Disney Cruise: Part 3

We had a few days at sea before we got to our first port of call, which was ideal for us. It gave us time to explore the ship and figure out where things were located, as well as unwind after our "holy moly, we have a lot to do" pre-trip push that we experienced.

Our view during an at-sea day

Considering the ship is amazingly huge, we had no difficulty keeping ourselves occupied while at sea. That said, we also found plenty of time to simply relax and take in the joy of doing nothing. I think that is one of the true beauties of being on a 7-day cruise - there's no rush to have every day jammed with activities from the minute your feet hit the floor each morning.

How did we fill our days? Mostly, we swam and enjoyed the water slides, but we also played miniature golf, took in some live shows (Disney shows and an illusionist who was AMAZING), watched movies (both indoors and outdoors), played the Mid-ship Detective Agency game, read books, went to a variety of ship-sponsored activities (including a paper airplane folding event, kids-only baking/science classes, a galley tour, and a mixology class... the last two were without the kids, who were in the Kids' Club doing their own thing), and we lazily watched the ocean roll by.

Our mixology class was organized for our cruise's Facebook group, which meant it was a private class instead of the public mixology classes that were also available. It was really neat to be able to spend in-person time with the people we got to know a bit online. Our class was taught by Katy the bartender, who quickly became a favorite person on the ship. She was personable and made great drinks... what could be better? We learned how to make 5 different drinks... from shaken cocktails to layered shots. YUM!

Katy the bartender

Learning how to make the shaken cocktail: a Captain's MaiTai

Pourin' the rum! (You've GOTTA have RUM in the Caribbean!)

Shake it up baby, now! Shake it up, baby!

Eric layering his shot

We knew the ship had a miniature golf course prior to leaving home, so the kids were amped up to play as soon as they got the chance. I'm pretty sure we picked the windiest opportunity to grab our clubs and give the course a go. Annika and I were frequently blinded by our wildly thrashing hair ... and Eric and I were about strangled by our key lanyards on more than one occasion. All that aside, we had a lot of fun on what is probably the silliest put-putt course we've been to.

Conor getting his game started

Windy putt-putt

Windblown golfers

Nothing like golfing in a wind tunnel 

Whirly hair

Eric lining up to take his last shot of the golf game

The paper airplane event we went to was on a day that proved to be questionable in terms of the weather. We kept sailing through downpours of rain ... the kind of rain that bounces back up at you! So, we opted for more of an indoor day, which included going to bar (yes, we took our kids to a bar.. insert gasps and shocked sounds here) to fold airplanes. The bar was really neat and had a motorcycle complete with sidecar that our kids quickly decided was the coolest thing ever. What cracked up Eric and me was another little kid who started proclaiming, "They forgot to take the gas out! It turns on!" when he touched some button or lever on the motorcycle and a recorded revving sound played.

Annika and Conor on a grand ride

Vrooom!

During one of our walks around the ship (Conor and I snuck out one morning so Annika and Eric could get a little more shut eye), we walked the entire perimeter of the ship. Along the way, we almost got run over by a few hard-core joggers, "played" shuffleboard, and stopped for a little nosh to fill our bellies.

Conor on our morning jaunt

It's tricky when the shuffleboard equipment is twice as tall as you are

Conor getting the hang of shuffleboard (using Conor rules, naturally)

Must ... refuel ... after ... walk ... and .. shuffleboard

Before we left for the trip, I read that a "must do" thing was get up in time to watch the sun rise. So, that I did. Again, I snuck my camera and Conor (our little early riser) out of the cabin so Annika could get some extra sleep (by this time, she was fighting off a nasty cold). On the open ocean, it is really tricky to know which way was East. Fortunately, we crossed paths with another person with a camera and we followed him. After I

Rising sun

Good morning!

Hello, beautiful sunshine

Soon after rising, the sun hid behind a cloud layer

Almost immediately after we watched the sun rise, the skies opened up and dumped
an insane amount of rain on us. Good thing we're from Seattle and wet weather doesn't scare us off.
I protected the camera and Conor ... he, in turn, protected his cup of hot cocoa

Disney Cruise: Part 2

The day after we arrived in Orlando, we were up and at 'em rather early (once again) ... especially considering we were working on a 3 hour time zone change! In order to have our luggage transferred from our hotel room to the Disney ship, we needed to be 100% packed and ready to go by 8:30 AM, so we were... in all of our sleep-deprived glory. (Our hotel room had 2 double beds and the kids proved very early on that they were too wound up to sleep in the same bed, so Eric and I each took a flying wild dervish of arms and legs child. At one point, Eric said he had half of Annika across his head... yeah, that makes for sound sleep! ;)

Regardless of being tired, we were pretty darned jazzed knowing that our long-awaited cruise was so close to getting under way. We knew that we wanted to be on one of the first Disney buses from the airport to the cruise terminal so we could get as much time on the ship as possible. Fortunately, we were able to get on the first bus. Way to go, us!

Along the way, we got an extra treat of seeing (way off in the distance) the NASA building that is next to the shuttle launch  pad. My inner geek shone through when I almost teared up seeing the outline of the building.

NASA building (far right)

Soon after we passed the NASA building, the Fantasy started to come into view just over the horizon. People applauded and the anticipation was practically tangible. Kids and adults alike started craning their necks for better views of the ship and, before much longer, we were at the terminal ready to go through security, get checked in, and wait for our boarding group's number to be called. 

First views of the ship

Hello, Fantasy!
(Our cabin has the 1st and 2nd portholes bottom, left-hand side)

While we waited to board the ship, a few of the Disney characters were made available for photo opportunities. The first character was Pluto, who Annika and Conor met and were photographed with right in front of an incredible scale model of the cruise ship.

One of the really neat parts about waiting for the green light to board the ship was meeting some of the people from our cruise's Facebook group ... especially the family we were going to dine with each night. In some ways, it was like reuniting with old friends, but still so new all at the same time.

I give a lot of kudos to Disney. They know how to keep things moving along while keeping their customers happy. MAJOR props!

The kids and Pluto before boarding

Before we knew it, we were standing at the entry to the ship's atrium and having our name announced. Yes, EACH family is announced upon boarding the ship for the first time and greeted with clapping Disney employees. Talk about a red carpet feeling!

As soon as we were on board, it was hard not to be impressed with the grandeur of the ship. The stained glass chandelier in the atrium, alone, is enough to stop you in your tracks.

Chandelier in the atrium

We knew ahead of time the the cabins wouldn't be ready until 1:30 and were prepared with swim gear in our carry-ons so we could start enjoying the ship's features sooner rather than later. After a quick lunch from one of the buffet options (Cabanas), we donned our swim gear and got to work relaxing and playing in the pools and on the ship's water slides. The AquaDuck is the larger water slide that goes around much of the ship's perimeter and even goes out over the side of the ship. The Mickey slide is much smaller and is for children only. The AquaDuck quickly became a favorite attraction for our family and we rode it countless times over the course of our time on the ship.

The Mickey pool

The movie screen above the Donald pool

Conor enjoying his dip in the pool

Eric and Annika on the AquaDuck

Underwater Conor

Annika on the Mickey slide

Conor on the Mickey slide

Conor coming in for a landing

Splash

Around 1:30, Eric headed to our room to see if it was ready while I kept an eye on the kids in the pools. Eventually, he made his way back to us and after a bit more water fun, all four of us wound our way to our new home for the week.

I was impressed with how spacious our room was and, as the week progressed, grateful that we had a bit more room than others to spread out a bit. One of the hurdles we had to work through was teaching the kids that they needed "quiet feet" all of the time. With the ship being mostly made out of metal, it was very easy to hear the footsteps of those around us and we didn't want our kids to disturb any of the other passengers. Our cabin had two very large portholes, which were perfect for watching the sea go by, reading, resting, and enjoying a little bit of tranquility.

Eric taking in the view from one of our portholes

Annika's new favorite resting spot

Conor enjoying the porthole after his swimming escades

After we got settled in and showered, we made our way to the Sail Away party, which is a way for the Disney cast to welcome everyone to the ship and up everyone's already through-the-roof excitement levels. Considering how painfully hot it was, we gave extra props to the dancers in the character costumes... they must have been practically passing out in there! 

Sail Away Party

Sail Away Party

Sail Away Party

Sail Away Party

During the Sail Away party, we heard the ship's loud horn and felt the first sensations of motion as the ship departed from port and started us on our at-sea adventure.

Bye-bye Port Canaveral

After the party wrapped up, we returned to our cabin in hopes that our luggage would be waiting for us. Over the next hour, all of our piece trickled in (woo hoo!) which allowed us to change into our dinner clothes (talk about a change from our every-day life... here we were dressing for dinner!)

Our dinner companions were the Colvin family, who we met on Facebook and are so glad we did. Sara, the mom, posted online that they had a little boy who was turning 5 during the cruise and wondered if anyone had kids about the same age and would be interested in sharing a dinner table with them. With Conor being on the more shy side, I thought that sounded ideal, so I raised my hand. Our boys send a couple of video clips of themselves to each other before the trip, so they had an idea of who the other was. Holy moly! Talk about to peas in a pod! Jackson and Conor were practically personality twins separated at birth. They had a marvelous time together... not only at our nightly dinners but at play when we happened to cross paths at the pools. Instant buddies, for sure! Jackson became a bit of a celebrity for our kids... each night, they wanted to be the person to sit next to him. Fortunately, we were at big tables and for the most part, both kids were able to sit with him each night. 

Jackson, Annika, and Conor on formal night

It's an Annika sandwich!

Disney Cruise: Part 1

  

About a year ago, Eric and I started planning a big trip for our family... a Disney cruise. After a lot of research and consulting with our calendar, we decided on booking a trip on the Disney Fantasy to the Eastern Caribbean for February 2015.

When the planning truly got underway, the trip seemed sooooo far away. We opted to not tell the kids about it until MUCH closer to our departure date in order to keep them from going crazy waiting (and driving us crazy waiting). We told the kids about 3 weeks before we left by having a letter from Mickey Mouse arrive at our house. In the letter, Mickey invited the kids to join him and some of his friends on the ship. Being the rock star parents that we are, Eric and I told the kids it would be OK to accept Mickey's invitation.

Our trip started off VERY early on February 6th, the day before the ship was scheduled to depart. We had an 8 AM flight out of SeaTac to Orlando, which meant getting up a bit before 5 and being on the road by 5: 30 AM. After dropping the car off at the park-n-fly lot, we made our way through check in and security... fortunately, all went smoothly and we were fairly quickly grabbing a little breakfast before heading to our gate.

The flight to Orlando was long, but painless. The kids did really well keeping themselves entertained thanks to their tablets, coloring books, dollar store activities, and trips to the bathroom.

Eric and Annika en route to the gate

Conor, the world traveler

Getting ready for takeoff

My wee traveling companions

 After 5-ish hours, we were on the ground... tired, but at least we made it! And, fortunately, so did our luggage!

Waiting for Daddy to collect the luggage

When planning our trip, Eric and I opted to book a room in the airport hotel and it was the smartest move we could have made. Once we had our suitcases in hand, we eventually found the hotel (Orlando's airport signage could use a lot of improvements, let's just say) and got settled in our room. We put our feet up for a few minutes and then fulfilled our promise of taking the kids to the hotel pool. It was obvious that we were from a cooler climate, because we were the only ones even near the pool. It was windy and a bit chilly, but not bad for us northerners. Once the sun set, we knew it was time to wrap up our swim and find a little grub before bed and another early day.

Orlando happy hour (best husband EVER)

On our way to and from dinner in the airport food court, we passed by a Disney store that had a few statues... aka photo ops. The kids were highly impressed with them and probably would have taken them home if we'd given them the green light to do so. Personally, I found the Snow White a bit creepy, but that didn't deter our munchkins from thinking she was divine.

Annika,Mickey, and Conor

High fiving Mickey

Conor, Snow White, andAnnika

Goofy, Annika, and Conor

Conor and Mickey