I know you find it hard to believe, but we went on another Disney vacation. I know, I know, who would have thought I would go on a Disney vacation. I suffered through it and yes, did enjoy myself. :)
Kenny, the kids and I spent two lovely weeks with my parents, sister Cari, her children Ali & Tanner, and my sister Wendy and her kids Cody and Kaylee. Amazingly, we still love each other!
We started the trip with a 4 day cruise aboard the Disney Wonder. We were upgraded to a room with a window and I don't think I'll ever be able to cruise without one again!
Once on board, we found our rooms, checked out the boat and of course had the muster drill. Some got a little queasy from the boat, but that was remedied. That night we went to the game show Who Wants to Be a Mouseketeer. On our last cruise I so desperately wanted to be a contestant and wasn't, but this time, ha ha, I was and.....I won! I got a pin that is only available on the cruise line and a neat Mickey magnet, paperweight thingy. Yay me!
Our first stop was Nassau, Bahamas. We had booked a trip to go swimming with stingrays. All went according to plan except for the company leaving us behind on the dock as they set sail for the adventure on Blackbeard's Cay. Yeah, that's what I said. It turns out the company I booked with was outside of the company providing the excursion and forgot to inform them we were coming. Luckily a very nice port authority agent tracked down a representative from Blackbeard's Cay, anger was expressed, tears were shed (yes, mine) and a speed boat from Blackbeard's Cay arrived to take us on a private ride to our original destination. It was emotionally taxing, but it all turned out okay in the end. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.
The kids all got in, Cari held seafood (still can't get her to eat it), and we all got an up close picture with the stingrays. (sorry, I don't have those. Maybe my sisters will give me a copy, hint, hint).
We spend the next day on Castaway Cay. The weather was perfect. The kids spent the day playing in the water, building sandcastles, searching for shells. The adults went snorkeling, kayaking, boating and on one of those fun three wheeled water bike things. We ate yummy food and got a little sunburned. That night was Pirate night on the boat. I don't think everyone on board got the memo, because our little crew seemed to be one of the few people actually dressed up! That night we had a Pirate party on deck, complete with fireworks!
Our third day was spent at sea. It was also Kaylee's 4th birthday! The kids spent most of the day between the pools and the kids club. It was a little slower paced and relaxing. We dressed up that night and looked pretty spiffy. (again, no pics. hint, hint).
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We docked in Port Canaveral on Thursday and while waiting outside for our ride to Walt Disney World, Florida welcomed us with a outpouring of rain. More like a torrential down pouring of rain! Amazingly, it stopped right as our ride got there. Our clothes and hair were soaked (some got a little moldy, hee hee ), but we arrived at the POP Century resort for the second leg of our trip.
We spent time at all four of the parks. At the Hollywood Studios, I was chosen to be in the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! It was pretty neat, I have never been picked for anything before. Livvy rode Tower of Terror for the first time. She did really well. Didn't scream or cry, nothing. Our favorite ride of at The Studios was by far, Toy Story Midway Mania! Cody LOVED it! Even Dad said it was one of his favorite rides.
We took everyone to Club Cool at EPCOT where you can try different sodas from around the world. If you ever get a chance to go, make sure you try the Beverly....yummy! The kids loved the Finding Nemo ride and Livvy really liked Soarin'. She is probably one of the youngest guests to ever ride the ride because she is so dang tall!
The Magic Kingdom held a special place for me! I even saw my old pretzel wagon. Ahh, the memories. Space Mountain was closed, but we still got Livvy on Big Thunder Mountain. She said she didn't want to ride it again. We didn't force her, but the thought did cross our minds. (I know we're mean parents huh!).
We all LOVED Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom. Kenny rode it about 5 times in a row by going in the single rider line. (actually, I don't think we waited more than 20 minutes for any ride we went on).
We used the Disney Dining Plan and were able to eat at some really neat places, except for Hollywood & Vine, ick, don't waste your time there. We had a character breakfast at Chef Mickey's inside the Contemporary, we ate in the Mexico Pavilion and Japan Pavilion. The food in both of these restaurants was great, but watching the chef cook our food in Japan was awesome. We also ate at the Plaza Restaurant in the Magic Kingdom. The sandwiches were huge and the brownie sundaes were even bigger! The funnest dinner we had was at the Hoop Dee Doo Revue at Fort Wilderness. It is a musical, comedy dinner show. They get the audience to participate in parts of the show. Guess who was chosen to play a part....me. I know, this kind of stuff never happens to me. Kenny kept saying, "Wow, this is your trip babe." Anyway, I was chosen to be the Can Can Dancer for one part and even had a line. So now I've had my 15 minutes of fame.
One of my favorite things we did was Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. They close Magic Kingdom early and if you bought an extra ticket you can come back in costume, trick-o-treat, ride rides, see tons of characters and have a ball with hardly anyone else in the park with you! Combined, Kenny, the kids and I got over 20lbs of candy! Seriously, we had so much, we left almost half behind in our hotel room because we didn't have anywhere to put it. Don't worry, it was only like Smarties and Dum Dums, we brought all of the chocolate home!
Some of my favorite parts of the trip were riding the monorail, watching Micah during Playhouse Disney and Voyage of the Little Mermaid. I loved watching Kaylee as she hugged and expressed her love for every character and every character loved her, who wouldn't?
She such a cute little thing, who was so sad she wasn't tall enough to ride the big rides. When we got to Goofy's Barnstormer roller coaster in Toon Town, guess what...she was tall enough and let everyone know. She was so excited! She and Livvy rode in the front...by themselves. They thought they were all that and a bag of chips!
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Our vacation was WoNdErFuL!!! I only wish it could have lasted longer. Well, that and that Micah was potty trained for it. It's a bummer having to take time out to change a poopy.
