Disney Cruise: Day One

I could hardly put our entire cruise in one post.  I mean honestly, how would that even be possible?  

Need we forget to mention I am a picture fiend.  One of my many faults is actually narrowing down images to share.  So why should I torment myself?  Instead we can take this one day at a time.  Slow and steady...so here we go...day one...

I found everything about the check in process to be smooth sailing.  I had scheduled our check in time online prior to the cruise {like 60 days to be exact at 12:01 midnight on the dot}.  I was fervent in getting the very first time slot available.  I scored with the 10:30 check in and with our hotel only a mere two miles from the port it was super easy.  

Upon arrival we immediately saw our fellow family cruisers, Grandma, Uncle Jon, and Bailee!  And shortly after Minnie made a guest appearance to welcome us.  Loved it!  Poor Clay was in line getting us checked in so he missed the picture op.  But, don't worry he made up for it on the cruise.

Once we were all checked in and received our Key to the World cards we boarded the boat.  Uncle Jon and Jack celebrated the walk over the threshold with great enthusiasm.  But the best part was the crew cheering and announcing, "Welcome Cibula and Dumbacher family".  Now if that doesn't get you excited, what will?

We couldn't get into our rooms or to our luggage until 1:30.  I carried on our pool bag loaded with our suits and sunscreen.  We changed lickity-split fast and were in the pool in a few minutes flat.

This may have been my favorite day.  The place was nearly empty until later in the afternoon with the staggered check in times.  We hung at the Mickey shaped kiddie pool our entire visit.  It was only about 2 feet deep and both girls could easily stand or swim.  It was perfect.

Though the pool was a huge hit with the family, Lucy found herself loving Nemo's Splash Pad.  Maggie decided it gave her a headache {whatever that means} so I did a lot of dividing time.  I can't lie, that was not always easy.

The best part about the early check in was the lack of a line for the Aqua Duck.  I think Jack and Jon were literally the third raft to go down.  They were able to ride it a few times before the line grew.  Clay and I even gave it whirl.  The slide spun around the ship's deck and over the ocean.  Great fun!

I made a point to take the bigs up to the Oceaneer Club for Open House, bathing suits and all.  I wanted them to see where they may potentially be dropped off.  Neither could stand their excitement.  I could hardly get them out of there.

As the cruise wore on, we could barely keep Jack with us.  I kid you not, I set limits on how often he could go, selfishly I wanted him with us.  And I promise he enjoyed every minute with the fam once I peeled him away.

Maggie on the flip side got her fill the first day and rarely asked to go back.  I definitely had that one pegged though.  And since we had Lucy anyway {it was limited to 3 and up}, I didn't mind a bit.

After a fabulous first day {naps included} we prepared for our first dinner night.  The Minnie bubbles and the pre-cruise buckets were a saving grace while Mommy and Daddy got cleaned up.

Our room had a nice deck with a high enough railing that I felt comfortable letting the girls on with supervision.  It was amazing to look out onto the water during the day.  And dreadfully eerie at night...just saying.

The first restaurant on our dinner rotation was the Enchanted Garden.  We chose the early seating and I am so glad we did.  We ate at 5:45 and then went to the show at 8:30.  I only made it through one full show that I didn't have to take an exhausted kid up to bed.  It was all to be expected though with little ones.

Maggie was just as in love with Bailee as she was with the princesses, if not more.  She insisted on sitting next to her at every meal and being glued to her side every opportunity that presented itself.  I must note Bailee is an elementary school teacher and just has a way about her.  I mean, I wanted to sit next to her for goodness sakes.  I think Jon finally hit the jackpot.

The service was great and the food was doable.  I found some meals to much more desirable than others.  But it never failed, desserts every night were most definitely a fan favorite, even for the adults.

We went ahead and celebrated Grandma's August birthday because, why not?  The staff sang to her and gave her her very own Birthday pin.

We followed dinner with the Golden Mickeys show in the Walt Disney Theater.  It was my favorite show of all three nights, maybe because I actually got to see the whole thing.  And upon exiting we couldn't avoid walking past all the shops.

Lucy left with her first souvenir.  It was a tough choice between Minnie and Daisy, but Minnie in her sail attire won out.  But never fear, Grandma went back and bought Daisy for her too.  Both spent every night in Lu's bed.

And Maggie had absolutely no problem making her choice...Elsa, of course.  Which was soon followed by Anna later in the cruise.  Another surprise from Grandma.

We ended day one with a head full of anticipation for the next day.  Our first stop was just around the bend...Nassau.

Seeing Sea World

We are back from our action packed vacation down to the sunshine state and beyond.  We've spent the past couple of days unwinding, unpacking, and sorting through a bazillion photos. 

To say we had an amazing time would be an understatement.  As always, when traveling with little ones,  there were ups and downs.  But, despite working around nap times and a few fevers {ugh, yes it's true!}, we made some fabulous memories. 

We decided to make a pit stop at Sea World before we headed to our cruise departure port.  I figured chances are we won't be making a drive to Orlando just for Sea World in the near future, so why not squeeze it in this trip. 

We left home a day early, spent the night in Orlando, made a visit to Shamu the next day, and then headed on to Port Canaveral for a good night's rest before setting sail on the Disney Dream.

I basically went into the whole Sea World day blindly.  I spent so much time researching and planning our cruise that this day at the park got shoved to the back burner.  However, I did score an amazing deal with Marriott Springhill Suites Sea World.  We got our room {which was plush and roomy}, tickets to Sea World, and "resort guest" passes for one extremely reasonable price.

The guest passes were worth it all.  We got to head to the front of the line for rides and had special reserved seating at the shows.  Priceless.  Not to mention, the hotel was great.  It was located within walking distance from the park {although we took the recommended shuttle}, the staff was super friendly, each child received goodie bags filled with a pile of loot {including a stuffed Shamu}, and the kid themed pool was great with a splash area.  We were sorely disappointed when our time did not lend itself to enjoy it.

We arrived at Sea World nearly at opening time.  It was already sweltering hot, but that's to be expected in July in Orlando.

Within minutes of our arrival Shamu was standing near by and picture ready.  {I'm sure he was cursing the sun under that costume.}  We learned very quickly that Lucy was not fond of costumed characters.  Good to know since we were heading on a cruise filled with Disney characters after all.

One of our favorite rides was the Penguin Expedition.  However, if I had it to do all over again, I may have saved this one for later in the day.  It is seriously 30 degrees in there, if not cooler.  If this tells you anything the snow and ice were real and the staff were wearing snow suits complete with gloves and hats.  No joke.

We lasted a whole three minutes observing penguins after we had disembarked from the ride.

If we weren't freezing we were melting.  We headed to the famous Shamu show next.  Our VIP seating was incredible, as was the heat.  I found the nearest concession stand and stocked up on frozen fruit bars to make it through.

The remainder of the rides and exhibits were very interactive.  It generally started with a ride and/or show and ended with an up close look at the sea life.

My favorite exhibit were the sea turtles and manatees.

Jack must have worn his brave underpants this day because he begged to ride Journey of Atlantis.  I opted out, seeing as how I'm not much of a daredevil, not to mention someone had to hang with the girls.

I had my camera ready for their decent and wouldn't you know that one of those sweet sisters needed something just as the boys came barreling down.  I missed it by a millisecond.  I did however catch this.  Jack is somewhere under that wave.

After drying off and hitting the gift shop {because you know we really needed a souvenir} we shuttled back to the hotel.  From there we grabbed our car and made the hour drive to our hotel in Cape Canaveral.

Mickey was calling our name and we needed a good night's rest before setting sail.

The Big Reveal

The much anticipated surprise vacation of the year is nearly upon us.  I could hardly keep it a secret these past few months.  The anticipation has nearly killed me.

Although, I must admit, Jack had pretty much guessed it.  Either because he has excellent deductive skills or because I've spelled it in front of him one too many times to neighbors and friends {I seem to keep forgetting that trick doesn't work anymore with a reader in the house}.

Regardless, the big reveal day was lived out today.  Excitement is definitely building even if the girls aren't quite sure what exactly they are excited about.  I'm not sure Maggie actually gets it and Lucy has learned if the bigs are wild eyed then something great must be about to happen.

So this morning I let the mouse out of the bag, so to speak.

I have spent months collecting Mickey and Minnie goodies for the kids.  From the Dollar Store to Etsy I've been on the hunt for anything with ears.

Once that was complete, I filled these precious buckets up to the rim and added a note from Mickey himself.

They each have their own personalized autograph book for the cruise, an activity book for the long trip down to the port, and a few other goodies.

But one of my faves are these luggage tags.  I can't wait to adorn their suitcases with these!  Okay...so I must digress the girls were supposed to have Minnie tags and Jack have Mickey.  Somewhere in the ordering process the details got lost in translation.  Oh well, they didn't notice so why should I sulk there is way too much to be excited about.

I imagine you are wondering how I broke the news.  Well, after breakfast, I told the kids today was the day to find out about their mystery vacation.  They were more than willing to listen to the directions I was about to unfold.  I had hidden the buckets around the house.  They had to work together and stay together to collect all three.  Once that was complete, they could go through them at a designated meeting place.

After that they tore through the house and I chased after them with a video camera.  We had great fun.  Jack was the first to figure out the vacation after going through his loot {imagine that}.

All Lucy cared about was getting into those Minnie bubbles.

After checking everything out, we spent the rest of the morning watching the Disney Cruise DVD Mickey and the gang had sent us.  Jack could not get enough and wanted to check out the website too. We found lots of exciting pictures and videos that kept everybody's interest.

Maggie is definitely the most excited about seeing the princesses and Jack can't believe he is leaving the country.  A dream come true for an aspiring explorer.

I think it's fair to say we can hardly wait to set sail.  5 more days...

Bubbles

Just as the weather decided to attempt some unseasonable cool off for the day, we had the Sprayground planned on our summer calendar.  Isn't life funny.  

However, I am mighty happy to say that the dropped temperatures did nothing to deter our wet fun.  As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure my girls noticed.  I can't lie I was watching my car thermostat the entire way there praying for each degree.  Just one more, just one more.  Can you blame me...I was foreseeing a day of whining and shivering.

But once Lucy saw the "bubbles" I knew we were in the clear.  This little gal of mine can bring the party.  I'm telling you her excitement is beyond contagious and I just cannot get enough of her happiness.  Mmmm...I wish I could bottle it up and douse a little of it all around {as you will see later in this post}. 

Maggie, too, was her sweet sunshine self.  My tutu princess has been an absolute pleasure to spend this summer with.  I hope I'm not speaking too soon, but I'm thinking her "challenging" stage came and went in a blink of an eye.  

Excuse me while I go knock on wood.  Actually, bang on it.

Fellow tutu princess, Eliza Kate, was also in attendance with her family.  The girls had a great time reuniting after an entire summer of not seeing one another.  Oh my, I have missed this sweet family.

I'm only hoping we can make up for lost time and the girls will be in the same class next year.  It would certainly make my Mags a happy girl {and her mama too}!

After a lot of bubbles, we dried off at the park for a bit and then enjoyed a picnic lunch in the shade with our friends.  

And in case you've been wondering where this big boy has been, well, that's a whole other blog post.  Jack was dealing with a case of the grumps today.  It happens to the best of us, I suppose.  He snapped out of it, oh, about 10 minutes to departure time.  

I was two for three today in the kiddo department.  And as much as I'd love for them to be, unfortunately everyday can't be perfect.  

But, we certainly ended it with a big splash...

Way to come around big brother!