yo ho, a pirate's life for me

{Wednesday, May 15th- At Sea}

I'm skipping our day at Disney, but I promise I'll come back to it!!

I think I have said this every time I have blogged about our cruises, but I LOVE sea days!!!

This morning on our way to breakfast we ran into Cinderella.  Normally the princess lines were sooooooo long so I never bothered taking a picture, but this time there were just a few people in line we waiting.  It was so cute seeing the little girls dressed up in their own princess dresses and truly believing that this was the real Cinderella.  

After breakfast we spent the entire morning laying out at the pool with our friends Steve & L'Loni and listening to live music.  This cruise ship had great live music.  After a quick lunch on the lido deck Matt, Steve & L'Loni went to watch Iron Man 3 while I laid out for the rest of the afternoon.  I was more interested in getting a tan that watching a movie I didn't care to see!!

 Tonight was Pirates of the Caribbean Night.  Our black, white and red outfits were our makeshift pirate costumes since we didn't have any.  It was so fun to see the people that went all out on their costumes.  When we go on a Disney Cruise as a family we will definitely be dressing up more!!

Our show before dinner was a ventriloquist named Michael Harrison.  On our last cruise we had the best ventriloquist we had ever seen so we were a little disappointed by this guy.  He was pretty cheesy and very geared for families so we ended up walking out and just walking around the ship. 

 Tonight at dinner we had two new friends join us. They had been going to the earlier seating but decided to join us at the late seating.  They were about our age and fit in great with all of us.  The Caribbean food was so good tonight!  Other than the lobster night, this night was definitely my favorite dinner.   Our servers Emily and Arya made every night so wonderful.  We skipped out on dessert and headed up to the Lido deck so we could make it to the Pirate Party.

 I'm pretty sure just about the whole ship was up on the lido deck for the party.  All the characters and all the entertainment crew put on a big show/dance party.  Mickey even zip-lined across the ship.  They ended the party with a firework show in the middle of the ocean.  It was pretty awesome!!

 We were greeted by a cute little pirate when we returned to our room. 

castaway cay

{Monday, May 13th- Castaway Cay, Bahamas}

We arrived at Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay (pronounced Key) around 8:30am.  I was really looking forward to this day because I had heard the island was beautiful and so nice.

We met a really nice couple at the pool the previous day and they told us to get off the ship as soon as we could.  They said there were a limited amount of hammocks on the adult only beach and you had to get there first to get one.  We took their advice and we ended up in a hammock next to them.  We ended up spending the rest of the day with them and actually hung out with them each day after this.  They were our cruise buddies! 

We spent the entire morning exploring the adult only part of the island for a little bit then mainly just relaxing.  It was so nice and peaceful and probably one of the most beautiful beaches I've seen!  My pictures don't even do it justice.

Our friends, Steve & L'Loni, had a little wireless speaker so while we were relaxing in our hammocks we had some nice beachy music playing in the background!

While we were on the beach we saw a stingray, a sand shark, some kind of a really long fish with a pointy nose, a two conch shells! 

 Around noon we stopped to eat lunch with Steve & L'Loni.  They had a BBQ lunch prepared for us by the ship crew.  Our dinner server Emily was actually working on the adult side of the island  so we got to see her!!

At 2:30 we had a stingray excursion on the family side of the island.

We got all our snorkel gear on then got trained to swim with the stingrays.

I felt like such a dork in my snorkel gear.  I told Matt I felt like I had a giant black swim top on with big saggy boobs since it covered up my entire top.  

We got to feed the stingrays before we snorkeled.  I wasn't able to get a picture of us doing that, though.  It felt so weird.  Their little mouth are like vacuums and they just sucked the shrimp and squid right out of our hands. 

After our excursion we grabbed an ice-cream cone and a drink, then explored the family side of the island. 

If you ever go on a Disney Cruise, make sure you go on one that stops here.  We absolutely loved our day at Castaway Cay!! It was one of our favorite stops on a cruise EVER!!

Our show before dinner was called Villians Tonight.  I didn't really care for the story line (but that's probably because I never like the villains), but the songs, costumes, and dances were great!!  There was also alot of pop culture humor that was pretty funny!!  At dinner we had another round of Philipino food in addition to our regular meal.  Our server really spoiled us!!

After dinner we took a picture with the Queen of Hearts then headed to bed early because we were pooped from being in the sun all day and we wanted to rest up before our day at Disney World!! 

We headed in early after dinner because we were pooped from being in the sun all day and we wanted to rest up before our day at Disney World!! 

Our stingray adventure wasn't over when we got to our room because we got to pet a stingray on our bed!!

mother's day at sea

{Sunday, May 12th- At Sea}

It was a little sad not being with my baby on Mother's Day, but it wasn't my first Mother's Day so I was okay with it.  I got to do what most Mom's didn't do on Mother's Day.......relax and have the whole day off!!  Matt was so sweet and set out two Mother's Day cards while I was in the shower.  He's so thoughtful!!  We just bought a new {to us} car at the end of April so that was my official Mother's Day present.

 This morning was a Character Breakfast.  The same people we had dinner with were supposed to be there, but they overslept because we had a time change.  I have never had a time change on a cruise but we had to since we were going to Disney World.  We had to get on Florida's time.  While we ate breakfast all the Disney characters came to take a picture with us.  I was a little sad that Daisy and Donald weren't there.  Not sure why they didn't come. 

I had my normal breakfast of Fried Eggs, Bacon & Hashbrowns.  I thought it was only fitting to add a Mickey pancake at our character breakfast!!

 While we were eating breakfast our server made us these silly hats.

I told Matt that the only thing I really wanted to do on Mother's Day was lay-out, especially since we didn't get to the day before.  We laid out a little after breakfast and then a little after lunch.  The weather was perfect!!

 Before our show we ran into Daisy (or as Pearson says...A-See).  Our show was a really funny comedian named Ron Pearson.  One of the things I really loved about the Disney Cruise is that the entertainment was very clean.  The main shows were very family friendly and then the adult shows in the evening were what they called "Disney Dirty".  There was absolutely no vulgar language and no inappropriate or nasty humor.  It was just good clean adult comedy in the late night shows!

We had dinner in Animator's Palate.  It was really neat.  Everything was black and white for the beginning of dinner, but at the end they had the walls all lit up with color! It was really neat!!

 Our table friends, Carlo & Amanda.  Carlo is from the Philippines and so was our server, so the previous night they got to talking about what the ship crew eats.  She told him that they made all different ethnicities of food for the staff but she usually ate Philipino food.  She told us that she would bring us some the next evening.  Sure enough, she did.  I can't remember what it was called, but it was essentially egg rolls and shrimp lo mein.  It was really good.  It was fun to learn all about the Philipino culture through Carlo.  We learned so much from him. 

 After dinner we went to another adult comedy show and then called it a night.  

A scary bat greeted us in our room!!

Other than not being able to be with Pearson and my own Mom, we had a wonderful Mother's Day at sea!!

last day of mother's day out

Today is Pearson's last day of Mother's Day Out.

I can't believe how fast this school year has gone.

Pearson has had a wonderful year at school. He walks right in and doesn't look back.  He loves his teachers and he loves all his friends in his class.  Last week, his teachers sent home a picture with all of his classmates in it and he was naming off each of them to me.  It was so precious to hear him tell me about his friends.  

 We have truly been blessed with Mrs. Gail and Mrs. Tracy.  They have been so patient, loving and kind with Pearson even he was a little stinker!!

 I truly feel like when Pearson started school I was dropping of my baby and now I feel like I am dropping off a toddler.  He has grown so much this year.  

We enjoyed having Pearson in Mother's Day Out so much that we are going to do a summer program at another church that starts next Tuesday!! 

Yay for MDO!!!

bad weather day

{Saturday, May 11- Day at Sea}

The only down side to having a room without a window is not being able to see what the weather is like.  We got all dressed and ready to go to the pool on our 2nd morning, but quickly realized once we walked out of our room that our plan to layout after breakfast wasn't going to happen. We ate breakfast then headed back to our room to change into clothes and check out the Navigator (the ship's daily activities guide) to make a new plan for the day.  

It was so dreary and so windy.  Definitely not how I wanted to start our cruise, but we still had a fun day. 

We started off our morning with some BINGO.  Normally I love playing BINGO on cruises, but it was so kind of expensive that was a real bummer.  It was $30 for a six pack for 4 games.  We didn't have any luck.  After the game was over they offered everyone in the room half price games for the afternoon session if we paid for them right then.  We decided to go ahead and cash in on the deal.  We didn't have any luck winning though.  Big waste of money.......$45 down the drain.  It was sunny for the rest of our trip so we skipped out on all the other BINGO games.  

Since we couldn't lay out, we decided to get some fresh air and eat some lunch outside.  We ate pizza from the little pizza bar on the lido deck.  Sooooo good!!  We probably ate a few too many pieces of pizza while we were on our cruise!!

 Our ship had an awesome movie theater with lots of awesome movies showing.......some of which are still in the theaters.  Lincoln, Brave, Ironman 3, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Avengers, just to name   a few.  After lunch we hit up the movie theater to watch The Avengers in 3D.  We didn't get to finish it  though because we had already paid for our 2nd round of Bingo.

 The sun never really came out so we headed back to our room for some relaxing and to get ready for formal night.  

Before our show we ran into Minnie! Isn't she precious?

The show for tonight was a Broadway style show call "Twice Charmed".  It was an original twist on the Cinderella Story.  It was SO good!!  The costumes and voices of the characters were spot on with the movie!!  In keeping with the theme, we had a special menu for Princes & Princesses.  

Matt and I couldn't decide which entree to order so we got four!!  Our servers were amazing and would bring us out as much as wanted.  We could have told them we wanted one of everything on the menu and they would have brought it to us!!  I usually take lots of pictures of the yummy food on our cruises but this was actually all I got this time. 

We had our entire table to ourselves for the night because the other couple that was supposed to be there had reservations at Palo (the fancy restaurant on the ship that you have to pay extra for).

 After dinner we ran into Mickey.  He looks so handsome in his tuxedo!!

When I say we ran into Mickey & Minnie, we didn't really run into them.  They had scheduled appearances throughout each day.  They were usually only 15 minutes and the lines got really long really quick.  We only waited in line if the lines were short.  Sometimes we would get to the area where they would be a little early so we could be first in line and not have to wait.  It was crazy how long the lines got with some of the characters.  The princess lines were always the longest.

After dinner we went to a late night comedy show and then stayed for "The Newlywed Game" (a cruise classic).  I was really pleased with how much the Disney Cruise had to offer for adults.  After 9pm one section of 3rd floor of the ship was for  adults only.  No kids allowed!! They had a piano bar, a sports bar and a dancing bar to hang out in.  The dancing bar usually had comedy shows or activities before it actually turned into a dancing bar around 11pm.  We usually hung out there each night, but we never stayed out past 11pm.  We were always pooped after a long day.  

Any guesses on what this towel animal is?? 

We had no idea!