Day 3 & 4

Day 3 of our Disney Cruise- March 5th

We woke up Saturday morning with the Captain of the ship making an announcement. Since we had been told at the very beginning of the cruise that they would never broadcast announcements in the rooms as to not wake sleeping children, we figured the announcement was going to be important. That morning we were scheduled to dock on Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. However, the area was experiencing severe wind gusts over 50 miles per hour. The Dream was only equipped to dock with gusts up to 40MPH so we were going to be unable to visit Castaway Cay that day. The captain assured us the crew would plan extra special activities that day, and we would have a fun day at sea. Also, he reminded us that an advantage of being on a boat was that we could hunt for sunshine. He promised to find a sunny spot to anchor for the day. We ended up anchoring off the coast of an island which sheltered us from the strong wind and provided tons of sunshine. Obviously, we were initially disappointed. We were looking forward to a day on the beach! After talking over breakfast we realized it was probably a really good thing because it would force us to take advantage of all the wonderful things our ship had to offer. We hadn't found time to do so many of the things on the boat that we were looking forward to and we also have a couple beach vacations planned this summer...so all in all, we didn't really feel like we were missing out on anything!

Mary Grace had a blast in Nemo's Reef. It was a huge splash pad area with tons of really cool water features.

This was probably her favorite part- I think she went down this water slide at least 50 times!

We finally talked her into heading over to one of the pools to swim and watch a movie-

For lunch we went back to Cabanas and once again, Mary Grace enjoyed a plate full of dessert!

After lunch Brent and I decided to try putting Mary Grace in the Kid's Club. We wanted to make sure it was a place that Mary Grace wanted to spend time. I was shocked when we arrived and she ran right in. Brent and I went to the adults only part of the boat and hung out at the pool. Every room comes with 2 cell phones for your use on the boat. When your kids are in the Club you are required to carry the phone with you. Although we hadn't heard from them, we decided to go get her after about an hour. Unfortunately (well, actually, fortunately), when we went to pick her up she was NOT ready to go! She begged to stay. Brent and I ended up using the extra time to ride on the water-coaster, The Aqua Duck. This is the first and only water-coaster on a cruise ship (Mary Grace was too short to ride). It was such a cool experience and I'm so glad we got to ride. We hung out at the pool for another couple hours and then picked Mary Grace up.

During her time in The Club she went on a 'mission' with toy soldiers (they painted all of the kids faces with army stripes). Mary Grace said they had to 'march around' and 'duck.' She also did some kind of game with Winnie The Pooh, made a fairy wand with Tinkerbell and watch part of Cars. Sounds like fun!

We ended up going to the show on Saturday night- it was called Believe and again, Mary Grace LOVED the singing and dancing!

After the show we got to meet the Captain and have him sign a book.

And we ran into Minnie Mouse on the way to dinner!

Our last dinner was in the Royal Palace. Through out our meal the princesses were walking around and talking with all of the children.

I can't stop raving about how impressed I was with the Disney waiters! Every night when Mary Grace asked for Ketchup they would pour it for her in the shape of Mickey. Such a small detail, but something so memorable for Mary Grace!

These were our two waiters- Kruno and Brent

One thing I wish I had taken better pictures of was our room. It was incredibly impressive and well designed. Mary Grace had a bed on one side of the room. There was a huge curtain to separate the room. Also, we had 2 bathrooms- 1 contained a tub/shower and a sink. The other contained a toilet and a sink. It was really nice to have extra space to get ready!

Mary Grace always slept down at the end of her bed facing out the window (we did not let her sleep with the balcony door open! Brent and I had been sitting out there when I thought about taking this picture...the doors locked really well and it was extremely safe!)

The next morning- March 6th, we had to laugh at all the people who thought they were so lucky getting the early seating for dinner...the also got the early seating for breakfast on the last day (6:00AM!!) We, on the other hand, had the 8:00AM seating. While it was still early, it made eating dinner late every night SO worth it!

We were assigned to return to The Royal Palace for breakfast.

As we exited the ship we made an easy decision that it was worth it to hire help for our bags. What we didn't realize is that we were hiring a babysitter as well! Mary Grace 'helped' this man for the entire time we were in the customs line, and then all the way out to our car. Where she is typically the child who likes to run off, especially when she needs to be standing somewhere- she was perfectly engaged pushing this luggage cart!

I still have a week's worth of vacation pictures (post cruise) to sort and edit! More later...