Part 2 : THE DISNEY CRUISE

So after a fun and busy day at Disneyland we got up the next day (Sunday) and headed for the Port of Los Angeles. Our ship name was the Disney Magic and we were going to be on it for 7 wonderful days! The Ports of call we stopped at were Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. All of the other days were Days at Sea, we just hung out on the ship and enjoyed all of the planned activities and the pools. This ship, being a Disney ship, has the best children's program around! Maddie had a bracelet put on her the first time we took her to the kids club (the children are separated by age so Maddie was just with other 3 and 4 year olds). We were given a pager and if Madison ever wanted to leave the kids club or needed anything were were just a page away. I really thought that Maddie would not want to spend any time in the kids club, but as time went on and she met other kids and the counselors there, we would go to pick her up and she would not want to leave! Some of her favorite memories from the kids club were... Story time with Belle, Learning the Do Si Do with Snow White and Dopey, A hunt for Tinkerbell, craft times, and A Dumbo's Circus time. It was so fun to see all of the things she made and hear about the activities she was involved in. The very last day of the cruise they had a graduation from the kids club. All the the kids were given Mickey ears that looked like a graduation hat and a special t-shirt. They were all brought up on the theater stage and Mickey and Minnie gave a little graduation speech and then there was a slide show with pictures from the week. It was so cute! There were TONS of kids though!
Now not all of her time was spent in the kids club. We as a family spent A LOT of time in the pools, we watched some "live game shows", we saw theater style, Broadway shows every night (they are just WONDERFUL!!), and watched movies in the movie theater on board (we saw Enchanted and Wall-E). We also got off the ship in Mexico and had two separate excursions. Both were beach days one in Cabo San Lucas, and one on a private island beach in Puerto Vallarta. We played in the ocean, Bry went snorkeling, Maddie made a clay hand print to bring home, and we just layed around and enjoyed the days. On the excursion in Puerto Vallarta we were able to hold a Monkey...now that was a first for me!

On a cruise they feed you NONSTOP! There are constant buffets, a sandwich shop, grill, and pizza, and 24 hr a day room service...all food is included in your vacation. (Except for adult beverages and specialty drinks like fruit smoothies or mocha's etc.) We rotated between 3 different restaurants for dinner. Most evenings our dining was a show and entertainment in itself! Attire varied from night to night we had one Formal Evening, one Semi-formal evening, 4 cruise casual evenings, and one Pirate attire evening. So much fun. Our favorite dining experience was at a restaurant called Animator's Palate. When you start your dining experience everything in the dining room including the servers are all in black and white. The walls, napkins, pictures on the walls...I mean everything. As the evening progresses things slowly change to color...the pictures gain color, the waiters change to color, the lights change to color. It is like the dining room is brought to life. It is so fun.
I will have to say our vacation was just so much fun. We hope to do it again when Peyton gets to be about 3 or 4 years old. We loved the Disney Cruise and hope to take it out of Florida next time and go to the Caribbean. I just can't wait!

Waiting to leave the Port of LA

Maddie and I went to Tea Time with Alice and The Mad Hatter. We learned how to drink Tea the proper way...and not so proper way! :)
On the way to dinner. This is in front of our Favorite Restaurant. It was also Formal Night.

The Disney Magic from the Beach in Cabo.

Running from the waves in Cabo.

Holding a monkey in Puerto Vallarta... even Maddie held the little guy!

Bry hates this picture but I think it is so funny! We called him Scuba Steve! :) He did see a sting ray and some beautiful fish.The Beach in Puerto Vallarta. Maddie loved catching little hermit crabs that were crawling all over the place! She played in this little cove almost the entire time we were on the island!

Pirate Night at Dinner.

Madison's MOST favorite princess... Cinderella. Maddie was able to meet and greet with all of the characters aboard the ship. She also saw Snow White, Goofy, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch, Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale....the list goes on and on!!

Going on the big water slide was so much fun...just for kids though! :(

Every night, when we came back to our room, our bed was turned down and a towel animal was left for us. This one was an elephant. We also had chocolates and the schedule and events for the next day left on our bed so we could start planning what we wanted to do in advance!


One of the shows...Twice Charmed: An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story.

Yes...we have napkin hats on our heads...made for us by our Waiter! :)

We had such a great time! I know by the end though Maddie was ready to come home! She would cry every once in a while because she missed Peyton. I know we all missed her so when it was time to come home we were ready! I will share about our last vacation day in LA in my next blog. This blog has been long enough! :)