Disney Cruise

Here is the longer post I promised... and boy is it long! There were just so many cute photos I wanted to include. It was a wonderful family vacation. My dad is the one to thank for this one - he took my entire family (minus one sister's family who could not come) on a 7 day cruise. Of course we loved it, what wasn't there to love? So, on to the photos:

Here we are waiting at the car rental place in Orlando. The girls were excellent travelers, and no, we did not check Maren in at the gate.We spent a day at the Epcot Center, which was a lot of fun. We were very thankful for Alicia and Jonathan who came with us and watched the kids a few times so we could ride something that moved faster than 1 mile an hour.
Sporting our beautiful 3D glasses from "Honey I Shrunk the Audience". Ellie didn't enjoy it all that much, there was a huge snake that jumped out and scared her, and a big dog that 'sneezed' on us. She still talks about it.

And here we are before boarding the ship. My mom got our entire group matching bright green t-shirts. It made it easy to spot our family!
And here is my family - there were 46 traveling in our group. This photo was taken after our Sunday morningside, which we held in one of the theaters.Here we are at Castaway Cay, Disney's private island just for their cruise ships. This was my most favorite stop because it was very relaxing - no hecklers (like Mexico) and lunch was provided for us. That is the Flying Dutchman in the background from the movie "Pirates in the Carribean". Pretty cool - it has amazing detail.
Maren taking a nap with Grandma.

Ellie playing with Aspen in the crystal blue waters. Nick and I got to go snorkeling, and it was pretty amazing. Lots of fish, and some 'planted' sunken ships and such. My brothers reported seeing jellyfish, stingrays, and crabs.

This was one of Ellie's favorite things: meeting the princesses. She now spins her dresses because of their influence.



And this was one of Nick and I's favorite things: soft serve ice cream available anytime. Oh, and fries too...delicious fries. I think I can blame the extra 5 pounds I gained on the ice cream. It was worth it. Here Ellie is enjoying some ice cream on Grandpa's lap.
Here is Nick and I at dinner on one of the dress up nights.

Our family with Mickey and Pluto. Ellie played catch with Pluto, which kind of freaked her out, but overall, she did very well with the characters. We rode the elevator with Donald Duck, and she thought that was pretty cool (and so did I).
In Cozumel Nick went scuba diving and I went shopping with my brothers and their families. He'll have to add photos of his dive if he wants too. He said it was pretty cool.

In Grand Cayman, we went on a semi-submarine tour. We saw lots of fish and two sunken ships (real ones this time). A diver jumped into the water to feed the fish, which explains the photo below.
This is from the Pirates IN the Carribean dinner. We are making our best pirate faces. I obviously could never be a pirate.And the littlest pirate on the ship - I love this photo for three reasons: first is obvious, Maren is wearing her pirate bandanna; second, she is making her 'turtle face' which is a new thing for her and I think it is way cute; third, I don't look so bad myself. :)These are photos taken from our character breakfast where all the characters come around and take photos and give hugs and such while you eat. Our waiter made us these hats out of napkins. The entertainment never ends on a Disney cruise. We got these Minnie Mouse ears for Ellie because it is a necessity for a Disney trip, right? Ellie didn't think so, she won't wear them. But I did. And Maren did too. Here is our mini Minnie:Our family after Thanksgiving dinner. We still had turkey and pie, but it just wasn't the same. Being in 80 degree weather didn't help.Our last full day was spent at Castaway Cay once again. Most cruise ships only spend a day there, but because ours was a holiday cruise, we got to double dip. I was glad, because, as I mentioned above, it was my favorite stop. They had a huge Christmas tree set up and decorated, which was kind of weird - it certainly didn't feel like Christmas. Swimming with Grandma, Grandpa and Aspen. Ellie loved the water (no waves on this beach), but did not enjoy swimming with the school of tiny little fish. Just relaxin'. And our parting shot with our ship, the Disney Magic. And it was.