Black and White

The other day I enjoyed some time with the older girls while the little ones were in preschool. We had gone to the bakery for a little treat before picking the little devils up. While we were walking back to the preschool started a conversation that turned pretty funny. It went down like this:

Lily (7): Mommy, what kind of shoes did you wear back in the old days?

Me: I don't know...tennis shoes, flip flops..

Lily: YOU had flip flops?

Emma (9): Yeah but they were in black and white..like everything else...

Me: What? no..there was color..

Lily: You mean houses had color? Clothes had color?

I think Emma got confused looking at old pictures with my mom that because the pictures were black and white that meant the world was black and white...Oh..is it funny to hear their thoughts.

Debarkation Day

Well our last day of vacation came on Thursday. We were all sad to have to be heading home. Debarkation day begins very early in the morning with a 6:45 breakfast seating. Ugh it was hard to get up! We ate a good breakfast and said goodbye to our sweet serving team. I tell you 14 people at a table kept them busy with our seating! We got our luggage and through customs pretty quickly. And we were in the parking lot ready to leave by 8:00am! We said goodbye to Emma at the port as she was going to spend a few days at Camp Gagi. So the 5 of us piled in the car and headed north!

It wasn't too far into the trip when we needed some more coffee and we stopped at a Dunkin Donuts (Paul was really needing his coffee!). We happened to run into Tom & Erin at the gas station! We sort of caravaned with them for a bit until we got separated.

All in all the trip home wasn't awful. We did encounter some heavy traffic in SC but otherwise it was just long. We arrived home about 6pm.

We loved the vacation, loved the company! We can't wait to sail with Mickey again!!

Day At Sea

Our last full day on the cruise was a day at sea. Again, we slept late which was great. The kids needed it! Julia finally decided to get her hair braided so we got that scheduled. Paul and I also had reservations to eat at Palo, the adult only restaurant on board. It was delicious! After lunch Erin and I did a wine tasting which was very interesting. Then Emma & I did the Midship Detective Agency..where we solved the mystery of the missing puppies. The kids spent some time in the kids clubs which they really enjoyed. Emma just loved being up there. Jacob did too - which was great for all of us. While I was about the ship Paul and my mom hung out with the kids at the pool. We all met up for Bingo where Papa John was the big winner of the afternoon bringing home the ship jackpot! Jacob, however, was the biggest sleeper - literally falling asleep sitting up during the Bingo game! Poor guy - 7 days of Disney related activities and he just couldn't hang anymore.

Dinner was great as usual and after dinner Emma and Jacob again went to the kids clubs. Erin, mom and I took the other girls to Believe. I just love, love this show and so did everyone who was with us. It's just such a sweet show! After dinner we did some last minute shopping before the "Sea You Real Soon" finale show that the characters do. It's a sweet time and gave us a last opportunity to see some characters we'd missed earlier in the week like Tiana and Chip & Dale and Pluto. The girls loved it and were a little sad to know it was our last night on the ship. Paul and Jacob were pretty tired so they left us before the little show. Such a great day!

Castaway Cay/Pirate Night

Tuesday was my favorite day of the cruise: Castaway Cay. I love, love, love Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. It's also Pirate Night which is always fun. We got a late start out to the beach due to some very sleepy kids. Can't blame though - we've been keeping them going on this vacation! We finally made it out the island late morning and met up with Erin & Tom. We got our spot on the beach and the kids immediately ran into the water. And, luckily, Emma and Lily's new friends found us on the beach! The girls all had a great time playing and swimming together. We ate lunch together and after lunch Gagi found us. We didn't do much on the island since everyone was having such a great time just playing in the water and on the beach. Such a great day and the weather could not have been nicer!

We got back to the ship, played bingo and then got ready for Pirate Night. Such a fun night with lots of folks getting into the spirit and dressing up like a pirate. Paul and Jacob had pirate t-shirts, the girls weren't too interested and I dressed up a little. Jacob apparently had a really big day and literally feel asleep at the dinner table. None of our kids have done that before but literally we looked up and he was asleep. He spent most of dinner in Paul's lap getting a good snooze. That actually worked well though since it was going to be another late night.

After dinner we headed up for Mickey's Pirate Party. The kids all went to the kids club and Erin and I got some bff time until I got paged to go get them. Jacob and Emma decided to stay in the club longer but Julia & Lily wanted to hang with us (who wouldn't). So we took the girls shopping. I'm not sure what it is about those shops onboard - I could continue to shop in them all day long! After a bit of shopping it was time to go up on deck for the Fireworks! Always a fun show - Disney does fireworks right! The kids were excited and loved it more that they got to see their new friends up on deck. The show was fun and the music was great. The kids totally wore out though - you know they are tired when they ask to go to bed!

Nassau

The first full day of our cruise was a port in Nassau. We hadn't planned any excursions we didn't have to be any where at any certain time which was really nice. Lily got her hair braided that morning so after that we were free to explore. Lily ended up spending the morning with Tom & Erin on the island and the other kids went to the kids clubs so that left Paul & I with some time to explore. We took care of some Disney Vacation Club business then headed out. We had a couple shopping destinations in mind so we knew where we were headed. Nassau is OK but nothing special to me. I'd like sometime to go to Atlantis but next cruise if we don't do that I'll stay on the ship!

After a brief walk around Nassau we headed back to the boat for lunch. We collected the kids, ate and then headed up to the pool where we met up with Gagi, Erin & Lily. Paul and Tom wanted to go to a movie so that left us girls and the kids. The kids met up with their new friends and loved playing in the pool. Emma & I rode the Aquaduck together. The whole time she was screaming and saying "I want to get off..this is too scary." Then we got off and she said "let's go again!" Apparently we weren't the only folks who don't love Nassau because the pools got very crowded! We played all afternoon and that was great!

After the pool it was time for dinner. After dinner Emma, Lily and Jacob all went to the kids clubs. The girls met up with their friends again. The rest of us watched the Villains show. Another fun filled day!!

Cruise Day!

Sunday morning = Cruise Day!! We packed up at All Star Music and had one more character meal before heading to Port Canaveral. We went over to the Grand Floridian to 1900 Park Fare for the Supercalifragilistic Breakfast. It's a buffet and features Pooh, Tigger, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. The character interactions were great. Jacob loved seeing Pooh and Tigger and the Mad Hatter. He was not too keen on Alice or Mary Poppins. This disturbed Mary Poppins who was smitten with Jacob. She kept coming back to our table to try to get Jacob to talk to her. It never worked. Pretty funny. The kids enjoyed the interactions. I thought the food was good (yummy strawberry soup), Paul thought it wasn't his favorite but a fun morning. We love the Grand Floridian too - so beautiful! We also had some snack credits to use up so we popped into the Polynesian to use up those credits (still not sure how we had so many left). Then it was Port Canaveral or bust!

Our arrival time was scheduled for 11 - 11:30. We arrived right at 11am and got into the building pretty quickly. We got our key cards and we were boarding group 3..definitely an advantage in checking in online early. We thought about getting in line to get the kids registered for the kids clubs but it was so long we figured we'd wait until we got on the ship. We only waited maybe 15 minutes and then they called our boarding group. We were on the ship by 11:30! We walked around a bit and then headed up for to the kids clubs so we could register the kids. It didn't open until noon but we waited and met a nice family from California who had girls the exact same ages as Emma & Lily. The girls bonded pretty quickly and wanted to hang out the whole cruise. We finally got the kids registered and let them explore the amazing kids clubs areas. I wasn't sure Jacob was ever going to come out of Andy's room!

By the time we finished up there Erin & Tom had boarded! We met up with them and headed for lunch in Enchanted Garden. Gagi and Grampy were also on board so we met up with them too. After lunch our rooms were ready so we went to check them out. We had 2 adjoining inside staterooms and it was perfect for our family. The kids loved the virtual portholes! We went to a DVC Member meet up and got some fun goodies. And before we knew it it was time for the safety drill then the Sail Away party and dinner!

We met up with whole traveling party at dinner - Nana, Papa John, Mimi & Waggy, Gagi & Grampy and Erin & Tom. It was nice that we all got to sit together and we loved our servers! After dinner Emma & Jacob went to play in the kids clubs and then Julia, Lily, Paul and I went to the Golden Mickey's show. It's a fun show and the girls really liked it. It was a pretty late by that point so we finally collected Jacob and Emma - who didn't want to leave and headed back to our room. The kids always love coming back at night and seeing the bunk beds set up. A great day and a great way for our vacation to continue!

Epcot

Epcot was up for our Saturday adventure. Grampy decided he'd had enough of Disney for a while but Gagi was interested in coming along so she met us at our resort that morning. We had late(r) dinner reservations so we decided we didn't need to be there before opening - we'd just get there when we got there. We got to the park about 30 minutes after opening and it was a madhouse to get through bag search. Luckily Paul didn't have a bag and he took a few of the kids, got a stroller and headed to the Land to get Fastpasses for Soarin'. We finally met up over there and decided to the boat ride thing since there was no line before we had breakfast in their food court. The Living the Land was a cute ride - very interesting to see what Disney is doing with some of the crops. We then ate some breakfast in the food court..yummy cinnamon rolls!

We headed over to the Seas and did the Nemo ride and Turtle Talk with Crush - oh that's soo cute! We got a surprise after that when Tom & Erin decided to join us for the day! We had lunch reservations at Coral Reef and it was already lunchtime so we headed over. Luckily they were able to accommodate all of us. While we didn't get a great table we could still see the large aquarium. The food was good (the service..eh) but overall a good lunch. After lunch it was time for Soarin..one of our favorites. Emma decided to sit that one out so it was Paul, Lily, Julia and I. The girls loved it! After Soarin' Paul and Lily got to do Test Track (notice that Lily is first in line for all the thrill rides!). We then hit the World Showcase!

Unfortunately we only made it to Norway when a storm came up. We waited in the covered seating by the Norway bakery for a bit but it was so windy that we were still getting wet. So we holed up in the bakery for another bit..which was really fun with 4 kids. The rain let up a bit so we quickly walked to China where we walked through the shops for a while. Thankfully I had my trusty ponchos (Paul and Erin continually mock me for always bringing ponchos in my park bag but we finally needed them!) and we got them out and headed to Germany when the rain let up some more. We ate some snacks in Germany (darn you Werther's store and your caramel heaven) and waited some more for the rain to go away. Gagi decided she'd had enough of this and bailed on us. Thankfully the rain did finally let up and the sun came out. It ended being beautiful (and much cooler vs hot the day before) but it did take about 2 hours out of our day..boo. We continued around the World Showcase and got our Kim Possible Communicuffs. The girls LOVED doing this. All the action was in England but it was really cute and they were thrilled to solve the mystery. Tom & Erin left us at this point to go get some dinner. We still had some time to kill before our reservations at Le Cellier so we wandered back to Imagination and did Captian EO (mostly so we could sit down for a few minutes) and the Journey into Imagination. It was close to dinner time and we found a little playground so the kids could run for a bit (seriously not sure how they still had energy to run but whatever).

Our dinner was at Le Cellier and we were pretty excited to eat there after all I've heard about it. It did not disappoint. The food was so, so good! We had this delicious pretzel bread to start. Yummy goodness! The steak was just fabulous. Honestly, I thought the service was not spectacular but all in all a great, great meal. I had hoped to stay for Illuminations after dinner but Paul was exhausted and really ready to head back so we did. It was actually pretty smart since the buses get crowded after the fireworks. Unfortunately there was an accident and we had to wait a while on the bus but we finally made it back. Another great day!

Magic Kingdom

The kids slept great and everyone woke up in a good mood for our adventure to Magic Kingdom. We had breakfast reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table. I figured with the girls being 9, 7 and 5 my time for them to want to have breakfast with princesses is really dwindling and I really wanted Julia to remember seeing them. We didn't tell the kids where we were eating just that we were going to the MK for breakfast. Luckily our reservations were at a time that we got in early to MK but didn't have to get up too early!

I just love walking into Magic Kingdom early in the morning! I don't know..I'm such a Disney nerd that just walking in takes me to a happy place. It was great to get pictures of the kids in front of the castle without a gazillion people behind us. We get to the castle to check in and were a few minutes early and since it was right when the park opened we sent Paul on the first Fast Pass mission of the day: Space Mountain. We got in line for pictures with Cinderella (advantage to being a family of 6? Two photo packages! Score!). We got one with the girls and Cinderella (Jacob refused to participate) and then we did a whole family one. Then we promptly got to go upstairs for our meal. We at there before for lunch but this was our first breakfast. The food was very good and I especially loved how our served called me "Queen." Julia was in heaven - she loved, loved seeing all the princesses and even my "we're over princesses" older girls were pretty excited to get autographs and have their pictures taken with them! Jacob was pretty entertained too - I think it was the plastic sword that sold him on the experience. He took pictures with some of the princesses but not all. Snow White was pretty smitten with him and left a huge lipstick mark on his forehead where she kissed him. Pretty cute.

After breakfast we headed to Space Mountain. I rode first with Lily and Paul was going to ride with Julia. However, after I did it I thought it might be a little too much for Julia so Lily got to ride twice. She loved it. Meanwhile we got to see Stitch who tried to eat Jacob's pen. Which freaked Jacob out and he then refused to get his picture with him. Every time we saw Stitch Jacob said he had too many teeth and was going to bite him. We also had a another surprise - Gagi and Grampy joined us for the day! They had also come to FL early and decided to come with us. We were grateful for the help since it was a super crowded day and that brought our adult to kid ratio up to 1:1. Even though the park was super crowded we were still able to do quite a bit of rides without waiting in too many lines. Thank goodness for Fastpasses! We did Peter Pan, Small World, Buzz Lightyear (Jacob loved, loved this), Jungle Cruise, rode the train and saw some favorite characters. We did sucked into waiting forever to see Fairies. The girls really really wanted to see the fairies - when we got to the meet & greet the line was 20 min - it was hot and it was in the shade so we decided to wait. Well turns out the 20 minutes was about 50 minutes..a family of 20, yes 20 had one person wait in line then they all came when it was time to see the fairies. Really, really annoying. Turns out the 2 fairies we saw were Tinkerbell and Terrence. While it was a good meet & greet - the characters were fun and interactive - I'd have not preferred to spend an hour out of my day there! Oh well..the girls were thrilled! We also got to spend some time shopping which made Lily pretty happy. That girl loves to shop. We had some fun snacks at the Main St. Bakery and then said goodbye to Gagi and Grampy.

We had plans to meet up with some great friends for dinner at the Wilderness Lodge. We met them on our cruise last year and they were spending a couple days at Disney after their family cruise so the timing was great. We rode the boat over to the Lodge - Jacob loved this - funny how the monorail, train and boat were some of his favorites. Our friends have 3 kids, including a girl who is the same age as Lily. It took the girls a bit to get to know each other but then they had a great time together. We ate at Whispering Canyon which we loved! It's a fun place to eat and the kids meals included milkshakes to drink which they really enjoyed. It's one of those restaurants where the servers are entertaining and it's very loud..so it was perfect for our families! The food was good too. After dinner we hung out in the lobby catching up with our friends for a long time. We'd considered going back to MK for the fireworks (or at least me & the girls) but we ended up going back to Animal Kingdom Lodge where our friends were staying to see the resort and hang out some more. By the way Animal Kingdom Lodge is gorgeous! We walked out the back deck where there was a cast member handing out binoculars. You could see some giraffes hanging out. So cool! We really enjoyed hanging out with the Cohens - good food and great company!!

Our friends had a car so they drove us back to our resort which was nice. And of course the kids were beyond exhausted but what a great day!

Get Up We're Going to Disney World!!

We'd been planning our vacation for this year forever. It was a 4 night Disney cruise - you know we LOVE a Disney cruise and a bunch of our family decided to tag along. Literally we started planning over a year ago s it seemed forever in the making! About 7 months ago when Disney announced Free Dining for March dates I mentioned to Paul that, in the name of research for my job, we ought to go down to Florida a few days early and go to the parks. Since we've cruised the past few Disney vacations we've had it's been a while since we've been to the parks. Paul initially dismissed my idea but eventually came around (as is true of most of my ideas), since it was, you know, in the name of research for my job (i.e. tax write off). We decided to keep the extra trip a secret from the kids which was really easy to do up until the day before we left! Ha! At exactly 7am 180 days before our trip I made all our dining reservations and scored some of the hottest restaurants in all of Lake Buena Vista. Then the countdown began.

Erin & Tom decided to come down a few days early too and then they decided to drive to FL and our house happened to be a good stopping point and saved them some $$ on a hotel room. So they arrived on Wed. 3/28. We told the kids they were just stopping by on their way to Disney and Lily promptly started begging to go with them. I started packing that day (I told the kids I might as well pack since I was doing laundry and they seemed to buy it). It was a bit hard to sneak extra clothes into a separate suitcase and all was going swimmingly until the 9 year old had to ask. I told her I was breaking up the clothes in case a bag got lost. She looked slightly perplexed but didn't ask further questions. Phew!

Erin & Tom arrived at dinner time and we enjoyed a nice visit with them that evening as we packed up the car after the kids went to bed. The plan was to be up at 4am and leave in time to be at Dunkin Donuts for their 5am opening to get donuts and coffee for the road. We got up and got the last minute stuff packed and then began the rounds of waking up the kids. We started with Lily and I really wanted to video the whole thing but I'd already packed the little video camera (which I never used) so I tried my phone. Needless to say it didn't come out good. Boo hoo. Anyway..Paul woke up Lily and said "we decided to go ahead and go to Disney today..want to get up and go?" She sort of looked at him funny then said Ok and gave him a hug. It was pretty cute. I think had she been more awake we'd have had some more excitement but it was 4:35am. Next we woke up Emma and Julia and they pretty much had the same reaction.."ok..let's go." Then we got Jacob and just put him in the car. Paul had this great idea that they were going to just go back to sleep since it was so early. Apparently he'd forgotten these were our children he was talking about...the no sleep in the car kids. And 5 minutes after we started the journey they were wide awake and Emma was talking a mile a minute. Good plan pops.

Thankfully we had Erin and Tom caravaning with us. So the girls ended up switching cars and every stop mixing it up quite a bit. We had a lot of stops too but we made it, without incident to Walt Disney World by about 3:30pm! We weren't staying at the same resort so we bid farewll to them at their resort, Coronado Springs and then we headed to our luxurious accommodations at the All Star Music Resort. The family suite we stayed in was not fancy but fit the bill and the kids loved it! Two kids shared a bed - Jacob & Emma and Lily & Julia both got pull outs.

For dinner Thursday night we went to O'Hana at the Polynesian. Oh. My. Goodness was it good. Now we knew we were headed to Disney in the middle of Spring Break madness but I have to say it wasn't as bad as I expected. We arrived a few minutes before our scheduled dinner time and promptly at the scheduled time they called us back. O'hana has some really delicious food and the service was excellent. It quickly became one of our favs at Disney!

After dinner we rode the monorail back to Magic Kindgom and then the bus to our resort where Julia promptly fell asleep. It was a really long day but we were all so happy to be there it didn't matter. Everyone fell asleep pretty quickly and excited about our next day adventure to Magic Kingdom.