Disney Cruise!!!!

Disney Cruise 2018

We were up and ready to go with many anticipation excitement!  We have been counting down to go on this Disney Cruise for some time and it was really happening!  We had a 3 hour drive to our destination to Galveston to aboard a Disney Adventure!!!

Meeting Captain Mickey

We met up with Grandma Martinson!  We were so excited that she could come with us!  We have made a lot of fun memories with her!

The girls loved to look out the window!

Exploring the Christmas decorated ship before we sail away

On our exploration we found the Kids' Club.  It was absolutely amazing!  They had fun activities and different Disney themed rooms: Toy Story, Marvel, Frozen, and others.  It was a sight to see!  The girls loved going down the slide and looking around. They were in Disney heaven!

Mandatory evacuation meeting

It was amazing to see how fast the ship was moving.  This became a spot that we would visit frequently.

So beautiful!

Brinley was so excited that there was an Ariel statue

Mickey Bars where the top dessert for the cruise each night!

Lighting celebration and we sang Christmas songs.  It is cool how you can feel the Spirit of Christmas singing with a big crowd. 

Each evening there were these amazing shows.  This was a special date with Mommy and Daddy for the 2 older girls while Grandma put the other kiddos to bed.  This night was a magic show that the girls loved!

Grandma Martinson surprised these girls with princess pjs.  They were so excited!  Grandma is the best!

This little guy was up at 4:30 and so him and I had a Mommy and Emmett day.  The ship is very quiet this early in the morning!

The girls got up super early and we went to explore.  The ship is a lot quieter in the morning.

The water was so beautiful.

Breakfast.

I made these door magnets for our stateroom to help us find which ones were ours.  They turned out so cute!

This was a really cool experience for us.  We were looking down over the balcony and the girls were just admiring Belle and sharing how they want to meet her.  While they were sharing their excitement and desire to meet her, she looked up at that very moment, gave the girls a "princess wave" and smiled really big at them.  It was so priceless to see their reaction!

I love this stage in life of princesses and characters. 

Aqua Deck

The weather was around the low 70s the first day we set sail and the girls couldn't wait to swim !

This section was darling on the ship with the splash pad, pool, and waterslide.

Look at her pose- Sooooo adorable!!!!

I love how there is so much joy watching your kids enjoy the moment.

Derek and I were perfectly content not swimming in this (to me) cold weather- ha ha.

Brinley couldn't wait to get on the waterslide!  She was the first to do it!  She definitely has this adventurous and no fear spirit within her.

On the other side of the ship, there was a HUGE scene that would play Disney Movies 24/7 and there is a swimming pool right there.  The girls loved to watch the movies!

We went to an activity where they played Disney Music Trivia.  It was so hard, but we had a lot of fun guessing movies, songs, and characters' names.

Then we went to a Family Feud activity.  Our girls really wanted to be picked to help out.

Part of the excitement for me was watching my girls interact with the characters.  They get so mesmerized, it is a priceless moment.

Formal Night: 

My boys!!!!!

 This is a beautiful picture of my mom! She is beautiful inside and out!  I am so blessed to have her as my mom.  She is one of my best friends and she is a wonderful grandma!  We feel so lucky that we were able to take her away during Thanksgiving to make so many fun, lasting memories together.  Love you Mom!

I absolutely love this picture of everyone!

Dinner was in 3 different restaurants and this was called the Animation Palette.  It had all these animations and demonstrations on how they were sketched.  During the middle of dinner, they had this show which was so much fun of clips of many Disney movies!  It was magical and you can really feel the spirit of Disney.  

Derek and I also had the MOST AMAZING DINNER EVER!!!! We had Tuna Steak and it was so AMAZING!  It was an experience that I have never experienced before- like a PARTY going on in the MOUTH!  It truly was incredible!  YUMMY!

I loved all the colors and how it added to the dinner show.

Disney is so creative, the lighting is paint pallets.

The girls loved coloring the pictures. 

Mickey Bar

We had to walk a lot of stairs because I have a fear of elevators... ha ha.  The girls rode the elevator with daddy or grandma a lot. We were on the 2nd floor and most of the attractions were on the 9th.  My quads got a good workout and it totally made me think twice about going up those flights of stairs to get a soda or ice cream- ha ha.

Derek got so much rest on this trip by taking 2 naps/day.  We had the inner staterooms and it was really dark so it was so nice to sleep.

These girls had a party with Grandma Martinson every night!  They loved every minute of it!

Meeting Elsa and Anna

More Characters

Vamprina

Black Widow

Loved all the decorations and the festivity atmosphere.

1st Stop:  KEY WEST, FL

It was rainy, but we were prepared with ponchos, which turned out to be so fun to wear.  We explored a little and walked around the city a little and then we found an aquarium that we spent more of our time.

Ashlyn's face cracks me up! That girl!

Claire was so brave and fed the fish!

The food was great! We ate all the time!!!

I think I will remember this moment so vividly in my mind.  Ashlyn brought up the topic of who is having the most amount of fun- MOMMY! ha ha.

I really did have so much fun!  I loved the evening shows, the Disney magic throughout the ship, the characters, the great food, soda, ice cream and most of all being together as a family!

I love spending time with these two!

Brinley

Ashlyn

Goofy's Pool and Movie time

Can you guess the movie?

(Finding Dory)

With the 3 restaurants, our favorite was Tiana's Place.  We had one of the best tables in the place- right front near the stage.  They had a live jazz band and the girls danced with Tiana.  It was so much fun!  Tiana and the Alligator came around a visited us too.

Our servers were a lot of fun!  At the end of dinner they would do a magic trick and then the girls would try to figure it out.  It was so fun!

After dinner we went to an area where they had a family dance party!

Look at these party animals move!

Disney Island!!!! OUR FAVORITE DAY!!!!

The view from the ship.  This picture doesn't even give it justice.

It was absolutely beautiful!!!

Riding the tram to the beach

We found this fun hammocks

This picture cracks me up because a few moments before this picture I attempted to get on the hammock with Emmett in my arms and we totally flipped over and landed right on our/my butt and back.  It was hilarious.  

Isn't it so so beautiful!!!!!

Everyone had fun playing on the beach

Snorkling was one of our favorite activities!

Brinley and Daddy went first and then Ashlyn and I went.  We swam and found some Mickey, Minnie, and boat statues underwater along with many fish (small and some as big as Claire) and then we spotted a sea turtle that was HUGE like as big as Claire!!!  It was so awesome!

It was a moment that you just wanted to put on pause because Ashlyn and I held hands finding all these amazing things and giving giving thumbs up when we saw something cool.

Derek found this crazy crab and the kids were all touching it.  It looked and felt like a tongue!

Wherever we went Brinley would dance and skip everywhere we went. 

The island had a BBQ lunch that was delicious and we had to have the delicious ice cream!

Blueberry was my favorite!

After a long day in paradise, the girls found a stage to dance on.  Dancing was how the moved most of the trip!

We love Grandma!

After the most amazing day, we topped it off by dressing up for pirate night! 

Grandma made this shirts for everyone and she did an amazing job!  The matching shirts totally made our outfits!  Thanks mom! I was also able to buy all the pirate gear the day after Halloween on clearance!

Cute pirates onboard

This little guy was exhausted for the fun day at the beach!

Grandma treated this cute pirates with skull cups that light up!

Thanks Grandma!

Our server gave each girl an origami she made!  So sweet!

More magic tricks

Grandma watched the kids while Derek and I had a date going to the Pirate Night Party, fireworks, and of course food!

Then we played shuffle board

Nassau- We did an excursion with the Dolphins.  We were excited and nervous!  I am so proud that the kids were so brave! We had a blast!  The dolphin was rubbery and so friendly.

The took us on a 30 minute boat ride to the private cove.  We were assigned a time to do our dolphin excursions so while we waited we rented a paddle board and a water bike.  It was so much fun to go on a special date with the older girls while the youngers did Grandma Camp on the Ship! WIN-WIN

The water is just breathtaking!

Grandma Camp

Another fun dinner at Animation Palate.  They had everyone draw there own character and then they played everyone's character in a show and having the drawing move.  It is hard to explain, but it was neat when the girls' characters where displayed, they were so happy.  It really was awesome!

The next morning we had a breakfast with the Disney Jr. characters: Mickey, Vamprina, and 

Our servers created these fun hats for everyone!

After we went for a drawing class.  We learned how to draw Olaf and kids played in the area.

Also we learned origami

Ashlyn learned a hand game that she loved to play with dad.

We met Ariel, Cinderella, and Tiana

 Another fun evening show!

Dancing the Frozen music after the movie!

Another evening at Tiana's Place

The dancing of the girls was so priceless!

We went to the movie on opening night: Ralph Breaks the Internet

Breakfast and ocean view

Hot chocolate on a rainy day

Happy Boy

Girls playing in the rain

Interacting with the staff

Staff made this special hat for Emmett and the girls

Rapenzel hair out of napkins

Grandma's little buddy

Watching a movie in the rain

Emmett gave daddy a special surprise

Mickey mess

We had great servers that took great care of our kids and family.  Derek asked if they could come home with us.

Another evening show

These girl sure missing sleeping with Grandma!

Derek and I were able to do another day while Grandma put the kids down!

I love spending time with my special man!

Whenever we went down the stairs they took an alternate route of sliding down!

Last Supper (breakfast)

Well we lost our keys to the car and we waiting in our parking spot for 6 hours!!!!  Thank goodness one of our doors doesn't lock ha ha.  It took 2 hours to figure out if we had to rent a car, tow, or just buy a new car (jk).  Then it took the locksmith 4 hours to make a set of keys.  We are just lucky we were able to take one trip home together.  It was a llllooooonnnngggg day, but we finally made it home. We are blessed to have well behaved children!

I have gotten teary eyed posting this blog because I honestly had so much fun!  This was a trip where we made a lot of fun memories and this was a fun stage of life to have my kids absolutely love the characters and enjoy the Disney magic, but Derek and I discussed that we think this is a one time experience for our family.  We enjoyed it, but honestly we don't know if it is worth the price.  It was 3X the price of our Disney World experience. But we lived it up and have NO REGRETS!  We had a blast!