Disney World- Hollywood Studios

Disney World!!!!

The morning we got off the cruise ship we made it to our hotel by 10am. We stayed at Port Orleans- French Quarters, and it was pretty fabulous! It had a feeling of Port Orleans, had a swimming pool and a playground, also a good place to eat, along with a gift shop that had some extra food in it, which was nice for our last morning there so we could just eat some doughnuts instead of a huge breakfast (while on a cruise you gain weight). Since we were there by 10am we decided to head right to the park. We planned ahead and knew we'd only be able to do two parks, because of the two days, so we picked Hollywood Studios first because it wasn't as big nor had too many rides. 

Entering Hollywood Studios!!

Spencer was in charge of the map, and I'm happy to say he could lead us right to where we needed to go!

 Had to take a picture of the boys eating their first "fun" food of the trip, funnel cake. We also had cotton candy at one point, popcorn, but no churros!!! Tyler was not happy about that one. 

 We walked around Hollywood Studios and did some rides. I didn't do as many as the boys, because of the pregnancy, but I did try some because I knew they would be fine. The boys' first ride was on the Star Tours, a Star Wars 3D ride that they both thought was good. We then walked down the Streets of America and saw backdrops for NYC, San Francisco and other major cities. Spencer then played in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set, which he loved!! After that we went to the Backlot Tour, which we all liked. Here are some pictures from that tour. 

 The costume making place. It was really cool to see all the costumes in there. 

 Herbie!!

 We even got to see a movie set. ;) Uh-oh there's fire and things are all going wrong!!!

 Whatever was holding the water broke and it comes slamming down to us!!!

 And then came from overhead!

 Spencer was right next to it all and got a little wet, but it was crazy!! and fun too. 

 Okay, does anyone else remember where this is from?!?! Tyler and I were so excited to see it, and couldn't believe that it was on the backlot tour.

After the Backlot Tour we went over and stood in line for Toy Story Mania. I went on that, even though there was a lot of twisting. If the boys had wanted to ride again I'm not sure I would have. We walked around a bit more, but soon were tired from our early morning, and wanted to get a good nights sleep before our full day the next day. We all went back to the hotel, Spencer and Tyler went to the swimming pool, then we ordered pizza into the hotel room and just relaxed and slept! 

Disney Cruise- Day 8

We woke up early and got ready to leave the ship. It was a sad day. Spencer had a hard time leaving the boat and there were many tears shed. 

So let me break down for you how we left the ship. The night before we had our luggage picked up so then they could put it in a place to get off the ship quickly the next morning, and so we wouldn't have to carry them off (what a pain!). You get special tags so you can find your luggage in the terminal easier. We got all of that taken care of, and woke up by 6am so we could make our breakfast time with our dinner mates (this is the other breakfast where they tell you where to go so they have it a bit more organized), our time to get off the boat was 7:45am. We had breakfast and said bye to our fun dinner mates and then left the boat. 

We found our bags easily and then had already arranged that we would take a bus to our disney hotel that we were going to stay at for the next two days. YES because being on a disney cruise was not enough, we booked two nights at a Disney World resort so we could go to Disney World and have MORE fun!!! Real reason: if we had been able to go on the cruise in May from NYC one of its stops was actually at Disney World for a day, so we felt bad when we had to tell Spencer we couldn't do that, so we decided to just add it on. 

Leaving the cruise ship behind. Bye Magic!!!

And yes that is Goofy on the back of the boat painting. 

After taking this cruise, which was all of our first, I would say it was the best ever!! We all had a blast and were able to relax and do things as a family and having fun. It was pretty incredible. Would I recommend this to anyone who has kids that are 3 years and up?? YES!!!! 3 years, because the little nursery is extra money on board, and I would think having a little little one on there would be stressful. For our family with a 7 yr. old and me being pregnant, it worked out pretty well. so...GO ON A DISNEY CRUISE!!!! 

Disney Cruise- Day 7

Our last fun day on the cruise was going to Castaway Cay, Disney's private island. 

Funny thing...we got there, and it was raining, we waited on the boat, skies looked clear, got off the boat and then it began to downpour, but we were still happy!

Spencer waiting out the storm with us. 

The rain was coming down sooo much!

Finally it started to clear up and we got to play in the sand for a little bit before our excursion. Spencer got right to building and playing in the sand. 

We then went to our excursion which was the Stingray excursion in which we fed them and then they swam around by our ankles, we also could snorkel while they swam under us. It was a fun activity. Spencer was a bit nervous, but when the lady who was in charge gave us some information about the stingrays, like their barbs are trimmed all the time and they will not stick you with them, also we learned the "stingray shuffle" in which we shuffled our feet in the sand so we wouldn't step on them, because then they would get mad at you. Spencer took that information all to heart and remembered it and reminded us what to do. 

We get in the water and it was quite cold from the cloudy weather, and we went over to the feeding station. The person guiding us told us to put our hand flat on the board with the food coming up between two fingers and then the stingray would just swim right over your hand and suck up the food. Well we all took turns but there was a little kid before us, and he kinda kept his fingers up and his poor little fingers just kinda got sucked a bit, scared him and he started to cry. Cue Spencer to get more nervous. We had to remind him to just keep his hand flat and it would all be fine, the boy wasn't even bleeding. Spencer did it though!! After everyone was fed, meaning the stingrays, we could start snorkeling. Spencer was not too keen on it, so we stepped back and watched the stingrays in the shallow end, and Tyler swim out to snorkel with the stingrays. Once Spencer got comfortable with the shallow spot he would get brave and we'd go out a few more inches. It was quite cute. Then we got too cold and got out and found another spot on the beach to relax. 

We found a great spot, and even though it was raining off and on, the lifeguards said we could still swim. I got nervous about it all when I could see the lightening way off in the ocean, but apparantly we were fine, which we were. 

Lots of people were not out on the beach yet, waiting for it to get sunnier, but we didn't mind...remember we were already sunburned and did not want to get more sunburned. So cloudy skies was fine. Tyler and Spencer went out to the play place out in the ocean.

Spencer was a bit cold, and nervous about swimming, but did great. 

This was the beach we were on, and our cruise ship way in the back.

The sun!!!! Spencer playing more in the sand. His poor knees did get more sunburned here.

Our dinner mates!! We had such fun with them!

I caught them!!! Spencer and his friend whispering to each other. These boys had a blast together!

After our day on the beach, and our dinner we went to the last show on the ship which was called Remember the Magic. It was great and big and wonderful and we are kinda sad we do not get shows/plays like this every night. After the play we came back to our cabin and found our last towel animal which was a snake!

Also at the end of this day the characters did a final goodbye. I was exhausted, but the boys went and said goodbye to all of the characters. Well apparantly Spencer and Tyler were up at the top of the stairs and some of the princesses came by, and Spencer waved at them, and Belle blew a kiss at him! Tyler got it on video, and you can hear Spencer say "Dad, don't put that on Facebook." It was really cute, and he was a bit shy about having Belle blow a kiss to him. 

Disney Cruise- Day 6

Today was a day at sea. We had to fill it up with activities, so we did!

We woke up a bit later, after having such a fun day before, and then ate breakfast. Spencer had already circled all the things he wanted to do this day on our activity sheet, which wasn't too much, but he had his schedule all planned out. We had to figure out what to do around it. After breakfast there was some more Bingo to be played. Spencer was not wanting to do that, but wanted to do something called Goofy Files in the kid's lab, so he went to that. Tyler and I headed to Bingo and met our dinner mates there, and we all played together, which none of us won, but were close a few times. Once we finished there we went and got Spencer and we all went to lunch together with our dinner mates. It was fun, and then we had to get going so Spencer could go do something else, but while we left we saw WHALES off in the ocean! It was so cool! 

That afternoon I went and watched Tangled in 3D, Tyler went and took a nap, Spencer went and played. We then found out that Spencer was actually doing a Friendship Rocks dance play type thing. 

He was able to get a shirt and then go up on the stage and dance around with Mickey and Minnie!!

The start of Friendship Rocks! up on the big screen at the stage.

 Spencer getting into place.

 Everyone up and ready to dance! They even had a slide show of pictures and videos they had taken of the kids throughout the week. And no worries, it was not for sale so no one could have these pictures of your child....safety first!

 Spencer is the blurry one when he was coming off the stage. 

The funny part about this is that Tyler kept waving at Spencer. Spencer after a while was thinking enough was enough and kept trying to tell Tyler to stop waving so much at him. It was quite cute. 

We went to dinner, then to the play Disney Dreams, which has won an award for the best original play on any cruise line anywhere in the world!! It was pretty fantastic! It's about how a girl can do anything if she just believes in her dreams. 

And of course, we came into our cabin with a lobster on our bed!!

Disney Cruise- Day 5

St. Thomas day!!!

 St. Thomas was beautiful!! It's a part of the U.S. Virgin Islands, and we had a fun time while there. 

This was us pulling up to our port.

Today's excursions were divided. Tyler has always wanted to go scuba diving, and we knew I wouldn't be able to, nor would Spencer, so we told him to go and have fun! Spencer and I decided to make it a beach day. Which I was worried about, because we are not big beach people. I'm very faired skinned, and getting burned is something I hate, but I knew Spencer would love it and I could relax. 

Tyler was off the ship by 7:45am!!! Spencer and I could take a bit longer and didn't leave the boat until 9:45am, had a 45 minute drive to the beach, and then just started relaxing. I did make sure I got a lounge chair in the shade, and Spencer just started playing in the sand, and in the water, and finding friends. He is such a friend finder, he'll find someone to play with wherever he goes, which is great! The water was calm, and not too many waves, so I felt like it was okay that Spencer was out there by himself. He did great! I think his swimming lessons are giving him the confidence and skills he needs. 

I didn't think we got burnt too bad, but sadly we did. We all got some sunburn on our hands and forearms, and I got it on my feet. We got back on the boat by 3:00pm and were starving!! We ordered some room service since Tyler had already gotten back on the boat and eaten. Our all aboard of when the ship was leaving was early today because we had to get going to get to our next port on time. 

Here we are leaving beautiful St. Thomas.

 Out to sea.

We took showers and got cleaned up for dinner, and after dinner Spencer wanted to go to the kid's area to find his new friend he had on the beach. So he went there, I got ready for bed and relaxed and started the aloe vera on my feet. Tyler went and got Spencer and off to bed we went. 

Oh yes, and after dinner we had a new animal!! An elephant! 

Disney Cruise- Day 4

Today was St. Maarten day!

We woke up to this view...land!!

Today for our excursion off the boat we decided to do an Island Tour, because this island is kinda divided in half. One half is Dutch and the other side is French. We were very interested to see the difference between the two. 

 We met our group on the boat, showed our passports and tickets, and got our Goofy sticker so they knew who was in the group. We got off the boat by 8:45am, and started our drive around the island. It was nice because it was an air-conditioned bus, with plenty of room for everyone to be on. 

Here is some of the Dutch side. 

 While driving around the island we saw our cruise ship! What a pretty ship. 

It was pretty gorgeous there, the water is incredible and the beaches looked nice. We didn't go to the beach, but they looked nice. 

 Another cruise ship coming into port. 

 Spencer and Tyler with the view. 

 Spencer is strong...with the sun in his eyes. 

 Here we are going to the French side of the island. 

 This is a fort that is on the top most hill of the island. Used a long time ago. 

 Colorful rooftops and boats out in the marina. And yes you can see how clear the water was from way up here.

 The French side the poorer side of the island. Although I thought this old house you could see in about any old town in the US. 

 Going back to the Dutch side. Another thing that we heard about the two sides is that the Dutch side is the nicer looking side, but the French side has better food. Which at one of the stops Tyler and Spencer got a coconut drink from an actual coconut. The guy just cut the top off and stuck a straw in. Then also after they finished the juice, the guy cut up the coconut so they could eat that part. 

Both sides reminded me of Africa though, with the structure of the buildings and how things just were.

Coming back to the ship, I was getting tired. So we headed back onto the boat. 

By then we saw there were two more cruise ships that had parked near us.

Pretty blue water. 

And we found my yacht! 

After our excursion Spencer went to go and play in the kid's club/lab, and Tyler and I went and rested. We went to dinner, and then after dinner there was no play this night because it was Pirate Night!!! Before we did Pirate Night with the fireworks Tyler went to see John Carter in 3D, which I didn't care to watch, so I went and rested a bit more, while Spencer went and played some more. When the Pirate party was about to start I went and met up with Tyler after the movie and we got Spencer then went up to the top deck. There was dancing and music and just fun stuff. Spencer danced like crazy!! 

Luckily we asked our server at dinner what the best place on the ship was to see the fireworks (which Disney cruise lines are the only ones that can have fireworks out at sea!), and he told us on the starboard side. So we made sure we had a good spot before the fireworks started. Turns out that Captain Hook was trying to take over our ship!!! I think Jack Sparrow tried to save us, but in the end it was Captain Mickey Mouse who saved us!!! Then we got to see the fireworks!! They were great! It was bedtime after that, and sadly I didn't have my camera in my hand so I never took a picture of the monkey hanging from the hanger, but we did have a monkey towel animal.