Cruisin'

Our Ship: The Disney Wonder

In celebration of several milestones (Anna's 4th birthday, Alex graduating with his MBA, our 10 year wedding anniversary) we decided to take a real vacation.  We left on May 9th on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas.  Of course, we took the nanny (that would be our friend, Liz - inside joke).  After a long day of travel just to get to Cape Canaveral, we boarded the ship in the afternoon and after settling into our cabin, Anna and I went for a swim in a Mickey Mouse shaped swimming pool.

That night we watched the first of several Broadway caliber shows, The Golden Mickeys.  Before the show began, Anna was recruited to be one of the seven dwarfs in the production.  She did a great job and didn't have one ounce of stage fright...amazing.  Of course, it may be that she was too star struck by Snow White to notice much of anything else.  She almost fell off the stage at the end because her eyes were glued to the princess in awe.  (If you're looking, she's 4th to the left of Snow White - staring intently at her.)

The next  day we arrived in Nassau where we did a dolphin excursion.  We were in the water petting and playing with this amazing creature, and I struggle to find the words to explain what it was like.  In the absence of eloquence, let me just say...it was so cool!  Then we played on a gorgeous white sand beach before heading back to the ship to clean up for dinner.  Let me interject that the dinners on the ship -- the restaurants, the menus, the wines, the staff -- were amazing.



The next day was spent on Castaway Cay, their private island.  Alex and I abandoned Liz and Anna and went snorkeling.  Anna was busy as a bee with her pail and shovel in the sand, while the rest of us got lazy, and not just a little sunburned.

The Flying Dutchman

That night there was a Pirates In the Caribbean deck party, complete with all the Disney characters and fireworks at sea.  After the party broke up, they played the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie on the big screen (think drive-in movie theater size) which hovers over the family "Goofy" pool.  By the way, swimming while watching a movie on a theater-sized screen is highly UNDER-rated.  I'm thinking of asking our builder to work something up for the new house, but I'm pretty sure that will put us over budget.  Ha ha.


 The last day was spent at sea.  We sent Anna to the Oceaneer's Lab to make Flubber while the adults chatted over espresso martinis in the coffee bar.  We laughed while discussing how Liz thought our animal shaped towels in our room looked to her like a turkey carcass ready for roasting (it was a hanging monkey).

Our last morning, I stepped out onto our verandah and took one last deep breath of ocean air.  

Om.  Back to reality, but it was completely worth it.

P.S.  Just look at this kid, having the time of her life.

The End