The final post about our trip to the U.S. And my favorite part. Because we had been looking forward to this for so long. See, when we moved to Chile we made a general plan. That included staying put for the first 18 months. Patagonia was on both of our bucket lists and since we didn't know how long we would be in country, we planned it for our first summer here - December 2011. My parents and brother joined us on our
trip and we checked one off our to do travel list. But it meant not heading back to the States until the next summer - about 18 months since we left. I was ok with that, but I was not ok with spending consecutive holiday's here in Chile. So, we started planning our Home Leave for December 2012-13. What we ended up with was our trip to
Breckenridge for Christmas, a quick trip to
Disney World, and the finale - a week on the newest Disney boat, the Fantasy. Yep, we planned and paid for a cruise 18 months before ever setting sail. Before they really even had a final itinerary and details (the ship is that new). For those of you who know us, and how we plan trips, that is something like a miracle. But living in South America has made it almost impossible to fly by the seat of our pants when planning trips in, around and through the U.S. So we have been looking forward to this for a long, long time. And hearing about it from MadHatter for what seems like forever. See, she had her birthday on this cruise. And if you had asked her how old she was any time in the past 6 months the response would have been, "I'm 4 /2 but I turn 5 on the Disney Cruise". For not having to hear that ever again, I am almost glad the magic is behind us.
It was a great cruise. I have a list of pro's and con's about cruising with Disney but I will save that for a different space. What I will say is this - we had a magical time. We were in the Caribbean, with Nana and Grampa, and we had nothing to do but have fun. And see every single Disney character known to man. The smiles on the girls faces was priceless and I would do it again in a heartbeat. And MadHatter can now say, with the biggest grin, "I turned 5 on the Disney Cruise".
Some highlights - I couldn't possibly include them all...
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| Leaving Port Canaveral. See you next week. |
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| Beach!!! Our first stop was the Cayman Islands. |
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| She kept writing her name in the sand... |
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| And she was so proud... |
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| And she was always so sad to find the waves would wash it away. |
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| My favorite part. |
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| A view of the AquaDuck. The water tube/slide that ran around the entire perimeter of the ship - and even out over the ocean. MadHatter enjoyed it quite a few times. Stinkerbell was unfortunately too short. |
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| MadHatter and Papa on their first ride. |
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| Guess what her verdict of the ride was... |
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| So excited to go swim and pet the dolphins. It wouldn't last. MadHatter was not so sure about the whole thing once we got in the water. I got her to calm down but she never really warmed up. Stinkerbell on the other hand was gung ho and could be heard giggling for miles. |
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| Kisses! |
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| Dancing. |
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| Doing tricks. |
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| She did it. But didn't love it. Until now - now she talks about it like it was the best time ever :) |
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| Rubbing the dolphins belly made her giggle every single time. |
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| I couldn't resist. |
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| The next day we hit Costa Maya and the Xel Ha tubing park. |
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| She can fall asleep anywhere. ANY where. |
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| MadHatter got out and swam for a good portion. |
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| Mini beer after all that hard work. No worries - it's B's. He asked for a half a glass of beer and this is what they brought him. Asking for half a glass, at an all you can drink place, probably doesn't happen often. |
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| Ready to go relax. |
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| This was at dinner one night. They gave us a placemat and told us to draw a picture of a person staying within the lines they had. They collected our placemats before our main course and about half way through they put on a 3-4 minute show using all of the placemat drawings in our section. It was really cool as they had animated them all. Ours danced a jig. From left - Grampa's, B's, Nana's and mine. Afterwards they put our names up in the credits and we got honorary animator's certificates. |
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| What a great surprise Nana and Grampa got her a "day" at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. She got to chose a costume, have her hair done, nails painted and face made up. Best part - she got to keep it all and take it home with her. She felt like such a little princess! The only part she didn't like was that one of us had to stay (rules, rules, rules) because she really wanted to just enjoy it by herself! |
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Not to be left out while her sister was getting pampered, Stinkerbell met Captain Mickey at a private meet up for Concierge guests!
And finally, it was the big day!
MadHatter turned 5!
We celebrated. We went to Disney's private island. We had a party at Kid's Club. We had cake at dinner. And we opened presents not once, but twice! What a way to celebrate becoming a whole hand! |
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| Dressed and ready to go! |
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| We tried, just this once, to get a real family picture. How do you think that wend |
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| She was a bit of a monkey on her birthday. Couldn't get a serious face without flat out surprise... |
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| And then she was back to her silly self. |
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| They left her a cake on the bed! |
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| We were all instructed to wear hats to dinner. We obliged. And so did our servers. |
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| She is 5! |
The final post about our trip to the U.S. And my favorite part. Because we had been looking forward to this for so long. See, when we moved to Chile we made a general plan. That included staying put for the first 18 months. Patagonia was on both of our bucket lists and since we didn't know how long we would be in country, we planned it for our first summer here - December 2011. My parents and brother joined us on our trip and we checked one off our to do travel list. But it meant not heading back to the States until the next summer - about 18 months since we left. I was ok with that, but I was not ok with spending consecutive holiday's here in Chile. So, we started planning our Home Leave for December 2012-13. What we ended up with was our trip to Breckenridge for Christmas, a quick trip to Disney World, and the finale - a week on the newest Disney boat, the Fantasy. Yep, we planned and paid for a cruise 18 months before ever setting sail. Before they really even had a final itinerary and details (the ship is that new). For those of you who know us, and how we plan trips, that is something like a miracle. But living in South America has made it almost impossible to fly by the seat of our pants when planning trips in, around and through the U.S. So we have been looking forward to this for a long, long time. And hearing about it from MadHatter for what seems like forever. See, she had her birthday on this cruise. And if you had asked her how old she was any time in the past 6 months the response would have been, "I'm 4 /2 but I turn 5 on the Disney Cruise". For not having to hear that ever again, I am almost glad the magic is behind us.
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