2012 WDW & Disney Cruise Vacation - Day 9

Day Nine: Today was another sea day and due to staying up late the night before we all slept in a bit this morning. Once we were awake and ready to go, we went to Enchanted Garden for breakfast. We all enjoyed the selections we got (similar to the stuff served up in Cabanas, just a different setting). After breakfast Ryan was asking to go to the kids’ club again. I had promised him that he could go again so we took him. While Ryan was gone, Jonathan and I decided to go have some fun time together. We went back to the room and changed into our swim suits. We wanted to ride the Aquaduck together to see if it was any different. We had so much fun!!! The ride is a bit wilder at the beginning with the extra weight from a second person and then you get to enjoy the view with someone else. It’s a fun ride by yourself but way better with someone to ride with.

After riding the Aquaduck several times we went to get Ryan. He was having so much fun! They had just finished up a game of finding monsters and he had won a little Disney bag for finding the monsters (I think all the kids got the bags but it made him feel so special to think he “won” it). The camp counselors were all super nice and Ryan just loved going to the kids’ club. Despite my concerns of leaving him with people I didn’t know and from being away from him, he did great. I had a much harder time than he did with him going, lol. Next time, I might let him go more but I really enjoy getting to spend time with family on vacation so that might not happen, lol.

We went to Cabanas for lunch and all had a mixture of things. We always found something we liked at Cabanas to eat and thought the food was pretty good for a buffet style. Both Jonathan and I do agree that we wished they would have had some sort of a pasta bar or burrito bar (Carnival had these on our last cruise and we really enjoyed them). Also, where are the croutons?! That drove me nuts! I love croutons and so does Ryan; however, they are not at the buffet at all (and not usually in the salads I had in the main dining room either). I liked being able to get pizza and salad, Ryan loved getting chicken tenders and fries and Jonathan would get some sort of shrimp thing most days. We did try the burgers thru out the week from Flo’s and they were ok, not the best burger but not the worst either. And I love having dessert for lunch, yumm.

Once we were done with lunch we went back to the room for a nap. Thankfully, Ryan was still trying to catch up on some sleep from the night before and we are on vacation, so he and I both slept for about an hour and a half. After nap time, we went back up to the pool deck to play. Ryan played in Nemo’s Reef and went down the Mickey slide a bunch of times. He loved that slide! I was so glad he enjoyed it after the fiasco of his first try going down. We tried swimming in the pools but they were too crowded. Jonathan and I took turns going down the Aquaduck a few more times while the other played with Ryan. I stayed for a few hours then went back to the room to shower and get ready for the princess gathering we wanted to catch for pictures. Jonathan and Ryan followed to change clothes. While I got ready they went out on an “adventure” as Ryan called it. They did a bunch of things (but only for a few minutes each as a 3 year old has a small attention span). They played basketball, mini-golf, ping pong, foosball and then started the Muppets Detective Agency game.

Ryan in front of another beautiful mosaic, the tile work still amazes me on this ship.

By the time they came back to the room I was ready, I got Ryan ready and we went to the lobby to line up for the meet-n-greet. Ryan, despite being a boy, loves the princesses. So glad he enjoys them!!!

Aladdin was walking thru the line to talk to the kids while they waited.

Here are a few pictures of our meet-n-greet with the princesses:

Snow White was great with Ryan.  She talked about how thankful she was that he was there to protect her and the other princesses with his sword, he got a kick out of that. 

After pictures we finished up the Muppets game that the boys had started. It was a cute game but Ryan enjoyed the Dalmatians game more just because he knows them better. He hasn’t ever really watched Muppets, only knows them a little bit.

For dinner, we were again in the Royal Court. We ate here 3 nights out of the 7. I had specifically requested this dining rotation before our cruise because 1) I thought I’d love Royal Court’s decorations the best (and I did, it’s princess themed) and 2) it would put us in Royal Court on both formal and semi-formal night. Out of the 3 rotating dinning rooms, Royal Court is the nicest. Tonight was the Captain’s Gala dinner and I had minestrone soup; which was ok, and then a regular garden salad. I had requested a garden salad over the one that was on the menu and wish I had done this earlier in the cruise. Even asked for croutons and got plenty of those plus extras for Ryan to eat. Best salad I had all week! Jonathan had 2 helpings of the sautéed shrimp appetizer and a wild mushroom soup. He enjoyed the shrimp appetizer but thought the soup was too greasy. For a main entrée I had the fettuccine with parmesan crusted chicken with a few changes (added steamed broccoli and left out the mushrooms and peppers) and it was pretty good. Jonathan had two plates of the lobster, he loves lobster. He enjoyed them but did say they were a bit dry, when you are preparing that many for large amounts of people it happens. I believe Ryan actually had steak for dinner tonight rather than chicken or mac n cheese. As always, he had a Mickey bar for dessert. I had the warm chocolate lava cake, yumm and Jonathan had a sundae. Overall, it was a very good dinner.

After dinner, we walked around the shops for a bit. I bought a Disney Christmas ornament; we have a tradition and always buy one on every vacation. Plus, we love ornaments. I also bought a Disney scrapbook and some paper (need to find time to actually use it!). We headed back to the room for some more relaxing. I think we watched a movie, Ryan played on my Kindle for a little before bath time and then he went to sleep. I probably stayed up and read some more but not too late. Tomorrow was Castaway Cay day, probably the day we were most looking forward to of the whole vacation!

Baby update - 20 weeks

  Sorry this is a little late but I need to give a baby update.  I had my second ultrasound on October 17th and we found out we will be welcoming another boy into our family.  We are all very excited.  Ryan was sure this baby was a girl but has now warmed up to the idea of getting a baby brother and corrects his self if he calls the baby a "she" now all on his own.  The appointment itself was not my anatomy scan since I was only 18 weeks.  It was to check the length of my cervix.  My doctor is keeping an eye on it this time around since I had problems with it while pregnant with Ryan.  Thankfully, my cervix was closed and long at this ultrasound.  So, we are still taking the "wait and see" approach before taking any more measures.  I do have my actual anatomy scan scheduled with Dr. Campbell, my high risk doctor I had with Ryan, for November 5th.  We will check the length again at that appointment. 
 
  I also had blood drawn at this last appointment for genetic testing.  It is an optional test but we had it done with Ryan just because we'd like to be prepared and know what we were facing if something was wrong.  With Ryan the results came back with a high level of AFP; which means an increased risk for neural tube defect.  They ruled that out at my 20 week ultrasound with him and said that since it wasn't that then it could mean I was at an increased risk for pre-term labor (and well, we know that happened).  The results came back the same way this time, a high level of AFP.  We will talk to Dr. Campbell about it at our ultrasound to find out if this changes anything or if we should still take the "wait and see" approach.  I'm not really concerned about the increased risk of neural tube defect because I feel this baby move all the time, maybe I'm wrong but I think the baby is fine.  I am worried about the risk of pre-term labor again so I have lots of questions for both my doctors.

  That's about it for now.  I will hopefully have more information next week.   

2012 WDW & Disney Cruise Vacation - Day 8

Day Eight: The morning was like most other mornings, Ryan and I woke up first and then Jonathan. Once we were all ready we went upstairs to Cabanas to get breakfast. We enjoyed breakfast here the most because we could get a variety of things we liked, get Ryan cereal and it was casual enough that I didn’t feel bad if Ryan was being loud. We took our time enjoying our breakfast and getting ready this morning because we didn’t have anywhere to be early. We arrived in Cozumel and all ashore was at 8am; however, we didn’t have our dolphin excursion booked until 1:00 so we had plenty of time. We did make it off the ship a little after 10 and made our way to Chankanaab national park. Our taxi driver was nice enough and got us there without any problems. Jonathan was a bit freaked out because the car didn’t have a working speed odometer (which might explain why the trip back seemed to take longer, lol). Once we were there we showed them our reservation ticket and they told us to come back to the desk ten minutes before our reservation. The dolphin excursion includes entrance into the national park so we decided to walk around and enjoy it. I wanted to walk around the botanical garden and look at the iguanas, plants and flowers.

We did this for a few minutes but Jonathan was in a foul mood so we turned around and went to find a chair on the beach. We changed and Ryan and Jonathan got in the water. Jonathan was disappointed that the water didn’t get very deep in the lagoon and that there were no waves.

After a little while of this we decided we would just go play in the pool. The park has a fresh water pool right near the dolphin area so this was convenient. We played in the pool for awhile, had a snack and played some more. Ryan was enjoying swimming by himself with his puddle jumper.

Once it was time for our dolphin encounter we checked back in at the desk and they told us where the lockers where and to then sit on the benches for instructions. We put all our stuff away and waited and waited and waited. It was after 1:30pm before they finally came over to give us instructions. There was a large group of people waiting and unfortunately, all did not speak one language. So, the instructors had to give the instructions in both English and Spanish. This took awhile to get thru. Once they were finished they split us up into smaller groups and led us to the dolphin area. We were paired with another family of five and again, they spoke Spanish so everything had to be said twice. I hate saying this but honestly it was so annoying. I felt as though we missed out on a lot of interesting facts just because the instructor didn’t want to say it twice, plus it took a lot longer to go thru. We were let into the water and stood on a platform. The life jacket I was wearing kept me just to the point I couldn’t stand flat footed on the platform so it was very hard to keep my balance. But I was in the water with a dolphin so this was exciting. Ryan wanted me to hold him and I did my best but eventually had to give him to Jonathan because I couldn’t keep my balance enough for the both of us. The first dolphin we tried to swim with recently had a baby and was nursing the baby. It was very cute to see them swimming together; however, she didn’t want to do any tricks and ignored the instructor. They had us get out of the water and move to another enclosure with a different dolphin hoping he would be more cooperative. Thankfully he was! His name was John and he was great. Ryan still talks about him. He did tricks for us, swam close to us and then each person got to do a few tricks with him (dance, kiss, etc.). The interaction with the dolphin was a lot of fun. It lasted for about 45 minutes. Ryan loved it and smiled and laughed the whole time. It really was a neat experience.

Once we were done with our dolphin encounter we were led to the picture shop to look at our photos. We only bought one because they were $30 a picture. But I’m glad we got one since they don’t let you take your camera with you. We quickly changed and headed to get a taxi. We were tired and hungry and by now it was 3 pm. There are taxis waiting for you to leave so getting one was no problem. We got back to the port, tried to pay the taxi driver but he didn’t have change for a $20. The taxi was only $10 so he went to go see if he could get some change. After several minutes he did come back and gave Jonathan back a $10 bill. We usually tip but this guy didn’t get a tip since he didn’t bring us any small bills. Oh well, not a smart move on his part for not getting smaller bills. We walked back thru security, got a cold towel (love Disney!) and boarded the ship.

We were all very hungry so we dropped our stuff off in the room and headed to the grill to get something to eat. I believe we had a mixture of pizza, burgers, chicken fingers and fries. After our late lunch we went back to the room to clean up and relax. Tonight was Pirate night and it was going to be a late night. I had Ryan lay down to get some quiet time (even though I knew he wouldn’t sleep I thought him resting would help a little). Much sooner than we were ready for, it was dinner time. Jonathan and I had looked at the menus before our cruise and neither of us were looking forward to tonight’s menu, it just didn’t seem appealing. We were back in Royal Court so that was a plus.

Here are a few more pictures of the murals in Royal Court.

When we sat down Ryan noticed that the kids sitting at the table next to us had flashing color pirate cups and he had to have one. It was only $6 so we got him one. He loves using it at home! For a starter, I had the mozzarella sticks off the kid’s menu and then Mr. Smee’s bibb lettuce salad. Jonathan had the crab cakes and a jerk chicken salad, neither of which he was crazy about. For my entrée I had the marinated beef short ribs with mashed potatoes. I’m not sure if it was just that I wasn’t hungry or what but I didn’t really care for this dish, it was just ok. Jonathan had shrimp pasta that he thought was ok. I’m assuming Ryan had chicken tenders and mac n cheese but I can’t remember what he ate anymore and honestly he had that a lot so it’s probably a safe assumption. I know he had a Mickey bar for dessert and so did Jonathan. I had a sweet temptation of fruit cobbler, some type of meringue and a rum soaked chocolate cake with raspberry sauce. The chocolate cake and the fruit cobbler were pretty good. After dinner we walked around the shops a bit and bought Ryan a pirate sword.

Tonight was also the preimer for Finding Nemo 3D. We went to watch this but only stayed for the first 10 or 15 minutes. We’ve seen Nemo so many times. 3D effects are not something that I really see well, plus we were sitting in the balcony where the bar was hitting the screen so it was obstructing my view (driving me crazy). We went back to the room again for a little bit. I was worried that Ryan might fall asleep but he seemed to be just fine playing my Kindle. We didn’t stay in the room long though; we went up to the pool deck to begin the festives for the pirate party. We danced around for a little bit to the music, watched the Mickey pirate stage show and enjoyed ourselves. Ryan loved it! After a little while we moved spots to get a better view for the fireworks and waited and waited. They made an announcement that the Captain was trying to get us out into clear skies but there was a storm approaching and they weren’t sure if we were going to be able to see fireworks. About 20 minutes later, the show started! It wasn’t a long fireworks show and honestly, it wasn’t anything spectacular but there is something about fireworks out at sea that is so cool! And we all love fireworks anyway so we really enjoyed this. Right after the fireworks, they have a large buffet at Cabanas. We quickly went in there to get something to eat. We filled our plates with tacos, desserts and other goodies and then headed back to our room. It was really late and we needed to get Ryan to bed. Once back in the room, it was bath and to bed for Ryan (after a few bites off my plate to sample). Jonathan and I enjoyed our buffet items (it was a nice change to have tacos). Jonathan even got a turkey leg but didn’t get the thrill of eating it and actually found it gross. With full bellies we went to bed right before midnight, definitely our latest night but staying up for pirate night was worth it.

2012 WDW & Disney Cruise Vacation - Day 7

Day Seven: Today the ship was docking at Costa Maya; however, we were not getting off. I love venturing out to the ports and seeing new places (we’ve never been to Costa Maya); however, Jonathan loves staying on the ship and really wanted to try to take advantage of the ship today. We had agreed well before going on vacation that we would stay on the ship this day. I didn’t see much to do at Costa Maya besides a beach day or to see some of the pyramids (I didn’t think I could get my 3 year to sit still on the bus ride long enough to get there, plus we weren’t in port long so we ruled that out) and we knew Castaway Cay would top any other beach so I gave in and we stayed on ship. We had booked a brunch reservation at Palo for this day and were very excited about it. Ryan slept in a little for him this morning and when he woke up we did our morning routine. He and I did go upstairs to have breakfast together while Jonathan got ready though, he wasn’t hungry. Ryan and I enjoyed our cereal breakfast together very much. He’s a mommy’s boy and loves to spend time with me.  After breakfast we went back to the room to meet up with Jonathan. I got dressed for Palo and we told Ryan that he got to go back to the kids’ club, he was so excited!


We dropped Ryan off and went to Palo. When we first went in there were not that many people there (we had a 10am reservation). This place is very nice and romantic.

Light fixture at the entrance to Palo

We got a nice table, it was a booth set in the back kind of by itself with a great view looking out at the ocean. This is the closest thing Jonathan and I have had to a date since Ryan was 7 weeks old so we were glad we got a great table.

Flowers on every table.

Our view looking out.



Our server, whose name I can’t remember and I feel awful about that, was amazing. She showed us around the buffet and explained how to order entrees. She did not want us to feel rushed at all so she said she would wait to take our order after we had a chance to sample some of the wonderful pastries and appetizers they had. They had all kinds of pastries, cheeses, fruits, cold seafood, etc. to fill up on; you could really make a meal out of this and be pleasantly full. But don’t! You need to save room for the entrees and desserts. We ordered a pizza to split, half margarita and half grape (sounds weird but it was really good!). I ordered the strawberry soup and while it was good I don’t like mint. The mint wasn’t strong so I did enjoy a little of the soup but after a few bites I couldn’t get past the mint flavor and wanted to save room for the chicken parmesan I had ordered. Jonathan also ordered the chicken parmesan dish. We both really really enjoyed it. The chicken was nice and crispy but not overly cooked. The cheese melted on top was the right amount, the red sauce was very tasty and the risotto it sat on was so good!! This was by far the best dish I had on the cruise the entire time. If you go to Palo for brunch you have to order this!!!

By the time dessert came we were both so full but if you know me you know I have a second stomach just for sweets.  We filled our plates from the dessert buffet and enjoyed everything we got.

We both found a few things that we really enjoyed and got seconds on those. By the time we left Palo we were both stuffed and almost needed to be wheeled out, lol. Honestly, if you are going on a Disney cruise you have to book Palo. It was so good! I wish we had booked more than one meal there.

After Palo we went to go get Ryan. He had been in the kids’ club for almost 2 hours but it was getting close to lunch and I knew he’d be hungry. When we picked him up he wasn’t as reluctant to leave this time but was still all talk about how much he enjoyed it. Peter Pan had come in and read them a story, he loved that!! We promised him that he would get to come back at least once more before the cruise was over. Neither Jonathan nor I was hungry but we had to feed Ryan so we went to lunch. I believe we just got him some chicken tenders and fries and I probably tried to get him to eat some fruit and veggies as well. After lunch we went back to the room for a nap.

We didn’t stay in the room long; Jonathan was itching to take advantage of the ship with a lot of people at Costa Maya. We decided to go play a game of mini- golf (or as my son said he played Mickey golf because he was a boy and I played Minnie golf since I’m a girl). It was a fun game and we enjoyed our time. Ryan is finally getting the idea of hitting the ball with his club, it was so cute watching him (wish I had my camera with me). After, we played the mystery game and Ryan chose to do the “Missing Puppies”. This is an interactive art game and is nothing like anything I’ve ever seen. The art looks so real; however, it’s really not a painting but an interactive screen that you hold your detective card in front of and it plays you a clip with a clue and then you have to move your card around to do different things. We really enjoyed this and Ryan was glad we caught bad Captain Hook and returned those puppies! He loved putting Captain Hook in jail. We also swam, played in Nemo’s Reef, rode the Aquaduck and Ryan rode the Mickey slide again.

After we played around the ship for a few hours we went back to the room to get ready for dinner. We were back in Enchanted Garden and the theme was Prince and Princess Dinner. I had the Beast’s Potato and Sausage Casserole soup; which I wasn’t fond of and only ate a few bites and Jonathan had the duck and cheese quesadilla, he did not care for this but I had a bite of it and thought it was good. I also had a caesar salad, I do not remember what else Jonathan had to eat. For my main entrée I had the peppercorn crusted New York strip with sautéed green beans and corn and potatoes with a brandy sauce. I enjoyed my entrée. Jonathan had the oven roasted turkey and enjoyed it as well. I believe Ryan just had chicken strips, mac & cheese and fries (I did say he ate this often). For dessert I had the chocolate soufflé, which I liked and Jonathan had the sundae. I think this was his favorite sundae of the cruise because it had rocky road ice cream, his favorite. Ryan had a Mickey bar, of course.

Here are a few pictures of Enchanted Garden. 

The lighting starts out bright with the flower lights closed. 

And then as the meal goes on the "sky" turns dark and the flowers open up.  Very neat. 

After dinner I wanted to go see Wishes; however, Jonathan was tired and didn’t want to go. So we just went back to the room and relaxed. I didn’t keep Ryan up too late because I knew he wouldn’t get a nap the next day. I know I stayed up and read more of my book, it’s hard to get this much time to read at home and I was loving “my time” to myself even if it was in a small room with Jonathan watching tv or sleeping and Ryan sleeping. The next day we were going to Cozumel and I wanted everyone to be rested because we had a big day planned, swimming with the dolphins.



2012 WDW & Disney Cruise Vacation - Day 6

Day Six: Our first port day! Today we woke at a normal time for us. Ryan woke up around 7, I put some cartoons on for him to watch and I showered and got ready. Jonathan slept in, again. Once I got Jonathan up, I got Ryan ready and we all headed to Royal Court for breakfast. This was a great time to walk around the restaurant and take pictures of the mosaics.

  I had eggs benedict for breakfast, Jonathan had an omelet and Ryan had the kid’s plate (I think it had scrambled eggs, a Mickey waffle, sausage and some fruit). They brought around pastries and donuts while we were waiting for our food to be made and we all got a donut (we knew they would be good because I had read online previously that they were Krispy Kreme donuts, yumm). Jonathan and I enjoyed our breakfast a lot, Ryan just picked at his (again, all he wanted was cereal, crazy kid!). After breakfast we went to meet some characters before heading out. We wanted to meet Jake (Ryan’s favorite character); however, the line was already super long. We knew he’d be out again later so we stood in line to meet Buzz, first.

After meeting Buzz we went up stairs to meet Jake. Ryan was so excited!!!

We went to say hi to Woody and Jessie next and then back upstairs for pictures with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. We did have to stand in some lines for a little bit but our wait wasn’t awful for any of the characters that we met the whole cruise (maybe 20 minutes max).

After our character meets, we went back to the room to grab a few things, we went upstairs to Cabana’s and grabbed some cereal for Ryan to munch on and headed down to get a tender. All ashore for Grand Cayman was at 10:45 but I think they let people start tendering a little earlier than that. We didn’t want to stand in a long line so we waited a little while and headed off the ship a little after 11. We did not have an excursion booked for Grand Cayman and just planned on going to the beach. Once off the ship we got on a bus/van to taxi to 7 mile beach and asked to go to the public/Sea Grape beach. We had a full van and they let off a few people on the way but we were at the beach within 15 minutes. It was already a little busy and I had to stand in line for probably about 10 minutes just to pay for a chair and umbrella. It was $15 for the taxi and then we spent $12 on one chair and an umbrella. Jonathan was not happy we’d already spent so much on such a simple day and we knew we’d be spending another $15 for the ride back. We enjoyed playing in the sand and splashing in the water with Ryan. The beach view is nice but honestly, it wasn’t as nice as I was expecting it to be. Next time I think I’ll make sure we book thru a private hotel or something and plan to stay the full day.

We stayed for a few hours but got hot and hungry so we headed back out to get a taxi. One of our fellow cruise passengers lost his wedding ring in the van and was searching frantically to try to find it. Other passengers were trying to help him but the driver was getting really mad that they were looking and kept yelling at all of them, it was crazy! Unfortunately, he never did find his wedding ring. The driver drop us off across from the port and we had to walk across a busy street to go back thru security (I only point this out because it made Jonathan mad that we had to pay $15 for a 15 minute ride and didn’t even get dropped off at the port, I explained it was probably due to security but he still didn’t like it). We started walking back to the dock to catch a tender and enjoyed a bit of the Disney extra. They had cold wet towels for us to use and cold water to drink. This was so refreshing and so nice! We’ve been on two other cruise lines and they’ve never done anything like this. When we were able to catch a tender quickly and were back on the ship by 2:30.

Pirate ship on our way back to our ship (Ryan said it was Jake's ship). 

We stopped by the room dropped off our bags and headed upstairs to get something to eat. Unfortunately, Cabanas had stopped serving lunch by this time so we had to grab food from Fillmore’s and Luigi’s. We got a mixture of hamburgers, chicken tenders and fries and pizza and I made a salad. Plus, they have sandwiches and fruit you can get. The food was good and we were all so hungry that we filled up. After our late lunch we went back to the room to relax. I knew there was no hope in getting Ryan a nap this late but wanted us all to rest up a bit before dinner. We relaxed in the room, showered and cleaned up then went to meet a few more characters before our dinner in Animator’s Palate. We stood in line to meet Peter Pan and Ryan could barley stand his excitement. He has really liked Peter Pan ever since our trip in January to Disney World when Captain Hook scared him. Ryan liked that Peter Pan could beat up Captain Hook, lol. He was shy when he met Peter Pan but did carry on a little bit of a conversation with him. Next, we had our picture taken with Tinker Bell. I thought the Peter Pan character was really reaching to look like Peter Pan but this was a good Tinker Bell. Ryan thought she was pretty and very nice.

After having a few pictures taken we went to Animator’s Palate for dinner. We were excited to see what this place was all about after reading so many reviews online. Tonight would be the Crush show, Ryan loves Finding Nemo and Crush so we knew he would like this. And sure enough he was just mesmerized by everything about this restaurant. The walls are decorated with animation art, the chairs are fashioned after classic Mickey, the silverware is even in the shape of a paint brush; it’s all very neat.

Tonight for dinner I had the black truffle pasta purseittes to start and Jonathan had the mushroom risotto. I had read online about this pasta dish and since nothing else seemed to call to me I ordered it. It was pretty good but not as good as the reviews led me to believe. Jonathan enjoyed his risotto. We both had the baked potato cheddar cheese soup next and weren’t impressed. It was ok but we’ve had so much better else where. I did; however, enjoy my entrée. I got the marinated angus beef tenderloin served with wasabi mashed potatoes. The wasabi in the mashed potatoes was subtle but added a nice kick, they were very good. Jonathan had the white shrimp pennette pasta and he really enjoyed it. For dessert I had the chocolate brownie cheesecake and Jonathan had the cookies and cream sundae. We both enjoyed our selection. Ryan had fettuccini with chicken and veggies. He was a little too busy watching the Crush show and looking around the restaurant to eat and barley ate much this night. Plus, he was full from lunch still and pretty tired from our beach day. He did have a Mickey ice cream bar to end his meal though, it is vacation after all.

As for the Crush show, it was neat but very much like the show at EPCOT. We were a bit too far away from anyone of the screens for us to get to talk to Crush. It was cute though and Ryan enjoyed it. After dinner we headed back to the room. Ryan got his bath and then went to bed. Jonathan probably didn’t stay up much longer either, lol. I stayed up and read a bit on my Kindle and enjoyed the quiet time to myself.

Baby update and vacation day #5

  I had a regular doctor's appointment on Monday, nothing much happened but I did get to hear the baby's heartbeat.  The little bugger was moving every where and my doctor had a hard time getting he/she to stay still long enough to get a reading.  But we did and the heart rate was 145 (which leads her to believe another boy).  We did discuss a few things and I scheduled an ultrasound for the 19th.  I thought I was going to have to wait until the end of the month/beginning of Novemeber before I could find out if we are having a boy or girl.  Well, because of the compliations I had with Ryan, my doctor wants to monitor my cervical length every two weeks, so yay for an early ultrasound!!  Hoping the baby cooperates and let's us get a peek, I'd really like to know if it's a boy or girl!!  If nothing else it'll be easier with Ryan, who currently thinks I have a girl baby in my tummy and he has a boy baby in his tummy. 

And here is another vacation day post. :) 

Day Five: Our first full day at sea! We planned on having a nice relaxing day and that’s exactly what I was going to do, relax! Ryan never really sleeps in late so he and I were up before 7:30. I showered and got ready for breakfast while he watched cartoons and Jonathan slept. After I was ready I made Jonathan get up and get ready so we could all go get breakfast, this pregnant lady doesn’t like to wait to eat in the morning, I am always hungry early. We went up to Cabanas and found plenty to eat. Omelets, hash browns, pancakes, Mickey waffles, cereal, pastries and donuts, fruit, etc. So much food! Everything I had on my plate was very good. I made Ryan a plate and what do you think he ate, cereal. He didn’t really want any of the other stuff for breakfast all week besides maybe a bite or two of a donut, maybe some fruit but would eat cereal every morning.


After breakfast, Ryan and I went to “Wake up With Disney Junior”. It was a little dance party for the kids. There was a cast member there and he was very interactive with the kids. They played music from Disney Junior shows and did different dances. Goofy came in for a little bit and danced with the kids too. It was fun and cute! Great way to start the morning.

After this, Ryan was begging to go to the kids’ club. I hadn’t been sure about taking him before the cruise (I don’t like him spending so much time away from us, we both work all day and he is in daycare, I feel we miss so much) but he was begging to go. I made sure he understood that I couldn’t go and that he would be going by himself, he was fine with that and excited to run around and play. So, reluctantly I took him to the kids’ club. Since I had some free time on my hands with no plans (this never happens!!!) I decided to relax. I grabbed my Kindle from the room and went to the adults’ only area up on the pool deck, grabbed a chair and read a book. Jonathan isn’t the type to just sit and has a hard time with it. He decided he wanted to go swimming so he changed and got in the adult only pool for a little bit with an occasional run over to me just to make sure I hadn’t forgotten about him and to interrupt my reading. It was drizzling rain at this point but he was in the pool and didn’t care. They made an announcement that the Aquaduck was still open despite the rain so he went over to take another ride; however, before he got to the top of the stairs they had closed it due to lightening. With nothing for him to do I thought he was going to sit down and drive me crazy, thankfully he couldn’t sit there long so he went back to the room to change and explorer the ship. I loved having my time to read. It was so nice to be able to sit down, read a good book and look out at the ocean everywhere around us, aw this is the life!

After about an hour and a half I went back to the kids’ club to pick up Ryan. He was playing on one of the computers when I went in there and the look on his face when he saw me was priceless. And not in the way to make a mommy’s heart melt. I do believe if looks could make people disappear, I would have, lol. He was not happy I was there and he was not ready to leave! It was getting close to lunch time though so I told him he could come back another time and he was happy with that. We went back to the room for a few minutes to meet back up with Jonathan and to hear about Ryan’s time in the kids’ club. He said he got to play in Andy’s room, in the Monsters Inc room, on the light up dance floor and on the computers. He was particularly happy he got to play on a computer just for him. I was glad he enjoyed his time but I missed him while he was gone (and checked the Wave phone every few minutes, lol).

Once we were all back together we went up to Cabanas to grab lunch. Again, I don’t remember what we had but it was all good (nothing spectacular but all yummy and we found plenty to our liking). I believe we walked around the ship a little more after lunch. We headed back to our room so Ryan could get a nap and I’m pretty sure I took one as well, after all, relaxing was the only thing on today’s agenda. After nap time, we changed into swim wear and went to go play. Ryan played some more in Nemo’s Reef area and loved it. We also went up to the Aqua Lab spray area for a little bit. This was fun but he preferred Nemo’s Reef (and I did too since it is covered). I also took my first ride on the Aqua Duck. I wasn’t sure what the ride was going to be like but the first half is faster and you get kind of a water slide feel, then the second half is more relaxed and you are able to look around to take in the great view. Jonathan took another ride down it as well. Ryan wanted to go on the Mickey kids’ slide so my husband walked him up the steps and gave him a little push. Well, that “little” push wasn’t enough and Ryan didn’t even make it around the first corner completely. He sat there looking at Jonathan and couldn’t figure out what to do. While Jonathan was trying to explain to him how to push himself down another kid went down knocking Ryan down the rest of the way. Ryan was not happy about this and did not want to go again! Then despite being told not to (he later said he never heard him say that), Jonathan went down the slide. He got yelled at by the cast member once at the bottom. Not a great start to the slide for Ryan and he quickly went back to Nemo’s Reef to go down Mr. Ray’s slide (which was short but fast and he loved it).

  After a few hours of playing around in the water we went back to the room to change and get ready for dinner. Tonight was formal night and we were in Royal Court. Before going down to the Royal Court we waited in line to see Mickey. We were all dressed up and wanted a good picture with Mickey (and this is the one we ended up buying).

Family picture with Captain Mickey (the one we bought turned out better than this but I haven't scanned it in). 



  My first glimpse of the Royal Court and I was impressed. It is a beautiful restaurant! The mosaics on the walls were stunning, the chairs and light fixtures all added to the great ambiance of the room. With my love for Disney Princesses, this was easily my favorite of the 3 rotational restaurants. I had the double baked cheese and spinach soufflé to start with; Jonathan had the iced lobster and jumbo shrimp. We both enjoyed our starters. Then I had the Royal Market Green salad that came with goat cheese. I wasn’t as fond of this, turns out I don’t like goat cheese unless it’s melted on something. I can’t remember what Jonathan had, probably more shrimp though. For our main course, we both had the aged angus grilled beef tenderloin topped with garlic shrimp (I quickly gave my shrimp to Jonathan) and marquis potatoes. Steak was tender and juicy and the cognac reduction sauce served with it was nice. For dessert I had the grand mariner soufflé, which was very good. Jonathan had the strawberry shortcake sundae and he enjoyed it. Ryan had spaghetti and meatballs and he ate a lot of it. Our assistant server was nice and cut it all up for Ryan (Ryan got a kick out of them cutting his food for him instead of mommy).

A few pictures from Royal Court



This is a picture of the center table, it was different than the others.  Also, you can see the waiter's uniforms in the background.  They had different ones each night.  

Bread Basket

And here are a couple pictures of the plates they had on the wall near our table.



After dinner we went back to the room for a little bit before the show. We went to see Aladdin tonight. Ryan loved this show and now watches Aladdin at home all the time. Jonathan and I enjoyed the show but thought a few things could have been done a bit better. They did have some very life like horses (or at least they looked that way from our seats in the balcony, lol) and we had to do a double take before realizing there was no way a horse could live on a cruise ship, lol. And it was much better than entertainment shows we’ve seen on other cruise lines. Once the show was over we went back to the room and it was bath and bed time for Ryan. Jonathan and I did not stay up much longer either. Tomorrow was our first port stop, Grand Cayman, and we were going to the beach.