Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

I think that the magic of a Disney vacation exists in three wonderful parts: the dreaming of planning, the pixie dust moments during trip itself and the memories you take with you for years to come. Since I can't live in the Cinderella Castle Suite or even on property year round, pictures help bring a bit of the fairytale back into my everyday life. In my enthusiastic pursuit of remembering the Magic, I take hundreds of my own pictures every vacation and hope to share a bit of my experience with you. Sometimes it's all good to capture the serious, beautiful profound moments for posterity. Capture the absolute reflective mood of your children. And sometimes it is time to get a little "Goofy" This is not one of those times. Disney Magic, Travel Size for your convenience.  Ben's fourth cruise so he's in the photo four times. I like the "peeking over the railing Ben", personally.  Yep, they like being a little Goofy. So tr...

Welcome Favorite Food Friday Blog Hoppers! Chocolate Soufflé with Vanilla Bean Sauce Location: Palo on board the Disney Magic, Wonder, Dream and Fantasy Cost: $20 for entire meal. Plus, of course, cost of cruise. When your dinner arrives in Palo, you will be asked if you would consider the Chocolate Souffle for dessert, as it takes quite some time to prepare.  The correct answer is, of course, yes! The soufflé arrives at the table, fragrant, and hot. Accompaniments of vanilla bean and chocolate sauce at the ready for your server to drench the pour hapless dessert. The vanilla bean ice cream beautifully completing the experience. Ben's dessert, before the pouring and mixing and matching. Back in my pre-vegan days, I had the pleasure of consuming one of these beautiful soufflés and it lead to a mad hunt for a similar recipe once I reached land again. I did find a deep dark truffle cake that had a very similar flavor, but none of the fluffy gooey texture of the original...

After disembarking in paradise, many of us have enjoyed hearing the legend of the original castaways while riding the tram to the family beach or Serenity Bay.  Castaway Cay April 2013 This (Disney original) story tells of the islands supposed original inhabitants and how the various parts of the island came to look the way they do now in an elaborate and winding tall tale. These original castaways built nearly everything you see today from pieces of wreckage. Even the monstrous whale skeleton plays into the backstory. But did you ever wonder about the real history of Castaway Cay? To begin with, Castaway Cay (pronounced "Key") originally known as Gorda Cay is a relatively new discovery as far as islands go. Virtually unvisited until a chance discovery of Spanish ingots on an outlying shoal, the island played host to many in the years before 1997 when Disney bought a 99 year lease on the island from the Bahamian government. The adventures of the islands real in...

Noodles Nighttime Nautical details And a Nap    Thank you Focused on the Magic for hosting the Disney Wordless Wednesday blog hop!

Welcome Tiggerific Tuesday Blog Hoppers (or with Tigger, should that be Blog Bouncers?) Who was the first crew member hired for the Disney Cruise Line? None other than Captain Tom Forberg! Or Captain Tom as he's known among the Castaway Club.  Captain Tom Placing the Coin Under the Keel with a Little Help from Donald. Photo Courtesy of Disney Press Release So far, he served as master of the ship during the launch of the Disney Magic, Disney Wonder, Disney Dream AND Disney Fantasy. Captain Tom, or should I say Commodore Tom,  recently received the honor of being named the first commodore of the Disney Cruise Line. Making Disney one of only two cruise lines with a current commodore. Congratulations Commodore Tom! TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

Do you remember back to the picture from  Wordless Wednesday August Calendar  at the beginning of the month? My August Photo   Malorie  commented, "I hope this is in a really big frame somewhere." Well thanks to pinterest , some spare change from the couch, OfficeMax, Home Depot plenty of ventilation! a little bit of duct tape (picture by Kylee, age 4) and detailed directions from Mandy from Sugar Bee crafts , it is!  My craft room/office/DCL memory bank And so is another picture of her brother as well.  Opposite wall of my office. I'm looking into redoing our whole  office   master suite house in "Disney Cruise Line." Does anyone know where you can get one or two of the steamer trunk cabinets?  Or linens? How do you bring your vacation back home with you? If you need me, I'll be pinning some ideas for "My House Goes Disney- Disney Cruise Line Edition". Which, to the best of my knowledge, is...

So I woke up ridiculously early and indulged in two of my favorite hobbies, a quick run around the decks and some nearly empty ship photography. Self Portrait pre-run. One of the over 20,000 pieces of signage on board, this being the sign in deck 5 forward to the port of the stairwells. Stairwell between five and four forward Stairwell with a map of Castaway Cay... I promise I'm going back soon! Because why wouldn't the hallway need a traffic light. Beat Street Lobby Helmsman Mickey Even after three cruises on the Magic and only one on the Wonder, I still keep expecting it to be Ariel in the lobby rather than Helmsman Mickey. Anyone else notice that they expect things to be the same as on whichever ship was their first cruise ship? That's just me? My usual stretching spot. First time I’d noticed the portholes forward on the deck four walking track. what’s up there? The portholes on deck 4 aft show the Animator’s Palate galley area...

We went to figure out when our low stress Topsiders dinner would be ready… not yet although as a grammar notice-r, I found it hilarious that 1) the sign is being refreshed for “yourfuture” enjoyment and 2) that the sign had been fixed by sometime later the following day. I don't think it's possible to take a vacation and not take the "taking pictures of you taking pictures" shot. This shot involved massive amounts of peril as not only would the biscuits (the shuffleboard pucks) occasionally fly in my direction, but more than once, the entire tang (or "stick thingy" as we experienced cruisers call it) would be thrown as well.  I live dangerously. Chris decided to take me down stairs and school me in the ancient art of shuffleboard. A sport, which I am needlessly, remarkable terrible at playing. Ben and I took turns standing around taking photos of each other, the scenery, the ship and getting beaten mercilessly by our beautiful child. Not nec...