DAY ONE:
Boarding the boat!
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The day before boarding the boat was a smooth flight day. We left around 10am which felt so easy, and the boys did these dot books the entire flight. I can't believe how much easier it is to fly now than years ago and I just will never not be grateful for it.
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| On the boat! It was FREEZING that morning so they let everyone into the boarding terminal early. It was actually warmer in Fort Collins that day than in Orlando :) We just keep the cold with us I guess! But it wasn't too bad and we were so happy to finally be on the boat after weeks and weeks of looking forward to this. This wall is a gorgeous mosaic! |
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Spotted in the wild! We turned a corner and had a Goofy moment.
Our boys are not into waiting in lines to meet characters or really into taking pictures with them,
but running into them like this will always feel so fun. |
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| Getting ready to set sail! |
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First dinner on the boat.
A unique thing Disney does is keep your dining staff with you each night even though you rotate restaurants. We loved getting to know them and their stories. I felt really sad to see them play so much with my kids knowing they don't see theirs for months at a time. They really were so kind to us. |
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Pepe's Door! They loved this little tiny door and I do love Pepe.
DAY TWO:
A day at sea on the Disney Fantasy
The ship was HUGE and full of things to do and explore. The schedule of events had me feel like we needed to bounce around doing all the things! Our day was really fun, but my favorite part was going to the Aladdin show at night. The shows were Broadway quality but shortened to one hour with an audience full of little kids, so it just felt so fun to have Asher at something like that. He loved it.
 | | Towel surprises were very loved by our boys. Look at Wall-E! |
Torn between wanting to keep Wall-E in prime condition but also wanting to eat the chocolate.
Catch Camden with a Mickey ice cream bar after every single dinner,
no matter what else is on the dessert menu :)
Had to stop at all the port holes and watch the water.
The window in our room was everyone's favorite part of the cruise.
Sarge says! Like Simon Says, but Toy Story style.
We waited in a line to meet the Incredibles because we didn't really know what we signed up for haha,
and the boys did not love this. But we did it :)
Then we saw these guys in the wild on the deck! I thought this was so cute.
We were playing shuffleboard and they came outside right then.
Shuffleboard on the sea. We felt like an old-timey olympic team or something. |
DAY THREE:
Disney's Island, Lookout Cay
Our first stop! Disney's Lookout Cay, which is a part of an island that Disney owns. The beach was a little too rough to get into the water in the morning, so we dropped off our stuff and then went on a little nature walk. Then we went to the cultural center spot to learn about some instruments native to the area and make some crown crafts. We ate a barbecue lunch and then made it back to the beach. All afternoon we all just played tag on the beach and played in the waves. It was so happy and I felt so grateful to be there with all my family and to feel as good as I feel right now. I just have lots of (also cherished) memories of being on the sidelines of watching my fam while I am pregnant or nursing a baby or staying back with someone napping. The feeling of all of us just playing together and running and laughing was just so happy. On our walk back to the cruise ship we saw a pretty large shark, maybe a black tip reef shark? And the boys thought that was the coolest thing. Going to dinner after a full day always feels so fun, and we loved the Frozen show that night.
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| Walking to the island |
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| Nature walk |
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| Mickey Bars foreva |
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Haha Asher really loved the dessert part of each night.
Our serving staff thought it was incredible that our boys love fish. They just always have! |
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Towel elephant!
Incredible. |
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| This bat was well loved and Westin hung it in our window for the rest of the cruise. |
DAY FOUR:
Nassau Bahamas and Dolphin Day :) and pirate night.
This day was magic. We planned on doing a dolphin excursion with the boys and I expected it to feel similar to other cruise things -- which is really great but for sure a mass experience and kinda crowded. But meeting the dolphin turned out to be so sweet and special and magical. I will always treasure seeing my boys love that!
We got off the ship that morning and took a ferry to Blue Lagoon. They told us all about who owned all the fancy houses along the drive -- Oprah, Tiger Woods (except now his ex-wife, make good choices), Shaq, etc. And we spotted the Atlantis with the room on the bridge between the buildings -- $20,000 per night with a 5-night minimum stay, originally built for a visit from the Queen.
Then we made it to the Lagoon where we played on the beach, watched dolphins, then finally got to meet one! I thought Asher would be nervous but he held on tight to Michael and actually loved it as much as all of us.
We took the ferry back and had Pirate night. Seeing Asher dressed up with his little parrot and pirate patch is going to be burned happily in my memory forever. We watched Zootopia 2 that night and the boys were excited for Michael to see it for the first time. The split second hungry hippos part cracks me up.
This day was full! We loved it. It felt like such a lucky day together.
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| I just love him so much. |
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Pirate night ended with Captain Hook taking over the boat!
All was well by the end though :)
DAY FIVE:
Another day at sea on the boat.
Towel folding class, drawing class, Hey Howdy breakfast plus second breakfast for Mickey churro waffles (unreal, thanks for the tip Emily!), and the musical that night was Disney's Believe, which was really sweet. We also slowly made our way through Pirates of the Caribbean all week (first time for the boys) and we finished it that afternoon with cookies and milk in the room.
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| Asher absolutely loved "pixie dusting" on the boat -- checking our little fish extender on their room door every time we made it back to the room. People left such sweet things for the boys and they loved that. They also loved taking pirate tattoos all around the ship into other people's fish extenders. |
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| Cookies and milk and pirate movies :) |
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| Magic lessons! |
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| Now we're expert towel folders too |
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| We just love mosaics |
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| The older three checked out the kids club for about a total of 30 min but Asher was uninterested :) |
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| I have thought about these churro waffles often. |
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Asher has come a long way when it comes to his fear of characters :)
He loved our Hey Howdy breakfast and was so happy with some high fives. |
Day FIVE:
Leaving the ship, and Kennedy Space Center
Well, they kicked us off the ship. We always knew that was the plan but it still felt sad! We made ourselves at home pretty quickly there :) But they get everyone off that ship and then THREE HOURS later it's full with the next group. That's just wild. What an industry.
Leaving was so smooth -- we kept our luggage with us so we just walked off as soon as we could, waited a bit for our Turo which picked us up right in front of the waiting area, and we were on our way to Kennedy Space Center.
What a place!! This was the original launch date of Artemis II but we had pretty much banked on the fact that it would be postponed, and it was. But we still loved taking a bus tour and seeing the rocket! Plus all the other amazing areas the space center has. I loved the moon mission exhibits. Watching Artemis II launch in a few weeks is going to be extra special after seeing it in person, so I hope my boys always remember that!
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| Goodbye to our favorite spot on the ship! We all loved reading right here. |
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| One last breakfast. |
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| Space Center! |
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| The boys with the Atlantis |
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| Rocket simulator! Asher wasn't big enough so we got to watch the boys do this with Michael on a screen and that was equally fun. Then Westin and I were able to quickly ride it after them. |
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| Launch pad in the distance |
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| Spot Artemis! |
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| Heading around the moon soon -- that's incredible. |
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| Rocket garage! Those are garage doors on the left. This flag on the ground is painted to scale with the flag on the building, so it helps you grasp how large the building is. |
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| Moon rock! |
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This was the BEST dinner. I had a blackened mahi-mahi sandwich that was the best fish sandwich I've had since my Juneau days. Camden was in heaven with the mussels. These boys (minus Westin) sure love seafood.
DAY SIX:
Manatee Day!
We had some kayaking booked to see manatees today and our guide told us it was much too windy and cold to have any success. He told us to drive to Blue Springs State Park because that's by the power plant so the manatees head there when it's cold. We had no plans that day except find a manatee, so we headed that way!
When we got there we could kind of see some manatees in the dark water when they would come up to the surface for a bit. But then we walked the path up the spring where the water quickly becomes clear, and we saw dozens and dozens and dozens, hundreds, of manatees. It was so happy! They seem just so sweet. Sea cows. Such cute babies. And so many other fish too! |
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| Little baby! |
The next day we woke up VERY early so we could catch a flight, be home, make some football food, and fill our house with friends for Super Bowl Sunday. The day was smooth and I was feeling so grateful to have had such a wonderful week with family and end it back home in a place we love with people we're lucky to know. I have zero pictures of Super Bowl fun! But Westin lives for that day and he was a happy kid :)
I loved this week so much. I hope my kids remember it always!
