Disney Cruise

To celebrate Maddon's first birthday (and sneak in a family vacation), we set sail aboard the Disney Fantasy. This time we had four ports of call: Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth, and Castaway Cay. This cruise was a completely different experience than those in the past. It took a few days for everyone to find their groove. This was the first cruise and airplane trip ever for Maddon and the first time that Mason was old enough the go to the ship's kids club. It's great how every cruise can bring different experiences! This year we also had to fly to Orlando the day before the ship left so we spent the night in the airport hotel. This was a cool experience for the kids. They could go out on our balcony and see the airport or look outside onto the runways. It also helped break up the trip a little which may have made for slightly less crabby travelers!

Sleepy guy on the plane

 Mason...not so sleepy

 Cartoons in the airport hotel!

Maddon and Daddy looking out into the airport

The boys both did a great job with the flight (especially since we sat on the plane for awhile before take off). The bus ride to port was filled with a lot of anticipation for the "Mickey boat." Because we flew in the night before we were some of the first people to board the boat which was fantastic since Mason couldn't wait to start the cruise!

On the Mickey bus

 I spy the boat...

Front of the ship

Just before boarding

Our "Welcome Aboard" photos

Checking out the room

Exploring the ship

 Cartoon time

A lot of our time at sea was spent doing some sort of water activity. Mason loved going to the pools and was tall enough this year to ride both the Mickey slide and the Aqua Duck. He also enjoyed spending time in the Aqua Lab and hanging out with Maddon in Nemo's Reef. We even spent one afternoon having "drinks" at a secret pool!

Riding the Aqua Duck with Erica

Nemo's Reef

Grabbing some pizza poolside

Aqua Lab

"Secret Pool"

Enjoying a Mickey pretzel

 Night time Aqua Duck fun!

 Anytime not spent swimming or in the kids club was usually spent at character appearances. We even got an opportunity to attend a Disney Junior character breakfast on our first morning on the ship. Maddon wasn't too sure about the characters yet. He mostly stared at them with confusion!

Disney Junior breakfast

 Meeting Anna and Elsa

Disney Princesses Meet and Greet

Goofy

Mickey

Pluto

Donald meets Donald

Stitch (Maddon became very fond of Stitch during this trip)

We did find some time to do a few other activities on the ship including shopping and catching a couple of movies. Maddon even competed in the diaper dash, although he didn't dash at all!

Pre-race

Sporting 3-D movie glasses

Finding Pepe's door

Rather than booking our time up with excursion, we decided to spend our docked days exploring the port areas. This worked out well. We had time to shop and see the areas before heading back to the boat for some swimming and naps when needed. Our first stop was Cozumel. We had a good time looking around. Mason particularly enjoyed the pirate at Margaritaville!

Checking out Mexico from the verandah

Our second port of call was Grand Cayman. This was a new experience for us in that the ship could not actually dock at the port. Due to the depth of the water on shore, the ship had to drop anchor. We had to get off of the ship and board a smaller boat which brought us ashore. It sounded kinda scary, but was actually a very smooth process! 

Watching the little boats take people ashore

We docked in Falmouth, Jamaica on Maddon's birthday. This was a really cool port with lots of shopping and a market area. I really liked being able to look at the crafts that the people brought to the market and barter with them! 

The birthday boy watching us pull into Jamaica

Our last day was spent at Castaway Cay. This is the most anticipated port because it is so much fun! We had a blast hanging out at the beach and splash pad. Daddy got to go snorkeling and try out his underwater camera and we all enjoyed the famous BBQ lunch!!

 First time in the ocean

 These guys loved the sand!

Underwater Mickey 

Making friends at Spring-a-leak

 Trying hard to get a pic with Olaf

In addition to all our port fun, we had two themed nights on this itinerary. We had pirate night and Halloween night. Both nights included parties before dinner and everyone dresses up in costumes! On pirate night there is also a late night firework show and buffet (which both boys stayed up for)!

 Our family dressed up as the Incredibles on Halloween night

Halloween tree

Halloween door

Pirate night

Pirate night also fell on Maddon's birthday so he got a special dessert, everyone sang, and he received a certificate and button!

Birthday door

Party and fireworks

 

Mommy's glow drink

Pirate night door

Few randoms...

Mason spend a few dinners passed out!

 Stuffing their mouths with bread!

 Our little Donald

  On our second night dining in the Animator's Palate each person drew a character which was then animated and projected on the screens around the restaurant. Everyone's name was then posted in the credits.

 Once again, we had a blast! We all hope to be sailing again soon!

Everyone had a great time, but all good things must come to and end. In this case, not before putting down the deposit on our next trip!

On the way home