..cruisin' with mickey..

we just returned from an {almost} week-long vacay - a disney cruise, to be precise. it was an unforgettable trip, and something i'm so grateful we could experience as a family.

as you could expect, traveling with young kids is a lot of work - just like every day life at home is a lot of work. :) they are very demanding of time and attention, and when you are like me - a schedule nazi ;) - you have to learn how to let go of the reins, and relinquish some of that control if you ever want to go on a vacation with babies. my need to get out of the house and away from the frigid-cold temperatures we were plagued with all winter, far surpassed any fear i had of taking two young kids on a vacation. so we booked a 5-night western caribbean DISNEY cruise that set sail april 8th. it was incredible!

i have been on quite a few cruises before - carnival, princess, and royal caribbean - and i enjoyed all of them. as far as food, entertainment, quality of the ship, etc...they all received two thumbs up from me. because disney's reputation for quality and excellence far precedes itself, my expectations for this cruise were set pretty high. and after a week on the disney wonder, i can say 100% truthfully that they met, and even surpassed, all those expectations.

the ship was beautiful and very clean. it wasn't "in your face" disney, like i expected it to be. there were subtle hints all over, but nothing like what i thought, and i have to say, it was quite nice. the food was okay - i wouldn't rave about it, but it wasn't disgusting, by any means. plus i didn't want to go on this vacation and gain 5 pounds, so i was sort of glad that it wasn't to die for. ;) like any cruise i've ever been on - the staff and service was wonderful. we fell in love with our waiter and his assistant - they took care of us remarkably, especially considering we had two little hellians come 5:45 every night (seriously, finn and sam were awful at dinner, every single night!!). the entertainment was unmatched. i am writing this nearly a month after our cruise, and i still think about one of the shows onboard - it was amazing!! i have always loved everything disney - disney movies and music, etc - so the fact that there was always classic disney music playing onboard, as well as all the classic disney movies playing in our stateroom, made me very happy. i almost felt like a kid again. ;) perhaps my favorite part of the entire cruise was the characters. they were out and about all the time! i knew there would be character appearances throughout the week, because i read it online, but i had no idea just how often they would be available for meet-and-greet's. every day, multiple times a day, you could stand in line to say hi to mickey, minnie, donald, daisy and goofy. and throughout the week, there were special appearances from a slew of other disney characters, like pluto, a few of the princesses (snow white, belle), peter pan, captain hook, mr smee, captain jack sparrow, lilo, chip & dale and i am probably forgetting some. it was so fun to just sit and watch them interact with kids, and adults, alike. from the way they move and dance to the way they treat all the little kids who admire and look up to them, i was so impressed by all the characters. for that reason alone, i would go on another cruise.

it was so fun to watch finn with all the different characters. he sort of knew who mickey was before we went, but when he first met all of them, he was very skeptical and a little scared. he wouldn't let them hold him and he wouldn't let one of us out of arms reach. but as the week progressed, he warmed up to them, and by the end he was giving them all hugs and kisses. it seriously melted my heart, and so many people would comment when they saw finn giving mickey and his friends kisses. it was too cute! i think finn's favorite characters were mickey, daisy and pluto. he was totally smitten by daisy, and maybe it's because he met pluto on the very last day, but he was hilarious with him. it was so fun to watch!

finn turned two while we were on the cruise!! it was so fun to celebrate his birthday in a different setting. he wore this "it's my birthday" mickey-ears hat all day, and received many different "happy birthday's" from complete strangers. a band was performing out by one of the pools that day, and the singer saw finn in his hat and started singing happy birthday to him. it was so cute! and at dinner, a gang of waiters/assistants/guests sang happy birthday to him and he got to enjoy a little piece of cake (bc what is a birthday without a little cake, right?). we took him to the gift shop and let him pick out a couple of toys - one from us and one from grandma cindy. even though he still doesn't understand that it was his birthday, i like to think that he had a good day and that he'll look back on the pictures and realize what a lucky little 2-year-old he was. :)

both finn and sam did pretty good throughout the whole week, especially when you take into account how sleep-deprived and off-schedule they both were. ;) sam got little naps in here and there, but didn't nap anywhere close to his "normal" amount. finn took maybe a 1 1/2 - 2 hour nap each day, but considering we didn't go to sleep until around 10 o'clock each night (and he'd wake up bright and early at 7 am) he was pretty dang tired! let's be honest, we all were. ;) we sent them to the nursery a couple times while onboard - it cost $10/hr, but was totally worth it for a little r&r for me, lance, and grandma. :) we peeked in on them a few different times, and every time, finn was sitting next to sam. i don't think he left his side. such a good big brother! we don't leave them with people very often, so i think poor finn was a bit traumatized. it's good for him, though. right??

one night on board was a pirate theme - pirates in the caribbean! it was so much fun. all of the staff and characters were dressed up in their pirate gear, and many of the guests were as well. we bought finn a pirate gun and sam some pirate mickey ears, so they wouldn't be totally left out. ha, like either of them could care. ;) out on the deck that night there was a deck party, with live music, dancing and even fireworks. disney is the only cruise line that does fireworks at sea. it was super fun!

finn loved playing in the pool every day, even though he, technically, wasn't supposed to get in. ;) long story short, we found out about two months after we booked this cruise, that kids have to be fully potty-trained in order to go in the pool! no swim diapers allowed. can you believe that? well there was no way we could stop finn from getting in - the kid loves the water - and we didn't pay what we did to come on a cruise and not get in the swimming pool. i think finn looks old enough that he could possibly pass for being potty-trained, so we took our chances and lucky for us, didn't get caught! ;) there was a little splash area that kids in diapers could play in, so we set sammy boy down in there one day, and he loved it! grandma cindy, sherree and i, as well as lance and finn, loved lounging by the pool, enjoying the sun, warm temps and live music. finn loved these strawberry smoothies - i'm pretty sure he two a day!

the very last night onboard, our ship had to "rescue" a raft full of cubans that were just floating in the middle of the atlantic. ;) it was kind of cool to watch, and to see this raft they were on - it was completely homemade. everyone wondered how they made it as far as they did. i guess our boat was closest to it, so we picked them up and then handed them off to the coast guard. the sunset was gorgeous that night, so as we were all standing outside watching the "hand off" we didn't miss the opportunity to take some group pictures. :)

i want sam to be at least 3 years old by the time we go on our next cruise, so that he and finn will be old enough to do all the kids club activities. i have a feeling time will pass in the blink of an eye, and before we know it we'll be back onboard (perhaps with another baby even?) setting sail on another wonderful disney cruise. :)