Showing posts with label Disney Cruise. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney Cruise. Show all posts

Friday, April 13, 2012

One More Magical Day



(I know, I know.  We are all sick of looking at these Disney Cruise posts.  Sorry.  Life has been, well, no luxury cruise for me, and my blog was the first to suffer.  But I have had a few days this week to work with my backlogged file of photos, and I hope to get caught up with everything real soon.  But first, I have to finish the posts about the Disney Cruise, then finish the RV trip posts, and then the holidays, and then...  Well, I might not get caught up as soon as I'd like, but I'm sure gonna give it a shot, 
so here we go!)






HAving had a fantastic few days in the sand and sun of Cabo, we were ready to spend the last day and a half hanging out on board while the Wonder speeded its way back to LA.  Luke apparently took "hanging out" quite literally as he was hanging his head down the stairs of the main lobby as the passengers were making their way to the dining rooms.



Friday night was a special night in the dining room - it was international night!  After dinner, all of the waiters came parading out of the kitchen holding the flags of their various countries.  It was so cool!  There were some many different countries represented there.  At the end of the parade were the chefs carrying the grand finale - flaming baked Alaska!  Yum!

Of course, our favorites were a certain Jamaican and a certain Italian who need no introduction.  My boys loved these guys!

Good ol Andre.  I wish we could have taken him off the boat with us!

Saturday was the last full day on board and a sea day, so the kids had one more chance to do all their favorite stuff.  For Caleb, that was cooking school at the Lab.


Luke was at the Lab too.  He developed an addiction to Mario Kart on this trip.



Nathan doing some last minute pin trading with the crew.

I turned around and saw Peter Pan himself watching all the action with Goofy in the lobby down below.  This kind of thing, just having the Disney characters popping in and out and hanging around is part of what makes a Disney Cruise so magical.


I gave Al & Nate a camera to get some pics of the adult-restricted teen lounge up on the very top deck of the ship.  They took dozens of pics, but these are the only ones that actually looked like anything.  I guess what goes on in the teen lounge will remain top secret.  It must be a great place, though, because they spent an awful lot of time up there.


I took the opportunity on that last day to get a few fun shots of the place we called home all week.  I LOVE the little Disney details, like the Mickey hand pointing to the floor # over the elevators and that all your favorite Disney tunes are piped into the hallways 24/7.  Zippadeedooda!


All hands on deck!

Look up! Its the great chandelier.

The statue of Ariel in the main lobby.


The whole ship was a great combination of glamor and whimsey that I loved!


In the afternoon I got a text on my WavePhone inviting all the parents to the main stage for a special performance!

All of the kids on board got to perform some awesome singing and dancing "Friendship Rocks" on the big stage with Minnie and Mickey themselves.  It was awesome and so fun to see how excited they were to be up there performing for us!  What a great way to say goodbye!


That night, we saw the final farewell stage show that celebrated so many of the Disney movies.  It was awesome - almost as good as the Friendship Rocks show that the kids put on.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

One More Day in Paradise



We had so much fun in Cabo, that we wouldn't wait for another day of Mexican surf, sea, and adventure!




I got up early, as always and enjoyed the beautiful skies over the rocks of Cabo San Lucas.

Lovely!

We had big plans for our second day in Cabo, and since it was a short day and they had to set sail early, we had to get an early tender to shore.  Poor Luke got a face full of sea water.


Love it.



Our beautiful ship, the Disney Wonder.  Is that a handsome ship, or what?

Once on dock, it didn't take Dennis long to line up today's adventures with some of the locals.



First, you guessed it, parasailing!  We went parasailing from a boat, and Alex, our first born, got to go first.


Wheeeeee!  Since the ship was anchored in the middle of the bay, we literally parasailed around it!


And we got some great views of the rocks from above!


Alex had a great time, as is evidenced by the smile on his face.

Nate was next.  The boat is going pretty fast.  You are sitting on the deck one minute and the next, you are swept hight into the sky!


Awesome!


Everyone had about 10 minutes each, which is plenty of time to see it all.

The twins were next.  The got to go together, which is actually more fun because you have someone to talk to up there.


We could see that they were having a great time together up there.

Dylan does his Superman flying back onto the dock.


Next it way my and Caleb's turn.  That boy was thrilled!  He couldn't wait!

I didn't dare bring my good camera up there, but I couldn't go up there empty handed, so I brought our disposable underwater camera.



It took terrible pictures, but it gives you some idea.

If you have never been parasailing, you should try it.  It is not scary at all (unless you are afraid of heights, or course).  You don't go fast at all, and it is not like falling.  Having just gone skydiving, I have to say this is NOTHING like that.  It is just like the Soaring Over California ride at Disney's California Adventure.  You just hang there and it is serene, quiet, and really beautiful!  I love the absolute silence.

Anyone can do it.  Everyone should try it.

Luke was kind of reluctant, and didn't want to go because he thought it would be scary.  But Dennis, being the genius that he is, promised Luke that if he went up with him, Luke could have all the ice cream he wants for the rest of the cruise.  Luke fell for it and up they went!


It was so fun watching them!


The driver even dipped them down into the water just for fun.


Yes, that was awesome.  Now we were ready for one more adventure.


The boat dropped us off at a beach across the bay from the beach we went to the day before.  This is where the jet skies play.


We rented 2 jet skies for an hour, which meant if we doubled up, we could each have 30 minutes of speedy wet fun.  The four older boys went first.

And of course the rest of us sure didn't mind hanging out on the beautiful beach.


Jump!  Love it!


Then Dennis took Caleb out and I took Luke.  But Luke was done after one lap around the ship, and Caleb thought dad went way too fast.  So Luke got off and Caleb climbed on with me, and I was happy to oblige him with slower speeds.  It was still fast enough to have some fantastic, bouncy, wet fun!

Soon enough, though, our time was up and we had to hop on another boat back to the dock.



This fisherman was throwing bait up and the birds were catching it mid air.


Back on shore we had exactly 20 minutes to do all of the souvenir shopping we could get to do in Mexico this whole trip.  Not much time, but look at these treasures.  Mexico always has quality stuff.


Heading back to the ship.

We watched as another tender unloaded the passengers onto the ship.  While we waited our turn, we also got to watch the anchor come up.  Cool.


Back on board, Dennis made good on his promise to Luke for all the ice cream he wanted.  He never forgot that promise, and had dozens more ice cream cones before the cruise was over.  Of course, kids do not live by ice cream alone, and a big hamburger was also in order.  Yum!


That night's show, "Dreams" was one of my favorites.  It was about a little girl who is visited by Peter Pan in the night, and imagines her Disney toys turning real in scenes from Disney movies.

Aladin, of course.


The Little Mermaid.

My personal favorite, Cinderella!
Beauty and the Beast.
And Lion King.  The lady that sang "Circle of Life"was really outstanding.  She is a diva in my book.  Wow!

That night we feasted in Parrot Cay again.  Tonight to boys got to they Oyseters Rockefeller for the first time.  They were a hit.


Then, Carlo, our server, surprised us with a very special dish.  He had seen how open my boys were to trying new foods so he and had made special arrangements for one of the chefs on board who was from India to make some authentic Indian food, just for us.  It wasn't on the menu, and we were the only table in the whole place to have it.  It was so good!  Spicy and sweet. The boys loved it!  What a special treat for us!  That kind of personal service is exactly why having the same waiters all week is such a great idea.  We really came to love Carlo and Andre.

But that was not even the best part of the meal.  There was more to come...


Lobster!!!  My boys had been looking forward to eating lobster since they first heard we were going on a cruise, and they were not disappointed. They are lobster lovers all.  They better not get used to it, though. How great to have all the lobster you want.  Dennis ended up eating 3 because he ordered two, and Luke was too full after all the other stuff the have much of his, and We couldn't bear the thought of throwing away perfectly good lobster.


After dinner, Andre, the crafty one, made the boys some origami frogs to play with.


Then Carlo, the magician, did a trick where he turned bubbles into coins.  These guys are the best waiters on the seven seas!

Above - Nathan does some Disney pin trading, and I love all the great Mickey Mouse details on the Disney Cruise - like the little chocolate Mickeys that garnishing the ice cream.


That night, the boys all ran off to their various hang-outs, and so Dennis and I found our way and adult only lounge.  Guess what?  It was 70's night, and we discoed down late into the night together.  I love it when there is good, clean fun, even for an adult only event.  Night Fever, baby!