A few months ago Erin contacted me to see if the kids and I would like to tag along with her on a 7-night preview cruise for the ship Disney just finished building - the Fantasy. She had to sail for work and had room in her cabin for 3 more people (sorry to any other Jacksons reading this, I'm hoping she will get a chance to offer something like this to one of you in the future!)
Before we went on the ship, we spent a day with Erin in Disney World. Here are some pictures:
Samuel's favorite ride there was the Buzz Lightyear ride:
Becca loved the carousel:
On the teacups:
Samuel on the Grand Prix race cars:
We took this picture as we were leaving the park, so the kids were hot, tired, and grumpy. But look! it's Cinderella's castle in the background so that means we were at the happiest place on earth! Were they the happiest kids on earth in this picture? No!
The next day we went to the ship, which was amazing. Totally amazing. First of all, it was bigger than anything I had imagined:
And since it was brand new, it was spotless. The older I get, the more of a germaphobe I am becoming, and thinking about things like blankets tons of other people have slept under kind of grosses me out. But we were the first people to sleep in our cabin, so everything was brand new. And the people who work on the ship were REALLY good about keeping things clean. They were constantly handing out wipes before you ate anywhere, and there were people cleaning things all the time.
And speaking of the people who worked on the ship, I have to say how genuinely NICE they were. I know they are being paid to do a job, but they really make you feel welcome. People were constantly making eye contact with us, smiling, saying hello, ("hello princess" to Becca), and making sure you had everything you needed. It was really wonderful. Here's Samuel with one of the crew members during the Sail Away party the first afternoon:
Becca was also at the Sail Away party, but she fell completely asleep right in the middle of the singing, dancing, music, and lots of people waving streamers. It was 4 hours past her naptime and she just could not stay awake any longer. I was holding her and every so often she would sit upright, bounce to the music (in her sleep) and then lay right back down.
There was a LOT to do on the ship. We spent some time in the kids clubs doing fun things like:
- checking out the interactive floor:
- creating our own marshmallow guy and having him compete in the marshmallow olympics:
- playing in Andy's Room (from Toy Story) with lots of giant toys for the kids to play with (Becca loved this room. She could have stayed in here for hours):
- making crafts:
There were character appearances every day. We got a list the night before in The Navigator, which was a daily newsletter of all of the things going on the next day on the ship. Here we are meeting some of our favorite characters:
Samuel spent a lot of time swimming in the pool and going down the Mickey water slide:
We also went in the Aquaduck, which is the water slide that goes out over the ocean and then around the ship. I don't have a picture of us in it, but here's one from google so you can see what I am talking about. It was fun!
Sadly, Becca was not tall enough to go on the aquaduck, and she was not old enough to go in the pool (you have to be potty trained, which we are working on, but not there yet), so she spent some time in the Finding Nemo splash area:
We spent some time hanging out relaxing on the ship:
One night there was a Pirate Party. We knew about this in advance thanks to Erin, so I brought along pirate clothes for the kids to dress up in. Dinner that night was pirate-themed and everyone got a bandanna to wear. After dinner there were pirate games and a little musical show with the characters. There was dancing and singing (and later in the evening there were fireworks, but we were asleep by then.)
The ship stopped at 3 places while we were at sea, but we only got off at one - Castaway Cay, which is the island Disney owns (we didn't get off at the other ports because there was a lot we still wanted to do on the ship.) Castaway Cay was beautiful. The kids had a great time playing in the sand and the water.
We spent a lot of time eating on the ship. There was food available 24/7. If you were hungry between lunch and dinner, you could just call room service and have them bring you a snack. For free! Most of the nights we ate dinner in the formal restaurants, which was a little challenging for the kids since they never do that at home. We rotated through the 3 restaurants during the trip so we ate at each one a few times. Our waiters stayed with us each night. After the first night, our waiter knew that Samuel and Becca both liked chocolate milk, so he had that ready for them on the subsequent nights. He also had potato chips for Samuel each night since Samuel could live off of those (speaking of living off certain foods, Becca subsisted the entire week on: orange juice, chocolate milk, french fries, macaroni and cheese, and ice cream. (Healthy? No. Did I feel like pushing the food issue with a stubborn 2-year-old while on vacation? No.)
Here is our super nice waiter:
Here is my favorite of the 3 restaurants, Animator's Palate:
One of the nights we ate here, Crush the turtle (from Finding Nemo) did an interactive show. Animation of him swimming came on the giant screens you see above, and he somehow talked to the people eating. I have no idea how they do that, but it was neat to hear him actually having a conversation with the diners. Another night we ate there, everyone got to draw their own cartoon at the beginning of dinner. Then the waiters took the papers away and through some sort of Disney magic, we got to watch all of our cartoons march and dance across the big screens at the end of the meal. We all got to decorate our own cupcakes here, too.
All in all, it was an amazing, amazing trip! We had such a good time. I would highly recommend a Disney cruise to anyone who is thinking about one (of course, if you can go for free, it is even better. Thanks Aunt Erin! We love you!)
