Oh where to begin?
It all started like, back in November 2012 or something. Jess and I both decided that we wanted to take our family on a Disney Cruise! Yes, you read that right… a Disney Cruise! Well, to some it might not seem that extravagant, but to us it was an astronimical adventure. We did our research (minimaly) and within no time, the thing was booked. The actual cruise wouldn’t happen until the first of June 2013, but with this sort of thing, you gotta plan in advance.
Fast forward to the end of the school year for Jess. That would be May, for those with calendars and such. There was a LOT on her plate. Our son Chase was finishing up 5th grade, she had decided not to renew her contract at the school she had taught at for the past several years, we were essentially cutting most ties with the area we had lived in for many years, and we ending a big chapter of our lives. The cruise was set for Jun 1 and if my memory serves me correctly Jess’ last day of school was May 24th. That didn’t give us much “down time” between her finishing up with her career and us getting on a cruise ship with an 18 month old and a 10 year old. Sheesh, what were we thinking?! But hey, its kinda what we do.
Aight, so we didn’t tell Chase that we were going on a cruise. All he knew is that we were “going to the beach”. I mean, that wasn’t totally a lie, as we eventually did make it to a beach, it just happened that it was by boat. So we roll up on this beastly ship and we start to play all like, “oh, we didn’t mention that we were going on a Disney Cruise?” and he starts to put it all together. I’ll go ahead and say that Chase is not the most observent kid, but he’s got the emotions and heart of a kid twice his age. His jaw started dropping as the realization hit. I have a video of it, and I swear I’ll get around to posting it. Trust me, this kid was floored when he put all the pieces together. Lane, on the other hand didn’t give a crap cause he just wanted out of the car seat he had been in for the past several hours.
Zoom, zoom, now we’re getting on the boat and I swear it was like entering a magic trick. I don’t know if it was the Monsters (the drink) or the excitement or what, but it felt like we were the only people there. The boat people (for lack of better term) made this big announcement and introduced us as soon as we walked over the gangway. It was truly spectacular.
Ok, where to begin with the actual cruise itself? I don’t know if that’s even possible. I can talk for days about all the stuff there is to do or the stuff that we actually did. I can go on and on about the accomidating crew and staff, but meh, that would bore you to death. Well, that’s assuming that more than just me and my wife are reading this. Here’s a quick recap… The staff is unbelievable and at the drop of a mouse ear’d hat they will bring you anything you need or make you feel like the captain of the ship. Want some soy milk at 2 in the afteroon? Boom, 20 mins later and its there. Lose your GoPro? Oh weird, they have it up at Guest Services. Have to miss dinner cause your son’s nap schedule was off, no worries, they’ll bring you a 5+ course meal to the room and set it all up for you. The room had not 1 but 2 black out curtains. Want to watch Emperor’s New Groove, or The Lion King or Bug’s Life, or ANY OTHER DISNEY MOVIE EVER!? Yeah, they got that streaming on the TVs in the room. Want to sit on the balcony and watch the sun set/rise, no worries, that’s a thing that you can do. Iron Man 3, in 3D? Sure, why not. Got a 10 year old kid that wants to explore the ship on his own? Sure! That’s totally doable and, in fact we’ll set up some sort of game so that’s even MORE enjoyable for them. Oh you like to run? Head to the 4th deck and there’s a running track (2.5 laps around the ship is a mile, btw). Sunrise Yoga, check. I mean, like literally everything you could possibly want they had it. Even suppositories for our sick 17 month old who was running a 102 degree fever on the last night. They’ll even do that for you!
It really was magical. Jess and I got to go on an excursion solo thanks to the nursery and club for pre-teens. With out that we would not have been able to go snorkeling, something I’ve always wanted to do. Chase had an amazing time. Lane probably will have no actual memory of the cruise, but we have pics and videos and souviners to remind him when he gets old enough. I could continue to go on and on about it. The adult only sections of the boat, the fact that we could bring our own alcohol on board, the sun poisoning I gave our son cause I failed to put sunscreen on his legs prior to the last day beach excursion day. This trip had it all. I would highly recommend it to anyone that’s thinking about thoughts. If you’ve ever been on a cruise, you should go again, but make it a Disney Cruise. If you don’t have kids, that’s fine. They have areas where kids aren’t allowed. If you do have kids, the boat will take care of them! I don’t know how they pull it off, but they do.
Any way, we’ll go on another on at some point in our lives, but it’ll be a while. We’re still recovering from the first one. Below are our pics, and like I said a video or videos are on their way!
[nggallery id=2]