I'm only 2.5 months late on posting about our Disney Cruise.
I've been putting it off cuz honestly there were sooo many pictures to go through haha. And it was only four days hahaha.
My girls are GOOD at taking pictures... I probably took about 5 total myself, but we had the photopass pictures + Tayler's good camera + all of my girls phones.
I love it! But just a warning, there are a LOT of pictures in this post!!
We left bright and early for the airport on Sunday December 11th 2022... our flight was @ 8:05 am... so yes very early!! All went well with our flights that were all purchased with delta miles, that saved a good chunk!
We started out like this...
then ended up spread out like this...
it seems totally normal to all dress alike to get on a cruise ship together, but we decided that it was a little odd for the 10 of us to dress alike on the plane... so we waited until we got to the San Diego airport to change into our sweatshirts that Tayler and Jaden gave us!!
It was a chilly wet San Diego day, we had no where to go so we Ubered straight to the cruise terminal and hung out in this entry way until they let us into the cruise terminal.
We were SOAKED running from that hangout spot to the terminal. But we were too excited to care that much!!
Straight for Cabana's as soon as we got on of course!!
Give me all the crab, and Shane will take all the shrimp!!
The rest of the group gets all the lame stuff like chicken strips and pizza haha
Then we were off to explore the Disney Wonder.
and visit the Kids Club..
and the spa...
and eat our first ice cream cones...
Our first dinner was @ Triton's.
There wasn't ACTUALLY a formal night on this cruise.
In fact... this was totally an anything goes cruise as far as fashion goes.
Some families dressed up for dinner...
Some families wore pajamas to dinner.
Like that is NOT a joke.
I would never have even thought about it, but matching family Christmas jammies were all the rage.
So we might be wearing this and the family next to us would be in peppermint striped long-johns with slippers... everyone including Grandpa for the whole night including the show.
I'm all for family pictures, but even I might have been embarrassed for those pictures. hahaha
Since this night was "the Golden Mickey's" and Mia had her "Golden dress" we saved our sweatshirts to wear to dinner the next night.
One thing my older girls are good at doing is getting up early on the Disney Cruise.
First off to work out in the AM.
But mainly they love that the ship is empty and they can see everything to empty.
Everything was perfect about the cruise except for one thing... I was sick. And pretty much felt like crap!! My sinus' were all clogged up, my head was achy, I just did NOT feel good! Luckily I didn't have a terribly sore throat, and my nose wasn't too stuffed up and my cough wasn't TERRIBLE but when I did start coughing I felt really stupid and I was worried that I was going to get someone else in my family sick (luckily no one else did). I was taking as much medicine as I could, I went to bed early after every show which is NOT what I wanted to be doing because I was missing out on stuff and precious time on the ship. It was just plain poor timing darn it. I tried to pretend like I was better than I was but ughhhhh. I was REALLY sad that was the week it hit me!!
This was the morning that 1/2 of our family won Marvel trivia.
Luckily I was NOT on their team because I wouldn't have known the answer to ONE of those questions!!
Beignets from the French Quarters Lounge
Mia LOVES her Princesses'!!
She loved the Princess Party with as she refers to them "Arie, Tia, Cinder and Belle."
She is such a smart little thing...a 19 month old who talks quite remarkably, knows more Disney characters than the average 3 year old and is completely potty trained.
Yep, we think she's pretty amazing... and she's NOT the center of attention in our family at all!!
She loves Princesses.
But Santa was a different story...
But look how hard she tried to smile!!
And she LOVES Mickey... but it took her a while to warm up to him too.
If she's farther away... she's ok.
Animator's Palate for dinner!
Cabo
What a beautiful day in Cabo we had!
The weather was perfect... now the process of tendering off the ship took far longer than it should have... but once we got through that... the day was fabulous!!
We walked to the Sand Bar... (the same place that we had gone to when we came with the Astle's and Carlsen's in October). And we all (minus Keaton who watched Mia... until she got sad and Tayler came down) had an hour massage. It was FABULOUS!! I think that everyone loved it!
We then spent some time playing in the ocean.
Mia had been looking forward to "the beach" since she had just been to Hawaii so we all had fun playing with her in the water.
Kenna did some shopping of course.. and got Quincy a blanket.
Lydia's only wish was a mango on the beach... her dreams came true.
A little more Cabo shopping and then back to the boat. What a great day!!
Pirate Night is always a good time!
Our little tinkerbelle couldn't have been cuter!
She's really warming up to the characters now!
Daisy seemed to be her favorite.
We were all looking forward to Tiana's place but were disappointed that Tiana didn't come. ;(
Louis was there, and the band was lots of fun. But that was sad!
We were laughing really hard in this restaurant because where we were sitting was shaking so much that our food and plates were just quivering. Hence our food was shaking too, we all keep laughing about the prime rib just jiggling on our plates. haha You had to be there but it was pretty funny.
It was the last night... so everyone loaded up on those last deserts!
And since it's Lydia's birthday month she got sung to and had a special birthday desert brought... along with her other two she ordered.
A last goodbye for all our friends.
a couple of our doors...
Lydi and Jadyn's bunkbeds...
and a few farewell pictures the next morning...
and then we were off the ship...
Man we had an amazing time!!
It went really really really fast... but I feel like four days was OK, like it wasn't as short as I thought it was going to be and we made the most of the time we had.
All in all I'm so grateful that we did this for our Christmas this year. It's something that we'll remember forever, and really we don't remember the THINGS that we get for Christmas like we remember memories like these.
So very grateful for the opportunity that we had to take our whole family and be together!!
Hindsight says that we should have just taken a flight straight home, but I was thinking that it would be fun to spend time in San Diego for the day. We did end up having a good time, but everyone would have preferred to just get home. haha
Our first stop was La Jolla Beach. We walked along the beach and found some great shells and TONS of sand dollars.
Then a stop @ the beautiful San Diego Temple!
and Trader Joe's... man we had a good time there... then stood in the parking lot and chowed down on snacks like we hadn't eaten for 3 days. We had a good laugh about that!!
a little time at a mall... and then it was time to head to the airport.
I love my family.
I love that they are good sports and go with the flow when everything doesn't go perfect.
I love that they love to adventure.
I love that they love to be together.
I love that they love each other.
I just plain love being with my girls...
+ I love my son in laws and that they are super good sports with all us girls.
And gosh I love that little Mia, she brings so much joy and life to our family!!
I'm very grateful to be a mother and nanny to this bunch!!
