Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Predawn running and a little room service breakfast out of the way, the kids sat and watched as the Fantasy backed into Castaway Cay. I tried to slather sunscreen onto the kids, packed the swim bag and wished Ben the best of luck as he ducked out to go join the other runners preparing for the 5K. What do you get for Fish Extender gifts? Here's our gifts for the week! Kylee and Chris dug through all of their FE gifts, amazed at all of the perfect and thoughtful gifts. (Chris still loves the Star Wars book!) All ashore called, we headed down to the forward gangway to debark. Pre-race selfie! Ben enjoyed nearly perfect racing weather for his first Castaway Cay 5K, while Kylee and Chris squinted into the sun ready to run off on the beautiful island. It is really bright out on this island. We rode two tram stops into the island to hop off right next to the Cabana Check-In desk.  Is all of this ours? After checking our names and that we ...

Chris and I boarded an open air bus at the port with our fourteen newest friends. Chillin' in my bus. Within minutes of leaving the port, our buses climb began paying off with beautiful views of foliage toward the interior of the island and then there was this... Beautiful doesn't even begin to describe this island. Our tour guide, Smitty, treated us to a colorful mix of history, points of interest and island rumor, all delivered in a inimitable part Caribbean part South African lilt. Knowledgeable, patient and interesting, he seemed pleased and proud to show us around his island.  Guess which one is Smitty? After several scenic overlooks and a brief look at a distant ruin of a sugar mill, we pulled into Cinnamon Bay Beach. Chris tossed his socks and shoes into the bus and  ran out on the pristine sand.  After an all too brief frolic in the sand and waves, it was time to head back to the bus and the port. The drive back from Cinnamon...

After waking up bright and early and popping out on deck to watch the ship slide past other beautiful islands, Ben awoke as we pulled into port in St. Thomas.  Pulling into port at St. Thomas I ducked into the lounge to fetch Chris and I some fruit and cereal bowls to eat in our suite, but had second thoughts about it and we ate on our verandah instead. Could you really blame us?  Warning: This blog post may induce a sudden urge to drop everything and head for the U.S. Virgin Islands  Sixth cruise. Six of me in the picture. I'm not sure this practice is sustainable; getting six in the picture is hard! Chris and I ate, slathered our arms and faces in sunscreen and reported to the Walt Disney Theatre. Despite getting to our tour group only a few minutes before our tickets, there is a fair amount of waiting and filing into groups as they assign stickers to the various passengers to try to keep us all heading in the right direction.  Off on an adventure....

Welcome to those of you joining me from Disney Mamas and those of you just hopping aboard. I am the 3rd stop on our Magical Blogorail . Sometimes you just need a little push to get through the frustration of learning something new. For our (then) toddler son, swimming seemed insurmountable. Then one day, while we lazed around (because napping wasn't going to happen that day) Samantha Brown hopped off of a ship in Grand Cayman, into a whole group of stingrays. He knew, that very moment, that he wanted to learn to swim. And he wanted to swim with the stingrays. Disney Cruise Line offers two very different stingray experiences on a Western Caribbean itinerary. So what's the difference? Castaway Ray's Stingray Adventure Location: Stingray Hut and Lagoon, Castaway Cay, The Bahamas Cost: $36 ages 5-9, $45 ages 10-adults Duration: 1 hour (10 minute orientation, 50 minutes with the stingrays) Simple as stepping off of the ship and onto the dock, Castaw...

Our countdown chain started at a measly 42 days. Our darling children bounced all over the house when they found out that our cruise meant that they could expect to eat whatever their heart desired and enjoy unrestricted grandma time for five glorious days. Our FEs sat alone in our luggage and waited impatiently by the front door. Our Facebook group reached a pitched excitement culminating in this: Do you hear the people sing? (Sorry, couldn't resist.) Then slowly during the day before the cruise all the fun anticipatory Facebook and DISboard posts went silent. Everyone, too busy in the excitement of last minute preparation and travel to bother updating their virtual lives, headed excitedly toward port. My father in law drove my mother in law (Mom, as I call her) over the morning before our cruise, so we took some time to settle everything while the children enjoyed their morning in school and preschool and Ben enjoyed (probably not the proper word, but we’ll go with that) ...

Welcome Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia blog hoppers!  Think that the Disney Cruise Line only visits the same ports week after week? While most closely associated with Castaway Cay and the Bahamian and Caribbean itineraries, that isn't the complete story. Stranded on Castaway Cay, Please, DO NOT Rescue! Over the last fifteen years, Disney managed to take guests all over the western hemisphere. Ports of Call (an incomplete listing) Acapulco Ajaccio Aruba Barbados (Bridge Town) Barcelona, Spain Cabo San Lucas Cadiz Cartagena Castaway Cay Catania (Sicily) Civitavecchia (Rome) Copenhagen Corfu, Greece Costa Maya, Mexico Cozumel, Mexico Curacao Dover Dubrovnik, Croatia Ensenada Falmouth, Jamaica Florence and Pisa (La Spezia) Galveston, Texas Gibraltar Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands Guadeloupe Halifax Helsinki Heraklion, Greece Hilo, Hawaii Honolulu, Oahu Ibiza, Spain Juneau, Alaska Kahului, Maui Katakolon, Greece Ketchikan, Alaska Key West, F...

"What's the Sitch?"      We need to take our first family vacation to Walt Disney World in under a day Background: Several days after the pixie dust settles a Disney Parks survey appears in the junk filter. After the obligatory evaluation questions, I peruse the options and rapidly select seven and eight night itineraries leaving from my home state of Texas. Months later, Disney Cruise Line reveals Western Caribbean Galveston itineraries. I feel like Belle, yearning for the adventures yet to come! The fireworks at the end of that magical day? A little pixie dust as our itinerary transformed into a Bahamian cruise, complete with a single day in Port Canaveral including Walt Disney World Park Hopper Tickets and Disney Cruise Line Bus transfers. But just like Cinderella with her pumpkin carriage, I need to respect that this trip to WDW had a strict curfew; if I return to port after the clock struck midnight, the Magic would be quite ...

Saturday Ben beat me to the run and I enjoyed a bit of a lie in with the kids.   Always our favorite deck! We're kind of in love with Deck 4 I’m guessing Ben had to hold the iPhone over his head to capture this angle from his deck four run as we were pulling between Galveston and the mainland of Texas at dark o’clock thirty.   He’s tall, but the angle on this makes it look like he’s at least seven feet tall.   He isn’t. While on his run, Ben dropped off our feedback forms, making especially certain to mention how helpful Luis had been with Kylee’s special meals getting sent to the club as well as Beth, a counselor who Kylee adored throughout our cruise. As we stuffed PJs into our backpack for the day, Ben made passing remarks as to it being cold on deck during his run.   I didn’t have any warm coats for the kids and Kylee’s jacket disappeared into the club the day before, so it became time for me to have a massive case of mommy guilt. I figured it cou...