Want an awesome vacation? Book a Disney Cruise.
Call 1-800-Disney, Mention my name, Vicky Mize, for a great deal! LOL!!!(just kidding)
Of course a Disney Cruise is going to be an awesome vacation, AND of course I want to share our awesome adventure with my readers. However in doing so I guess Disney gets a boost in free advertisement.
So I hope you enjoy reading my advertisement.
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My sister called the other day trilled that I had written a blog on my Disney run. So I decided to play catch up and tell more Mize Stories here on my blog. The day was December 25, 2012, while the kids were all snug in their beds and sugar plums danced in their heads, Santa was on his way. He was bringing the boys a most exciting gift, a DISNEY CRUISE!!! This particular year the boys didn't really have anything that they wanted for a Christmas gift. They are at the age where they are figuring out that "stuff" doesn't last forever. "Stuff" can't go to heaven with us. "Stuff" breaks! Mom throws "stuff" in the trash can. It was the perfect year for them to really enjoy a gift of time spent together as a family, the gift of memories that will last forever. After all, memories are the only thing you can hoard with out them over taking your living space.
The boys were supper excited, for the day had finally arrived. We were all itching to get on the boat. We had the sweetest check in lady who bumped us from a 45 boarding number to a 3!! That means we were able to board right after all the special boarding. YES!!
Mickey and Minnie were at Port to welcome us!!
The Port Holes await our entry.
Bon Voyage!!! Boarding time started at 12, we were able to board at 12:11!
The first thing we did when we boarded was to learn the ship. We went to the welcome meeting to get use to the lay out of this massive ship. Pretty easy ship to learn!!
The boys loved the changing color hall way.
Aqua Duck! Water slide
Bryson loves Putt-Putt so he was in Putt-putt Heaven with a coarse on the top of the ship.
This was the pool area sporting a huge big screen TV.
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FISH EXTENDERS
Before we went on our Disney Cruise I jumped online to read as much about what to expect as I could find. While doing so I learned of this little secrete that you can participate in while cruising. It is not a Disney thing, it's more of secret society thing. I went through the steps of befriending other Jan.19 Dream cruisers, and came into the Fish Extender group a little later than most but was still able to participate.
The general idea about Fish Extenders is to meet other people with the same love of Disney that have a sense of adventure. Each family makes what is called a Fish Extender pocket hanger for their cabin. (Its called a fish Extender because the hook that you hang it on outside of your cabin door is a FISH!)
During the duration of the cruise the others in this secret adventure stuffs your FE with small gifts. Bryson was my little FE helper. The boys loved coming back to the cabin to find small gifts in their pockets.
One of our cutest gifts was chocolate coins from a cruiser from Canada. So they were chocolate Loonies and Toonies. We ended up with a whole drawer full of stuff. If was an added fun adventure to an already exciting cruising adventure.
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CHARACTERS
Can't have a Disney Cruise with out some famous faces.
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Pirate Night
We loved Pirate night on the Disney Cruise. We had costumes ready for the biggest party on the open sea.
My awesome pirates.
Can't have a Pirate Party with out Capt. Jack.
And Capt. Mickey
And the party begins.
The only ship on the open seas that allow fireworks. The fireworks kicked off the late night pirate party.
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Bed Turn Down
Every evening when we returned to our room it was turned down for bed time. Our room keeper would clean up after the boys, even picked up dirty clothes and put them in our dirty clothes pile. As mom I got a little spoiled. Wish I could have brought him home with me. We had so much fun with him. We even left him a towel creation one evening.
Our room all ready for bed time.
ROOM SERVICE!! On Disney room service is always free. The boys got spoiled each night they would order cookies and milk before bed time. Disney cookies are the best you will ever taste!!
This is the animal that we made and left for room service guy. It's a snake with a five dollar bill as it's tongue. Because we made a left this at the end of our cruise our guy left us a special treat for making animal creations.
We also made a mickey out of towels. the hat on this mickey head is what we made for our Fish Extenders gifts. I had a list of all names and embroidered the kids names on the hats.
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CASTAWAY CAY
One of our favorite things about the Disney Cruise was our stop at Castaway Cay. This is Disney Private Island. The island is kinda like being at Disney World. Everything is Disney, shopping, food court, activities, it's all Disney. Which means its all first class!!
The morning of Castaway Cay, Bryson and I decided to run the 5k on the island. How many chances does one get to run a 5k on Disney Private island.
I will be writing a separate blog post on our run on the island.
After our run we hit up the ocean for some snorkel time!! Oh Yea!!
We are fish!!
So one reason this is the best stop on a Disney Cruise. The island is like it's own private get a way. Lunch and all the drink you could want was provided.(Also all the clean towels you could use) It's a perk of the Disney Cruise.
Bryson's Favorite part of the cruise, Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were as big as Mickey's Ears.
After lunch the two older boys went their way with friends and Bryson hung out with dad and I. So we decided to rent an aqua trike. WRONG thing to do!! That thing was more work than it looked. It took forever to get anywhere and required a lot of pedal power to get there.
We had been told that the Pearl was docked here in this area and you could drive the bike over to the Pearl to see it up close and personal. But come to find out due to the damage of the last hurricane the Pearl had to be removed. So really there was no where to drive this hydro bike to. But we made a memory and learned a lesson and had an adventure.
Time to leave! Boo hoo! We miss it already! Wonder if they have Travel Nursing Jobs here on Castaway Cay. Think we will ask our recruiter. It would be an awesome place to work, live and play.
Taking Disney Trolley back to boat.
Think if we pretend to be a statue right here with this fish anyone would notice that we are missing?
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FOOD
One of the boys favorite thing to do on the cruise, eat all the pizza you can pack in. Of course Johnny and I enjoyed trying new things.
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Fun on Ship
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Good Bye Disney Cruise
Sad day, Packing up and heading off our floating paradise. Three days were just not long enough!
WHAT!!! Look at that bill!!
They boys had such a great time and want to plan a new Disney Cruise. We are definitely hooked on cruising. This adventure was way better than any "stuff" the boys could have gotten for a Christmas gift. On the way home the boys chatted about how and when we could take another cruise. Trent wants to return to cruising before he turns 18, at which time he will be too old for the teen activities upon the Disney ship. The boys reasoned that we could save a bunch of money by not going out to eat each week. They tried to figure out ways to make money. We told them we could take a Disney cruise (maybe in honor of Trent's 18 birthday) if we strict to a budget. It's amazing how they understand budgeting in order to get what they want.
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