Disney Cruise: Day Two

Plugging away at this trip... trying hard to finish this off!

Monday morning we woke up on the boat and headed to breakfast.  The food on this trip did not disappoint!

As we were walking back to our room, Andy spotted Minnie Mouse and we had to go say hi!

 The boys were excited in the elevator back to the room-- they hugged it out!

The boat docked in Nassau on this day-- we opted to stay on the boat and play.  The only downside to the boat is the pools are small-- very small! We played in the pools for a while and in the Finding Nemo splash pad-- I was very much in the moment with the family and did not have my camera on me...BUT, I am so wishing I got one picture of their faces as they went down the slide in the splash pad! They were both grinning ear to ear loving it!

After much play, Andy requested rest time.  Seriously.  He asked to go to the room to rest. Cal decided he was tired too-- we were going to let him go to kids club, but he said he needed to rest too....! Eddie got off the boat for a quick errand and I put Andy down and snuggled with Cal who fell sound asleep on me!

We had to wake the kids up for our 5:45 dinner reservation-- we thought they would be good to go late night so we could see a show maybe.....? Nope.  They were back asleep by 8! These trips are exhausting!

On the way to dinner, we spotted Daisy-- actually, Andy was always the one doing the spotting-- and he would scream it out when he saw a character!

Before the trip, whenever you asked Andy who he wanted to see, he said every single time "I wanna see Cinder-wella." When we were at Disney World and saw the castle, he asked me about a million and fifty-two times "where Cinder-wella? She here?" It was so so sweet.

So when he spotted her as we were walking to dinner, we HAD to go see her! Andy froze.  Literally froze.  His grip tightened.  I walked him out to her and he just stared- no smiling, no talking, no crying.  Just staring.  Cal was all smiley and happy!

 Eddie got this picture of Andy looking at her when she signed the autograph books- how classic is this face? hahaha! He was in awe!

We walked away and he goes "Mommy! That was Cinder-wellaaaaaa!!!!!" It was awesome- so sweet and innocent!

That night at dinner, Andy requested a few extra cherries for his "special drink." Our sweet waiter brought him an entire bowl-- and he ate them all right up!

After dinner we headed up to the ice cream station where they devoured some yummy cones.  This was a mid-day and nightly ritual.  

Clearly, the ice cream made everyone so happy.

Since the boys napped, we took the kids to Kids Club so we could go explore the adult side of the boat.  My first stop- Pink, the champagne bar! I mean-- it's like this bar was made for me!!! I had to take a picture there for the friend who told me I had to try it (hi, Virginia!).  

This quote was on the menu and I thought it was perfect!

And this was the light fixture over the bar-- a bunch of lights in different shades of pink...

A quick word about kids club... it is amazing.  Honestly- it is better than anything you can imagine.  They check your kids in with these gps bracelets and then they are free to play.  They do these science experiments and they have dance parties and computer games and interactive activities and on and on and on.  If you have them in there during a meal, they feed them.  We did not use the kids club nearly as often as we should have.  The boys LOVED it.  Love love love love. The workers in there were adorable and energetic and super friendly.  I can not rave on enough about this!

When your kids are in kids club, you carry around this little phone thing for them to reach you if your kids need you.  We got a text the first night after they were there less than an hour: "Steven would like to be picked up now! Thanks!" So we hauled tail there and when I found Andy, he was standing near a corner, clearly upset, with the sweetest worker ever trying to talk to him: "what's wrong, Steven? Steven, are you okay? Come here, Steven! It will be okay, Steven!" Andy's full name is Steven Andrew-- and we never changed it on the check in form.  Whoops.  I walked up and the lady was getting upset too that Andy was paying her zero attention.  I squatted down and asked him what was wrong-- the poor kid had to poop and didn't want to go with a girl who was calling him Steven. HA!

After that, we figured we would just take him back to the room for the night.  We had to drag Cal out of there.  He was playing some educational motorcycle game with an adorable counselor from England with a great accent. Cal was in heaven and would have stayed there all night!

We headed back to the room and both boys were asleep instantly! They needed their rest for the following day....

 

Disney Cruise: Day One

After our day in Disney World, we were ready to set sail on the Disney Dream. 

We woke up Sunday morning and the boys really felt like they should bid their Cars friends farewell. Lala was really going to miss them. (also, after yesterday's park adventure, Lala was also really missing a bath.)

 We hung out in the lobby while waiting for our bus to take us to the port, so we said goodbye to the pictures there too. 

Cal climbed up in my lap for some snuggles while we waited.

We got on the bus to go to the port and both boys wanted to sit on my lap- I am a lucky lady!

Andy felt really good about our room on the boat:

 After a room check we headed up to the deck for some food! The boys wasted NO time getting some ice cream!

The boat does a huge farewell party-- it was packed trying to watch the show! Cal was on Eddie's shoulders and Andy was not thrilled with the noise so I held him and we walked around for a bit. 

Eddie and I took one last selfie as the boat was pulling away from port! Right after this picture, we both turned our phones off.  It was amazing-- and so so needed! I thought for sure Eddie would get internet on his phone during the week- he has a slight addiction...but he didn't! We stayed internet free the entire time on the boat and it was FABULOUS! Makes me want to do that more often.

And then.  It happened. 


We turned the corner and spotted him.

Pluto.

Andy screamed.  The good kind of scream though-- he couldn't believe he was looking at Pluto!

Cal was taking it all in-- contemplating if he was the real Pluto...or a fake. 

We got autographs and a picture with the sweet pup then each gave him a hug.  Cal reached up to touch his tongue.  Why? We don't know.  We think he was still figuring out the whole real vs. fake thing?

And we were off! We headed to the very front of the boat to wave farewell as we pulled away from port.  

When we walked back inside, we ran smack into a princess.  Andy was awe struck.  The boy loves pretty girls.

She was just as nice as can be and took pictures with the boys-- they both agreed that she was beautiful!

Every night, we rotated to a different restaurant.  Our first night we ate at the Enchanted Garden.  The food was great!

 The Mickey bar for dessert was even better!

 These three cuties sat in a window seat for this picture-- love it.

We walked down the hallway after dinner and saw Mr. Duck! 

While we were waiting in line to see Mickey Mouse, Cal teared up a little.... we asked him what was wrong and he said he thought he needed to go to bed right away.  ha! Poor kid was worn out! We decided to stay for Mickey and then take them back to the room.  

So many people have asked about the rooms so I will write briefly about them....

First off, the boat is THE cleanest hotel/cruise I have ever seen.  Ever.  Every single bathroom on the boat has an attendant in it 24 hrs a day.  They are constantly cleaning it.  Constantly.
The rooms were much more spacious than you would think.  There are two bathrooms in each room- the first has a toilet and a sink, and the second has a sink and a shower/bath tub.
There was SO much storage in the room.  They raise the bed up high so the suitcases fit under it.  There were tons of cabinets and drawers to unpack everyone.
Eddie and I had a king sized bed and then the boys slept in the back of the room- Andy on a couch that converted to a bed and Cal on a bunk that came out of the wall every night (and the ceiling about his bed was black and had stars painted all over it-- they think of everything). 
We also had a verandah, which was nice. 
The room had a HUGE curtain that divides the room, so when the kids go to bed, you can pull the curtain across and have privacy in the other part of the room.  We could keep lights on and it wasn't keeping them awake.

Here are both boys on Cal's bunk!

Day one on the cruise was a ton of fun! Day two was too!!!




 

Disney: Day Two

We were up early Saturday morning and hit the park immediately after eating breakfast.

A few notes about our day:
-we rented a stroller from Orlando Stroller rentals
-We had a monsoon come through midway through the day
-Cal was 100% completely fearless of every ride.
-Lala went on every single ride.  Lala is in a lot of pictures.
-I took a TON of pictures.  Be warned.

Pre-trip, when we registered, we selected our fast passes after consulting many friends.  Of all the people we talked to, they all said it would be highly optimistic to get to ride many rides other than the fast pass ones due to long lines and worn out kids, etc.  We downloaded the Walt Disney World app on our phones the day before we left.  The app shows you the wait times for various rides.  It really is essential if you are going to the park! We got a map and circled the rides that we would like to try for-- if at all possible....and let me tell you- we rode every single ride that we wanted to...plus more! And many of those we rode twice! We would look at the app and see that one of our fast passes had little to no wait time, so we would go ride that ride and then switch our fast pass to another ride.  The app allowed us to get to sooooo many more rides!

Okay, enough back story...

Saturday morning, on the bus into the park! Please note the adorable shirts given to the boys by the sweetest: Sally! THANK YOU, SALL!!! We love you!

We arrived at the park in time for the opening "song" where the characters all come out and sing about welcoming us in.  The kids were stunned.  Completely shocked at it all.  Eddie and I were SO happy right then at the kids' happiness-- I could have cried.

Obviously we took the obligatory picture in front!

Music was playing as we walked down main street and Cal started dancing.  And smiling.  

We saw the castle and the boys let out a gasp.

We headed on through the castle and into Fantasyland.  The boys saw the carousal and had to ride it immediately! There was no line so we hopped on!

Right before we stepped on, the boys grabbed each other for a hug- they were SO excited!

 Cal hopped up on his horse and gave me the thumbs up.

 Andy was a bit nervous and held on for dear life.  I tried to pry his hands off the bar to wave to daddy and Cal- wasn't happening! His little knuckles were white from holding on so tight!

We attempted a selfie- he was concentrating on holding on!

After the carousal, we saw the Winnie the Pooh ride had to wait time so we headed there. 

Eddie and Cal rode just about every ride together while I got Nugget and Lala-- Andy was nervous and it took some coaxing to get him on rides. Once he was on he liked them, but it took some convincing!

After Pooh, we headed to Dumbo-- still no lines! We were in heaven, running back and forth, beating lines!

 The worker behind me was trying to tell me Andy couldn't sit on my lap-- he had to sit next to me...Andy was mad at him! Lala really enjoyed the Dumbo ride. 

Also, side note here-- you see I am wearing a tank top here-- but it was NOT hot.  I had on a hoodie most of the morning, but took it off for about an hour and then put it back on.  I couldn't believe how NOT hot it was there!

After Dumbo, the boys spotted the race cars and wanted to ride them immediately! There was about a 5 minute line there so we headed over.  

Waiting in the brief line-- all smiles!

 Andy rode with Eddie on this ride and they were all smiles as they were about to get in their car!

 I let Cal do the driving in our car.  I did the gas and he did the steering.  The cars are on tracks to keep them in line-- it was hilarious.  I was laughing hysterically the entire time. 

 

After the ride, these two walked off holding hands and I thought it was pretty precious...

Next up, we saw there was no line for Buzz Lightyear ride so we hustled to ride that (seriously, the app is amazing.....amazing!)

Andy was a little scared on this one, but he kept pointing to Buzz when he saw him.  We were in the car in front of Eddie and Cal and all I could hear the whole time was Cal giggling like crazy.

There was one other space shuttle ride that Cal and Eddie did while Andy and I rode this little people mover thing that took you on a tour around futureland.  It took us through a bunch of different rides and then we heard screams as we entered into a black hole-- space mountain! We weren't on the space mountain ride, but the ride took us right next to that ride as they go up a huge hill.  I thought it was pretty neat-- Andy shut his eyes tightly there! haha After that, we saw BUZZ LIGHTYEAR was standing there for people to come take pics with him.  We got in the line to meet him, but then Buzz took a break so we left since we figured we would see him on the boat (we didn't) (fail.). 

We left there and hit the tea cups-- again no line! Eddie isn't much for spinning around in circles so he watched from the side lines while I got to spin with the boys.  Both loved this one!

Frontierland was next and Thunder Mountain! We used our fast pass for this so we didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes.  Andy was too short for this ride-- plus he would have hated it-- so we took turns riding.  Eddie and Cal rode it and then we switched Andy's fast pass with Cal's fast pass and I rode it with him

 Cal was seriously fearless-- this ride did not even scare him.  I was hanging on for dear life and he was laughing the whole time!

After some cotton candy and a little show with some singing bears, this one was off his rocker high on sugar.  He was literally bouncing all over the place!

The boys spotted Belle's house-- I made them watch Beauty and the Beast the previous week so they could see some other Disney movies.  We had to take a picture in front of it!

The boys really wanted to ride the race cars again so we headed there since there was only a very short line.  Cal drove Eddie and Andy drove me-- it was hysterical.  I was cracking up as we crashed back and forth on the track.  Andy screamed at me: "don't laugh at me! I a good driver!" ...flash forward 13 years when he is learning to drive for real..... pass the xanax. 

 We grabbed lunch and the sky was darkening.  Eddie was watching a storm roll in on his phone and knew it was coming quickly.  We headed over to a restaurant that we saw had a big covering and planted ourselves there before the storm hit.  It was a doozy of a storm with lots of thunder and lightening and even tornado watches. 

We hung out under the awning waiting for close to two hours.  It wasn't fun waiting out the storm, but I think in hindsight, it was pretty nice for the boys to have some downtime.

 

 When it stopped thundering we ignored the rain and set out to ride some more rides.  We all had hoods-- Eddie did not.  I would like to point out here that I "encouraged" him to bring a rain coat with a hood since there was a chance of rain.  Just thought that was worth a mention.

 The Little Mermaid ride was next and we all sat in one "shell" together.  It was adorable. Check out Andy's face- hahaha

We decided to do It's A Small World next and there ended up being the longest line of the day there-- almost 20 minutes.  We were in the rain for a good part of it-- didn't bother those of us with hoods.....

Right as we were about to get on the boat, Andy said "peepee coming right now. RIGHT NOW!" and I thought to myself, are you kidding me???

I told him to hold it until the ride ended-- this is his "holding it" face.

He barely made it to the end of the ride.  I may or may not have finished off a water bottle and encouraged him to pee in it.  A mother's love, right?

After potty breaks, ice cream was in need to celebrate the ending of the rain!

 I guess the rain scared some people away because the crowd thinned out even more. We headed to ride Aladin's magic carpet. 

Eddie decided that since he was already soaked, he should ride splash mountain.  So he and Cal rode it and when they got off, Cal insisted that I ride it too,  We used our fast passes so we switched Cal and Andy's and I rode with him-- again, he is fearless!

Before splash mountain:

During Splash Mountain:

After Splash Mountain:

So fun! I had a death grip on Cal's arm the entire time.  I was terrified of him falling out!

We saw more fun stuff and then grabbed some dinner.  The boys were starting to get worn out.... but everyone was happy!

 We stayed in the park until 9:00-- which I thought was pretty amazing.  I know it is because we didn't have a lot of lines to wait in.  We started our walk back to the buses with some happy people:

And then the parade started and Andy was not a fan of the noises-- homie has some sensitive ears.

 They each picked out some glow swords junk and we were done!

 We had THE best day in the park.  I feel like we hit the jackpot on the day we went with the short lines.  I think it would have been really hard to have gone and it be 98 degrees and wait in hour long lines.  The Disney Gods were smiling down on us, I guess!!!

Next up...the cruise!