One of the Perks of Working at a Toy Store

When the kids and I got home today, Brian had a surprise waiting for Olivia in her room. Well, five surprises to be exact. Apparently they disassembled the Disney princess display at Toys R Us, and Brian snagged all five princesses. These lovely ladies now have a permanent home on the wall in Olivia's bedroom. Olivia could not be more thrilled with the new residents.

Easter 09

We had a very nice Easter this year. The kids slept until a reasonable hour (hooray), and then got up to find that the Easter Bunny had left goodies in their baskets. Both kids received a new toy, DVD, and a little bit of candy. Although it is not normal for the kids to have sweets in the morning, I did let Olivia eat the ears off of her chocolate Easter bunny before we started getting ready for church- BIG MISTAKE. As we were walking out the door to go to church Brian noticed that Olivia had chocolate all over her Easter dress- let me rephrase that- all over her white Easter dress. I still do not know where the chocolate came from. It had been over an hour since she had eaten the bunny ears, and I had washed her hands and face before dressing her. I guess she had spit some of the chocolate back up. Anyway, a last minute dress change was in order. Here are some pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes that were taken after church.

We went to Granny Buie's house after the church service for lunch and to hunt eggs. Owen and Olivia had had an Easter party and egg hunt at their daycare the week before, so they were practiced and ready to find some eggs. When the time to hunt eggs came, they sprang into action. Both found several eggs and had a really good time doing so.

Castaway Cay

Our last day of the cruise was spent on Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. The morning began early for me as I got up to run a 5K trail on the island (which was the most beautiful run I've ever done). After the run, I went back to the cabin to get ready for a long day at the beach. We stayed almost the entire day down on the island. Here are some pictures of our day in paradise.

Who did we see while on the beach? It was our favorite pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. We also saw the "Flying Dutchman" ship- which is now a permanent fixture at Castaway Cay.

After a day at the beach, we came back on the boat to get ready for dinner and the show. Owen had had a stomach ache the day before, and could not stay in the nursery. Therefore, he came with us to the show. I thought that his presence would be a total disaster. It was not- Owen actually watched the entire show and he liked it. I really underestimated his attention span. The show on the last night was called "Dreams" and it was the story of a girl's journey through her favorite Disney tales. The highlight of the show for our kids was the musical performance of "Under the Sea"- complete with puppets, bubbles, and people dancing around in turtle costumes.

Sadly, this night marked the end of our voyage on the Disney Wonder. The next morning we got up and were off of the ship by 8am. We had such a great vacation. Maybe one day we will be able to make a return trip on the Disney Wonder. After all- on the ship they don't say goodbye; they say "until we meet again".

Pirates IN the Caribbean

The third day of the cruise was the fun-day-at-sea. This was also Pirate night which meant a specially themed dinner and the Pirates IN the Caribbean deck party. All guests were encouraged to dress like pirates- and many did. I was excited because we were able to re-use our Halloween costumes (yay- I'm getting my money's worth out of those outfits).

The deck party didn't start until 9:45, so it was a really late night for us. Poor Owen slept through most of the deck party, which was surprising since the party was pretty loud. The crew and Disney characters led the dance party for about an hour and then the pirates (led by Captain Hook and Stitch) took over the dance party. At the end, Mickey zip-lined over the crowd to take control of the party and then there were fireworks. The party was a lot of fun and definitely worth staying up late for.

The Mickey Pool

Well, this is it- THE Mickey Pool. For those of you who do not know, the Mickey Pool has been a very important part of life in the Sanders house for several months now. The Mickey Pool has been a vital tool in helping potty train Olivia. I don't know how many times I have said "If you pee-pee in the potty you will get to go swimming in Mickey's pool, but if you don't you'll have to go in the baby splash area with Owen". I am proud to say that Olivia DID get to go swimming in Mickey's pool, and she enjoyed every minute of it.

As expected, Olivia spent a lot of time in the Mickey pool. After hours of swimming, she still did not want to get out. She even went down the waterslide once. I was really surprised that she did that. Every now and then she made it over to the baby splash area to see her brother. Owen didn't really get into the whole "getting wet" thing. He preferred to watch the other kids playing. I'm just glad that the Mickey Pool lived up to the hype.

Nassau

The first port of call was Nassau, capital of the Bahama Islands. In Nassau we took a taxi to Ardastra Gardens and Zoo. I think that this was the perfect excursion for our family. The zoo was small, but it offered lots of up-close encounters with the few animals that it did have. There were a large number of birds at the zoo.

One of the things that we were able to do at the zoo was to participate in the feeding of the lory parrots. When we entered the aviary, we were given an apple slice. Before too long, Brian was able to lure a bird to his apple. Olivia didn't want to hold the bird, but she did want to make sure that the bird ate her apple and not Brian's.

One of the neat things about the zoo was that they let the flamingos roam around uncaged. These flamingos are apparently "world famous" because they "march" military-style and obey commands (like about-face). There was even a show to demonstrate how they do this. I really didn't see the "marching" part- it just looked like a guy herding the flock in one direction and then another to me. Maybe I just didn't know what to look for. Nevertheless, it was still a lot of fun. After the marching drill part of the show, some of the audience members were invited into the arena. Brian and Olivia went in, and Olivia got to get up-close-and-personal with a flamingo...

...and one flamingo got a little too up-close-and-personal with Brian. This flamingo was really checking Brian out! We left the zoo shortly after the show. Brian and his mom took the kids back to the boat while I stayed in Nassau to shop and visit some of the historic and government sites (like the Parliment Building and the Queen's Staircase).


This day ended with a delicious meal at Animator's Palate. This was my favorite restaurant on board. The room starts off in black-and-white and "animates" as you eat. At the end of the meal everything is in color. After eating, Owen went to the nursery again while Granny Mel and I took Olivia to see that night's show- which was a stage version of Toy Story.

Mickey & Pals

While I was filling out the end-of-cruise questionnaire/survey, I took particular notice of one question. The question asked me if I had experienced a "WOW" moment on the cruise and if so describe it. I answered that my favorite moments were those when I got to see my daughter interact with the Disney characters. It was truly magical. We spent a good portion of our trip looking for the characters, and I believe that Olivia successfully met all of them- many more than once. The only person that Olivia refused to meet was Captain Hook. Whenever we saw a Disney character, Olivia's face would light up. She would wait patiently in line. When her turn to meet the character came she would run up to them with open arms and hug them. Sometimes she even kissed them. We have tons of character pictures. I am not going to post them all, but here are a few of my favorites.

The first character that we met while on the ship was Minnie. Minnie is Olivia's favorite, so she was thrilled to meet her. We actually ended up visiting Minnie on three seperate occasions- this picture is of the first meeting.

We were finally able to track down Donald and Daisy on the last night. Donald is my favorite, so I love this picture. Olivia was also able to meet both Cinderella and Snow White twice.

I think that Brian and I were as starstruck by the characters as Olivia was. Whenever we saw one coming we'd get all excited, too. The wonderful thing about being on such a (relatively) small boat was that you were bound to run into one when you least expected it. Case in point, on the day-at-sea I was holding Owen and looking at pictures in the onboard photo studio. I sensed that someone was behind me playing with Owen. I turned around and who did I see? It was Alice (in Wonderland).

You'll probably notice that I have not posted pictures of Owen with any of the characters. I think that he was scared of them, so we did not make him go to meet them if he didn't want to (and he never really wanted to).

Passing Muster

If you've been on a cruise before then you know that nothing fun occurs until after the muster drill. Our muster drill was not a great experience. Owen and Olivia both hated the life vests- add to it the alarms, hundreds of people, and having to be still and quiet for a period of time and you have a recipe for a breakdown (which Olivia did). It got so bad that a crew member finally said that one of us could leave the drill early and take Olivia back to the room. Below is a video of the kids prior to the drill. I think it clearly illustrates the problem with the life vests.


Immediately following the muster drill was the sail away party. It was a lot of fun. There was singing, dancing, and confetti (a piece of which is stuck on Brian's head in this photo). Olivia was recovering from the traumatic muster drill experience, so she was still trying to adjust during much of the sail away party. She did lighten up a little when Mickey and his friends joined the celebration. As the ship pulled away, it blew the horn. To my suprise, the ship's horn played "When You Wish Upon a Star". How cool!

After the sail away party, we let the kids run around in the splash zone before going to the room. I think that getting wet helped to put Olivia in a better mood.

By dinner time, everyone was in a much better mood. There are three regular dining rooms on the Wonder, so we got to eat at a different one every night (with only one repeat). On the first night we ate at "Triton's", which is the most formal of the three. All of the food on the ship was fantastic- and there was plenty of it. Following dinner Owen went to the nursery, and the rest of us went to the nightly show. On this night, the show was the "Golden Mickeys" which was an Academy Awards-like show that gave awards to the "best" of Disney (best villian- Cruella Deville, best buddies- Woody and Buzz, etc...). Each "winner" preformed a musical number when they accepted their award. It was a really cute show. This show marked the end of day one, and we all went back to the cabin for some much-needed sleep.

Ready to Cruise

We have just returned from our Spring Break Cruise on board the Disney Wonder. This was a fantastic vacation! Our 4-night adventure took us to two islands in the Bahamas. Now that I'm back, I must say that 4 nights were not enough. Disney certainly knows how to treat their guests! I guess it goes without saying that I will be publishing several posts chronicling our trip.




The vacation began last Saturday. We left the house after lunch and drove to Cape Canaveral, FL. We weren't going to board the ship until Sunday, so we stayed the night at the Radisson Resort. The kids were tired and hungry after the drive. Fortunately, we met up with Brian's mom and Charlie quickly. Note to self: going on vacation with grandparents is great- extra eyes and hands are very helpful.


After eating breakfast the next morning, we still had some time to kill before boarding the shuttle to go to the cruise ship. We passed the time by walking around the resort. Olivia enjoyed feeding the fish in the koi pond, and Owen was just glad to be outdoors. We checked out at noon and boarded the shuttle. Olivia started getting really excited at this point because she realized that she was about to go on "Mickey's Boat".