Disney Cruise Day 4

Day 4 was another Port Adventure at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas. This place was gorgeous and was easily our favorite thing about our entire cruise. We started off that morning by leaving the younger cousins with the older ones while the adults went on shore to run the Castaway Cay 5K. It was perfect weather, running along beautiful trails and vegetation and a great way to burn off some of those cruise calories!

Look at that view...it really was paradise for a day!

After the race, we went back on board, grabbed the kids and headed back to the island. We saw our good friends Chip & Dale and were able to get a family picture together.

We immediately found some beach lounge chairs to set down our stuff and then got in the water. The water was pretty cool, but the kids had no problem playing, splashing and having a great time. Not something we ever get to do in Maryland in January!!

When it was time to warm up a bit, the beautiful white sandy beaches provided hours of entertainment as well!

Since only one cruise ship stops there at a time, the island never felt crowded and it was so nice that everything on the island like the food and many of the activities were included with our cruise experience. We ate lunch at Cookie's BBQ which had awesome food.

They also had a great fruit stand with all kinds of delectable fruits and another all-you-can-eat ice cream stand. I think we could have stayed there all week and been perfectly content!!

After lunch, we headed over to the water slide area. The older kids all had a blast playing, sliding, and jumping off!!

Maylie and Abby also got to see their good friend, Olaf!!

We stayed on the island as long as we possibly could. We just loved it so much!!

Eventually we made our way back onto the ship. It looked so cool ported at Castaway Cay!

On the ship, they had several recent Disney movies showing at the Buena Vista Theater. During the week, we watched "Moana" and "Finding Dory" as a family. After the stop at Castaway Cay, I sent Jason to watch "Rogue One" while I took the kids on some adventures of our own.

We went exploring the ship for a bit and found these awesome lounger port windows.

The kids all picked one and enjoyed that gorgeous view!

Then we spent some time in the "Promenade Lounge" working on craft projects, playing games, practicing our origami skills, and mastering some animation techniques. 

They also had a dance party for the little ones with Stitch.

Maylie was fine with Stitch as long as he didn't try to get too close!!

Some sibling love while waiting for Jason to leave the movie theater!!

We also really enjoyed all the family activities in the "D Lounge." We played "Wheel of Disney," "Disney Feud," "Mickey Mania" and several other trivia type games here and in the Promenade Lounge. They provided lots of fun and laughter for our family!

Disney Cruise Day 3

Today was our first port adventure to Key West and it felt so good to be on solid ground again! The sun was out and it was a perfect 70 degree day in Florida!

We walked about a mile from the port to visit the southernmost point of the continental United States...

It was Sunday so without going to church, we still tried to keep the day as holy as possible. We strolled around and saw these amazing trees...

We also took a short walk around Harry S. Truman's "Little White House." I guess he spent a lot of time down in Key West both while he was president and afterwards.

We ran into Tami and Jeff in the port area and they snapped a picture of our family in front of our Disney ship before we boarded the boat again.

As soon as we got on, we visited one of our favorite places on the ship...all-you-can-eat soft serve ice cream. So yummy!!

As we were leaving Key West that night, we caught the beautiful sunset from the veranda outside of our room. It was gorgeous! The waves seemed to be much calmer leaving Florida so I was hopeful that my seasickness would be gone.

Who are these crazy kids, and why do they keep calling me Mom?!?!?

That night we watched a magic show in The Walt Disney Theatre and then got to eat at what became our favorite restaurant on board, "Animator's Palate." The decor was amazing and they had all kinds of fun things going on for entertainment during our dinner.

Unfortunately the boat started rocking again and I left dinner early to go lie down for a bit. Lara bought me some seasick bands that you wear on both wrists. I wore these for the rest of our trip and never had any more trouble with seasickness. Of course, the waves calmed down too, but either way, I was grateful for the seasickness to be at an end!

Disney Cruise Day 2

This day started out very rough for several members of our traveling party, including myself. The seas were rough and I was really seasick. It kind of felt like all-day morning sickness. I never threw up, but was very nauseous all morning. I stayed in bed until around 10 a.m. I took some medicine and then headed down to deck 3 mid-ship which is where the boat was least rocky. The waves were crashing against these windows where Nolan was sitting but it helped to be doing something other than lying in bed!

After taking a long afternoon nap with Maylie, I was beginning to feel better and was able to participate in a few of the ship's activities. Here is Abby performing "Part of Your World" during Family Karaoke in the D Lounge...

One of the best parts about the ship was just walking around and running into some of our favorite Disney characters like Ariel from The Little Mermaid...

Donald Duck...

And Belle in her ballroom dress this time. Maylie was fascinated by them all!!

That night's show was called the "Golden Mickeys." Everybody dressed up and got to walk the red carpet before the show. The show was so amazing with so many of the classic Disney heroes and a few Disney villains thrown in there too!

It was pure Disney Magic and I loved every second of it!!

Our dinner that night was at Triton's.

It was probably the fanciest restaurant on board the ship and had really yummy food. Our waiters would move around with us to each different restaurant so they really got to know our family and our preferences. Having an appetizer, main entree and dessert for each meal was quite the experience in itself. And the fact that I didn't have to think about or prepare any food for a week...priceless!!