We flew to Florida the day before the cruise left so we had a chance for Hope to dip her toes into the ocean before getting on the ship. We left from Port Canaveral, so we were on Cocoa Beach.
She loved it!
After we got checked in for the cruise we got our picture taken with Pluto (Mickey was on a break).
We did eventually get a chance to meet Captain Mickey! Actually we stood in line twice to see him because the line was really short the second time and she wanted to see him again. LOL!
The lines to see the characters were usually long, so we only did a few and sometimes we would just randomly see a line and get in it because we weren't on our way to do anything specific. Like meeting Sofia the First.
And of course we had to meet Minnie Mouse too!
We ran into Snow White in the hallway one evening and she was kind enough to stop and visit with some of the kids along the way.
We were actually on our way to drop off Hope at the Oceaneer's Club. She loved going there for all kinds of kids activities and it gave Joe and I some time alone too. It was the best thing EVER!!!
The club was very secure. It was open each day from 9am to midnight and the kids could check in and out anytime during those hours. We would go swimming and then she would say "I want to go to the club". LOL!
We had the late seating for dinner, so they always served the kids first and then the club would come through and pick kids up if they wanted to let their parents finish supper in peace. She always wanted to stay until midnight, so Joe and I would go to the adult bar/clubs for the comedy shows and had a great time.
One night we picked her up at 11:50 and she told us to come back in 10 minutes because she wasn't done yet. But we were tired!!!! LOL! She was learning to drive the ship with a computer simulator. Joe said it looked pretty cool. They had all kinds of theme rooms...Andy's toy room, Pixie Hollow, Monster's Inc., a kitchen, science experiments, arts and crafts, a huge light up dance floor and so much more. She loved it and thanks to Disney for offering such a great service!
There were all kinds of dance parties going on throughout the ship. So even if you didn't get a chance to meet a character up close, you got to see them at the parties.
This was the "Sailing Away" party as we left the port.
They had a Halloween party (yeah I know it was September) and all the kids could dress up in their Halloween costumes. This year Hope is going to be Mal, which is Malificent's daughter from the Disney movie "Decendents". As they say in the movie...she is rotten to the core. LOL!
Here is Mickey and Minnie in their costumes.
Goofy came and gave Hope a high five, so we got to meet him up close too.
And of course there was pirate night. We all got into the fun at this party.
It started raining during the party on the deck and later the storm picked up steam, so they weren't able to do the fireworks until the next night. It was pretty cool.
As you can see above, there was a waterside roller coaster that circled the entire ship deck. It was a lot of fun. Joe managed to get a picture of Hope and I on one of our trips down.
We had a veranda. Almost all of the rooms on the ship had a port hole or veranda. Hope nearly lost her hat one night, but caught it at the last minute.
Disney has animated pictures throughout the ship and the kids can sign up for a detective badge. There were three mysteries to solve and each picture gave a different clue to help solve the mystery. We had fun solving the first one together and then on another day Joe and Hope worked on one together. Below she was getting a clue to the mystery of the missing puppies.
Hope loved the towel animals each night.
The food was fantastic! Especially the deserts each night. I always got the trio, which were small servings of several of the choices. That way I could get a taste of all of them.
I think this was an apple pie sundae Joe order one night. The chocolate Mickey head was so cool.
There were three different dining locations for the formal dinners. The last night was at Animator's Palate. There were screens on the wall and once dinner started Crush (from Finding Nemo) came out and talked to each table. There were microphones in the ceiling so he actually interacted with each table by asking names and questions and addressing the kids by name. It was pretty neat.
He swam away after talking to our table initially, but came back and said he thought he heard one of the kids had a question. We shared a table with a family with three kids. Allie asked Crush "how do you go to the bathroom?". Crush's expression changed...he got a funny look on his face and then you could see bubbles going up behind him (like he farted). It was FUNNY!
The cruise had one day at sea, we stopped in Nassau and Disney's private island Castaway Cay. We chose to stay on the ship at Nassau, but had a great time at Castaway Cay. The food and drinks were GOOD!
Cheers (from Castaway Cay) to a great vacation! We can't wait to go back again!
Darla
