Day One - We're Off!

Well, we've been home a little over a week now and I'm still going through cruise withdrawals. The ground has finally stopped moving (had a hard time playing the piano for choir practice that first day back since the piano wouldn't stop moving!), the kids are back to school with their independent study work done, but I'm still sad that there is no cruise scheduled in our future. May have to remedy that soon!

(Feel free to skip all the writing in these posts or just skim!)

I've been putting off blogging for a couple of reasons. The amount of pictures to go through is a little overwhelming. I've also completed a photo book since we've been home and Parker has made a DVD of our pictures as well. Isn't that good enough? Probably, but I would like to have our trip chronicled here as well.

We flew to Orlando on Friday, November 13th and stayed overnight at a hotel by the airport. We stayed there our last cruise and had to wait almost 30 minutes for the shuttle to get us. This time it was about 40 minutes. I don't think we'll be staying there again.

Getting ready to board the ship!

Welcome Aboard treats from my mom and dad. Each one of our rooms had a special treat. This one was ours.

We're back! Watch out ship ... here we come!


Adventure's Away Deck Party

(Notice Calissa's pony tail ... she was dancing away! Parker wasn't too excited about the dancing.)
It was nice having family on the trip with us to take some pictures of all of us!

Ready to head out to sea.

Our first towel creation from night one.

Day Two - Castaway Cay

We woke up Sunday morning in beautiful Castaway Cay (Disney's private island) in the Bahamas. We were going to spend two days there on this trip (one at the beginning and one at the end). I wasn't sure about two days, but we had so much fun and enjoyed our time there without all the other tourists.





Our family, plus Christopher. I told Travis it looks like he is trying to get him out of the picture. He assured me that he was making sure he didn't fall over!

The whole group with Chip and Dale.

Parker on the play structure. Hold on!

Calissa on the play structure. She didn't make it too far, but on our 2nd day there she made it more than half way across the rope!

Conner - hanging with the tube

Playing in the sand

Getting along!

Calissa's favorite part of dinner each night.

Parker's smoothie

Travis and Conner

Me and Drew

Our towel creation for day two (and Conner :).

Day Three - At Sea

Monday was a day at sea. Parker woke us up in the middle of the night saying his stomach hurt. He started throwing up sometime that night. It is all a blur! Who knows what caused it ... eating too much, the motion of the ship, a bug ... It was a rough day of trying to decide if we should tell the cruise line or not. We didn't want him quarantined if it was going to be over in a couple of hours. We managed to let him lay low that day while the other kids went to the kids club and played on the ship that day.

It was formal night on the ship and the Golden Mickey's Awards Show. (Maybe he just didn't want to get all dressed up?) He managed to make it to the show that night and then went back and watched Monday Night Football in the room. He woke up the next morning feeling much better!

Here is Tina and I on the deck. It was pretty windy that night!

Eating Dinner - Drew all cleaned up!

Drew's yummy dessert.

I wanted "nothing" for dessert and that's what I got, written in chocolate!

Here is where Christopher spent most of his time during dinner on the cruise. Under the table!! He would pop up in our laps occasionally and say, "Hi Uncle Trabis, hi Auntie Jen, Hi Cawissa, etc.) Too cute! Poor guy ... two hour dinners where just a bit too long for him. Calissa was lucky enough to get picked up each night at dinner at 9:00 to head to the kids club. It made our dinner much more peaceful!


Our towel art from day three.

Day Four - Grand Cayman

Tuesday, we went to Grand Cayman. Once we got there we took a tender ship to shore and passed this cool pirate ship.We took a bus through town to a dock and got on a boat to ride to Rum Point Beach on the other side of the island. It was a beautiful isolated beach where we got to spend about 3 1/2 hours.


Luckily, Parker was feeling better and didn't have any problems on the boat ride.


Here's our "not so friendly" crab. Every time he moved (he moved fast) Calissa would scream!

Playing football in the ocean.

She loved swimming in the ocean.

The water was so blue!

Cheese! (Our boat is in the background)

Family picture before leaving Rum Point

Where are we today?

That night we got to see the wonderful "Twice Charmed." An original twist on the Cinderella story. This is the best night of entertainment. Costumes, sets and beautiful music make for a terrific show!

Our Show Dinner that night at Animator's Palate.

Mickey makes an appearance.

Our towel art from day four.

Day Five - Cozumel (& Pirate Night)

Wednesday we woke up in Cozumel, Mexico. It was beautiful and muggy! Although once we were outside for 10 minutes, it didn't seem so bad anymore. We got off the ship with our shore excursion and walked down the pier to a ferry. Once the ferry got underway we bounced along to Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It was pretty bumpy! They were passing out bags for those who were sea sick! Luckily none of us had to use the bags, but we were a little sick once the 40 minute ferry ride was over!Playa del Carmen was beautiful!




Walking to our bus to go to Xcaret.


Once we got to Xcaret Ecological Park we went swimming in the underground river. It was about a mile long and we all wore beautiful, pink life jackets. I had an underwater camera, but the flash wasn't so good. Unfortunately, the pictures didn't turn out all that great, but we had a great time!

Parker and Conner

Most of us.

Xcaret is right on the coast.

It was too bad that we had so few hours there. We definitely could have stayed another 4 or 5 hours. We'll just have to go back some day!

Swimming while we waited (and waited and waited) for lunch.

The Aquarium

There were lots and lots of sea turtles in all different sizes. This is where Parker lost his new sunglasses. There is now one very cool turtle sporting some new shades!

Travis and Drew got to do a little snorkeling. They said too bad we had already used all the pictures in the underwater camera because they saw some beautiful fish. While they were snorkeling, Tina, Christopher, the kids and I saw people snorkeling with "trained" sharks. You wouldn't see us getting in the tank with the sharks. Crazy people!!

The kids in front of some ruins.

Once we got back to the ship, we showered and got ready for the Pirates in the Caribbean Party! Some people go all out. We did a lot better this year getting dressed up for the occasion.

Once dinner was over we headed up to the deck for a party. Pirates came on board our ship, but Mickey Mouse saved the day!

They had fireworks (a pretty good show) at the end of the party. Disney is the only cruise line allowed to shoot off fireworks in the ocean. Pretty cool!

Our towel art from Day five.