vacation!

We recently returned from a fun and memorable family vacation. We spent two nights in Orlando, then set sail for four nights on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas. We had a daily countdown going since February 1st (a month before our trip began), so with each passing day the girls were excited to see how many days were remaining. The girls were a little nervous about the airplane ride and about the ship being out on open water. They came up with some pretty funny questions (although they were totally serious), such as "What if a hammerhead shark pounds a hole through the wood in the boat?" Luckily, most of their fears were alleviated pretty quickly, and they had no further concerns once we arrived.

In the days leading up to the cruise, the girls came home from school with drawings of what they thought the cruise would be like.

Olivia's drawing of the "cruse" ship, ocean and island

Violet's drawing of the "cruus" ship and ocean

We flew out early in the morning on Saturday, March 1st. My sister Rhonda and her family were with us throughout the vacation, so Olivia and Violet were very excited to be with their cousin Emma. My sister Nikki and her family were on the cruise portion with us. The girls changed the last day on our countdown calendar before we left for the airport, which was pretty exciting!

The final countdown!

Emma sat between the girls on the plane, which worked out really well. The girls were a little nervous about the plane ride, but having Emma with them helped immensely. They all sat together and watched a movie, plus they had plenty of snacks and drinks, which totally made them comfortable. They decided that riding in a plane wasn't so bad!

We landed in Orlando around noon, picked up our rental van, then headed to Floridays Resort where we stayed for two nights. The resort had an awesome pool area, so we spent the rest of the day there, enjoying the nice weather and sunshine.

Pool Time

On Sunday, March 2, we spent the day at Sea World. Olivia and Violet loved the stingray lagoon, where they could touch stingrays ("Don't worry Mom, their stingers are removed"). The girls also thoroughly enjoyed the dolphin show. They also enjoyed all of the animals, rides and everything else about Sea World, except for one thing. The one thing they did NOT like was a simulated helicopter ride, where the floor and chairs moved. That was a little bit traumatic! Their favorite part of the day was picking out a stuffed animal from the Sea World gift shop. Violet picked out a pink stingray and Olivia picked out a black and white whale with a blue sparkly sweatshirt (she thought the sweatshirt would be useful in Minnesota), and Emma picked out a bear.

Stingray lagoon at Sea World

Family picture at Sea World

Emma, Olivia and Violet with their stuffed animals

When we got back to our resort, we ordered pizza, wings and sandwiches from a local delivery restaurant. The only reason I mention it is that it was one of the worst meals we've ever had, for multiple reasons, and we couldn't help but laugh hysterically about it.

The morning of Monday, March 3, we drove about an hour to Port Canaveral to embark on our Disney cruise. The girls were amazed at the size of the ship when they caught a glimpse of it. We went through the registration and security process before boarding, where the girls saw their first character: Mickey Mouse!

Setting sail with Mickey

The girls were also fitted for their Kids Club bracelets. The bracelets included a GPS chip so the counselors would be able to keep track of them while they were in the secure kids-only clubs. Then, we were able to proceed with boarding the ship. When we walked into the atrium, there was an announcement of "Welcome Suchy Family!" followed by the applause of many cruise ship employees. We felt like celebrities walking onto the ship. The girls ran up to the first big porthole window they saw in order to look out at the ocean.

The ship was just amazing. It had a movie theater constantly playing Disney movies, adult-only areas, kid-only areas, several pools, five sit-down restaurants, a spa, nightclubs, constant activities, and much more. We just didn’t have enough time to take advantage of it all!

Our ship: the Disney Magic

We had some lunch, then headed straight for the pool and waterslides. We met up with my sister Nikki and her family, who were on the cruise as well. The girls enjoyed the yellow waterslide and had fun in the AquaLab pool. They also discovered Goofy’s Pool, which was by the AquaLab pool, and had a big screen in front of it that played Disney movies. Between the two pools was a soft serve ice cream cone station, which you could make yourself. For the kids, that meant all the ice cream you could eat!! Every time I turned around, I think I saw one of the kids with an ice cream cone in their hand.

AquaLab pool and waterslide

Goofy's Pool showing "Tangled"

We watched the characters dance to a “Sail Away Deck Party” then we headed to the front of the ship to watch us pull away from Port Canaveral. We went to a “Disney Villains Tonight” theatre show, checked out the kids clubs (which were pretty awesome), then the girls met their next character of the trip: Captain America. Olivia told him that she was Mrs. Captain America for Halloween the previous year, and Violet told him that he was her favorite superhero. Then, we headed to our supper in Animator’s Palate restaurant. It was so neat, the walls were all white with black animator drawings of the Disney characters. The girls faced a wall that had a computer screen on it, which would show step-by-step how each character was drawn by the animator. Our head and assistant servers were awesome, they knew our names when we sat down, showed us magic tricks during the meal, and made paper origami flowers for the girls. The best part though was they told the girls they could draw on the linen tablecloths. Violet looked shocked and said, “On the tablecloth????” At the end of the meal, there was an awesome video show on the computer screens showing clips from Disney movies, then Sorcerer Mickey Mouse made an appearance by dancing through the restaurant. It was an awesome way to end the day!

"Sail Away Deck Party"

Goodbye Port Canaveral!

"Villains Tonight"

Kids Oceaneer's Club: "Andy's Room"

Kids Oceaneer's Club, which included a Mickey Mouse Club room, Avengers room, Tinkerbell Pixie Hollow room, and Andy's Room

 

Violet and Captain America

Olivia and Captain America

Violet drawing on the tablecloth

Olivia drawing on the tablecloth

Animator's Palate restaurant

On Tuesday, March 4, we woke up parked at the port of Nassau, Bahamas. There was a princess gathering in the atrium of the ship, the girls were so excited that we were in line over an hour early and therefore were second in line. Peter Pan made an appearance while we were waiting, then Belle, Cinderella, Tiana and Rapunzel descended down the atrium stairs to some royal music. The girls were excited to see them, at the end Violet especially was just beaming.

With Princess Belle

Then we had breakfast in Lumiere’s, a French restaurant with a Beauty & the Beast theme, before embarking on a port excursion. We went on a dolphin interaction experience at the Atlantis hotel, which we booked through the Disney cruise line. We gathered at our meeting spot on the ship, then the Disney tour leader asked the girls to each carry a sign so everyone could see where we were heading to get off the ship. The next day, the girls received awards in our stateroom for being such great traffic controllers! The weather in Nassau was beautiful, warm and sunny. We thoroughly enjoyed the dolphin interaction experience. The girls were a little nervous at first, but after watching me, Jamie and cousin Emma, they had no problem going up to him. Our dolphin’s name was Noah, and we got to hug him, kiss him, rub his belly and back, and have him do some tricks. The girls thought his moonwalk was pretty funny! They also enjoyed it when Uncle Jeff said he didn’t want to kiss Noah, then Noah blew water in his face. It was an awesome time, definitely one of the highlights of our trip. After our dolphin experience, we walked around the amazing Atlantis hotel. We toured the aquarium and walked through the inside of the hotel. It is a huge place!

Ready for our dolphin experience!

Meeting Noah the dolphin

Olivia kissing Noah

Violet kissing Noah

When we returned to our ship, we were walking up the stairs to grab some food at the buffet when Belle walked up behind us. Belle is Violet’s favorite princess, so her mouth dropped in awe and she gave Belle a big hug. Belle said she was going to read stories in the kids club, and would the girls want to come? Violet yelled, “YES!” and both of them ran to the kids club. They were so excited for Belle to read them stories, and it gave Jamie and me a break!

We went to that night’s show, “Twice Charmed: an Original Twist on the Cinderella Story.” After the show, the girls were thrilled to see Minnie Mouse. They absolutely loved her white dress, Olivia kept saying that Minnie was her new favorite Disney character. That night, our meal was at the Brazilian restaurant “Carioca’s.” The kids ate first, then the kids club counselors came and took them to the kids club so the adults could enjoy their meals.

Meeting Minnie Mouse

The next morning, March 5th, we were at the port of Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay. Wow, was it an awesome island! There was so much to do that we couldn’t cover it all, despite having a full day there. While walking onto the island, the girls had to stop at every character, but luckily there weren’t any lines. They saw Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse (again), Goofy and Pluto. We spent most of the morning at the beach, where the girls tried snorkeling, went swimming and built sand castles. We had a BBQ lunch, saw a Mickey & Minnie dance party, watched some crab races, then the girls took a rest in a hammock. In the afternoon, we took the girls to the other side of the island to go on the Pelican Plunge water slides. That was probably their favorite thing on the island! They like the water slide that was enclosed so it was dark; they kept going down it over and over. Once we were finally able to get them to stop, Olivia and I headed back to the ship while Violet and Jamie rented bikes and went on a ride on their bike trails. They found a lookout place where they climbed up a hill and had an awesome view of the island.

Castaway Cay Beach

Violet trying out snorkel gear

Ocean Fun

Cat nap in a hammock

Pelican Plunge waterslides

As Olivia and I returned to the ship, we mailed ourselves some postcards at the tiny Castaway Cay post office. We want to see how long it takes the postcards to get to Minnesota! Then, we saw Captain Hook before getting back onto the ship. As we boarded, Chip and Dale were walking out as we were walking in, so we turned around and headed back out so Olivia could see the chipmunks. Violet and Jamie happened to be walking up at the same time, so Violet joined us as well. Chip and Dale were very funny, they even pretended to eat one of their autograph books!

Olivia mailing our postcards

Silly, silly Chip and Dale

The show that night was a magic show. The magician was awesome, and even managed a pretty amazing escape trick. Olivia and Violet really enjoyed it, in fact Violet said the shows were her favorite part of the trip.

That night, the theme was “Pirate Night” on the ship. We ate supper in Carioca’s again, and the servers were dressed in pirate garb. We were even given bandanas and eye patches. The food had a pirate theme, and after the meal we went to a “Pirate Deck Party.” There was a show put on by the characters, then all of a sudden Mickey appeared on the deck above us and announced that there would be a show in the sky. Then, the fireworks started! The kids were all pretty wound up and were dancing around the deck like crazy.

Violet and Daddy....ARRRRR!

Ahoy matey!

Fireworks

Thursday, March 6, was a full day at sea. After having Mickey-shaped waffles for breakfast, the girls went to the kids club area that morning. Olivia’s favorite thing about the kids club was the computers, and Violet loved the drawing/tracing areas. Jamie and I spent time with the other adults, just relaxing and enjoying the sunshine. We went to the movie “Frozen” in the movie theater that afternoon, then we brought the kids back to the pool area. A storm started to set in, the weather got very windy, so I quickly ushered the kids out of the pool and into the ship. The ship’s captain actually closed down the pool deck for a bit because of the weather. It looked very windy out, but it’s amazing how steady the ship remained. We met our final character on the cruise, Daisy Duck. The show that night was “Disney Dreams,” which was the best show of the week. It featured scenes from some of the most popular Disney movies, so Olivia was happy to see her favorite princess Ariel from “The Little Mermaid.” After the show, Jamie and I had supper with Nikki and Brian in the adult-only Italian restaurant. The food was fabulous, and we certainly enjoyed the company. Rhonda and Jeff took all of the kids to our regular restaurant rotation (bless their hearts). The kids ate first and headed off to the kids club again, so that’s where we picked them up after our meal. They were making green flubber with Professor Make-o-Mess, which they thought was awesome!

Cruisin'

Ice cream break

"Disney Dreams"

Making flubber

The next morning, we were back in Port Canaveral and had to disembark off the ship. Our flight didn’t leave until 7:00 that night, so we drove back to Orlando and spent most of the day back at Sea World. We saw the dolphin show again, but also had the chance to see a few other shows and things that we didn’t make the first time. Then, we flew home, much to the girls’ dismay! They asked if we could go home for just one day, then go back to the Disney cruise ship because they now wanted to live on there.

We had an awesome trip, filled with many fun memories. We will definitely be talking about it for a long time to come!