Disney Cruise

I know this is a huge blog post, and normally I don't like to read super long ones myself. But I wanted to write down a lot so we could remember the trip. So if you want all the details, keep reading. If you just want to know about Disney cruises, I'll tell you this: Best Vacation Ever! Seriously best trip I have ever been on in my life! That being said, if you are considering one, I would highly recommend waiting until your youngest is four. The kids had a grand time! But there's a lot more they can do if they are older. Kalianna was disappointed a couple times that she was too small for things. She was sad she couldn't go in the kid's club and on the water slides. I was sad Magdalyn couldn't go in the pools (potty trained children only).

Our ship

Here is a view of the main lobby from above

We got up bright and early Tuesday morning. Had to be out of our condos, and on the shuttle to take us to "the big boat", in Kalianna's words. Can I just say how glad I am we bought Kalianna a backpack (leash) before we left? So Glad! Not to mention she LOVED wearing it! But there were some really chaotic, crowded situations on our trip. Disney World it was awesome to have, and the day we boarded and got off the ship. Lots of crowds, lots of lines, lots of children running around. And with all our luggage too, it would have been a lot harder keeping track of my wandering two-year-old. We went through security, got signed in, waved to Mickey and Minnie, who were there to greet us, and boarded the ship. This was the first cruise for both Matt and I. So we didn't know what to expect or how things worked, we were just along for the ride! Once we got situated in our room (which was more spacious than I expected) we explored the ship a bit and then joined our family at the set sail party on deck. They put on a cute show with lots of characters and dancing and singing (come on, it's Disney). Next thing I know, I look over and see that we're moving. I couldn't feel us moving at all, it was really a weird sensation. Then that night at dinner, I sat down for the first time since we took off. Oh boy, I felt it then! I thought I was going to fall out of my chair! That first dinner was the only time I felt us moving. After that, I got used to the sensation, and barely noticed it.

Table 1 on our first night at dinner

Table 2

Crush came over and was talking to Joshua. So awesome!

Making them take a pledge

Kalianna checking everything out

Me and Magdalyn (if you notice the kids are all wearing these orange Disney shirts. They were a present from Grandpa that first day)

Typical dinner entertainment in my family

Chocolate cake for dessert. Need I say more?

I feel like I could sit here and write about the cruise for days and still miss things, so instead I am just going to share some favorite stories, and let the pictures tell the rest.

We had the same waiter every night. Murat from Turkey. He was awesome! We all just loved him right off the bat. All except Kalianna. She acted super shy around him. He tried to get a high five, and she would bury her face in my shoulder. Well Murat saw this as a challenge. So every night he would try for his high five, with no success. Then the third night he brought Kalianna a present. He gave her a pin and with that, secured his first five. She barely put her hand out, and allowed him to clap it, but it was something! With this new encouragement, the next night he brought her a bead necklace, and got a much better five. By the last night, she didn't seem to have any problems with him at all!

Murat and Michael. The two waiters for our table

Here's Murat doing a magic trick

Magdalyn with uncle CJ

Maggie at dinner on our "fancy" night

Kalianna Loved getting dressed up for dinner at night! She had to have her hair done, and wearing all her necklaces (leis)

Our family

Magdalyn's first taste of soda (ginger ale) thanks to Grandpa

She loved it!

Theresa and CJ

Julie and Seth

Bryan and Ricci

Poor uncle Brent didn't have a date, so we let him borrow Maggie

Loved all the desserts!

We picked up these bracelets for the girls in the Bahamas

Magdalyn loved trying new foods! This one is cantaloupe

Going along with the theme of waiters, one morning we ate breakfast in one of the restaurants. Our waiter was from Jamaica. As he seated us, Kalianna asked him his name. (She is big on knowing the names of everyone around her right now. If she is too shy, she will ask me their name.) He smiled and told her his name was Anthony. Then she looked puzzled for a second, looked at me and said, "Mommy, what color is he?" Thankfully Anthony found this pretty funny. He just laughed and said, "I'm black." Then she looked at me really hard and said, "Mommy, what color are you?" I said, "What color do you think I am?" She looked me over quickly and said, "Orange."

One night for dinner they had a Pirates IN the Caribbean theme. Everyone dressed up, some more than others. We saw lots of Jack Sparrows. For people like us who didn't want to buy costumes and pack them, they had bandannas for us. Aren't we the cutest pirates ever?

Our menu that night

Trying to do the spoon thing. We train them young in our family

The beds on the boat were like clouds pulled right out of heaven and covered with blankets. No joke. The most comfortable bed I have ever slept on in my life! Just thinking about it makes me want to cry. Oh how I miss that bed! Well, waking up our first morning, Matt rolled over and said, "Honey, I'm sorry. I'm leaving you for this bed. We're in love and there's nothing you can do about it." My response was, "You can't have her, she's mine!"

They had these Mickey Mouse ice cream bars for on the kids' dessert menu at dinner. That's what they chose to eat most nights. On our last night on the ship, my dad asked if he could have one of those instead of the adult dessert. When Murat brought it out to him, we all laughed. I leaned over to Kalianna and said, "Look at Grandpa sweetie." She turned toward him and very unenthusiastically said, "cheese." Ha ha! My dad was the picture-taker for most of the trip. I guess by the last night, she had had enough!

On the TV in each of the rooms, they had on demand Disney movies 24/7. You could watch any Disney movie you wanted anytime! It was awesome! We would turn a movie on while we were getting ready, or sometimes while I fed Magdalyn, or to help calm down before bed. Kalianna got to see a lot of movies she has never seen before! Since getting home, she keeps asking for movies and expects them to just be there when she turns on the TV. Ahhh the luxury!

They had a Wake-Up with Disney Junior activity in the morning for the little ones. We danced and sang to Disney Junior songs. Kalianna had a lot of fun, but she wouldn't try it without Mommy.

Dancing with her pom-poms

One of Kalianna's favorite places on the ship was the Finding Nemo splash pad. It was pretty cool! Mr Ray was even the slide! Magdalyn and Hayden loved it too! They all had a ball together.

Breakfast and lunch most days on the cruise were buffet style, so we were able to eat a variety of foods at each meal. Our first morning home I asked Kalianna what she wanted for breakfast. She said, "Cereal. And a pop tart. And cheese. And hot dog. And chicken. And a banana. And applesauce. Cruise ships= gluttony at its finest!

Kalianna loved to see the characters! Let me change that a little. Kalianna loved to SEE the characters. She did not want to go up to them, or touch them. And she certainly didn't want them talking to or touching her! But she loved to sit and watch them, and she really loved pointing them out. It was the same for all the characters, except Minnie Mouse. Kalianna loves Minnie! She would talk to Minnie (shyly) and hug Minnie (or allow Minnie to hug her) but no one else. One day we turned a corner and there was Mickey and Minnie. Just standing there with no line! We took advantage of the opportunity and visited with them and got some pictures taken with them. Mickey kept trying to get Kalianna to give him five, but she wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. So for our family pictures, this is why Kalianna is next to Minnie, and as far away form Mickey as possible. It was so funny! Another night we went to see Tinkerbell. Waited in line for 30 minutes. Kalianna was super excited! Then it was our turn, and she suddenly became too shy to speak.

Meeting Pluto the first day

First time meeting Minnie

Our family with Mickey and Minnie

Tinkerbell tried so hard, but Kalianna was super shy

One night after the girls were asleep, Brent came over and sat with them so Matt and I could go out for a little while. We had been wanting to ride the AquaDuck, but since the girls were too young, we could never do it during the day. The AquaDuck was a huge water slide that went around the whole ship, even extending out over the ocean in one place. There was also a decent line most of the time during the day, but at night, there were few people who were stupid brave enough to go on it. It was pretty cool at night, and the water was freezing. We walked right on and it was cold, but so much fun! As soon as we got off, we were both shivering but I said let's go one more time. As soon as we stepped off the second time, we went straight into a hot tub. Amazing! Later I found out every time the slide dips, a huge burst of icy water rushes out to launch the raft forward again. This little gift only hits the person on the back of the raft. So while I was occasionally splashed with a few droplets of freezing water, Matt was being immersed in it. I felt so bad! He thought I was nuts when I wanted to take the second ride, but was too nice to say no!

Here's what it looked like

Logan and Ian going for a ride

They didn't both actually sleep in the pack and play, but Kalianna liked to play with Magdalyn in it before bedtime

The day we were at port in Naussa, my parents offered to watch the girls for a couple hours so Matt and I could go explore. We were walking around the little shops and ended up talking to this lady and her daughter for a little while. We bought some pretty earrings from them (thanks honey!). They asked us if we were on our honeymoon. We laughed and told them we had been married for six years and had two kids back on the boat. She looked at us, shocked. She said we acted a lot more like a couple on their honeymoon. She couldn't believe how many people came all the way to the Bahamas to fight with each other. Thought this was funny and it made us feel good!

My first steps Ever on foreign land! 

Our boat from the island

Looking back

 They had a show or performance on the ship every night. Most nights we couldn't go because the shows were late and our girls were too tired (ornery). But they did have the shows available to watch in the rooms. So we still got to see most of them. They were a lot of fun! They were original stories, that combined a bunch of numbers from Disney classics. They were really fun to watch!

They also had a movie theater where you could go see Disney shows that were currently in theaters. One night we all went to "The Muppets". Most of us had already seen it, and Kalianna loved it. So even though it started close to bedtime, we got pj's on first and went anyway. She loved it just as much the second time, if not more!

If you're wondering about Matt's super attractive face here, he said the guy behind him reeked.

There were two thrones on the ship, for awesome Kodak moments. Well Kalianna thought they were hers. Seriously. Every time we walked past one, she needed her picture taken. It also took much coaxing to get her to leave it there. Whenever someone else took a picture, as soon as they stood up, she was right back on it again. Claiming her throne, so to speak. It took a lot of convincing to allow Magdalyn to sit with her one night too.

Another favorite place for Kalianna were the portholes. She Loved to climb in them, lay in them, sit in them, look out of them. She could have sat in them for hours if we let her. There was one hallway in particular that was lined with porthole after porthole. Every time we went down it, we had to plan on being there for awhile. She wanted to climb in every single one!

Mommy got in on the fun one day 

The girls loved the last day when we were able to play on the beach at Castaway Cay. It was raining our first stop there. Kalianna loved playing in the water, getting braver and going deeper with each step! She loved playing in the sand too. And so did Magdalyn, which kinda surprised me! She loved the feel of the sand between her fingers, and didn't try and eat it once. We had fun staying on the beach, playing in the sand and water. Others in my family went snorkeling, scuba diving, and para-sailing. With two little ones, we didn't try any of those things. But we all had a great time, regardless!

This is how my grandparents do the beach, long sleeves and tennis shoes. Cracks me up!

Fish sighting

Ian

Hayden

Magdalyn

She loved building castles with Daddy, then dumping water on them

Logan & Joshua

Maggie's first steps in the ocean

Loving the sun!

That's right, suck it in boys

Getting more water for her castles

What is this stuff?!

Pretty cheesy, but it wouldn't be Disney without some cheese

Theresa and CJ went para-sailing. So cool!

View of the island from the boat

Kalianna and her Daddy

She thought dumping sand on her sister's feet was highly entertaining 

Kalianna thought the hammocks were an awesome swing

They had hammocks strung up between two beautiful palm trees all over the place

Logan caught a lizard. It bit Kalianna (no teeth) and we all said, "look, it gave you a kiss". She nervously started giggling after that. Whew!

Hitching a ride from Daddy on our way back to the boat. Grandma & Grandpa bought her a Nemo fish to remember the trip.

Grandma and Magdalyn. She got a Squirt turtle.

Our boat from the beach

Our last night, before dinner, my dad wanted to get some family pictures and shots of our whole group.

Brent

Stacy, Matt, Kalianna, and Magdalyn

Getting both girls to look at the camera at the same time is just too hard

Richard, Grandma Gallacher, and Grandpa Gallacher

Theresa and CJ

Bryan and Ricci

Kristine, Logan, Joshua, Ian, and Hayden

Julie and Seth

All of us!

The sunset on our last night was incredible! Like the ocean and the sky were bidding us farewell

I think one of the best things about the cruise were the people. Everyone we met was super nice and super helpful! From servers at breakfast, to people monitoring the pools, to our room hostess (Lita-who was amazing!) Not a single bad experience with any of the workers we came in contact with!

After we got off the ship, our shuttle came and picked us up to take us to the airport. We got to the airport around 10:00 AM, our flight didn't leave until 5:30 PM that night. Then we had a layover in Denver. It was a long day with lots of luggage, and five tired kids! We got home to Layton about 2:30 AM. It ended up being a very, very long day of travel (almost 20 hours). We had such an amazing time though! And it really is incredible how fast 20 hours can go when you have 20 other people around to keep you entertained!

Lots of luggage and lots of tired people, sad to be done with our vacation