Part 3 - Bon Voyage

If you are like me then you have it all played out in your head how the day of boarding will go even with a few hiccups because you know they are inevitable. Well here is your warning now, I was going to try to make the 7 days into one post but the more I think about the trip the longer I can already picture this and if it is like the 1st day it won't follow what's in my head ;)

Staying with family was great, they even made us pancakes but by now we have realized that pancakes + road trip = car sick for our youngest. We actually didn't learn that until the day we disembarked but it helped piece together why he was sick on the way home. We repacked the car at their house because we knew it would be hectic trying to unload all our luggage at the Park n' Cruise, although our repacking and saying goodbyes put us behind our schedule until my husband remembered we were avoiding tolls. We decided to bite the bullet and pay the toll so we could get back on schedule. Where we live we don't have tolls and have absolutely no clue how they work but I will continue avoiding them because it didn't save us on time nor money by the end. We would drive 3/4 mile and have to pay, another 4 and pay, 1/4 pay... you get the idea. I think when we totaled it up it was over $20, honestly I stopped counting after $18, I just wanted to get off.

When we finally got to Park n' Cruise we quickly sprang into action unloading and then the waiting began. Last year we used this company and they were pretty small but word had apparently spread, they are very good and inexpensive, we were second in line for our cruise but had to wait about 40 minutes until the next shuttle to take us to port. The only reason I was frustrated was because we were suppose to check in at 12:30 and didn't make it until 1pm.

Crowds get me a little anxious...ok very anxious. So arriving I felt just thrown into the hustle not able to regroup but our boys did great keeping up not complaining much. 3 bags were taken to our room while we carried the rest, not a problem except carrying 24 bottles of water gets a little heavy.

I did find out you are able to take small suitcases as a carry on ::Note to Self:: next time put water in small rolling suite case. Going through the metal detectors is always fun with kids because they are asking a million questions about the process and why they are taking our stuff and then not wanting to go through it without mommy or daddy. Our goal was to take pictures of the whole process but running late and trying to keep up with where to go...well there are no pictures, sorry.

Minnie and Mickey were taking photos when we first walked in the terminal but we decided to just go ahead and jump in line to check in. We normally eat lunch at 11am central time zone and it was already 1pm eastern so food was a high priority but we were hoping to put everything in our room before. Check in went very smoothly because we had done everything online before arriving and had our passports ready to go, 5 minutes tops and we were on our way. They took a family photo that was scanned into their system so when they would swipe our card they could see not only each of us individually but know we were together.

Right before we entered the ship they took our family photo to purchase later...we didn't. As we walked onto the ship they announced us and several staff were lined up clapping and welcoming us aboard. To think there was over 4,000 passengers...

First we tried to find our room but were directed toward the dinning hall because the rooms were not ready yet. Passengers disembark by 9am and check in for the next group begins at noon, so we were off with all our stuff to the Enchanted Garden to eat. We were escorted to our seat and after dropping off everything headed to the buffet. Felt bad for those sitting near us with all our junk everywhere until I realized they were in the same boat (literally). The food was ok granted there were a lot of people so I was still on edge and didn't feel like I could look over the food to see what I wanted. Buffets are not for me because they are always so busy.

Finally time to check out our room and dump our bags! It was pretty much like the photos on their website. I was impressed.

Our boys were swept away by the tv...watching our ship sit at port. We were very curious how the beds were made, we knew the couch converted and the top bunk came from the ceiling but that is when we realized if we wanted it before bed time then we would have to ask. After relaxing a bit and watching the information channel we headed out to explore well and attend our mandatory emergency drill. During the drill we met a very nice family from New Jersey, they helped the waiting fly by.

We discovered the children's area, the Oceaneer's Club and Lab. They were having an open house so we decided to take a look. At the same time we registered the boys. During an open house first few days on the ship is a little insane to try to register. We got a surprise while there, we thought that our youngest was to young to be allowed to go but they said since his birthday is coming up (Christmas) and he is potty trained and verbal that he was allowed to join. They were out of straps so I had to carry their bracelets around with me until they got more, again don't register during open house. During an open house adults are allowed to enter the children's area otherwise only one adult must sign in to go retrieve your child. Our oldest loved it as soon as he saw the video games and my youngest was asleep.

There was a dance floor that was pressure sensitive. Depending how hard you stepped on it then a blob of color would start to spin taking off from the point you touched it. (performed many other functions) 

There were also several other rooms inside the club. This was the laugh factory, there was a comedy playing.

The toy story room was the boys favorite. When we left them most of the time we would find them here when we returned.

We headed back to our room as the ship started to leave port. From our veranda we were able to watch NASA drift off in the distance.

Oh and one of the reasons we went on this trip was celebrating my birthday just my little family, and the staff at dinner. As we started to sail my son sang happy birthday.

Dinner was casual, they ask for no shorts or flip flops. We had the late seating (8:15) so the first night was hard. We were scheduled to eat at Enchanted Garden and once we sat down we met our servers that would be with us for the next 7 nights. They were a great team, performing magic tricks to help keep the boys distracted so we could finish our meal. After desert they brought a sample platter and then they brought me a birthday cake, I was stuffed. There was another table next to ours, we became friends with them as the week went on, but one of the girls was also celebrating her birthday.

If eating with children at the late seating you can sign them up to eat and then be picked up to play at the oceaneer club. Just have to take them to the lobby area and find a team member in a yellow shirt. We never did this but thought it was a great idea.

Also make sure to give feedback to your servers, they bring food to you giving time in between each course unless you want to speed it up. With the kids and typically not eating every course we opted to have the next course within minutes of finishing the first.

Since we could barely move after eating a great meal we headed back to the room to find a seal waiting with the navigator (schedule for the next day)

Day at Sea - Sunday
An amazing thing happened, my youngest slept through the night in his own bed! Maybe this place is magic ;) Since it was a Sunday we ran up grabbed some breakfast enjoyed the view a little before going back to our room and worshiped God. It was important to us that our boys know that no matter where we are to take the time to do what we have been commanded.

Afterwards we grabbed our Navigator Schedule and headed out looking for an adventure. We headed to the Buena Vista Theater and watched Monsters University in 3D. Most of our family was having a great time but since we were one of the last to get in we were closer to the screen, honestly perfect spot for sliding in and out as need be, but my oldest has very sensitive hearing. We have tried to do movie theaters in the past and never have been able to stay the entire time. While he kept asking to go telling us he didn't like the movie we encouraged him to stay and he made it to the end liking it. Our youngest loved it.

Lunch and then off to see if we could swim. Every time we had seen the pool it had been crowded as it was this time but then we stumbled upon this little jewel.

There are 2 splash areas on the ship, Nemo's Reef for babies still in diapers and the AuqaLab. Every now and then you would have people come but for the most part it was always empty. It was kind of chilly because it was overcast and then we hit rain. We found the ice cream station, our stop every afternoon.

We went back to our room hoping to get the boys to nap...instead they watched tv and mommy and daddy napped. When we woke we found we were near a beautiful island...

 The only land we knew it could possibly be was Cuba.

 We spent a lot of time on our veranda, we loved not having to go up to look out. Even more of a bonus was it wasn't as windy as decks 11 and above.

 We had to kill some time before dinner so we took the picture frames we brought to the front desk so they could be signed by all the characters. On the last night they were brought back to our room, which was an exciting surprise for the boys. I have heard people bringing shirts, pillow cases, scrapbook paper, anything that fits in a ziplock bag for signing. Formal night at the Royal Court. It was very pretty and quieter compared to the Enchanted Garden.

 My son is very anti princess at the moment so when his menu had them on it our server Herry brought him a different one to color.

 The food was french cuisine. My husband had french onion soup for his second course. He said it was delicious, unfortunately the oldest didn't care for the smell and already had a headache.

We also hit rougher water, not horrible but enough that my husband wanted to get medicine to make sure he didn't get sick. As for my son they got him medicine as well and walking around helped. If he doesn't drink enough water he develops headaches quickly that leads to him throwing up so we definitely didn't want that happening.

 Of course the little one had to use the bathroom when daddy got back. Nearest bathroom was midship.

 We switched kids at dessert and took a few pictures.

 Big C explaining why he doesn't like princesses, their girls.

 In line to meet Micky while down below the princesses were taking pictures with guests.

Great detail went into the ship which I think helped make even special memories like the ones below even more special.

We are headed back to the central time zone. The few days after the trip we couldn't tell when we were suppose to be hungry.

Looks like I was right, the picture of the hilly island was Cuba and now on to Grand Cayman.

Lamp shades in our room.

Just 2 days and this has already turned into a longer post than anticipated.

Part 2 - Making a list and Checking it Twice

I think I was checking my lists (that's right plural) more than twice a day. I have been told I am a little OCD when it comes to lists and I still have my planner from 5th grade where I started making them. I have evolved and now make lists on the computer/phone but the sticky note is still one of my favorites. I like to physically mark things off, I will write something down just to mark it off.

Some of my lists included things we needed to get done around the house (ie: cleaning, finishing crown, cutting down trees etc.) others were what to pack and things to mentally and physically prepare us for vacation (shopping, swim lessons for the boys, and school schedule) But nothing like having the entire family become sick 2 weeks before we leave with an illness that is highly contagious. I know I have harped on it enough but Hand Foot Mouth is still horrible and luckily I was fortunate enough not to actually get it and instead take care of my 3 guys and the little boy I watch. At least swim lessons finished right before the illness and school was at home so it wasn't a huge ordeal, it even helped me to keep up on laundry and start packing. What it did get in the way of was doing some of our shopping and pretty much our entire to do list for the house except for the cleaning, and I'm surprised that I actually got that done.

My husband didn't know what his schedule was going to be like at work until the week we left because he had been home sick which meant we hadn't planned our trip to Port Canaveral either. We have wonderful friends in Tennessee that offered us a place to stay on the way down which helped me not worry about it as much and helped with expenses. I also knew we would be staying with my brother/sister in-law in Florida. We love spending any time we can get with them especially since we never know when the next time may be.

I knew there was some items we needed but we could pick up along the way and for the most part we have the packing side of a vacation/overnight visit down pretty well right now. A few tips I would recommend is to use gallon size zip lock backs for your clothing especially for kids. It made it so simple to just grab a bag and have their swim and dinner clothes for each day. For us adults we put all our shirts in one, pants in another, you get the idea. It helped keep everything dry and fit better in a suitcase. The boys shared one, my husband and I shared another, and one more with all our shoes, day clothes and shower/makeup/hair bags. It helps also to make sure you don't over pack as much. I am horrible about over packing for the just in case especially medications. Also not knowing how strict Disney would be with their dress code I wanted to make sure all my bases were covered, turns out they are not as strict as I thought they might be but more so than other cruise lines.

We also took 4 carry on bags containing computers (we work as we drive) camera, our day bag (swim suit, meds anything we may need before our bags would arrive at our room), and finally a bag devoted to water bottles. Last cruise the water was absolutely horrible and going on excursions we were very thirsty so we took a bag full so that way we would have an empty bag for any souvenirs we may get. The water turned out to be very good but it was still great to have the bottles for our room (we had a fridge) and going on excursions. Although Disney was also very good about giving us drinks at each port as well.

Disney also sent us a portfolio full with information about the cruise and our luggage tags. My husband and I were so excited to receive this little package in the mail. Before we had to print and staple our tags as well as any info we may want so this was a huge step up. It also contained cards to give to our family in case of emergency to contact us. Very well planned out.

About 12 days before our cruise we received our room number! I was very excited, it was the day after my husband's birthday so it was like a belated gift to him.

Thought I would throw that in there since we were trying to loose as much weight as we could before the cruise we decided to have Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cup Cakes. Very good and helped with portion control.

Driving with 2 kids is always interesting and the first day was no different. We made it to Tennessee by 8:00pm and the kids finally got on a good rhythm using the bathroom at the same stop verses 30 mins after needing to go. Oh and the wreck on the road put us back a bit as well at the very end but all in all it was a smooth trip the first day.

Day 2 was even better, even though we encountered a pretty major wreck in the first 5 minutes of our drive we knew of another way around it. We hit a Walmart in Georgia that was having a huge parking lot "party" for NASCAR and Monster Energy drinks. Very beneficial since in July we decided to quit drinking soda for 30 days to try to kick it for good. It lasted for 40 days and then only a half can if that ever since but 7 to 8 hours in the car and no caffeine we were dragging. So this event was perfect because they were just handing out these Monster drinks for free. Perked my husband up and we were off to our in-laws for a quick visit for the night.

Some key essentials to pack for a cruise:
Sunscreen
Swim Suits(really you can just wear it all day and change in the evening especially on port days)
Jacket or something warm (it is freezing cold inside especially if you are wet)
Sunglasses
Motion Sickness Medication, really take a little of everything you never know what may come up
Laundry bag
Good walking shoes
Lanyard for room key - much easier than digging to find it in a purse or in your pocket
Bottled Water
Snacks - has to be prepackaged if you are wanting to take it on land (we had one family that made a HUGE picnic but caught as they were leaving the ship and had to dump it all. It is illegal to take fruits and other "homemade" foods into other countries and can cost you up to a $25,000 fine.

Finding "Normal" part 1

The last few weeks have been great! Of course it has been busy with recovery, birthdays, packing, and continuing to try to finish up the kitchen but the best part was why we were packing...Vacation!

I'll start back in July when we were trying to decide on what we were going to do for a vacation. It is a daunting task to try to figure out something that will be good for us all (2 adults and 2 kids, 5 & 2) Budget is our starting point but with little ones it rules out to adventures at the moment. The 5 year old is much better about being able to walk more but still wants to be picked up or in a stroller. He also gets growing pains frequently in his legs right now so I understand why it hurts. The 2 year old is very strong willed and wants to walk but really needs to be in the stroller because his pace is pretty slow unless he is running which then includes not watching and typically falling. I know this is typical for these ages but these are the reasons we shouldn't go to Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, or anything to physical just yet.

We had been on a cruise last September and while we were able to disconnect from phones/internet, the beaches were fun, and we were able to travel to several places without having to pack there were a lot of downsides to me. We are a family who does not smoke or drink so having to walk to dinner through the bar/casino and the designated place to smoke...by the time we got to dinner we didn't have much of an appetite. There was very little for the boys to do and the family friendly shows were just advertisements to come to the adult only shows. Pretty much every family with children got up and left within the first 15 minutes of one show because the comedian was talking about how much it sucked he had to perform a family friendly show and that we should come back at 10 for the real show. As we neared the end several other passengers would come up and say that Disney was far better especially for kids, in our head we knew it just had to be the case but didn't think it would ever be a possibility.

I have always kept an eye on Disney cruises though trying to find deals but it seemed impossible. My husband really wanted to go on another cruise, I thought he was a bit crazy, still the best deal I was finding was an interior state room which was still normal price but cheaper because of the time of year. I tried talking him into going to Chicago again, we spent our honeymoon and first anniversary there and my oldest wanted to see a big city. It would be cheaper, closer, and we knew that we could take the train or drive. He was leaning towards it too until I started to rethink things after talking to some friends.

We knew that our trip to Florida in March was a bust and this would probably be our last time to get a cheap rate for my youngest and both my husband's and my birthday were coming up. In fact it was a birthday I preferred to get away from so no one would be able to do anything for so I started looking things up again and that is when I found it...VGT. Now I had to talk my husband into it.

Guaranteed VGT is basically we know that we are getting a Veranda room but don't know where or how big it will be until about 12 days before we sail and only offered about 45 days before sailing for that last minute incentive. It was a great deal that shouldn't be passed up but it was also about 2 weeks before we had planned to go. My husband was worried about work and leaving his team abandoned at a critical time but once we looked at the dates and realized he would also have Labor Day it was looking up. With having a holiday typically things are a little slower for that week, he also has a great team that held down the fort while he is gone so we decided to go for it.  7 days in the Western Caribbean disconnected from everyone and hoping that no hurricanes were headed our way.

Our expectations were high, even though we got a great deal it still cost quite a bit more than the cruise last year. Last year the private island we visited was heavenly so we were hoping to encounter the same with Disney's Castaway Cay or other beaches we may visit along the way.

Still stress was at an all time high trying to get the house cleaned, kitchen finished, figuring out arrangements for our dogs, packing, working, oh and lets not forget that we started homeschooling 3 weeks before we left...

Looks like this is going to have to be a few posts