TR Completed! A tale of 2 cruises: same Dream cruise two years in a row, totally different!

[astronautmom]

Love your report so far! Can't wait to read more!

Thank you, PiperGirl!
Happy New Year to everyone! I'm working on the Day 2 details right now.

Meanwhile, it's cold and rainy here and I haven't stopped dreaming about our next two trips. The first is already decided, staying with dear dear friends in Tacoma, Washington this summer. I'm really really looking forward to it, but there are not too many details that I need to worry about independently for that one. So our next possible Disney trip is Spring Break 2016. DH is leaving it up to me, based on how happy he has been with the cruises I've chosen, but he's been quite clear that WDW is last on his list right now.

All four of us have a different order of preference, and mine (which is the only one that really counts, ,)changes daily. All four of these choices would be about the same "package" price for 5 nights, but what is included varies greatly, e.g. food. Our spring break is VERY early, so it's still considered off season for these trips. (But the first week of March might also be cold everywhere, except Hawaii, and you know how I hate being cold on vacation!)

1. Aulani (would likely be significantly more when you add in paying for all your own meals, but they were offering included breakfast for the same dates in 2015.)
2. Disneyland (CA) staying at Paradise Pier + San Diego 1-2 days
3. 5 day Western Carribbean cruise on Wonder (Castaway Cay & Cozumel)
4. WDW staying on property

Now I'm also thinking of a fifth option, just finding a family all-inclusive somewhere with guaranteed warm weather. I can think of major pro's & con's to all of them. I also want to see the May/June itineraries for DCL, but I'm thinking that outside of the cruise that we've already done twice, there won't be much affordability. (Remember we are five, so we either need two rooms or cat 4.)

I'm happily open to suggestion here, but I will continue with my trip report in the next post!

 

[astronautmom]

I never understood The Princess and the Pea until I took a princess sneaker shopping. A seam, a tag, a single stitch, the freckle of a factory worker...all irritants to a tender footed sprite.

I used those two sentences to describe shoe shopping with my daughter a couple of years ago, and it still holds true. The most success I have had shoe shopping for her is finding something approximately her size in a second-hand store and slipping it into her closet. Which is exactly how we got these shoes:

I took her shoe shopping twice before the cruise to find something more appropriate for the dress and we also scoured Downtown Disney and the hotel Disney shop for princess costume shoes, to no avail. So those shoes came along as the default and they glare at me in the Princess Gathering and Formal Night pictures. Oh well, its just another "cute" thing to remember about her when she was young.

Now that I have compressed the Shutters photos for the web, I did go back and add the Welcome Aboard photo to my Embarkation post and the backdrop photo we took on evening one. I decided to add Shutters photos to the TR because it did shape our schedule and it shows the characters we met on the trip. Pasting here from the blog:

A note on the professional pictures. Last year we had so many good family shots, we ended up purchasing the "everything" package which included the all the digital images for the length of the cruise, the rights to use them in any way, and all of the prints. I used 80 of them to make a scrapbook for my husband for Christmas that year, and I'd say we got our money's worth. Here at home, I would pay that much just for the photographer's sitting. So this year, we saved a little by purchasing the same package online in advance, knowing it was refundable if we didn't have enough good shots by the end of the cruise. With that in mind, we tried to take advantage of as many photo ops as possible.

For every professional picture setting you see, whether it is with a backdrop or on location or with a character, you can bet we have a "whole family" pose, a "kids only" pose, and "couple only" pose. We also may have a regular pose and a silly pose. At dinner, add individual portraits. We really do have a TON of great pictures to choose from.

And now back to sequence of Day 2:
(continued next post)

 

[astronautmom]

I've already posted a different view of Castaway Cay, but here is one that shows the size of the cabin's sliding door. We were awake and watched them pull up to the island:

Last year we watched them lower the lifeboats and drive them around the little bay there. If they did it this year, we missed it.

This was the morning we had two appointments at once: 9am Princess Gathering and 9am Gingerbread House Workshop. We decided that girls would do the PG and boys the GB, and everyone was fine with that.

Here are the Shutters photos from the Princess Gathering. They will also let you use your own camera and give you time to do a separate flash, etc. The princesses gave hugs, did twirls with her and chatted. She said it was mostly about her dress. Ariel was her favorite, for the second year in a row. Last year was the same lineup of ladies, except that this year we had Rapunzel instead of Tiana.

Last year, Belle was wearing her holiday ballgown, so it was nice to get one with her in the traditional yellow. When we chose my daughter's dress, I had an inkling she would match Ariel, and I was right. I gave her the option to wear a princess costume, but she opted for her own formal. Again, we got a ton of pictures- For each princess we had a hug or conversation pose, a personality pose and some close ups. I'll just put up one of each princess here:

While the girls were doing princessy things, the boys were getting a spot at the gingerbread house workshop in Animator's Palace. Thankfully, our assembly-line style princess greeting was so efficient that we made it to AP while they were still seating people. Since it was one ticket per cabin, we were able to join our family. The house was adult construction, kid decoration.

Day 2 will continue in next post

 

[astronautmom]

The rule with the gingerbread houses is that you can't take them home with you. I'm assuming this is a U.S. customs thing. The kids knew this, so two of them were anxious to start eating it as soon as we got it back to the cabin. The future engineer, however, had specifically spaced and placed each sweet; and he was a little sad to see it destroyed. We typically buy a $10 kit at home each Christmas season and we get almost exactly this same house, with one notable difference: the gingerbread itself was soft and tasty. You could crack a tooth on any of the gingerbread walls I've tried before. It must take a pastry chef to bake the right combination of soft and strong. It was also easier to ice the walls together, because they could squish a little. (Just a little.)

Here is my review of the Gingerbread Experience. We had not done it before, and I was thinking that if we did it on the cruise, it's one less holiday activity I have to fit in at home. Not to mention, someone else's mess to clean up. In that sense, I got what I paid for. (Except I'm pretty sure it was free.) There really wasn't much to it. The walls, icing, and candies were set out on the table for us. The pastry chef put his together as an example. His English was heavily accented and he went very quickly. Then we were on our own. A couple of our favorite D Lounge CM's walked around giving encouraging remarks.(It's been asked whether you can drop kids off at this event, and I would say no, it's not that kind of thing.) When we were finished with our house, we looked around, realized we weren't going to win any contests, and decided to head for Castaway Cay. I don't regret doing the workshop, and we enjoyed snacking on it throughout the rest of the cruise, but I wouldn't call it a "must do."

So now we are up to 10 am on Day 2. The best is yet to come. I really couldn't choose a favorite day of the cruise, but I loved Castaway Cay days the best. The day at sea was pretty great too, but we (okay, mostly me) were a little stressed about fitting everything in on our last day. I will write more soon, but I leave you with someone we "met" on the island last year and were glad to see again:

He is, by the way, a statue, not a costumed character. I mean, he is a real snowman, just like all the characters on the ship are real, but in this case, he is cemented to his pedestal, and his hips do a little hula. Very cute. He is near the post office.

 

[justliketink]

Thanks for sharing! You are such a talented writer!! Your cruise looks amazing so far and I can't wait to read more about your adventures

 

[astronautmom]

Thanks for sharing! You are such a talented writer!! Your cruise looks amazing so far and I can't wait to read more about your adventures

Thank you, you are very kind! I've just updated the post directly above yours. Just a very short snippet. These last few days of the school holiday break are a killer, especially when it's cold and rainy and we are caged up on top of each other. But I am enjoying the writing, and snatching short chunks of time where I can!

Happy New Year!

 

[astronautmom]

Okay, here we are, finally ashore on Castaway Cay. On each of our three days there (one in 2013, two on this 2014 double dip cruise,) we stopped for this photo op.

I love the Dream, I love CC, so I love that picture. All good things, all good things.

As I mentioned (somewhere? on the blog?) you pick up your towels as you exit the ship. I'm on a Bahamian paradise, I have no right to complain, but I'm going to complain just a little bit here. I imagine it is probably a conservation/laundry issue, and they want to encourage one towel per person. But say you are a mom of three kids....

You are already managing all of the random beach gear and sunscreen. Your one opportunity to pick up (free) towels is almost the moment your foot touches the dry ground. Before you get to the beach, you will stop for approximately fourteen (okay five) photo opportunities, walk either eight minutes to the nearest beach or four minutes to the trolley stop. You will be glad to have your towels as you play at the beach. When you are ready for a lunch break, you've got five sopping towels, because even though you yourself found the water too cold to swim, your kids have splashed you and begged you to come in and you are wet too. Now you could drop these sopping wet towels off in one of the many receptacles, but then if you choose to swim again after lunch, somebody is going to schlep herself all the way back to the dock to get five more towels. So you are going to encourage every person to manage their own towel. And their own lunch tray. At the same time. Oops, that kid's towel is already on the ground. In the bathroom. Where is your husband during this, can't he help? Well, he is carrying the two bags and the kid who can't walk because their "feet are too sandy." So we are back to you. Carrying the four remaining non-disgusting towels, your own lunch tray and maybe one or two other lunch trays. For the love of Walt Disney, can I please, please just be done with these towels and pick up some fresh white ones at the beach when we leave the water, because it is November and we are in the Bahamas, not the Carribbean, and it's not completely sweltering and more than a little windy when we are again dripping wet and walking back to the ship at the end of the day.

I would imagine this is why their souvenir towels sell so well. Next time (?) I will save up a little spending money, use the free towels in the morning. Ditch them when we are done swimming and buy new ones after the second round of swimming. Why didn't I think of that sooner?! Oh yeah, because I am super cheap. But it's a good strategy anyway. Feel free to use it if you are someone who would spend more than $5 on your CC souvenirs. We came home with a magnet, but we spent hundreds on professional photography, so I will call that my souvenir budget. TETO.

Since I mentioned cold water, I'll just dive right into that subject. Early November 2013: Brr, this water takes a little getting used to. Let's go down that awesome water slide into the ocean over there. Fun! November 2014: You all play in those rough waves right there. I will be in this little chair right here.

Did I mention we were having a GOOD time? Towel rant aside, these days were golden. It was windier this year, yes, the water was choppier. Last year, the big guys went snorkeling. This year my oldest kid swam out to the monkey bar/obstacle course looking thing, but nobody wanted to do Pelican Plunge. Did any of this stop my kids from hours of digging in the sand with their bare hands for hours? Nope. Was I sorry to sit with my feet in the waves and my face in the sun? Uh-uh.

I'm going to take a second and see if I can get back to the chronology of the day... Before we got to the beach, we stacked our five dry towels to the side and got in the photo with this guy:

Yes, all three of my kids wear prescription Transition lenses. Almost all of our beach photos come in option a) squinting or b) sunglasses.

Then we deposited the towels at our beach spot:

(There are three kids in the hammock, you have to look twice for the camo kindergartner.) I loved all the shade available. I don't know what it would be like when the ship is full of families on summer break, but we never had a problem getting a chair, a hammock, or an umbrella in November. The sun was actually pretty warm, just ask me when I was staring into it, waiting for the tram to take us from beach to beach.

We played, we swam, we moved from one family beach to the other. The first one had really gritty rough sand, and we didn't remember it being like that before, so we tried another spot and found the beautiful, comfy, wet sand that you can dig your feet into and let the waves wash over. Paradise.

We tried and failed to tie towels around our waists and go to Cookies BBQ for lunch. Have you seen these pictures of my kids? Not a single hip among them. But we succeeded at the lunch part eventually, and it was delicious. I remember I got some kind of chicken with the same marinade that my son had ordered off the adult dinner menu the night before and my eyes rolled into the back of my head. I ordered steak for dinner every night because it's something I don't cook well myself, but, oh, that chicken. I will eat that chicken at lunch every day. (Except I didn't. But I would have.) Don't quote me on which MDR has that chicken though, because maybe that was the second day at CC and he had ordered it for dinner at Enchanted Garden that night, not Animator's Palate the night before. I'd hate to send you on a wild chicken hunt. Order steak or seafood in the main dining rooms and eat the chicken and RIBS (the RIBS!) at Castaway Cay. Alright, I'm not a foodie, but I am a mediocre home chef and I'm impressed when I taste something that I haven't previously made myself. Almost everything we ate on the cruise falls into that category.

We also found In Da Shade.

Somehow we missed this last year, but it's got two mini-golf holes, shuffleboard, ping pong, billiards, free throw hoops, all... in da shade. There were also tables with umbrellas and a rope fence I used to hang up the towels. (Okay, enough about the towels already.) It's also right next to some bathrooms. I was ready to camp out there for a good while. I was also hoping that the kids could get their ping-pong fix in, because playing on windy Deck 11 (12?) was on the bottom of my list of things to do. DH actually took the oldest back there the next day for some "guy time" while I watched the little ones entertain themselves on the water's edge. We ran into our other most favorite CM several times on the island, and here she was, about to run a free throw contest, but we had other places to go.

I'm just going to power through the rest of our island time before I wrap up this post. We took the kids to Scuttle's Cove (childcare) so that we could check out Serenity Bay (adult's only beach.) We had to negotiate how long we were going to leave them there, because they claim to like it less than the on board childcare. I think it was probably only 90 minutes on this day, because we had to be back on board by 4:30 or 5 p.m.

Ah, Serenity Bay. These two pictures are from 2013, when the water was so smooth, we were up to our knees and this far from shore:

And here we are with our half-price Bahama Mama's last year (a deal that was sadly not to be found this time

We had another CC day coming up for Day 3, and we did more new things. Even after that, we agreed we'd need at least one more visit to CC to say we had seen and done it all there. But next time, just a little warmer water, smoother seas.. please?

Our on board adventures continue in Day 2, Part 5: formal night, Enchanted Garden, a show, a surprise, and of course our nightly visit to the D Lounge. What does this self-identified "musical theatre person" think of the DCL main stage shows? I'll try to remember to tell you in a future post.

 

[astronautmom]

When I last left you, we were headed back to the ship after an amazing day at Castaway Cay. The rest of our evening was formal pictures, formal dinner at Enchanted Garden, Villians Tonight in the Walt Disney Theatre, and the Mirror Mirror Gameshow in the D Lounge. I'll see if I can get all that into one post. Some of this I'm pasting from my blog.

At some point, we collected the kids and got back to the ship. It was formal night and we intended to get some good pictures to choose from for our family Christmas card.

Actually, that's not exactly how it happened. We tried to get formal pictures, but the little one was tired and hungry and we got pictures like this:

I think there was a box he wanted to stand on, and then when we offered him the box, he didn't want it, and then he was just over it all.

We gave up and decided to try again after dinner. Moods improved considerably at the Enchanted Garden.

Here's what I have to say about the Enchanted Garden. My husband will tell you it's his least favorite place to eat. I think Animator's Palace would be the favorite, because it's hard to separate the experience from the food, and we just love having the entertainment at dinner. Our kids are with us, after all. Last year, our Assistant Server, who was endearing and I wish I would have given him more credit or even remembered his name, made origami things out of the kids menus. At the time, they loved it, but they were also jealous because they saw kids at other tables get shaped balloons from their assistant servers. This year they were hoping for balloons and our assistant server didn't do anything. So that was a bummer. We also forgot to save our kids menu the first night, but something jogged my memory and we remembered to take one with us from the second night on. The younger two pretty much ordered nuggets and mac & cheese. It's nice that Disney has those things, but I did wish for a little creativity on the kids menus and I resolved to have the kids try some new things at lunch time, since it was buffet style.

This was the second night I ordered from our server Linval's suggestion, another steak dish. He always had two recommendations, but I'm not a huge seafood fan and I'm also not into the "exotic" meats like lamb or duck. (But I did try them both on this cruise, just not as my main entree.) I know we skipped out on dessert this night, because we were full and tired. We did tell our assistant server, but the next night, Linval and our head server both told us how much they missed us at dessert. aw.

After dinner, we usually let the kids go to Oceaneer's, but I can't remember if we did that night or not, because they were still in formal wear, and I know they had their formal wear on later for the game show at the D Lounge.. so either they promised not to destroy their clothes, or they skipped it.

Now I'm remembering that we were second seating for dinner, so in regards to our "mood reset," we went up to the pool deck and got pizza and sandwiches. That would explain why we had no room for dessert later! Then we would have gone to the show. It was Villains Tonight, so we had to drop the little one off to Oceaneer's because it was to scary for him. All three had skipped Villains last year in favor of more Oceaneer's time, so this year the older two wanted to see it.

So I'm a theatre-ish person. I had a related major in college and I've worked as a Stage Manager and other things. You could expect me to be a little snobby about the shows. But one thing I've learned is that it does come down to an individual's enjoyment, and we had a good time at the shows. I think "Sound of Music Live" with Carrie Underwood was a travesty. You liked it? Okay, fine. I just saw the new Annie at the movie theatre and I thought it was terrific. Technical problems bother me though. After the last show last year, I found the cruise director, Christiaan, as he left the stage and I told him that the shows were terrific, the cruise was terrific, but my one complaint (besides the towels) was that the audio balancing was just off. Surely they can mix the sound so that you can hear the vocals over the "orchestra." I realize that some of it comes down to the singer, but across the board, the cast seemed great, I just couldn't make out the lyrics. He asked me to write it on my end of cruise comment card so the right people would see it.

This year was slightly better, some vocals came through really clearly and others were lost among the instruments. So maybe it was an issue of the individual singers or their individual microphones.

*There are show spoilers in the following paragraph.*
My other show problem was with the Golden Mickeys, and I forgot to put it in the Day 1 trip report. There are no warnings that it may be scary for younger viewers, and there is just nothing to indicate that it's not appropriate for all ages. But there is a scene with Ursula in the Golden Mickeys, and her entrance was terrifying for my four year old last year and still terrified him this year when he was five and had seen the show before. It's big, it comes OFF the stage, and it "thunderstorms" in the theatre, for a REALLY long time. It felt like it was going on forever. I apologize to those seated around us that I didn't take my loudly crying child out of the theatre this year. Last year I did, (or wait, that was a different show when the Genie appeared and he was still traumatized from Ursula, so I had to take him out to Oceaneer's and miss a chunk of that show as well.) During the Ursula/storm scene, I just kept thinking, "this will be over any minute now, and then he will be fine." It was also so loud in there that I didn't know how much anyone could hear him anyway. Considering that Ursula appears in Villians Tonight, I don't know why they need that in the GM's. Is Ursula that amazing of a character among all those in the Disney catalog that she deserves two feature roles in two out of only three mainstage productions?
*End spoiler paragraph*

Anyway, I was hoping we'd get lucky and get new shows on the Dream before we cruised again. We didn't, and I didn't mind getting to see Believe all the way through this time (night 4) and the older kids got to see Villians; we got another try at the GM red carpet. We also had a different Entertainer on night 3, so it was fine. But I wouldn't cruise on the Dream again, simply because if I'm going to cruise again, I want to see new shows. If you haven't seen them already, yes, cruise the Dream. Just beware that both the Golden Mickey's and Villains Tonight have scenes that may be scary for young viewers. Even the third show has some pyrotechnics that may be scary for those who are sensitive to those things. The theatre snob in me says that pyrotechnics are often unnecessary.

Alright, after the show and before dinner is probably when we got the good photos, like this one:

and this one:

Since my memory isn't exactly trustworthy on the order of events, I will just say that we got this surprise sometime that night:

It included bags of popcorn that we planned to take to Big Hero 6 on our at Sea day, and bike rental passes for Castaway Cay the next day. We hadn't rented bikes last year and we hadn't watched a movie on the cruise before either. Lots new to look forward to! We wanted to take the big kids to see Alexander and the.. Bad Day, but the show times just weren't going to work for us with everything else we wanted to do.

The big kids and I ended the day in the D Lounge, playing Mirror, Mirror. Little one wanted to go to bed. Dopey was part of the game show and each of my kids got to participate. It was a good time!

Tomorrow we would be at Castaway Cay again, but first, the Disney Jr. Meet & Greet at 9am in the D Lounge.

 

[astronautmom]

Day 3 photos are up on the blog. Not much text yet, I will save that for this thread. Here's a preview:

 

[Kenny1113]

I am so glad I read this! We are doing the same cruise this march that we did march 2014. While I'm looking forward to it, part of me is going...I can't believe we are paying this much to do the same thing. It is reassuring to read it can still be a different expirience.

 

[astronautmom]

I am so glad I read this! We are doing the same cruise this march that we did march 2014. While I'm looking forward to it, part of me is going...I can't believe we are paying this much to do the same thing. It is reassuring to read it can still be a different expirience.

I had the same thought- is it worth it? Obviously it turned out well in our case. We were so comfortable with the fundamentals of how things worked and where everything was, what we did and didn't need to repeat, that we could try a bunch of new things! I still felt nervous as the last day approached, because I didn't know if we could fit in everything we had left to do.

Did you go to Castaway Cay last March? How was the weather and water temp? I'd like to go one more time (at least) but not in chilly water again. I'd like to really swim and snorkel the next time.

 

[astronautmom]

Leading up to the most recent trip, I knew pretty much what to expect. We had cruised on the same ship, same stateroom, done Castaway Cay and a day at sea. I did wonder if the days at CC would be structured differently since there were two of them (no) and whether we would get to stay later on the island the first day (no.) The ship does pull away from the island and out to sea at night, then back to the island again in the morning. So on Day 3, we woke to watch the ship dock again.

We had a date scheduled for 9am with Sophia the First, Jake, and Doc McStuffins. I would call it a breakfast date, except we ate first. I think we had breakfast at Cabana's every morning. The first morning I noticed that there was a custom omelet station, but my plate was already full. When I looked for it on subsequent mornings, they didn't have it. A couple of mornings, we at hot breakfast at Cabana's and then grabbed three little cartons of milk and individual cereal packages to take back to the cabin for a handy kids' snack later. In general, it was NOT the best hot breakfast ever, but I wasn't cooking it or cleaning up after it. There was plenty of fruit available, and just a large variety of foods, so my kids were able to fill their bellies better than they would on a normal day at home. I like to cook, but not in the mornings.

If you recall, we had gotten our tickets to the Disney Junior meet almost immediately upon embarkation. Thanks to the Disboards, we knew to do this. It was there in black and white on the Navigator's front page, but I can't say whether we would have had our wits about us to notice it on our own. I did enjoy having the tickets to the Princess Gathering and to this meet, because the lines weren't long and they moved fast. The PG last year, before tickets was a mob scene and we only knew to get there early thanks to Disboards. But knowing to get there early still meant we had to sit and wait and wait. This time we got there on time and went right in.

The DisJr guys were in the D Lounge. I tell ya what, the D Lounge is where the magic happens.

The big kid was there too, and we made him take some pictures, but if he was impressed with them, he wouldn't admit it.

We were already in our swimsuits, and we thought we might be able to go straight to CC and make the 10am Yoga on Serenity Beach. We probably finished with the DisJr's by 9:15. But... Peter Pan was right there on the balcony, and there weren't so many character opportunities that we thought we could catch him again. Peter Pan is the little one's favorite Disney movie, so we waited in that (long-ish) line:

Little one noticed, "he had red hair!"

I forget the timing at this point, but since we weren't going to make the yoga class, we could take our time with the rest of the dock photo opportunities.

Now, my husband's favorite character:

Stitch was scheduled to be at this spot, so we got in line, and waited and waited.. It was hot in the sun, but we were chill. Hey, stuff happens, right? We had all day on the island. Finally Stitch and his friend stroll up without explanation, and by then, there weren't too many in front of us in line. Stitch was doing some pantomime to my husband and we finally figured out he was giving the thumbs up to his Red Wings shirt. (Go Wings!)

This time, I believe we were smart enough to only grab two towels because the kids were going to Scuttle's Cove and we planned to go back to the ship at least once for their snorkle gear before we picked them up. When you don't have the kids with you, there is so much less to carry and the walk doesn't seem as far!

So the kids safely checked in to SC and we took the tram back to our favorite place:

We checked out the food at the Serenity Bay buffet, but we weren't in the mood for anything yet, so just grabbed cokes and took them to the beach. Those are the chairs we dragged to the shoreline. We sat for a little while, took more pictures of each other, but in the end, we had more planned to do on CC that day, and were restless trying to "relax." The water was too cold to want to swim. I waded out a little bit and came back before I got my suit wet. We went to go get the kids and take them to lunch, but they were being served lunch already, so we went and had Cookies BBQ by ourselves. It was a nice lunch date and we enjoyed getting food only for ourselves and eating it hot.

Next up: The rest of the day at CC.

 

[wendylady30]

Thank you so much for posting this. I'm a bit like you, in that I'm in charge of the planning and wrangling of 3 kids. Lots of great info!!

 

[astronautmom]

Thanks, Wendylady! I'll see how far I can get with the rest of our second day at CC.

We had run back up to the ship after Serenity Bay, before we went to get the kids from Scuttle's Cove. So now we were sufficiently loaded down with snorkle gear, towels and the like. I think there was some issue about the footwear the kids had chosen for themselves, so we had a backpack full of flip-flops or swim shoes too. As I said in my previous post, it was a nice surprise to return to SC and see that the kids had been fed. They were actually just finishing their lunches, and I waved them over to tell them we'd be back as soon as we finished our own lunch.

We picked them up, moods were high, tennis shoes were ruined from water and sand at Scuttle's Cove, Flip Flops were causing blisters you know- just our normal, tragic footwear issues. Somehow we overcame, because it didn't put a damper on our next activity. On the way we took the picture, because she found this sign highly entertaining:

In the background of that picture, you can see the play structure in the water. My oldest had tried it the day before, and it was the farthest any of us got into the ocean at any time on this trip. We didn't do Pelican Plunge this year, but he and I had done it last year.

That afternoon, we took advantage of our "magical family" bike rental passes. It took us until our third visit to the island to come across the bike lot. I thought we'd have passed it before then, but we actually had to ask directions and follow signs to get there. I was impressed with the selection of bikes. Even choosing the bikes was fun, because the kids could "shop" for the perfect size. I was also glad to see helmets in different sizes and a separate return bin with lice spray.

We followed the path to the observation tower. I took note of it at the time, but now I am trying to remember: I think just the one way circle to and from the observation tower was 5K, which would make sense since there is a CC 5K in the morning.

We were the only ones on the bike path and it was a nice, smooth ride, with "wilderness" on either side. Very secluded, comfortable, and peaceful. There were lots of warning signs to stay on the path.

There was one other family at the top of the Observation Tower when we arrived, so we traded cameras to get some family shots:

My kids were excited that there were binoculars up there. These were the type they have at zoos that require quarters, so free binoculars were a big deal to them. There were little metal stork (pelican?) scenes to spot:

We could see the ship over the trees, but not the ocean (at least not in that direction.) It just felt like a completely different island than the beach to which we had become accustomed.

I think the bike ride was a trip highlight for all of us. It's kind of silly, considering we can do a family bike ride at home, but it was really fun. The bikes and helmets were handy, the path was uncrowded, no car traffic, and there was at least one water jug. There were a few cute photo stops along the way, I may add those to a future post. The only blight was at the end of the ride when my oldest crashed into a mom with a stroller. He's a good rider, but not experienced, and he thought he could go around them, but it was a congested area and he should have just stopped. Everybody was okay, but I imagine that mom's adrenaline ran high for another hour. This was right in front of the bike lot, so at least we could just give back the bikes and be done.

If I can convert some more of the bike ride pictures, I'll add them to the next post.

 

[astronautmom]

Here are a few more pictures of our fun bikeride.

The sign says "Do Not Touch Foliage or Leaves Along Path..."

I've got the rest of the Day 3 pictures up on the blog and I will use them in another post here when I am ready to write more details of pirate night. http://kateges.blogspot.com/
Last night I went to see Sting in concert, so please excuse or enjoy my random blog post about that as well.

 

[astronautmom]

Having survived the family bike ride with only one crash, we were ready to visit the family beach one last time. In this swimming spot, there were fish swimming all around us. My husband accidentally kicked one. You can't see very well in this picture, but they are swimming between my legs and I got to "pet" one. The water just looks cloudy because of all the sand we kicked up.

The following picture is actually from the previous day. Here's what I wrote about it on the blog--
I've written before about the Shutter's pictures and I posted a picture they took on the beach at Castaway Cay, but I forgot to mention that on the first day of CC, there were so many Shutter's photographers roaming the family beach, it was almost ludicrous. We took full advantage, since you never know which one will be the money shot, but each time a photographer came, they took a family picture and then either individual shots or action shots or smaller groupings. I have a dozen really nice beach pictures like this, but I'll spare you and only post one more:

So all of you future double dippers, take note. Wear your cutest suit or or matching rash guards on the first day. Luckily, we did this accidentally anyway. We didn't see any photographers at Serenity Bay that day nor any on either beach the next day.

Here is one of the last pictures we took on CC:

It was either before or after my husband took the oldest to go play ping pong In Da Shade. The younger two were happy to play in the sand and splash in the shallow water. They could have done it for several more hours.

All in all, we loved our CC days and were only disappointed that we didn't really use the snorkel gear we had brought along. The water just wasn't warm enough for me. Some people were out swimming, more were out on floats or tubes, but even my oldest wasn't interested in swimming out to Pelican Plunge. He's into water slides in a big way, so I know it wasn't just me, although I am the thinnest skinned in the family.

Don't let that scare you off a November cruise, unless it is the only reason you are going. In 2013, it was warmer and I didn't mind swimming to Pelican Plunge, I just had to get used to the water temp at first. If we go on another cruise, I definitely either want to visit CC when it's hot outside and the water is guaranteed to be warm, or we have to include some Caribbean beaches.

It was time to head back to the ship and change into our pirate costumes. One kid was going to wear the same Jack Sparrow costume as before, one needed a new costume because hers was too pink, and one loved Jake as much as ever, but wanted to be a "regular" pirate this year. My husband had seen some friends' pirate pictures and was ready to step it up a notch, so we hit up the Halloween stores on Nov 1 and found just what we needed in their clearance. I'll put at least one of last year in my next post, but here is what we ended up in this year:

We were happy with the result. As I said on the blog, another passenger asked me if I worked there. We did get a lot of looks as in, "wow, you went all out." Lots of people were in full on costumes though. I think we just kind of make a rambunctious spectacle wherever we go. And I had my Friendly Texan grin.

Incidentally, the pirate costumes came in handy the following week when big kid needed a pilgrim costume for fifth grade. We combined a few pieces from different costumes to make it as plain as possible, and he got special mention for having the best costume. I can honestly predict that we will never again be complimented on having a good costume for a school project. We just got lucky with that theme.

Actually, I wrote the above paragraph on the blog the other day. Then today was yearbook theme day at the big kids' school. Their yearbook theme is Under the Sea. So, Disney Cruise vacation saves the day again, by providing the costume for the "scuba diver." (We already had the shark costume, also thanks to post-Halloween clearance, because of the girl's fascination with marine biology and sharks specifically.)

Still to come, the end of day three. Pirate Night dinner, more character photos and the entertainment.

 

[astronautmom]

I'm thinking that we returned to the ship and immediately changed into our pirate costumes, but there may have been a snack from Flo's in there first. We had gotten soft serve ice cream from Castaway Cay, I have a vague memory of some kind of "emergency" with the ice cream, like someone dropping their entire cone or something else that required shifting gear and looking for napkins... It's good to know that those kinds of things are so quickly forgotten.

We got lots of character photos that night, and I am thinking most were between dinner and the show, so let's just go with that.
Here is a pre-show picture of the pirate night entertainment: Taylor Mason in the Walt Disney Theatre. We didn't take any during the show because the rules on that are quite loud and clear. Taylor called out people during the show who were doing it, not that they stopped. We also attended Taylor's adult show in the Evolution lounge the following night. We thought he was funny both nights. We are suckers for ventriloquism and for laughing.

There is always about an hour to kill between the mainstage show and late dinner. Like I said, I think we usually filled it with Shutter's photos. Except for our formal night mini-meltdown, the kids were very good sports, because, let's face it, they are hams.

They surely don't get it from their mother who one night jumped in on their "Can't Touch This" karaoke, sagged her pants and did the Hammer dance. I was just trying to help. Thankfully, there are no pictures of that occurrence.

This is where we stood in line to meet Tinkerbell and knew we were missing the last Hook & Smee appearance. They were one of our favorite meets on CC last year and they weren't on the schedule much this year. We finished our Tink picture and as daughter was getting this last shot, the boys were already running to try to get in Hook's line at Preludes, but it had just closed. We noticed that there seemed to be fewer character appearances this year over last. The same characters, but fewer appearance times.

Last year's Hook and Smee. The boy was having the best hair day of his life until they got involved:

-cont. in next post-

 

[astronautmom]

Okay, forgive me, I just peeked at the Navigator and the Tink/Hook photos were after dinner. I don't think it really matters to you when we took which pictures, but the pictures we took between the show and dinner were the ones that had us hustling out of the show and jockeying for a good spot in line in the D Lounge. The oldest kid puts up with the Mickey & Pals photos, but he enjoys the Pirate Pictures and this guy in particular:

They are comparing weasels in this picture. Hold the jokes, please.

We're pretty sure that it was the same Capt Jack both years. He was quite flirty, as a Capt Jack should be, and in-character flirting is the only kind I put up with. He was very patient with us and all the different arrangements we asked for. At least we only did one kid solo with him (see above.) In 2013, we also had the Capt Jack's friend use our camera. He was above board for the Shutter's shots, but he did this for our camera:

Yeah, those are his fingers in my son's nose.

For comparison, here is the 2014 Captain Jack:

It would have been fun to meet him on the beach, but we never ran into him there.

Now for dinner at the Enchanted Garden. We had eaten there for formal night and now pirate night. I think those are the only two nights where they take dinner photos, so it would have been nice to have photos in two different restaurants, but oh well.

Last year, my husband wore a fake mustache and eye patch and we never got his individual photo from dinner because the facial recognition software didn't recognize him. This year, it happened to the little one who wore the eye patch on and off with this glasses. However, now I know enough to email Shutter's when we got home and they emailed it. (This is not it.)

That's a famous Mickey Bar, reigning champion of Disney kids' desserts.

With the late dinner and trying to get the Tinkerbell and Hook pictures, we missed the family game show in the D Lounge. Last year we were contestants in the Pirate's Life for Me game.

We tried the late deck party, but they shot off some sort of cannon and little one freaked out. He's not scared of too many things, just thunderstorms and tornados, guns and cannons, fire and fireworks. Also aliens, but there was no chance of those on our cruise. The rest, unfortunately, appeared in one form or another. Basically all the Disney Cruise entertainment has some sort of loud or fiery aspect to it, and knowing that, I carried earplugs around for him, but he was tired and inconsolable, so we high tailed it to our stateroom and watched the fireworks from our verandah. He buried himself in the top bunk and fell asleep.

The only thing I wondered was whether there was accompanying music up on the Deck that we couldn't hear.

That's the end of Day 3. The next day we would be At Sea and we had quite a list of things we wanted to do on our last day:
Arrrcade
Goofy Golf
Rainforest Room
Midship Detective
Mixology
Big Hero 6 in the Buena Vista Theatre
Aquaduck
Photos with the remaining characters
Disney's Believe (mainstage show)
Dinner in the Royal Palace
Last chance karaoke

Do you think we checked everything off our list? Wait and see!

 

[astronautmom]

I forgot to to show the awesome gifts we found in our cabin, I think it was upon return from CC that day:

Those are two different Perry the Platypus plushes and a Merida doll in the middle. There were also personalized coloring pages with the kids' names on them and crayons and stickers. Probably candy or a Mickey shaped rice krispie treat. It was especially cool to realize that the youngest kid got the Perry plush that he had almost bought at Downtown Disney before we got on the ship. It's a good thing he had decided on Stitch instead!

 

[astronautmom]

I've got the pictures of Day 4 up on the blog. I have a bunch of stories to share about mixology, the last dinner, the rainforest spa, and more. I hope to get back to writing about it soon.
http://kateges.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-4-last-full-day-on-ship.html