The cruise by far was all of our MOST favorite part of the trip, and everyone we talked to about the cruise before hand told us the very same thing, it will be the best vacation experience you have EVER had, and we will agree 100%. We were picked up at Animal Kingdom Lodge by a Disney Cruise Line charter bus and taken to Port Canaveral (about an hour or so away), on the bus we watched a Disney Movie and then information about what we could expect with our cruise, so we were at port in no time at all. At Port we had to go thru security just like as if you were flying on an airplane and then after we were all cleared we able to immediately board and the partying onboard had already begun as people could board between 11:00 am and 4:00 pm and we pulled out of port around 5:30 pm.
We quickley found our room and headed back up to the main deck to watch the party and check out all the ammenities and figure out exactly where certain things were...the kids were hungry so we immediately got them chicken nuggets and french fries (what else?) and found a table. By the time we needed to head to dinner we went back to our rooms to change clothes and our bags had been delivered. Our dinner seating each night was at 5:30 and then our evening show time was 8:30 (this by far was my favorite time of day) you get served a delicious 5 course meal and then a Disney Musical Show, what could be better?
Gabe took part in the Disney's Oceaneer Club, which was for children ages 3-12. We would drop him off in the morning and would try to pick him up throughout the day so that we could do things together as a family and just about everytime he would want to stay, the only exception to that was dinner at night, he had to leave to come with us to dinner but then we would take him back before we went to the show...since Sophia was to little for the club we had to pay for her to be babysat so we tried to use that sparingly and besides she really enjoyed the Disney shows as much as we did! At the end of Gabe's time in the club they had an actual graduation on the Disney Theater stage where he wore a cap and a special club t-shirt and they showed a movie of all the kids together with appropriate Disney Music in the background...enough to make me cry!
Once we got away from land the ride got to be much smoother, Tony and I both were "green" the first night aboard and had to go and get sea-sickness meds. Once we got into the Bahamas the water was this beautiful crystal blue and the sands on the beaches were white as snow, to actually be there in such beauty was really hard to take in, I mean you can look at it in pictures but to see it for yourself, with your own eyes is just too exhilerating for words...
I think this was the first time the kids have ever played on a beach. Tony and I are not really "beach goers" so to speak, we figure you can only stare at the water soo long and I don't particularly enjoy sand in my bathing suit. When we arrived on Castaway Cay we were able to buy sand playing toys so that the kids could build sandcastles (I am still cleaning up sand off the floor and out of suitcases!)
Tony and I went jet skiing and then we both rode on the snorkeling catamaran, but he is the only one who ACTUALLY snorkeled...I chickened out and stayed onboard the boat and drank Rum Punch instead!
When we booked the trip over a year ago, we said the reason for our trip was our 10 year wedding anniversary, so the first night in our room we found an Anniversary Card and then the 2nd night at dinner our servers Putu and Santana surprised us with this dessert and sang to us!
Tony and the kids surprised me with this GORGEOUS Blue Topaz (my FAVORITE) and diamond necklace, which I just love, and this is for our anniversary as well even though it really isn't until August!
There is soo much more about the cruise, from the character meet and greets, the outstanding food which was pretty much 24/7, our state room which was quite roomy and we had a private deck outside of our room where we could sit and look out at the stars. All the on-board activities not only for the children but for us as well, the kind and generous cast members whom I had trouble saying good-bye to on our last morning at breakfast. The trip was phenomenal, and honestly we were going to book another cruise to do next January but when we got the price quote we knew it would have to wait a few more years. This trip was worth every penny the memories will certainly last a lifetime, I took tons of photos and plan on making a photo book. For anyone thinking about taking a Disney Cruise...go for it, the trip exceeded every expectation we had and will go down as our favorite vacation to date!
