Disney Dream

Today is Saturday and we have now officially been home for 6 days from our Disney vacation. Not that I've really noticed since I spent the first 24 hours home taking care of a sick husband, the next four days trying to get caught up at work and the last 24 hours taking care of a sick little Avery and my own fever. Somewhere in there I managed to unpack all but one suitcase and to do most all the laundry. Is it time for another vacation yet?

But back to our fabulous Christmas gift from my parents, an 8-night Disney vacation! We spent the first 3 nights in Orlando at the Caribbean Beach resort which gave us 2 full days at the parks. The first day was spent at Magic Kingdom where the girls got done up princess style at the Bibitty Bobitty Boutique followed by breakfast with the princesses. I'm telling you, that is the way to see the princesses. In an hour and a half we had every princess come by our table and sign their little books. Sure beats standing in line for an hour plus per character out in the park. We rode just about every ride in the park that day, thank you fast passes! The next day we set off for the Hollywood Studios and miraculously made it to the park before it even opened which allowed us to maximize our ride time and gave us time to head over to the Wildlife park before the end of the day.

Day three we packed up, jumped in a shuttle and headed to the Disney Dream for a 5 night cruise! I've never really done a real cruise, usually when we vacation there is usually some sort of adventure involved, lots of driving, sight seeing and historical marker reading. In other words, even on vacation we are total geeks. The idea of being stuck on a ship with nothing but food and ocean all around you just has never really appealed to me. But, this was no ordinary ship and we loved every minute on board.

There was a full sized theater on board, and once inside you wouldn't know that you weren't in the theater district of Houston or on Broadway. The shows were that good too! In addition to a live theater there was a movie theater too. While on board we got to see Pirates of Caribbean 4, and this family loves pirates! Which brings me to our favorite night, Pirate Night! We got to all dress up like pirates and there was a live show that included Captain Jack Sparrow that was truly spectacular.

The food was amazing and of course I ate way too much of it, but my sweet tooth is slowly wearing off. The best meal for Jeramy and I was at the French restaurant on board. Nine courses complete with wine pairings....ooh, la, la!

Ryleigh's favorite part of the cruise was Pirate Night but a close second was the Aqua Duck, a clear slide that actually went out over the ocean and back on the ship. If there wasn't a 20 minute wait to ride it, I think she would have been on that thing non-stop. When the girls weren't swimming, they were in the kids club which meant some alone time for mom and dad out in the adult only pool area. So yes, you can take a break from Mickey and the gang!

The best part of the cruise was having my whole family there, not just Jeramy and the girls but my brother, his fiance, my sister and my parents. I am so thankful to my dad for arranging the whole thing, it was a trip that we will never forget!

Here is our family share site with pics from my whole family...enjoy!