Disney Cruise 2014

Hey ya'll!!!  We just got back from our Disney cruise yesterday.  And it was FABULOUS!!!  If you like Disney and you like going on cruises, this is the vacation for you.  We seriously had the most relaxing time without Jackson.  That being said if you plan to go on a Disney cruise, DON'T take small children!!!  When I say small children, I mean 5 and under.  There were tons and tons of families, of course!!!  I mean it's Disney, right? Aaron and I were so thankful to be there as a couple and not a family with small children.  Our final discussion yesterday in the airport concluded that kids 6 or 7 and up would be perfect to take, but the little littles not so much!!!

We left bright and early Tuesday morning to catch our flight to Houston and then grabbed a shuttle ride to Galveston.

 

 

This cruise we wanted to make sure we took advantage of all the fun things they had planned.  On NYE before our late dinner at 8:30, we went to their theatrical performance, The Golden Mickeys and sat in on a trivia game show, Mickey Mania.  Both were a lot of fun!!!

 



 This was inside the room where they had a lot of family game/trivia shows.  I snapped a couple of pics of the walls lined with ABC/Disney shows.  Nashville is one of my favs, and my mom LOVES Kelly and Michael.

 

 

 

 In our NYE attire!!!  I was trying to be a little sparkly.

 

NYE dinner in the Parrot Cay Cafe

We ran into Goofy after dinner, so Aaron wanted a pic with him.

 

 We were greeted by a snail friend when we got back to our room on NYE.  We were so tired from our early flight that we didn't stay out all night.   We decided to ring in the NYE from our room.

 

Day 2: We were at sea.  This is the view from our room. 

 We finally rolled out of bed and got down to have breakfast on Deck 9 at 10:30 just before they closed the breakfast line.  Then, we found the adult only section with a coffee bar.  We sat out on the deck for a couple hours reading on our Kindles and drinking lattes. 

 Next up, Frozen in 3D.  A really cool thing about this cruise was the movie theatre, where they were showing new release movies (Disney, of course!!!)  I can't say enough good things about Frozen.  It was amazing!!! We LOVED it!!!  It was totally not a movie I would normally go see.   After all, with J now we see a lot fewer movies, so we tend to be more choosy.  I mean if you're going to get one night every so often to go see a movie, you have to make the movie count. 

 

Before dinner the second night, we went and saw Toy Story the musical.

 

Day 3: Cozumel

We chose to do the excursion, Salsa and Salsa, as in making homemade salsa and salsa dancing.

 

 

 Aaron was chosen to be our Table captain, so he had to get up and dance a little here and there.  He's doing a figure 8 shaking his hips in this pic.

 Our table comprised of a family from Boston and a couple from the D.C. area/Toronto.

 

We made a basic salsa, tomatillo salsa, guacamole, pico de gallo, tropical pico de gallo, and a dessert salsa.  It was a fun experience!!!

 

We headed back to the ship for more Kindle reading and eating on the deck before going to see Saving Mr. Banks. Another amazing movie!!!  I really want to watch Mary Poppins, again!!!

 

After our movie and some more reading in our cabin, we headed up for night 3 of dinner.  This night we were in the Animator's Palette dining room.  It was super cool!!!  You walk in and everything is black and white with no color.  By the end of the night, all the pictures and walls were glowing in colors.  Then, the night ended with a great song and dance by the waiters and waitresses along with a visit by Mickey Mouse himself.

 

 

Little did Aaron and I know before going on the cruise (we obviously didn't read our itinerary very well), our third night was Pirate night.   We literally thought that only the kids would be dressed up like pirates.  No, no, no!!!  There were plenty of adults, too.  It was actually kind of funny to see so many dressed up in pirate costumes.  Unfortunately, I didn't take pics of all of the costumes around us.  Oops!!!  We did go up to Deck 9 for the Pirates of the Caribbean dance party and fireworks show.  It was a lot of fun!!!  The entertainers on this boat were phenomenal.  They danced on stage for a good hour!!! You could tell they were having so much fun, but I was exhausted and amazed watching them.  Especially the Disney characters in the big heavy costumes!!!

 

Then, Aaron karaoked.

 

 

Day 4: We were at sea, again.  Which means we did more of the same.  We ate.  We read.  We drank mocha lattes.  We saw the movie, Thor: The Dark World. Then, ate some more.

The only thing unusual about the last day was how rough it was at sea. I mean rough!!!  Like stumbling around the boat because it was so bumpy.  Thankfully, neither of us get sea sick because it would have been miserable!!!

Last dinner with our friends we made over our 4 nights along with our servers, Kamil and Raka.  We ate every night with 2 mother/daughter pairs.  Vicky and Tanya are from NW Arkansas.  Vicky is also a school counselor!!!  And Rachel and Kayla are from Houston.

Our night ended with a Farewell from our Disney friends.  They reminded us it's not Goodbye but it's See You Later.  They are hoping we come back and spend lots of money with them in the future. :)

 

Seriously, we had the BEST time.  It was so nice to sleep in, not be on a schedule, and read an entire book!!!  I love, love, love my boy, but with little little ones you are at the mercy of their napping and eating schedules.  Being a parent is lots of fun but also lots of work.  It was nice for Aaron and I to have some time to ourselves to repower our battery to start a new year.  I truly hope we are able to do a trip like this every few years. 

 

A huge shout out to my amazing parents who watched J from Monday night to Saturday afternoon.  We could not have done this without them so willingly wanting to watch J.  I left J knowing he was in good hands, so I didn't worry one second about him. 

 

If you made it to the bottom of this post, thanks for reading!!! It was an extra long one!!! :)