Best Vacation Ever

A little less than a year ago my ultra generous parents announced to mine and my brother's families that they wanted to take us all on a vacation. They gave us a few options and told us to choose. We ended up picking a week-long Disney cruise, something I have always wanted to do but never thought I would be able to. It was a LONG wait from planning to actually going, but it was well worth it. We have been on a shorter cruise before on Royal Caribbean and while we liked that a lot, this was even better!

I somehow managed to cut down 400+ pictures to 13, so obviously a lot is missing, but I didn't want this to be so long that no one wanted to get through it (although who knows, it might be too long even now). The first few are out of order b/c I had finished the post, then decided to go back and add a few more pics so they came in at the top instead of the bottom. And I can't ever figure out how to move them around. So sorry.

This is from the restaurant called Triton's. The whole picture is a mosaic made out about a million tiny tiles. The way the restaurants work is that you are assigned to the same table every night with the same waiters, so it's fun to get to know them through the week. There were 14 of us so we were at a giant table right in the middle of the room. There are three restaurants that you rotate through. They all have a different theme - I loved that part.

I couldn't not put in a picture of Ellie with her cute little Minnie ears.

Probably the funnest night was Pirate Night. Everyone dressed up in pirate clothes and they made a whole night out of it. Even the Disney characters had awesome pirate outfits on. Then at dinner they had pirate bandannas for everyone to put on and the waiters put on a pirate show. Then later on they had a deck party where all the characters came out and did pirate dances, complete with a firework show at the end. Plus they had a huge buffet all decked out in pirate decorations. It was awesome.

One of the kids' favorite things to do was dance. They had a place called Studio Sea where they had fun stuff like karaoke (Duncan and his cousins did it every time we went), game shows, and dancing every night. There was a big open floor and a stage and the kids just went crazy. I discovered that Duncan actually is a great dancer!

Swimming was also a popular pasttime, even though it was a little chilly sometimes. But the kids didn't care. They had a big pool that was shaped like Mickey's head with two mini pools for his ears that were a little bit warmer, so that's where the kids were all the time. Tucker did have a little incident though...more about that later.

This is what Ellie looked like every night after dinner. She loved getting her own giant plate of food every night. They always had fresh fruit, which is her favorite. Then a big bowl of macaroni. Then she topped it off with a Mickey ice cream bar. All the kids got one each night. She made a huge mess, of course, but she loved them. The food there really was amazing. I ate way too much! They had huge, delicious breakfasts, a lunch buffet (where Jeff went crazy on the shrimp), and then dinner had 4 courses every night. Jeff and my brother often ordered multiple entrees as well. And then most nights had a late night snack bar too. That is hands down the best part of a cruise...you can eat all you want and never have to worry about paying extra.

One of the places we stopped was Cabo San Lucas. Jeff has always wanted to go snorkeling, so we found someone that would take us around on a tour of the area, whale watching, and then to the snorkeling beach. Duncan tried to go but the mask was too big and water kept coming in. Dayton just liked walking around in the flippers. Jeff loved it though and said there were a ton of fish everywhere.

Ellie really liked the beach. She walked all over exploring and ate a healthy amount of sand. Delicious!

Here's all of us with the boat in the background.

The next day was Puerto Vallarta and we had signed up to do a dolphin excursion. It's not the totally awesome kind where you get to swim with the dolphins since the kids were too little for that one, but it was still really neat. You all got in the water and got to pet (for lack of a better term) the dolphin as she swam by a few times and then everyone individually made the signs to get a smooch on the mouth and cheek and shake the fins. It was really fun and I couldn't believe how soft it was! Kind of like velvet. The only downside was that the water was freezing and it was kind of cloudy that day so the kids didn't enjoy it as much as we'd hoped. This is the only pic we got since they don't allow cameras into the actual area. My mom took it from the observation area where she was watching Ellie for us.

So, Tucker's incident. He was jumping in one of the Mickey ear pools and started wailing. Turns out he had busted his chin open and needed stitches! Poor guy. He did not do well getting them in. He screamed the entire time. But, he did get some Lightning McQueen stickers and an officially Bravery Badge for his trouble. Amazingly, he went right back into the pool the next day. Didn't faze him at all.

And what would a Disney cruise be without meeting some characters? We met Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, Goofy, Chip & Dale, Captain Hook, and Lilo & Stitch. Plus Ellie met Cinderella. Each character had about 5 different outfits to wear so it was fun seeing them look different all the time. They even all had tuxes on for formal night.

I feel like I am leaving a ton out, but what can you do? It was so much fun and so exhausting! The kids were up until 10 or 11 each night when their normal bedtime is 7:30. They really did amazingly well. Jeff was very nice and stayed in our room with Ellie most nights so I could go to the after dinner show (they had a new one each night, and they were really, really good) and then party with the kids some more after that. The kids had the time of their life and have a ton of good memories. When we were getting off the boat, Dayton told us, "This is the worst day of my life!" Thank you Mom and Dad!!!