I Just Wanna See the Floating Lanterns Gleam! September 2023 Double Dip TR **COMPLETE** 2/25 x4

[khertz]

I Just Wanna See the Floating Lanterns Gleam!
September 2023 Double Dip TR ​

Welcome, Foolish Mortals, to my 3rd Disney Cruise Line TR! Although it’s our 3rd Disney sailing, it was a trip of many DCL firsts! After 2 cruises on the Fantasy, this was our first sailing on the OG Disney ship, the Disney Magic. It was our first Halloween on the High Seas cruise, our first time sailing from the Port of Miami, and our first Double Dip itinerary!

In case you don’t know who we are, here is a quick intro to our family.

I am your host…your ghost host. Ok no, not really, but I am your narrator for this TR! I work as an oncology nurse to fund my Disney obsession. I have many Disney favorites, but one of my biggest loves is all things Rapunzel and Tangled, so needless to say, I was VERY excited to get to experience the Rapunzel-themed Disney Magic!

IMG_0595 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

DH is the other half of this tag team, and normally he is the photographer for the entire trip to complement my note-taking and TR writing. But on a cruise, he definitely did not utilize his larger DSLR camera nearly as much as he normally does so most of the photos from this trip are from our phones and our waterproof camera. He is a big Donald Duck fan!

IMG_2818 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Finally, there’s DS and DD. DS is recently 13, but was still 12 on the cruise. DD turned 8 at the end of the summer break in August. DS enjoyed his freedom on the cruise this time, so there will be plenty of times where we are doing something and he was off with his friends in Edge.

IMG_2825 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Our trip dates were 9/23-9/30. Since our cruise was only 5 nights leaving on a Monday, we had a little bit of time in Miami prior to the start of the cruise. Our itinerary was Castaway Cay, Nassau, Castaway Cay, and then a sea day to end the cruise. This cruise was definitely different from our first two cruises and in some ways that was a good thing, and in some ways it was not as good. But overall, we had an absolutely amazing vacation, and we cannot wait to cruise with DCL again!

I hope you will join in as I recap a really fun, really memorable, and very magical trip aboard the Disney Magic!

 

[khertz]

Links

Day 00: Saturday September 23rd-Travel Day
Day 0: Bienvenido a Miami

Day 01: Sunday September 24th-Miami
Day 1 Part 1: Miami Seaquarium
Day 1 Part 2: Swimming with Seals

Day 02: Monday September 25th-Embarkation Day
Day 2 Part 1: Welcome Aboard!
Day 2 Part 2: Sail-A-Wave
Day 2 Part 3: Way Down Deep Inside I've Got a Dream!
Day 2 Part 4: Beware the Frozen Heart

Day 03: Tuesday September 26th-Castaway Cay
Day 3 Part 1: Another Glorious Morning...Makes Me Sick!
Day 3 Part 2: And Overabundance of Desserts
Day 3 Part 3: So You Think You Know Your Family?

Day 04: Wednesday September 27th-Naussau, Bahamas
Day 4 Part 1: Atlantis
Day 4 Part 2: A Pirate's Life for Me
Day 4 Part 3: Aaarrrrr Ya Hungry?

Day 05: Thursday September 28th-Castaway Cay
Day 5 Part 1: Taking the Plunge
Day 5 Part 2: Snorkeling Scenery
Day 5 Part 3: Animator's Palate

Day 06: Friday September 29th-Day at Sea
Day 6 Part 1: A Very Royal Gathering
Day 6 Part 2: A Very Royal Birthday Celebration
Day 6 Part 3: At Last I See the Light
Day 6 Part 4: Until We Meet Again

Day 07: Saturday September 30th-Disembarkation Day
Day 7: So Long, Farewell

​

 

[khertz]

Day 00: Saturday September 23rd

As some of you may know from my previous TRs, we live about 2 hours away from the airport in New Orleans. Since we had a later flight to Miami, we didn’t have to spend the night in the New Orleans area like we have had to do in the past. Instead we were able to have a normal morning at home, finish packing, load up the car, and leave after an early lunch to arrive at the airport around 1:30 pm.

DH dropped off me and and the kids with our luggage, then drove to my grandmother’s house nearby to leave the car and took an Uber back to the airport. While we were waiting for him to come back, I tagged and checked our large suitcase.

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Security was mostly uneventful as the line was not too long, but for some reason our shoes got flagged and the TSA agents just kept sending them through the machine over and over (and over). But we still had plenty of time to get to our gate and even to have some Chick Fil A before boarding.

Once we boarded, we took the very last row and I sat with the kids on one side of the plane while DH sat across the aisle from us.

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Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We took off on time at 3:55 pm and had a 1 ½ hour flight to Miami. With the time change, we landed close to 7 pm. To get to the rental car pickup, we had to take a monorail, so DD thought that was pretty fun.

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When we got to the Hertz area in the rental car garage, there was only one car left in the gold area where they had told us to choose from, and another group got to it first. We went inside the Hertz kiosk and the girl working there was completely unhelpful, she just said they “should be bringing some in soon.” So we figured we were just going to have to stand there and wait, but someone else was out at a little desk inside the garage who said he could help us. He radioed someone, and then told us a row number to choose from and we had bigger vehicles to choose from than what we had reserved! We ended up with a Chevy Equinox which was nice and roomy.

We made it to our hotel for the next couple of nights, the Comfort Suites, by the hardest because we missed our first turn, and from then on our GPS was a total mess. It would tell us the craziest directions, like “Take a sharp left” at an area that was not really an intersection, and would mean making a sharp U-turn across several lanes of traffic. But eventually we made it, DH went out to get us a late dinner while the kids and I got ready for bed, and we finally got to sleep around 10 pm.

 

[Flossbolna]

Great start to the trip report! I am really looking forward to read about how this trip was different from previous trips!

 

[rdkeim]

A mostly relaxing start to your trip! Nice you have some time in Miami before the cruise. Anxious to hear what you do with your time there - I've never been to Miami.

 

[NAB]

Your kids are Looking so grown up now since I read your last trip report.

Can’t to read more.

 

[princesserin1350]

Love your past trip reports and so looking forward to your new one!

 

[cgersic1]

I don't comment on here often, but I've always enjoyed your trip reports so much! The photo of your kids in the introduction looks just like you and your husband in kid form They are growing up! Can't wait to follow along!

 

[khertz]

Great start to the trip report! I am really looking forward to read about how this trip was different from previous trips!

A mostly relaxing start to your trip! Nice you have some time in Miami before the cruise. Anxious to hear what you do with your time there - I've never been to Miami.

Yes, it was kind of nice to have a day in Miami to explore and do something before boarding the ship!

Your kids are Looking so grown up now since I read your last trip report.

Can’t to read more.

They have grown so much in the last couple of years! It is really crazy to look back and see the difference. Thanks for joining in!

Love your past trip reports and so looking forward to your new one!

Welcome back!!

I don't comment on here often, but I've always enjoyed your trip reports so much! The photo of your kids in the introduction looks just like you and your husband in kid form They are growing up! Can't wait to follow along!

Aw thanks so much!! So happy to have you back!

 

[khertz]

Day 01: Sunday September 24th

After getting to bed kind of late for us the night before, we were still up a little early around 7 am so that we could have breakfast at the hotel before getting to 8:30 am mass. We went to Blessed Trinity church which was just a few minutes away from our hotel, and it was a very small but very welcoming church. People were welcoming us, saying Good Morning, and the priest thanked us for coming on the way out. So if you’re ever leaving out of Miami for a cruise or just visiting there and need to go to Mass, it was a great choice!

After church, we went back to the hotel to change and pack a bag for the day so we could drive over to the Miami Seaquarium. We had purchased one of the animal encounters for the later afternoon, but it came with all day admission, so we wanted to check out the rest of the park before our encounter started. We arrived around 11 am, and went to pick up our wristbands before going inside.

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Upon entering, there were a bunch of flamingos! DD absolutely loves flamingos, so of course we had to stop and check them out first.

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Next we went over to check out the dolphin exhibit. Who doesn’t love dolphins? There were some stairs up to a viewing area to see them on the surface of their enclosure, so we went up there and got to see them having the best time playing with these little inflatable toys. They would use their noses to push them down under the water, then go after them when the toys popped up to the surface.

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There was also one dolphin that kept going over to one of the water fountains and opening his mouth to catch the water.

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We went back down to see them in the tank and check out a few of the other smaller tanks. Of course we had to get some photos of the Finding Nemo friends we found.

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And of course, as a New Girl fan, I had to get photos of the lionfish. The one that floats like an angel. IYKYK.

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There was a Sea Lion Show about to start. DS has really loved these animals for the last several years, so this was a must do for us. We passed the seal pool on the way to the show and this seal was just chilling half in half out of the water.

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Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

DS was so excited!

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After the show, we were getting pretty hungry so we went to grab some lunch and spent way too much money on burgers, fries, hot dogs, and macaroni & cheese.

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You can see that little mark on DD’s nose near her eye where she got clocked in the face by a hula hoop at school just a couple of days before leaving.

 

[sadiecatie]

Looks like a fun pre-cruise day in Miami! I’m interested to hear all about your experiences on and impressions of the Magic - we’ll be sailing on her for the first time in May.

 

[rdkeim]

Looks like a nice aquarium. Something for everyone. An animal encounter - fun! Anxious to read about that!

 

[dreamin'boutdis]

I am so excited to read your report! We just booked our kids' first cruise - it will be on the Magic, and they will be really close in age to your children when we sail! Looking forward to learning all I can from you

 

[khertz]

Looks like a fun pre-cruise day in Miami! I’m interested to hear all about your experiences on and impressions of the Magic - we’ll be sailing on her for the first time in May.

So exciting!!

Looks like a nice aquarium. Something for everyone. An animal encounter - fun! Anxious to read about that!

It is a very nice little sea life park to visit! It was a great way to spend just one day in Miami.

I am so excited to read your report! We just booked our kids' first cruise - it will be on the Magic, and they will be really close in age to your children when we sail! Looking forward to learning all I can from you

Oh that's so great!! I hope I can provide some good insight for you. Definitely ask any questions you think of on the way and I'll do my best to answer whatever I can!

 

[khertz]

Day 01 Continued: Sunday September 24th

After lunch, we wanted to go check out the manatees but had to stop for some photo ops along the way.

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There was an area called Discovery Bay that we looked around next. It had some touch pools, an area to check out some tropical birds, and a small penguin exhibit.

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Then it was time for what we had come here for, our animal encounter!! There are lots of experiences to choose from. There were plenty of dolphin encounters of varying degrees and prices, a shark & stingray option, and even one with penguins which I would have loved to do but DD was too short to experience. They also offered…a seal encounter!! This first came onto my radar when we were going to Hawaii a couple of summers ago in 2021 and their Sea Life Park on Oahu offered a sea lion encounter. I wanted to do this for DS so badly, but since we were going kind of soon after the islands were starting to reopen from shutdowns, this experience did not come back in time for our trip. We also looked at doing a seal encounter when we spent a weekend at Panama City Beach over this past summer, but with it being so short of a trip we didn’t want to lock ourselves into a specifically timed activity when the goal of the weekend was to relax. So in the end, we thought it would be a perfect thing to do on a day in Miami before the cruise. DS is in the tween stage, so it is hard to get him genuinely excited about something, but this absolutely did just that.

There was a central check-in location where we went to check in for our experience. There were a ton of other people in there, but most seemed to be doing some kind of dolphin encounter. When it was our turn, someone grabbed us to bring us to the back area where the larger dolphin pools were. They had locker rooms and included the use of a locker for our items. You can’t wear ANY jewelry and they are serious about this. While we were loading stuff into our lockers, there was a small group of women who were bucking against this because they had all just gotten new piercings the day before, but there were no exceptions made.

They provided wetsuits and water shoes for each of us and gave us about 15 minutes to visit the locker rooms and change.

IMG_0243 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

Our seal encounter was going to take place in their enclosure near the front of the park, so unlike those doing the dolphin encounters who were right there by the pools in the backstage area of the park, we had to cross the entire park in our wetsuits to get to ours! It was really hot and a little embarrassing, but we were the only ones in that time slot so we had the experience to ourselves.

While waiting for the go-ahead to get into the water, the guy who had led us across the park gave us some fun facts about seals and sea lions. Then it was time to get into the water! We got to interact with two seals, a male named Coco and a female named Scallop and their trainers. The trainers explained that we would be able to touch and interact with the two seals, and also that we would be posed for some photos with the seals. The photographer took a lot of photos of the experience!

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I expected them to feel more rubbery but they actually have hair so it felt like a wet dog.

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Throughout the whole experience, the trainers gave us even more information about how they train the seals, how to tell a male from a female, and lots of other facts.

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We ended the experience with a splash fight!

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They were SO cute and fun to interact with! We all enjoyed it, but DS was just beaming through the entire thing and it made me so happy to see him so happy. At the end of the trip, he said this was still his most favorite thing we did for the entire vacation.

We went back to the locker rooms to rinse off and change back into our clothes. There is a little shop where you can go to view your photos, and it is charged based off of how many people are in your group, so for us it was $200 for our photos. DH was not too thrilled to have to pay that much, but it really wasn’t an option not to get the only memories we’d have of the experience.

After we cleaned up, we decided we were ready to go. There was a machine to buy souvenir coins and DS wanted the sea lion one so we stopped to get it.

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DD wanted a pressed penny and the machine was near the entrance. The girl working at the gift shop right there was happy to make some change for DD and picked out the shiniest pennies she could find in her register.

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Then we made the drive back over the bridge to get back to our hotel.

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We wanted to get a case of water to bring on board with us the next day, and our sunscreen container had busted in our luggage while traveling and had a big crack in it, so we also wanted to get a few travel containers so that we could transfer the sunscreen into smaller bottles for the cruise. So we stopped at Walmart, but it was absolute INSANITY in there. The check outs were absolutely overflowing with people and we were even having a hard time just walking through the store because of the number of people. We had just spent the day in the sun and we were hot, tired, and did not feel like taking an hour to get just a couple of items so we bailed out of there. Somehow we didn’t pass a single other pharmacy or dollar store on the route between Walmart and our hotel, so we just went back and up to the room.

The hotel offered a free shuttle to the cruise port, so we stopped at the desk to set that up and booked the 10:30 am shuttle. While the kids and I went to start showering, DH went to Publix to get the water and ended up just buying a brand new sunscreen, plus he stopped to get us some dinner. Then he had to bring the rental car back to the airport and got an Uber back. It was another 10 pm bedtime for us by the time we had eaten and showered and settled down. But tomorrow was finally cruise day!!

 

[princesserin1350]

What an amazing experience for all of you, but especially for your DS! He is just beaming in those photos. What special memories, even if it did cost $200 to get the record of them.

 

[rdkeim]

What a wonderful experience! So nice to do it as a family and have that memory. You all look SO happy. Worth every penny for sure but have to agree the photo expense seemed high. But, I couldn't pass them up either if it was me

 

[khertz]

What an amazing experience for all of you, but especially for your DS! He is just beaming in those photos. What special memories, even if it did cost $200 to get the record of them.

He still says it was the best part of the vacation!! $200 was painful, but absolutely worth it.

What a wonderful experience! So nice to do it as a family and have that memory. You all look SO happy. Worth every penny for sure but have to agree the photo expense seemed high. But, I couldn't pass them up either if it was me

It was definitely an expensive day but worth if for the memories and the pure joy on his face.

 

[khertz]

Day 02: Monday September 25th

The next morning, we woke up very excited for EMBARKATION DAY!!! We took advantage of not having a long drive to get to the port and slept in until about 8 am. After getting dressed, we got some breakfast and saw tons of other families ready for their cruises doing the same thing! Many of them were also heading out on our same DCL sailing, although there were quite a few other groups going to other cruise lines as well. DD and I were trying out our new Minnie Mouse ear scrunchies.

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After breakfast, we still had time to go up to the room to finish packing and reorganizing everything in preparation of getting on the ship. Our shuttle to the port was scheduled for 10:30 am, so we headed down to the lobby around 10:00 to wait. We were sitting next to another big family group that included grandparents, parents, and several kids, and they were all wearing matching DCL shirts. We chatted with them for a little bit about how excited we were to be cruising with Disney. Spoiler alert, when we got on the ship, they were our next door neighbors! So we ended up seeing that family a lot!!

Our shuttle arrived and started boarding at 10:20, and we took off a little after 10:30 for the short drive to the port. DD was being a brat because she wanted to watch her tablet, but I told her she did not need it for such a short drive. So she was a big grump but the rest of us were excited!

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Since our shuttle was early, we got to the port well before our PAT of 12:00 pm and it was raining as we pulled up. Luckily, there was a nice sized overhang to stand under, and they had a separate line for the earliest PATs of 11-11:30 and then another one for 12-12:30. We had read online that they will turn you away if you arrive before your PAT, but that was not our experience here in Miami! They actually started letting us move inside shortly after arriving, and we were through security and waiting in the waiting area by 11:30.

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We had fun listening to Disney songs over the speakers and taking photos while we waited for them to start boarding. We had gotten boarding group 9.

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Our group was called very quickly, and we were boarding the ship by 12:25! Pretty amazing considering we had a 12 pm PAT!

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Very soon, we were being welcomed aboard the beautiful Disney Magic, which was all decked out for Halloween on the High Seas!

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The first thing we wanted to do was have some lunch, so we headed upstairs towards Cabanas. But along the way, we passed the soft serve machine on the pool deck, and I mean, when on vacation…

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I thought I was getting my first vanilla & chocolate swirl cone, but I accidentally got chocolate & banana! It wasn’t terrible, but I didn’t end up finishing it. We took our cones with us to get in line at Cabanas. I knew in the back of my mind that the Magic is smaller than what we are used to on the Fantasy, but I was still surprised by how small Cabanas seemed in comparison. At this point though, it’s early enough and there are few enough people on board that we had no problem getting some food and finding a seat by a window.

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While we were eating, DS lost a tooth! I didn’t take a photo of that though, don’t worry. Lol As we were sitting there eating, it was getting noticeably busier, and by the time we finished and got up to leave, the line of people waiting to get in had grown considerably! Rooms were still not going to be ready for awhile so we decided just to explore on the way to check out Open House at the kids club.

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We found the Soul Cat Lounge, which was new to the Magic since the dry dock.

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We also passed the movie theater, and checked out what movies would be showing. They had several showings of Hocus Pocus, Haunted Mansion, Elemental, Peter Pan & Wendy, and also the new Indiana Jones which we had been hoping to see, but all of the times conflicted with other stuff we had planned.

The kids had energy to burn, and the empty movie theater was the place to do it.

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We went to check out the Oceaneers Club/Lab. Since we had registered the kids during our online check-in, we had gotten their bands at the port check in desk. DD put hers on, but DS decided he was not interested in the Club and instead wanted to go to Edge for the whole cruise.

On the Magic, the two entrances to the two different sides of the club are pretty far apart, which confused us since on the Fantasy they are right down the hall from each other. We thought maybe DD would have to choose which side she wanted to visit and could only be checked in or out from the one she chose. Once we got in during open house, we realized there was a fun “hidden passageway” for the kids to take between the two sides, so she thought that was pretty cool!

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After looking at both sides, DD decided she would probably spend more time in the Lab since the Club side was geared more towards the younger kids. Then DS wanted to go check out Edge, which was up on the pool deck so we went there next.

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The counselors in Edge told DS to come back once he got his KTTW card and they would give him a sticker to show he was eligible for Edge and let him in and out. It was much smaller than the Edge on the Fantasy, but DS was still really looking forward to hanging out there during the cruise.

By then, it was close enough to 2 pm that we decided to head to Deck 7 to see about getting into our stateroom. The hallways were still blocked and said rooms would be ready at 2:15 so we waited. And waited, and waited. It was very hot in some of the hallway and stairwell areas, and it was definitely hot here with so many people waiting to be able to get to their rooms.

We were in room 7508 which was an oceanview room, and prior to the cruise, we had purchased the Halloween room decoration package as a surprise for the kids. I got a video of them entering the room and seeing it all for the first time!

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The decor included a couple of hanging banners, a big fluffy blanket, a Mickey pumpkin pillow, and a Goofy trick or treating bag.

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Our luggage began arriving very quickly, so we started unpacking and decorating our stateroom door!

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[khertz]

Day 02 Continued: Monday September 25th

Muster drill was at 4, so once we had mostly unpacked, we left the room around 3:30 to try to find our muster station. This brought us past the ice cream again, so…

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We wandered entirely too long trying to find our station out on the deck before finally just asking and finding out our station was in the Walt Disney Theater. We were very excited that ours was inside, but we wished we had asked someone a lot sooner because we walked outside on the deck way longer than we needed to!

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The muster drill did not take too long, thankfully, so we went to the Sail-A-Wave party right after it was over.

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The CMs called for the kids to go in front of the rope so they could see and participate. I was surprised DD actually did it, because usually she is too shy.

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Even though it started raining off and on, the show went on and the Fab 5 came out to get the party started!

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IMG_2618 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_2625 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

I mean, is there anything better than hearing the ship’s horn blare When You Wish Upon a Star and being told you’re officially ON VACATION!!!

IMG_2632 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

They let the kids come out onto the dance floor and got them moving. I tried to get videos of DD because she was SO into it, but she was out in the middle of all of the kids so it was hard to see her. But she was having a great time! We left a little before it was over because it was HOT and we wanted to have enough time to freshen up before dinner. We stopped back at Edge so DS could get his sticker, and DD challenged DH to some foosball while waiting.

IMG_2651 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We headed back to the stateroom so that we could shower and change for dinner. The kids were very excited about our porthole!

IMG_0262 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

DD decided for the first night, she wanted to wear one of her two Elsa dresses to dinner. We had brought her hairpiece and headband that she got at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique in January, but just wanted to wear the headband this time.

IMG_2653 by disneymom1024, on Flickr


IMG_2654 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​