The Dickinson Boys: Disney Trip

Here are some pictures of our Disney trip! We had a good time, though it was not without challenges. The boys were great during the drive down, as usual. We stayed in Ocala, FL last Saturday night, then Sunday we drove to Port Canaveral. The check-in process was crowded and took a long time. The boys were pretty antsy and did not want to wait in line. Then there was another line to get on the boat. Overall the boarding process was chaotic and it was difficult to control the kids, who wanted to run all around. Once we got on the boat, it was just as bad. Our rooms weren't ready until 1:30 and we hadn't eaten, so we headed to the only restaurant serving lunch, also very crowded. We were able to go to our room after lunch. The boys loved the big porthole window, which actually had a padded seat to sit on. Will loved sliding down the seat. The room was fairly big for a cruise ship. There was a curtain that separated the kids area from the rest of the room so we could wall off the kids when they'd go to bed. There was a flat screen tv on a swivel and we were able to have any Disney movie and their Mickey Mouse shows on demand at any time. Luke still asked for Curious George and Thomas though.

After we checked out the room David and Will went to visit the Oceaneer's Club (kids club for 3-12 year olds) while I tried to get Luke down for a nap. After the safety drill that afternoon we went up to the deck to watch Mickey's Sailing Away Party. But, it was already so crowded we really couldn't see much of it. If you're sensing a theme, at this point most of what we tried to do was too jam-packed with people to enjoy. We were told the ship was totally booked, which meant 4000+ people plus crew.

That first night we had dinner in a restaurant called the Royal Table. The dinners were all four-course, fancy meals with wonderful food, but our boys have about a 20-30 minute limit and these dinners tended to last over an hour. The food was great though. Luke ate like a champ and he loved the endless mac and cheese! The waiters even put ketchup on the boys' plates in the shape of Mickey ears. When we left the restaurant we saw Minnie Mouse in the atrium. We waited in the short line to see her but when it was our turn both of the boys chickened out. Will didn't want to get close and Luke cried when she came to see him. I would have liked some good pictures with characters but at least we didn't have to feel like we should be waiting in the lines to see them. Some of the lines to see Mickey were very long. It had been a long day and the boys were tired by the end of dinner. We put the boys in bed and David went up to the deck to watch the Cowboys game, which they were playing on the big screen (move theater sized screen) over the pool. I stayed in the room with the boys and read a book (something I don't get to do much of anymore).

The next day, Monday, was our day at sea. The kids were up pretty early and we went up to the pool deck to a restaurant called Cabanas. We ended up eating breakfast there every day because it was the only one open at the time we were getting up. It was a large breakfast buffet so it was nice that everyone could get what they wanted. Will had doughnuts every day and loved it. I was able to get eggs Benedict- one of my favorites- which I only ever have on vacation. Around 9:00 we checked out the pools. Luke was not allowed in the pools because he's not potty-trained (even though he had a swim diaper on). But there was a large splash area for little kids called Nemo's Reef that Luke and Will both loved. Will also loved the Mickey Pool, which was ankle deep in some areas and about Will's waist deep in others. It was the perfect sized pool for Will. Unfortunately, by about 10:00 the pool deck was so crowded it was not enjoyable. And Luke was also ready to leave so we went back to the room. The nice thing about the pool deck, though, is there were free fountain drink stations and free soft-serve ice cream stations. So David and I could get pop any time and the kids had some pink lemonade. And we all got ice cream. Once we showered and changed we grabbed lunch at a cafe on deck and then went to the movie theater to see Planes. It was Luke's second movie and he did pretty well. Will had been excited to see Planes and really liked it.

After the movie we tried to get Luke to nap and we took Will to the kids club. The Oceaneers Club was a large area with a light up floor and several rooms off the main room for kids to play in. One of the rooms was a replica of Andy's room from Toy Story. Some rooms had computers. Most of the area was dark, crowded and loud, with flashing lights and music. Will, our little nervous nelly, liked Andy's Room but wasn't a fan of the rest of it. I can't blame him- it was sensory overload even for adults with the flashing lights, noise and kids everywhere. And I think 3-12 is too broad an age range to have lumped together.

That night we ate at a restaurant called Animator's Palate. It had all of these interactive screens where Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo) would come around near people's tables and talk to them. It was a neat place. At this point in the vacation, the boys had been a little difficult to handle. Both of them misbehave when they are out of their element. It really took a couple of days for them to get the hang of everything.

The next day, Tuesday, was our day in Nassau. We didn't initially get off the boat because we'd heard the boat is very enjoyable when most other people leave. After breakfast we put Luke in the It's a Small World Nursery and took Will swimming for a couple of hours. It was very pleasant that day. We got a couple of good chairs in front of the pool and we had a good time. David rode the Aquaduck- the large waterslide that at one point goes out over the ocean. I enjoyed my free pop and sitting in the sun. After swimming we picked up Luke, got dressed and headed to the Royal Table for lunch. Then we decided to venture off the boat to see Nassau. We walked around for a while, went into a couple of shops, then decided we were better off back on the boat. That night we decided to put both of the kids in the nursery/kids club and try to have a dinner without kids. But, ten minutes after sitting down we got a text that said Will didn't feel well and was ready to be picked up. Turns out the kids club was just too overwhelming for him. Will had been nervous before the trip about getting "lost from us." He kept worrying he would be lost on vacation. The first time I was called to the kids club for him he was crying and said he couldn't find me and thought he was lost. The second time I picked him up, he said with surprise, "you came back for me!" That was enough for me to know that he just wasn't comfortable being left there alone so we didn't push him after that. So he ate dinner with us that night. We wish the boys would have been able to go to the same place because I think they would have comforted each other. Due to Will not being able to stay in the kids club, David and I had to cancel our reservations at the adults-only restaurant. It was a bummer because a fun place to put the kids was a selling point of the cruise. It's not really Will's fault though, I did not like how the whole thing was set up and how many kids are lumped together.

On Wednesday, the boat docked at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island in the Bahamas. We'd heard such great things about the island and I'd say it surpassed our expectations. It was by far the most fun day we had on the cruise. A tram took us right to the beach. We'd hustled off the boat as soon as they were letting people off because I was adamant about finding chairs under the beach umbrellas. My big worry was sunburns. I don't burn easily but I've burned quickly in the Caribbean before. It's definitely not Indiana sun. We had no trouble finding a few chairs that were under both and umbrella and a palm tree. We were diligent about reapplying sunscreen and I'm happy to report that we were on the beach for about about 5 1/2 hours and we got nothing more than rosy cheeks.

The boys played in the sand and Will was one of the first ones in the ocean. We were on the family beach, which was a protected area with no waves. There were also underwater nets to keep out sharks and barracudas and the like. The adult beach, which has more waves and no nets, apparently occasionally has nurse sharks and a family of barracudas. The only sea life we saw were some large white fish that swam pretty shallow. At the beginning of the day, the water was clear and you could see everything. But after a while people were kicking up enough sand that the water was not so clear. The water was just a little chilly, but felt very comfortable once you got in. Luckily, Will thought it was really neat that they gave him a life jacket and he bobbed around the water almost all day. He loved that he could swim with the life jacket without his face going under. He swam all the way out to the buoy that roped off the swimming area! David mostly stayed with Will and I held onto Luke. Luke was not so sure of the water but I held onto him and he didn't really complain that much. We also took them to a splash pad called Spring-a-Leak. They loved playing with the fountains there and they even made a friends with a couple of little girls. For lunch there was a buffet with burgers, hot dogs and barbecue at a place called Cookie's Two. There was a large picnic shelter with picnic tables and we had no trouble with crowds or finding a spot. We topped it off with soft serve ice cream (the banana ice cream was delicious). After lunch we headed back to the beach. Will wanted to get back in the water and begged David for an "inner tude." Many things were free at the beach (towels, life jackets, etc) but there was a fee to rent the inner tubes. We finally gave in and Will got to play with his "inner tude" in the ocean. He didn't want to sit on it, he mostly held on and bobbed around. Earlier he had been brave and wanted David to take him out to a platform in the water that had a couple of large waterslides. By the time they got there and realized Will would have to go down by himself, he got scared and turned around to climb back down. Still, he was much braver in the water than we thought he would be. Luke and I joined David and Will in the water and Luke started to seem tired, putting his head on my shoulder. He actually fell asleep in the ocean! I moved him to the lawn chair and he took a nice little nap on the beach. Post-nap we did a little more swimming and then we noticed that Will's cheeks were starting to look a little pink so we headed back to the ship around 3:00.

Castaway Cay was really beautiful and we wished we could have spent more time there. They had a post office where they'd mail postcards with a Castaway Cay stamp. I brought post cards to mail but it was closed by the time we were headed back to the ship. There were many parts of the island we didn't even see. They had bike rentals and a Castaway Cay 5K in the morning. There's an adults beach and many other nooks and crannies that we didn't see. But the little area of the beach we stayed around was perfect. It was a great way to do a beach vacation, especially for mom. I didn't have to pack drinks or food or towels. Just sunscreen and sand toys. They took care of everything else.

Back on the boat we got ready for our last dinner. Luke went back to the nursery where they fed him dinner. He liked the nursery and it was easier to put him there than to keep him contained during a 90 minute dinner. Will came with us to dinner and we ate at a restaurant called The Enchanted Garden. After that it was time to pack up. We disembarked pretty early the next morning.

Overall our Disney Cruise experience was a bit of a mixed bag. There were so many things we didn't get to do because of the kids. We didn't get to see the shows because they were too late for Will and Luke. We didn't participate in pirate night or see the pirate show or the fireworks (which started at 10:45 pm!). The kids were in bed by 8:30 most nights. The boys weren't into the characters and didn't do the costume party. It was also disappointing that it was so crowded and it took a couple of days for the boys to settle down and stop being so fussy. But, Castaway Cay was amazing, the food was great (no cooking or cleaning!) and we had a great view and fairly spacious room. I think we'll do another Disney Cruise at some point, but not until the boys are much older and able to do more.

On Thursday, after we disembarked, we drove to Orlando. We couldn't check into our hotel until 3:00 so we killed some time at an outlet mall and had lunch. We stayed at Shades of Green, a military hotel in Disney World. The grounds and the hotel itself were really nice. The rooms were a little dated but very large for the price by Disney standards. Best of all, it was about a 10 minute walk to the Polynesian hotel where we could hop right on the Monorail. This was very convenient. We had tickets for Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party that night. The event was from 7-midnight but we'd heard that they start letting you in the Magic Kingdom with those tickets at 4 pm. We took two strollers but, until then, Will had refused to even sit in one. It had been a long day, though, and I was able to convince him to sit in the stroller if he wanted to go to the Monorail. We hopped on the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom and got to the gates right at 4. We walked right in and had no problems. Everything was decorated for Halloween and the crowds were really not bad. Will gets nervous about rides (all he wanted to do at Dollywood last May was sit on a bench) so we started him out on It's a Small World. Both of the boys were fascinated but not sure what to make of it. Then we did the Little Mermaid ride. They didn't want to do the Carousel so we went on to Dumbo. I was really surprised when Will enjoyed the Dumbo ride (it goes up kind of high). But he loved it! He wanted to do the race cars next and liked "driving" his own car (with Daddy's help). Luke even "drove." Luke and I went on the teacups next but Will didn't want to go. At that point he was asking to go on a roller coaster. We decided to take a break for dinner and we ate at Pecos Bill in Frontierland. Will was still talking about a roller coaster so we went back to Fantasyland and he and David did Goofy's Barnstormer (a roller coaster for kids). Will still alternates between saying it was scary and it was fun, but it ended his run of rides that night. Luke and I did the Winnie the Pooh ride after that and then it was time to line up for the parade. We passed by Main Street and got ice cream, then headed to Frontierland to watch the parade. We got decent seats and the boys sat in their strollers, eating ice cream while we waited. The Boo to You Parade started about 8:30 and it was great! It started with the headless horseman riding down the street on a real horse. The actual parade was highly entertaining. We didn't hear a peep out of the boys. Luke waved to the characters he knew (he liked that he saw Clarabel the Cow from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse). Will didn't wave but he was all smiles. After the parade we went toward Splash Mountain. David rode the ride while I took the kids to the Trick-or-Treat trail in front of the ride. There were a few trick-or-treat stations where they got candy. Will was dressed as a football player and Luke was Sheriff Woody (though he spilled something all over himself and I changed him back into his shorts and t-shirt after the trick-or-treating). Will loved getting candy and wanted to do more trick-or-treating. When David came off the ride, though, we were all needing refreshments. It was hot and muggy even though it was dark out. We got some drinks and found a spot on a bridge to watch the fireworks. We ended up with a pretty good view (though we couldn't see the front of the castle). Everyone enjoyed the fireworks. After that, the boys were fading fast. It didn't take much walking around before they were both asleep in their strollers. David rode Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain while I stayed with the kids and did some people-watching (everyone was in costumes and having lots of fun). The best part is that the lines were very short as it was a special event and getting late in the evening. We ended up heading back to the Monorail about 10:30. The kids barely woke up while we were getting them in their pajamas and they were back to sleep quickly. Overall it was a really great evening and definitely worth the price of admission.

On Friday morning we slept in a little, had breakfast at the Rainforest Cafe and checked out of our hotel. We headed to Sea World because they give free admission to military once a year. The Orlando Sea World is not nearly as nice as San Antonio and we were not very impressed. It was over 90 degrees and extremely crowded. We did see the show with the killer whales but we were so far away that the boys lost interest. We saw some stingrays and sharks and then went to a new Antarctica exhibit where we wanted to see the penguins. But apparently you have to wait in line for the roller coaster before you have the option of not doing the roller coaster and seeing the penguin exhibit. The line was a 60 minute wait so we didn't do it. We grabbed a small lunch and saw another show instead. They have a Cirque du Solieil type show called Alure, which was actually pretty entertaining. Will liked the acrobats and both boys loved when bubbles came out of the ceiling. After that we had a quick ice cream stop and got on the road for Ocala. On Saturday (my 33rd birthday!) we drove from Ocala back home.