Last day at sea

On our last day at sea we tried to do everything that we wanted too since we knew it would be over soon.  Our morning started out with Mickey Mouse Waffles. I love the melted chocolate on Z's chin. Yes, we let him dip the waffles in chocolate. We were on vacation, right? 

 After breakfast we hit the Mickey Pool.  I think started growing fins because we were in this pool for the entire morning. 

 After lunch Z hit the Kids Club again.  I dropped in to see if he wanted to come out and this is what I saw.  They were playing a laser game called "Find Tink". It was a scavenger hunt. I was so impressed!  All of the kids were supposed to close their eyes and someone would place Pixie Dust in their hands. Then they had to say, "Faith, Trust, & Pixie Dust" while eyes were closed and toss it in the air. If you truly believed Tinker Bell would appear. Next thing you know the ceiling started to glow. It was so cute.

 Zachary had to show me is face. They face painted. He asked for "Spiderman" so they painted a web on one side and a spider on the otherside. 

 After a little time in Kids Club we went to see Stitch from Lilo & Stitch. We had never seen this movie but Z fell in love.  Stitch hosted a Luau one night in the Kids Club so Z bonded with him.  This was and still is his favorite character.  Stitch was so sweet with the kids. 

 Kissing Z

 Z would like to say....This is me all by myself with Stitch (he's sitting right next to me as I am blogging)

 That night Z & I attended the most amazing musical show. My pics are not good at all because of all the lights and movement but this musical featured all the Disney Faves....Beauty & The Beast, Lion King, Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Aladdin, Peter Pan, etc.  It was done so well!  I would have paid $100 a ticket to see this show.  I am still in awe at how awesome it was.  Here's the beast!

 After the show we went to dinner in Tritons. Here is all the wait staff waiting to greet us.  Z was looking back at us to make sure it was okay to go in.

 Z was rather upset that we "made" him come to dinner. He wanted to eat at the Kids Club but since it was our last night we made him come. Plus our waiters kept wondering why Zachary didn't like to eat with us.  The little man sitting next to Z is STITCH.  Z bought him with his birthday money and told us that it was his brother since he doesn't have one. 

 Mommy & Z at dinner

 We celebrated my birthday one more time while on the trip.  The wait staff love celebrations so we had to celebrate again.  The cake topper was a chocolate cruise ship. 

 After dinner we met up with our new friends, Steven & Jen. Do yourself a favor and enlarge this photo.  Steven is not on stilts.  He is 7 foot 1. When we met them on the beach he was wearing a black & gold visor that had an embroidered 7 foot 1 on it.  Me being myself said, "Are you really 7'1 ?"  His response & Kevin's was would he have a custom visor made if he wasn't?  We had the best time with our new friends. We share a love for our two favorite football teams....MIZZOU & IOWA. 

 Just to show you how tall Steven really is....we took a picture together.   Me being 5'1 and him being 7'1. 

Pirate Day on the cruise!

Get ready for picture overload. I really did try to edit but I didn't want to leave anything out! 

On Tuesday of our cruise we stopped at Castaway Cay (pronounced KEY) which is Disney's private island.  The only people on the island were people & Cast members from our cruise. I was glorious.  Again we were about the only family out there at first. There was so way we could sleep in. I gave that up when I became a mom...so when Z woke we did too.  We ate breakfast on the boat and then hit the beach.  This was Z's first reaction.  He was been on a beach before but he LOVES it. 

 In the last post I mentioned my friend Fawn.  Another one of her genius suggestions was to bring your own beach toys.  Because we have had this cruise booked since March I had plenty of opportunity to catch the after-summer sales for beach toys, sunscreen etc.  All of the families around us on the beach asked us how we knew to bring toys.   THANK YOU FAWN....all the other families spent about $25 on beach toys after their children saw Z's stash. 

 This is the slides at Castaway Cay. Z had no interest in going down this.  Thank God!  The water was freezing.  We had no idea what it would be like in November. It was COLD at first then by they afternoon it either warmed up or we got used to it. 

 Here's my toes in the sand.....Awwww!

 Kev & Z braving the cold ocean water.

 Z made himself a sand seat. 

 Minnie Mouse on the Island

 We met a family while we were on the beach. They live 3 hours away from us and have 4 year old twin boys.  We had so much in common with them and really enjoyed their company.  After Z and their boys played all morning the kids decided they wanted to go to the Kids Club on the beach.  At the outside club they played water games, had a whale bone hunt, a treasure hunt, and ate lunch. Here is a pic of Z when we came to pick him up. He was a sandy, wet mess but loving life.

While Zachary, Ashton, & Brayden were at the kids club we went to the adult only beach to sun bathe and have a bbq lunch. 

 Here are Zachary's new friends, Ashton & Brayden. 

 When we boarded the cruise ship later that afternoon Z was STARVING.  He informed me that he did not want to eat lunch at the kids club because he did not want to miss out on the games. So I ordered him room service while Kevin took a nap.  Meanwhile Z & I watched "CARS" in our room and ate his lunch.

 On Tuesday night on the cruise we had PIRATE NIGHT.  Again my friend Fawn informed me all about it. Basically the Cast Members and guest dress up like Pirates for a Pirate Party. The idea is that "THE PIRATES FROM THE CARIBBEAN" aboard the boat to take over.  Thankfully, we had just celebrated Halloween so I stocked up after the holiday and got us all pirate costumes. 

 Arrrrr....Here's Pirate Z

 In my first post about our cruise I mentioned how much I love my husband because he wore the Mickey Ears...well heres another example of him taking one for the team. He was in full pirate gear too.  At first he felt funny but by the end of the night he joked that his elastic loose pants were so comfortable that he wanted to wear the entire outfit to Thanksgiving. 
**Z is holding up his sword so you can't really see his face. 

 On our way to dinner Z requested that we take him to Kids Club so that he could participate in the pirate dinner and games before the party. So we let him go...plus his new friends were going to be in there.  After dropping him off we went into the sports lounge to wait until our dinner. Kevin found a game that he was obscessed with.  Basically you tossed this strink with a washer on it trying to latch it on a hook. IT. WAS. HARD.  The cast member in the back with the red apron was giving him tips.  When he showed Kevin how to do it he would "Ring the Bull" every time.  Kevin I think did it twice in the course of 30 minutes. I never got it to work.  See picture below...

 Here is the game board where you try to ring the bull with the washer.  It would be a cool basement game...Becki Moss if you are reading this...Ryan needs this. 

 We felt funny at dinner not having Zachary with us since we were in full-on Pirate garb but we had a good time.

These are our waiters for the week Edwin and Allwyn.

This is one of my most favorite pictures from the trip. Kevin put Z on his shoulders so he could see the dancing and Pirate skit. 

During the Pirate Party they had a full-on food & dessert buffet.

Minnie was teaching a special dance. I have several video clips of Z dancing but I am having issues posting them.  They are hilarious. He was putting his heart, soul, and groove into these dances.

After the Pirate Party they had fireworks at sea. I guess Disney is the only cruise line that is approved to do fireworks at sea.  They were neat and I swear this one is supposed to be the Mickey & Minnie ears.

Kevin couldn't resist the huge turkey legs.  He was in heaven!

Arrrrrr....this is good!

Pirate night was a hit!  As much as Kevin frowned at the idea of dressing up when I first tossed the idea around he was so glad that we did. We had a blast!

Cruisin' Fun

Our first day and night of cruising was fun but we were SO tired from traveling to the cruise ship and getting accustomed to everything.  I forgot to add that the first night at sea was SUPER choppy.  It didn't bother me but I think I was the only one on the cruise that did not mind it.  People were dropping like flies from ocean sickness. Luckily Kevin took some meds and was fine. Z never complained so it didn't bother him either.

I had been reading online that some family's decorate their cabin doors with magnets. Z loved putting them on and we never had to wonder which rooms was ours.  Funny thing we never saw another decorated door so it really was not necessary. HA! It said "Our first Disney Cruise 2010"


Here is Zachary immediately after  he realized that we had a window and that we were on the water. He was so surprised and excited! 

 As you can see he is ready for day 2.

 After breakfast we kid the Mickey pool.  As you can see there were only three other families present at this pool.  I am not sure where everyone else was but we had it all to ourselves.  Z was in heaven!

 Once Z went down the Mickey Slide once he just kept going and going.  He LOVED it!

 Here is Z begging to go again. After about 5 slide trips of asking if he could do it again. I told him he didn't have to ask me every time...especially since there were only 3 kids out there.  I told him that I was right there reading my magazine and if he needed me to come get me. 

 During our lunch on the deck, Donald & Daisy stopped by.  Here they are signing his book.

 Here's Donald taking Z's drink and chicken fingers. Zachary thought this was HILARIOUS!

 This was a trip to get this photo. Z talked about "Hook" way before we even left for our trip.  He wanted to see him however whenever we actally saw him he was SCARED out of his pants.  I don't blame him...Captain Hook was very bold and scary.  He would stomp his boots to signal to come here and then he would put his hook around the kids necks.  Thankfully Hook & the cast member with him realized how tramatic this was for Z so he let up a little so that we could get a pic.  I think my fingers were about to fall off because Z was squeezing them so much.

 That afternoon we put Zachary in the Kids Oceaneer Club for Cooking School with Ratioulle.  This was our first time putting him into the club. We got a pager and Z had a GPS on him so they knew where he was at all times.  Kevin and I got off the boat at port which was Nassau.  We weren't impressed but we enjoyed some time by ourselves on the island. When we went back to get Z this is what we saw.  He was in a chef hat and was having a blast.  After they got their cookies to eat I signaled to Z to come on and he raised his hand and said, "I'm not ready, I haven't made my pirate ship boat yet." There was no way we were getting him out of the kids club. So we went to the adult only side of the boat to go swimming.  Ahhh..the joys of kids club,

 That night for dinner, Kevin & I signed up for an adult only restaurant called Palo.  We had to reserve it prior to our trip. I am so glad we did.  We had a 6 course dinner that was fantastic.  That we celebrated my 32nd birthday (Nov 3) which was fun considering my birthday was two weeks before. 

 After dinner we had to pull Z out of the club to go to the Toy Story Musical.  I have to give a shout out to my girlfriend, Fawn. Her family went on this exact cruise in January and she gave me some amazing pointers. One of her amazing tips was to bring your own souviners.  I would have never thought about that. So I went to our local Disney store and picked up some neat toys that were about 90% cheaper than the ones they sold on the cruise. Fawn has her own Disney Blog because they are going on a 10 cruise in 2011. If you every have any questions check it out here.  Z picked one out each day. He loved it!  Here he is with his Buzz Lightyear googles. 

 Here's the cast from Toy Story. It was amazing. Everything from the costumes to the stunts were amazing. I wish my sister and brother-in-law could have seen them because they LOVE all things in the theatre. They would have loved this. 

 Back at the room for bed.  He did get a glow up Buzz that was on a smoothie.  Kevin could not resist the sales man in the theatre.

I was amazed at how the cruise had something for everyone and all ages.  We made so many magical memories and had a blast!