than Old San Juan. This was a great way to finish our trip!

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2. St. Lucia- What a beautiful island! We’ve always wanted to go here and actually looked for our honeymoon but there wasn’t enough to do for 2 weeks on this island for us. This port is actually why we selected this particular cruise. We took an island tour through James Touring so we could see all the beautiful spots on the island. We were not disappointed. If you go to St. Lucia, take an island tour because the island is large and a taxi to get to the pitons costs more than a tour.

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3. Barbados-This was our favorite day! We went swimming with the turtles with a company called Calabaza Sailing Cruises. They picked us up at the cruise port and it was a five minute drive to a beautiful catamaran. There were about 8-10 people on our boat and then 3 staff members (who were incredible_.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAIt was 2 weeks before Christmas so the crew wore Santa hats 🙂

Then we arrived at the site to swim with turtles! A guide was always with us while we were swimming with the turtles to ensure we were safe and to take pictures. They emailed us the pictures (for free) a few days later and they turned out amazing! See below.

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This was one of the coolest things we have ever done! Later in the day we went snorkeling over an old abandoned ship and then had a delicious lunch.

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It was an incredibly fun and relaxing day! If you ever go to Barbados, make sure you do this excursion! It was worth every penny.

4. St. Kitts- we weren’t too excited to go here because we couldn’t find much to do on TripAdvisor. We were in for a surprise, this island was BEAUTIFUL!!!! We took a taxi to Carambola Beach Club on South Friar’s Bay. This beach club is a really nice restaurant right on the beach. They have chairs and umbrellas that you can rent for the day. This is the prettiest beach in St. Kitts and the club had the nicest amenities.

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We rented two chairs and an umbrella for the day and couldn’t have had a more relaxing day on this beautiful beach!

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5. St. Maarten- We did an excursion through Viator at St. Maarten. The shuttle picked us up and went to Orient Beach for a couple hours. Little did we know this was a nude beach! We didn’t participate but we were very entertained to say the least. 😉

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The shuttle then took us to Maho Beach and my husband was in heaven! Judd works in the aviation career field and boy was he in his element at this beach! Maho Beach is right next to the runway at the St. Maarten Airport. You’ve probably seen this beach on TV before… it’s the beach where planes fly directly over you (looks as if the plane is going to hit you).

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6. St. Thomas-This is a very pretty island. At this port we went zip lining. We had a blast and the views were beautiful!

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We then went to the world’s largest ice bar. The whole bar/inside is made of ice. They give you a coat, gloves, and leg warmers. I am glad we went, it was something different but it’s not something I will do again. After about 20-30 minutes in the bar, you will be ready to leave.

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We had an incredible vacation! I will be blogging about traveling quite often this year…we are going to 12 countries within 3 continents.

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January 2, 2015

Learn to Love Cruising

Hey there!

I decided to write my first blog post about something I have a BIG passion for… traveling. I was lucky to grow up with a family who went on vacation every summer and usually took another one or two trips a year, I saw a lot as a child. Thanks Mom and Dad!  BUT my real passion for traveling started in college when I studied abroad in Europe. I loved seeing all the different cultures, I was completely mesmerized.  Here we are 5 years later and my passion hasn’t changed and luckily I married a guy who shares the same passion. We make a great team because he throws crazy ideas at me and I make them happen. He’s the spontaneous one with ideas and I’m the planner in the relationship.

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Enough about that… Now let’s talk about our most recent trip. This post is going to be about cruise suggestions and tips… The next post will be about the islands we visited.
We are normally not huge cruise fans! Judd and I have been on 3 cruises together in less than 2 years (soon to be 4) although I’ve been on others without him.   We often choose cruises as our vacation or as part of our vacations (1 week cruise followed by 1 week of running around Europe) because you get to see so much in a short amount of time.  We are not the type of cruisers who LOVE cruising and don’t care about the ports.  We choose cruises for the ports. The best part of cruising is you get to travel while you sleep and you don’t have to pack and unpack after visiting a new location! I love waking up in a new city/country. However, we REALLY REALLY REALLY hate dealing with all of the people. I mean this. We like keeping to ourselves and being left alone. We discussed this before and decided to change things up on our last cruise to see if it made a difference to our experience. I’m so glad we did because it made a HUGE difference!

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Tips we learned:
1. Splurge for the balcony room, it’s worth it! We spent so much time on the balcony. It was amazing to open the curtains first thing in the morning and see the beautiful views at the new city/country.  Pick a room on the left side of the ship!  We just accidentally chose this, it almost always has the better views.

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2. Get room service in the morning! I am not a morning person and I do not like breakfast. There is nothing worse than fighting to get a place in a buffet line for average/bland breakfast food. (Adults acting like they’ve never seen a buffet before are quite annoying). We would order room service the night before and tell them what time we wanted breakfast delivered. They would bring exactly what we wanted. We’d give them a tip and then we’d eat breakfast on our balcony in our PAJAMAS. It was perfect and so relaxing!

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3. The excursions/what you do make your trip! I heard so many people say they didn’t like a port. I asked what they did and they said walked around the shops on the port or the closest beach. You cannot experience the island this way! Those are tourist traps. For each location I looked on TripAdvisor (my favorite website ever) and researched every possible thing there was to do on the island. I looked at reviews and then picked what I thought we would like the best and/or what would give us a good feel about the island.

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4. Buy pop/water/snacks! You can bring 12 bottles or cans of pop onto most cruise ships. However, what they don’t tell you is this is every time you come on. We boarded the cruise at 2:00 and the ship didn’t leave until 8:00, so, we found a Walgreens a block away and made 2 trips back and forth to the room! We had enough water and pop to last us the entire week. Have the room steward clean out the fridge so you can put all of your items in it.
5. Random things to pack that can be life savers: magnets (to hold shower curtain in place as the boat moves), hand soap for your bathroom (we hate the bars of soap they provide), hand sanitizer (everyone is touching the same things at the buffet), alarm clock, and a watch (tell what the time is at ports).

6. If your cruise has this option, choose My Time Dining!  Some of the cruise lines we’ve been on such as Costa doesn’t offer this.  But this allows you to choose what time to go eat.  This is perfect in case you had a really busy day and want to nap before dinner or if you are hungry really early.  Just go to the dining room when you’re ready to eat. DSC01443
7. This next tip sounds like common sense but it’s important to remember. The cruises are trying to make money in any possible way they can. There will be a lot of things on the itinerary such as free Detox clinic or massage lessons… don’t go, they are just trying to get you to buy a product or service.
8. Most cruise lines play movies on the main deck at night.  GO! Something about watching movies outside under the stars in the middle of the ocean is amazing.

9. The ice cream and yogurt machines are open 24/7 and they are delicious!  We always joke that we paid thousands of dollars to go on vacation for unlimited ice cream.

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I also found this list that’s very handy: http://www.dcfagowees.com/usefulinfo/Cruise_tips.pdf Thanks to the D.C. Fagowee Ski and Social Club for this packet! I’m not even sure how I ended up finding this but it’s very helpful!

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Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need any suggestions on traveling! 🙂

Part II coming soon!

Love,

Bri

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Hi! I'm Brianna! I'm a wife, mom of twin toddlers, a blogger, and a world traveler. Welcome to a small piece of our perfect chaos!

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This is 4! We celebrated Camden and Ella’s birth This is 4! We celebrated Camden and Ella’s birthday last week with a FOURever Sweet/Candy Land themed party. Sharing all the details on today’s blog post (link in profile).
Happy 4th Birthday, Camden and Ella!! These past 4 Happy 4th Birthday, Camden and Ella!! These past 4 years have flown by.  I’m so proud of the little humans you are becoming! We love you across the ocean and back!
Water-bugs just like their mama! 👩‍👧‍👦Going through our photos from our trip to @greatwolflodge. I miss it already! #GreatWolfLodge #Hosted #PawPledge
Is there anything cuter than a baby wolf? Yep, twi Is there anything cuter than a baby wolf? Yep, twin baby wolves! 🐺🐺 We had the best couple of days at @GreatWolfLodge! Camden asked if we could move here. #iwish I’ll work on a blog post when I get home with more trip details. #hosted  #GreatWolfLodge #PawPledge
Splashing the day away with my favorites! We’re Splashing the day away with my favorites! We’re having the best time at @GreatWolfLodge! We come here every winter to escape the winter blues for a few days. You can follow along in my stories. #hosted  #GreatWolfLodge #PawPledge
Don't let this picture fool you, renovation with y Don't let this picture fool you, renovation with young kids is no joke! However,  @sharkcleaning has made it so much easier to keep up with the dust and chaos. #SponsoredByShark The new Shark® Wandvac™ System does it all...this powerful vacuum can go from a stick vacuum to extended lightweight wand-to-hand vacuum! Plus, it has an awesome docking station, it doesn’t need to be hidden in a closet. Visit SharkClean.com to purchase the new Shark® Wandvac™ System.

 #SharkWandVac #SharkCordlesssVacuum
Twinning Tuesday with my best girl! The adorable a Twinning Tuesday with my best girl! The adorable and comfortable outfits we're wearing are from @moodytigerofficial You can use: Mom15 to get an extra 15% off!  #moodytiger #moodytigeractivewear #kidsactivewear  #moodytigerleggings
Mermaid hair don't care. 🧜🏼‍♀️💁🏻 Mermaid hair don't care. 🧜🏼‍♀️💁🏻‍♀️ I am loving my new beach waves that I get from using @bondiboost Wave Wand.  I'm hair challenged and it's 3x large barrels are SO easy to create these beach waves and their Heat Protect Spray helps reduce future damage from heat.  Head to my stories to see how this works! I promise, if I can do this to my hair then you can! #BoostYourRoots #BondiBoost
They picked out their outfits and are quite proud. They picked out their outfits and are quite proud. 🥰

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This is 4! We celebrated Camden and Ella’s birth This is 4! We celebrated Camden and Ella’s birthday last week with a FOURever Sweet/Candy Land themed party. Sharing all the details on today’s blog post (link in profile).
Happy 4th Birthday, Camden and Ella!! These past 4 Happy 4th Birthday, Camden and Ella!! These past 4 years have flown by.  I’m so proud of the little humans you are becoming! We love you across the ocean and back!
Water-bugs just like their mama! 👩‍👧‍👦Going through our photos from our trip to @greatwolflodge. I miss it already! #GreatWolfLodge #Hosted #PawPledge
Is there anything cuter than a baby wolf? Yep, twi Is there anything cuter than a baby wolf? Yep, twin baby wolves! 🐺🐺 We had the best couple of days at @GreatWolfLodge! Camden asked if we could move here. #iwish I’ll work on a blog post when I get home with more trip details. #hosted  #GreatWolfLodge #PawPledge
Splashing the day away with my favorites! We’re Splashing the day away with my favorites! We’re having the best time at @GreatWolfLodge! We come here every winter to escape the winter blues for a few days. You can follow along in my stories. #hosted  #GreatWolfLodge #PawPledge
Don't let this picture fool you, renovation with y Don't let this picture fool you, renovation with young kids is no joke! However,  @sharkcleaning has made it so much easier to keep up with the dust and chaos. #SponsoredByShark The new Shark® Wandvac™ System does it all...this powerful vacuum can go from a stick vacuum to extended lightweight wand-to-hand vacuum! Plus, it has an awesome docking station, it doesn’t need to be hidden in a closet. Visit SharkClean.com to purchase the new Shark® Wandvac™ System.

 #SharkWandVac #SharkCordlesssVacuum
Twinning Tuesday with my best girl! The adorable a Twinning Tuesday with my best girl! The adorable and comfortable outfits we're wearing are from @moodytigerofficial You can use: Mom15 to get an extra 15% off!  #moodytiger #moodytigeractivewear #kidsactivewear  #moodytigerleggings
Mermaid hair don't care. 🧜🏼‍♀️💁🏻 Mermaid hair don't care. 🧜🏼‍♀️💁🏻‍♀️ I am loving my new beach waves that I get from using @bondiboost Wave Wand.  I'm hair challenged and it's 3x large barrels are SO easy to create these beach waves and their Heat Protect Spray helps reduce future damage from heat.  Head to my stories to see how this works! I promise, if I can do this to my hair then you can! #BoostYourRoots #BondiBoost

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