The Most Magical Cruise on Earth, Day 3

Day 3, Monday – another day at sea:

Miraculously, Grace even managed to get up this morning. She was dead set on getting to her club as soon as humanly possible. Caroline was lounging around and didn’t want to do anything, so Brad and I headed to Lumiere’s alone. It was an a la carte breakfast and I ordered the yogurt with strawberries, bananas, almonds & granola. It was quite yummy! Brad got some sort of variety plate which was good, too. 

We came back to the room where Caroline was still “toading” and just watching TV. We stayed with her watching Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Wipeout and Hollywood Nannies for quite a while then she decided she wanted pizza so off she went to get it herself. It’s really nice how the kids can be so independent yet safe here. We are not having to entertain them, separate them when they fight or even see them if we don’t want. 

Caroline still has some interest in participating with us but Grace is off and running and we are having some trouble reeling her in when it’s time for dinner. While C was getting pizza Brad and I went to Parrot Cay for the steak buffet. Again, it was yummy, but I liked the Italian one better. Now I’m enjoying a glass of wine and sitting on the verandah. Ahhh, this is the life.

The Most Magical Cruise on Earth, Day 2

Day 2, Sunday:

At sea all day

We managed to get up pretty early. Brad was feeling better, thankfully, and even the sleepyheads were motivated to get moving. We went up to Topsider, which is a buffet restaurant on the 9^th deck where all the pools are located. It was a sprawling buffet with everything imaginable and I think we tried just about everything. After breakfast both Grace & Caroline took off for the clubs. Brad and I explored a bit more then got Caroline and we played Bingo for a while. We didn’t win a penny, which is a bummer, but it was fun anyway. We went back to Parrot Cay for lunch; this was the Italian buffet, and it was really good, especially the brie and the praline topping for the ice cream. 

Caroline wanted to go swimming. I had grand aspirations but since the air temperature was below 90 and the wind was blowing and the water temperature was surely below 85 my swimming just wasn’t going to happen! I did support Caroline by watching her go down the slide a few times and got video & photos. We played at the arcade for a few minutes then Brad needed to study and I wanted to chill and get some sun so Caroline went back to the club (Grace stayed at hers all day). The verandah couldn’t be nicer. I actually fell asleep lounging with my feet up as I read about my new camera on my iPad. Brad got a decent amount of studying done. The girls were back by 5pm to get ready for dinner. 

Dinner was at the Animator’s Palette this night. The room is totally black and white. I mean totally. There’s no color anywhere. It’s really kind of cool. We were seated with Stacy, Joe, Gavin & Kelsey again. I ordered an odd shrimp appetizer, baked potato soup and my entrée was an Asian beef tenderloin which was totally amazing. I really, really loved it. Mmmm! Right after the entrée the whole restaurant changed. It went from completely black and white to being totally filled with color. Mickey Mouse the magician swept through the room leading the wait staff around in their new brightly-colored vests. We skipped dessert and ran off to the family show with the hypnotist. 

Brad volunteered to participate in the hypnosis thing, which was pretty amusing. It was the people who were “hypnotized” that were really awesome and funny. I think the kids had a good laugh. We ran from this straight to the big production in the main Walt Disney Theater called Twice Charmed. It was a nice show, “Cinderella with a Twist.” The theater is really large and laid out well. It was definitely a quality performance, but Grace didn’t even make it to Twice because she was off and running with her new friends at her club.

Caroline, Brad and I came back to the room and basically crashed. Grace showed up a little after…ONE AM! She had permission to stay out since the arcade had free play from midnight until 1, but we still had to rope her in even that late.

The Most Magical Cruise on Earth, Day 1

Day 1:

Saturday, January 26, 2013: Embarkation Day

The hardest part of this morning was getting out of the house. Somehow we couldn’t even think of leaving without having the house clean as well. And then we decided to make a Spec’s Liquor run on the way out. Disney is apparently the only cruise line that will allow you to bring alcohol on board, which is totally cool.

Parking and taking a shuttle in Galveston was a piece of cake (EZ Cruise Parking) and even the whole security/passport/check in thing was a piece of cake. We may have timed it right – we chose the 12:30-1:00 boarding time, but we basically walked right on. 

As you enter the ship you give your name and then your family is literally announced as you walk into the main atrium. Even though you know everyone else is getting the same treatment you somehow feel special. Parrot Cay (pronounced KEY!) had a buffet lunch and it was a great way to start the trip. Each day the buffet theme changes, so one day it was Italian, another steak. They really have some fabulous food. We got settled into our stateroom, #7858, and unpacked. We have a verandah which is really, really nice. It’s private and luckily we’re on the side away from the prevailing wind so it’s quite toasty and protected. There have been complaints that there isn’t enough space or storage room in the rooms, but we found places for all our junk. There are two tight little rooms instead of one bigger bathroom. There’s one with a shower/tub (which is larger than I expected) and a sink and another with the toilet and a sink. They both have plenty of shelves. We have a couch that converts into a bottom bunk and a bed that drops from the ceiling for the top bunk, and what seems to be a queen-sized bed. There’s a flat screen TV on a reciprocating arm, a fridge, desk, safe and other things. The verandah has two chairs and I’m sitting in one with my feet on the rails writing this now.

It didn’t take long to get our junk set up and off we went to explore the ship. There are 11 floors, although the first is, I think, almost all crew and the 11^th is only a club for teens called Vibe. We explored the girls’ camps, Edge & Explorers Lab, got them set up with their wrist bands and then did one of the other cool things, gave them sign in and sign out privileges for themselves. The can come and go as they please. And that’s what they’ve been doing. 

We have set dinner times (ours is 5:45) and particular restaurants each evening. That way the same wait staff follows us and can better cater to our likes. We have Alex from Honduras and Josh from the Philippines. The first night we went to Lumiere. It’s supposed to be the fanciest restaurant and since we had received information from Disney saying we didn’t have a formal night we dressed up most for this one (of course later I found a paper in our room that specified which nights were formal vs. cruise casual vs. themed). The girls were stunning in their silver dresses and got lots of complements. For dinner I had shrimp cocktail, French onion soup and duck breast with an ice cream sundae for dessert. After dinner Brad felt sick so he went back to the room. The girls both went to their clubs and I watched the movie Chimpanzee (very cute) in the theater. The girls had a great time.