*jess*

Hello! First time sailing on Royal and we've purchased the deluxe drink package. In the app it says that our sea pass card will be in our stateroom, but staterooms aren't ready until 1pm. If we want to use the drink package when we embark at 11:30am can we use our digital sea pass on our phones? Or will we need to wait until we can get the physical cards from our room?

Good morning!

We are docking in Villefranche-sur-mer in October, and we are wanting to do a quick jaunt over to Monaco, have lunch there, then take the train to Nice to visit the Hard Rock and walk around. We are in port from 7a-8p, is it possible to visit both places in one day? I know that we won't get to take in a full tour or really immerse ourselves.

We did the brunch at Palo, and enjoyed every second of it. The serving team was just incredible and waited on us hand and foot. We never had an empty glass, and he was checking on us at the perfect intervals. The food was just.... wow.... we would have preferred to be rolled back to our room rather than walked. We were gluttons for sure and didn't regret it a bit. 

I'll definitely book it again on our next one.

Best pricing strategy has always been to book as soon as possible, because as the dates get closer the prices just keep going up. I'm in the US though, so I don't know if that would apply to Canadians as well. You can always call Disney and ask if they have any specials for Canadians, or a travel agent. Sometimes the agents can get better deals at Disney World than booking straight through the website for us.

The rooms are pretty large, so fitting 3-4 people won't be an issue at all. On our cruise me, my mom, and my 11 year old son were in an interior room, like the cheapest and smallest one they offer, and were still fine. My sister has a family of 4 and were in an oceanview room and had PLENTY of space in there. They're pretty genius about their storage options, I was surprised.

No safety issues with the balcony, you can latch it. However, and this is totally a personal opinion, sometimes the balcony isn't worth it to some people. On Carnival I always spent the extra money on a balcony because we spent a LOT of time out there. On Disney there's so much to do that I didn't book a balcony room, and didn't regret it a bit. My sister sailed the first time in an ocean view room, and recently in a balcony and she said she'll book the ocean view again in a heart beat over a balcony because they just didn't use it much. So depending on how much time you'll actually be spending out there, it may be worth it to save the money and just do an oceanview.

We went back to the room to watch cartoons until everyone was done with dinner and found this little guy

I finished our packing and got mine and Jacob's suitcases in the hallway. When my mom got back from dinner she put hers out there too.

We ended up staying up later than we should have, got more pizza and ice cream, and tried to fight off the fact that it was truly our last night on board.

December 2, 2016 - disembarkation

No pictures, at all of this day because it's not fun lol.

We woke up, took our carry ons down to Animator's Palate and had a goodbye breakfast with our servers. Jacob ate a few donuts, and I had waffles with hash browns! When breakfast was over we said goodbye to our servers and started going to where everyone was lining up. I think that it would have been better, had we not been so confused. For whatever reason my brother in law got in line to leave the ship, so we just followed him, except we weren't really supposed to get off yet because they hadn't called our color. So part of the debarkation mess was our fault because we didn't pay attention. When we exited the ship and got to the terminal we were directed into this giant hallway where we were waiting on them to tell us that we could collect our luggage. It was a BIG line and we were pretty far down the hallway, so we didn't hear anything that the lady who worked there was saying. She had said "Colors X and X are available" but none of us heard that so we all started walking into the room where the luggage was. Then she started literally yelling at us that we all needed to go back in the hallway because she didn't call any of our colors. So we went back into the hallway to wait again. This time we were closer to the front so we heard the colors she was calling, but someone told her that the people in the back can't hear her so she might want to go down there too. She very angrily walked down that hallway and was screaming what colors were available. At least everyone heard her that time, I guess? The next time she came out she said all colors were available and that everyone could come get luggage. We grabbed a porter, tried to find our luggage among the masses, had a minor freak out moment when I couldn't find one of mine, and eventually got to customs. Where my mom realized her driver's license was packed in one of the bags.

Thankfully, she had her military ID and the customs guy said that would work just fine!

Through customs, and onto the shuttle we went! We were back at our car before we knew it, and we loaded everything up, and started driving home.

I called my husband and let him know we were on the way and what time to expect us, and the drive was pretty uneventful. We stopped at a Burger King for lunch and got gas in Livingston, TX and made it home that afternoon.

This was an amazing trip.

Do I think we could have participated more in activities around the ship? Yes. But I also enjoyed the crap out of lounging around and not doing anything all day.

Did I spend way more money than I thought I would? Yep. But that's my own fault because I HAD a budget and at some point said to heck with it.

Was Disney worth the extra money (compared to Carnival)? Oh yes. Definitely yes.

Would I go again? In a heart beat.

Thank you to everyone who has read this, I hope that it's helpful when you're planning your own Disney Cruise!

We walked around the ship some more and got some pictures of the ocean

We walked through the shops some more and got some last minute souvenirs, and eventually made our way to where the games are, on the same deck as the dining rooms lol. It was so weird, because sitting there playing games and moving around Jacob was fine. But when we were sitting at the table eating he was white as a ghost half the time. I guess it was because when we were playing games he was distracted? Whatever the reason, we had a blast. He beat my butt in both Jenga and Connect 4.

December 1, 2016 - Day at Sea

Today really wasn't a whole lot different than the day before. Except it was too cold for even the boys to go on the slide. And that's saying something because they normally never refuse slide time!

After breakfast and general lounging around the ship, we grabbed the usual lunches of pizza and hot dogs, then the boys wanted to go to the kids club. While they were there my mom and I wandered around a lot just looking at things and being sad that this was our last day there.

The boys didn't stay in the club long though and we went to get them almost as soon as we dropped them off lol.

I don't have a whole lot of recollection of what happened today, honestly. We just relaxed and took it easy all day.

That evening Jacob wanted to meet Pluto again so we found his line, and chatted with a lady that was next to us who was also from Louisiana!

Pluto was fun, as always!

We ran into my mom after seeing Pluto, she was on her way to dinner in Animator's Palate. I decided Jacob and I were skipping again. Yes, the food would have been better, but I didn't feel like going to dinner and leaving again. So we walked around the ship a lot, and played Foosball until my elbow hurt.

We got some pictures in the beautiful atrium

When we got back to our room we were greeted with this!

He had gotten cards from the ship staff, a certificate for celebrating his birthday on board the ship, Doty our room service lady made him a cake from towels, and he also got the cutest little pillow! I was so blown away that they did all this for him!

Jacob was extremely excited, and we walked down the hall and found Doty and promptly hugged her and thanked her for everything.

We really didn't do anything else today, we were beat, and we all went to bed super early!

Most. Relaxing. Day. Ever.

Ok I need to finish this! Homeschool is back in full swing, and on top of that I have work and a family to keep up with, it's been crazy!

November 30, 2016 - Day at sea

This was one of my favorite days, and definitely the most relaxing. We woke up, grabbed breakfast at Cabanas, and then I asked Jacob what he wanted to do today. Today was his actual birthday and he was 11 today!

He wanted to do the following (in this order)

1. Slide

2. Kids club

3. Pizza for lunch

4. Slide some more

So that's what we did. I found a nice table by the slide and settled in with my book. Jacob slid over, and over, and over, and over. When he finally got tired of the slide we found my sister and her family, and Jacob and Noah went to the kids club for a little bit. While they were in the kids club, I checked out the adult's only pool area and found myself another comfy spot to sit and read. A server came over to me promptly and asked if I needed anything. I ordered my FAVORITE frozen drink ever, the pina colava, and a glass of water. I sat there reading for so long that I eventually had to walk to the other side of the ship to get out of the sun because it was so bright on the side I was originally sitting on! While I was reading my brother in law came and sat with me and said that my sister and Emily were napping, so he went to a DVC talk. They ended up purchasing DVC that night! While we were talking I got a message on the wave phone that the boys were ready to be picked up, so we went to the club to get them. Turned out that my sister was also on her way there because they were done with their nap lol. Jacob was really tired and asked if we could get lunch and then lay in the room and watch cartoons. We grabbed some pizza and went to our room for a little bit.

My mom being silly, she wanted to try on the life jacket

I took a nap at this point. When I woke up my mom was gone and Jacob was still watching cartoons lol.

My mom walked back into the room after a little bit and said we were going to have Noah with us tonight while my sister and brother in law signed their DVC documents. We had all looked at the menu and decided that we were just going to skip dinner tonight. I had already planned on skipping anyway because of Jacob not feeling well during dinner half the time, but no one else found the menu interesting so they weren't going either.

I took Jacob and Noah to the slide and my mom was watching a movie on the deck while my sister and brother in law were at their DVC signing.

I found a table near the slide again, and settled in again. This was the most relaxing day EVER. I proceeded to read for the next 2 hours. Then I was hungry so I got a hot dog and some fries, and kept reading and watching the boys slide.

I got to watch the sun set

And they continued to go down the slide over and over!

My sister and brother in law came up at some point and Emily got some chicken nuggets to eat and I took her to get some ice cream too. We just sat there and talked for a while, and after another hour had passed the boys were finally hungry. They had been on the slide for over 3 total hours! We'd gone through 5 different life guards in that time lol.

The boys got some chicken nuggets, and we ate out on the deck. They were getting chilly now that they weren't going on the slide anymore. It was definitely a little too chilly for me to be in water so I was impressed that they had stayed in for so long. My sister said it's really warm up at the top of the slide though because the exhaust is coming out or something up there.

The boys got all dried off, and we went back to the room to change into jammies.

We met up with my mom, sister, and sister's family and chatted about our days while the kids played together. I took Jacob to the room so we could shower, and then the kids went to the club for a little while.

Dinner was at Tiana's again that night, and I was hoping I'd actually get to eat there that night. My sister and brother in law had reservations at Palo for an anniversary dinner so my mom and I were taking all 3 kids to dinner by ourselves. Tonight was beignet night and we had told the kids they could eat beignets for dinner if they wanted to.

I ordered the boudin balls, and they were just ok. Maybe it's because I'm used to eating actual cajun food, but it was pretty bland. Our servers asked if I liked it and I was honest, it needed to be spicier. I told them I knew that the kitchen had to make everything fairly un-spicy so that it would be liked by the masses, but I was disappointed in it. I ordered the cajun chicken too, and then Louie came out!

Emily loved playing with him, and I almost got her to go dance with Tiana when Tiana was singing but she backed out.

She had toys and was playing at the table tonight, she's so stinking adorable in her Merida dress!

Then Jacob started saying he needed to leave the table. I knew that if he was willing to walk away from beignets he was really feeling bad, this kid can clear a whole tray of them if he wanted to. I told our server quickly that we were leaving again, and they brought out my entree with a lid so I could take it upstairs. They also brought out a plate of beignets for Jacob and sent them with us.

Beignets!

He ate them in the room, and I got a nibble of one too. They were pretty close to the real thing, very sweet and fluffy. I asked my mom to please bring me a slice of doberge cake for dessert back to the room on our way out of the dining room.

So, we were leaving dinner again, but at least I got to see the inside of Tiana's this time! Disney really did a fabulous job with this restaurant. There was exposed brick walls, the jazz band, everything was just perfect!

Back in the room we went through the routine, real pants are changed to sweat pants, Jacob gets blankets and stuffed animals and lays down, cartoons get turned on. I had given him medicine earlier in the day so I couldn't give him anymore right now. Mom showed up with the two other kiddos a little later, and she had doberge cake!

Except, it wasn't really doberge cake. Don't get me wrong, it was tasty, but it was not doberge cake. Oh well, it was still cake, and cake is good!

Tonight we ended up having a slumber party and Noah stayed the night in our room. We figured that tomorrow was a sea day, we had nothing to really wake up for, so the boys would have a good time staying up all night. My sister and brother in law came by the room to pick up Emily after their dinner at Palo and they raved about the food there for a while and said it was definitely worth the $30. They said they would honestly have paid even more for it if they needed to, it was worth it!

They took Emily to their room, and we took a late night trip up to get ice cream and snacks. Jacob also got more pizza since his dinner consisted of a few beignets. We stayed up extremely late, watched tv, took a tour of the upper decks in the wind, and played some Foosball. Honestly it was a great night. This was probably my favorite day of the entire cruise.

After our swim time was over, we went back to the lockers to get our things. There were bathrooms with changing rooms right next to the locker area so we got changed and met back up out front. We then went into the gift shop to purchase the dreaded expensive photos. It ended up being $75 for 5 pictures, which is ridiculous, but I wanted the pictures so I sucked it up. They ended up being really good too.

The pictures came on a Kodak disc that I was able to just pop into my computer at home and download the pictures from. We bought a few souvenirs, and then Jacob asked if we could go back to the ship because he was exhausted. The kid had so much energy earlier in the morning when he was so excited about swimming with dolphins, and now that it was over he was ready to relax. We couldn't really do anything else at Atlantis anyway because our pass was only for Dolphin Cay and the aquarium, so we tried to find a bus back to the port.

We went to the closest building entrance we could find, and we were told that we needed to take the internal bus to the Coral Towers where we could catch a Disney bus back to the port. We had another large, air conditioned bus waiting there so we hopped on. This bus driver was very informative. He told us the history of buildings we were driving past and about his life in the Bahamas. It was a very nice drive back.

I asked Jacob if he wanted to shop around at the port any but he said he didn't. He had already gotten the souvenirs he wanted, and was in his words, starving to death.

Boarding was pretty easy, I do miss the shops that were inside that building though. The post office was closed, and all the shops were outside instead. I felt like it was easier to walk through when it was inside.

We boarded the ship, and quickly found some lunch at none other than Pinocchio's Pizza. If anyone's keeping track, he's getting pretty close to his 30 pieces of pizza goal.

In the pictures the water looks cloudy, but it really wasn't. I was a little hesitant about going to Atlantis because I've read a few questionable things in the past about it. But all of those things didn't turn out to be true, not that we saw anyway. The tanks were clear, the aquarium was well laid out and flowed nicely, and we enjoyed the "story" that went along with it.

After our tour of the aquarium, I decided it would be best to start walking towards Dolphin Cay because I knew how long it had taken us to get to the aquarium. We passed by immaculate grounds and landscaping. This place was incredible.

The slides looked so much fun too! The pools didn't seem overly crowded, and everyone seemed to be having a good time. That being said, everything was really, really far apart. It took us a WHILE to walk from the aquarium to Dolphin Cay. I don't think I would like that part of the resort, it's almost like it's too big. But it was pretty!

After asking for directions a few times to make sure we were going the right way, we made it back to Dolphin Cay. There is a building on the left that you enter first so you can check in. It was very simple, and fast. We were assigned to building #2 for dolphin swim training. Our trainer was named Jerome, and he explained to us what was going to happen during the swim, what we were and were not allowed to do, and stressed the fact that we could not bring anything whatsoever into the swimming lagoons. He explained that dolphins are curious creatures, and they don't want the dolphins to get distracted by objects you've brought with you. I do believe this is probably partially true, but at the same time I also believe that they do this so you're forced to purchase their picture packages lol.

After our training we proceeded to an outdoor area where there were more wetsuits than I could count. We were instructed to pick a locker, put EVERYTHING into the locker including water shoes or flip flops, and put on the wetsuits over our bathing suits. The lockers were free, and easy to use. That wetsuit. Oh my..... All of us were out there struggling and pulling to get the things on. I've never worn one before, I knew that it would have to be tight but geez... I had no idea it would be that hard lol.

Once our wetsuits were on, we went back into the training building where we were given our free gifts. The gift was a tote bag with a snorkel and snorkeling mask. At the end of the swim you got to keep the mask and snorkel, which really made me feel better because I was freaking out a little about the thought of using a snorkel that someone else had used.

We were led outside to where the dolphins were and separated into groups of 5-6 people, our group had 5 people in it. We were led into the water, it was a bit chilly on my lower legs but I got used to it quickly, the wetsuit blocked me from feeling any coldness on the rest of my body. Our dolphin trainer told us that the dolphin we would be swimming with was named Meg, and Meg had two babies in the lagoon. He explained that all of the dolphin families are allowed to stay together until they reach mating age, then the boys are separated from the females to keep them from over breeding. He also explained that they do positive reinforcement training and never punish the dolphins. I was a little concerned that I was going to see dolphins crammed into a little pool together and unhappy, but it wasn't at all like that. The dolphins had plenty of space to swim, and while I know there will always be advocates saying that dolphins should be in the wild, and I even agree to a point, they were certainly not mistreating the dolphins there and the trainers legitimately seemed to love their jobs.

We started out by greeting Meg and "getting to know her." We went one at a time further in the water, right to where the edge drops off. The lagoon starts shallow and is like a zero entry pool. At a certain point it drops off and it's 10+ feet deep after the drop off. I went first. I kneeled in the water and Meg swam by and let me rub her back, then swam by again and let me rub her belly. She hugged me, I got to kiss her, and she leaped out of the water and gave me a high five! Jacob was next, followed by the rest of our group. While waiting for his turn, Jacob was so fidgety and was telling me how excited he was, and said that he was "so excited he could cry." This excursion was worth every single penny because of how much he loved it.

After we had all greeted Meg, it was swimming time! This was my favorite part of this excursion. We all got our snorkels and masks and were swimming in open water with a dolphin. It was so incredible! She would swim around us, come right up to us, let us pet her, and was playing with all of us. Jacob and one of the other kids there got to feed her a fish! She was so fast, and so graceful. It was a truly amazing experience. We got to swim with her for a while, and then our trainer announced that it was time to do the boogie board trick! We went one at a time and got on a boogie board, then the dolphins would push us across the water using their noses. It was so fast and fun!

It actually started to rain at this time, and one of the workers at Atlantis said that it was not raining, the sky was so happy that we were in the Bahamas that it was crying lol. We did a few more tricks with several dolphins, and got to pet them too. Then, it was over. All in all, we got to swim for a little over an hour, and it was AMAZING! Jacob kept telling me that this was the best day of his life, and the best present he's ever had.

November 29, 2016 - Nassau

Jacob and I had a very early morning today. It was the day that his dream of swimming with dolphins was coming true!

I had booked the deep water swim through Atlantis and was extremely excited for him to be able to do this, and of course for me to be able to do it too.

We did not order room service this morning, we had set our alarms and went up to Cabana's around 7:30am to eat. Our excursion was at 9:45am and we were told to be in Azure lounge by 9:30am at the latest. We took our time eating breakfast, and took some pictures of Atlantis in the distance.

There were a TON of sea gulls in port. When we were in Key west and at Castaway Cay it was never a problem. Here, if you ate outside and not under the covered eating area, you got swarmed. There was a cast member out there who's sole job seemed to be waving napkins at the sea gulls to scare them off.

We also saw the Disney Dream coming into port that morning

When it was time to go to Azure, we said bye to my mom and she went to find my sister to see what their plans were for the day. We went to the Azure lounge, and there was a cast member there who checked us in. It was very easy, you showed your excursion ticket, key to the world card, and either a passport or a photo ID. You were given a "loading number" that corresponded with what excursion you were going on. Then we got to sit down and watch cartoons on the big screen while other people streamed in to check in. When it was 9:45am, we left on the dot. The same lady that was checking us in picked up a sign on a stick that had numbers on them, and she held it above her head and instructed us to follow her outside. We went down the stairs, but she did say that if any of us needed to take the elevator we could, and then we would just meet her outside when we got down. We just took the stairs.

We made it outside where we stood in another line, and there we were given arm bracelets. One was our entrance bracelet for the aquarium, and the other was our bracelet showing we were part of the dolphin swim excursion and showed our swim time. I won't lie, I was a little disappointed that our swim time wasn't until 11:00am. The deep water swim includes admission into The Dig site, or the aquarium, at Atlantis and when you book the excursion it says that you won't necessarily swim at your excursion time. They take small groups so they spread out the times that people are swimming. I had hoped we would swim first thing, that way we could go to the aquarium after, but in the end I ended up thankful that we were able to do the aquarium first.

We were walking down the pier and then off to the left of where I always walked out of the port at Nassau. We were taken to an area where they load the boats and taxis. Disney has special buses that are used solely for their guests, and we were led to one of them. They were by far the nicest buses out of all the buses there. Nice, big, and air conditioned! We loaded up, and our bus driver introduced himself to us. He was nice, and he gave some tid bits about the area while we drove there. Jacob could not contain himself, he was so excited he could barely keep still!

When we got to Atlantis they dropped us off close to where Dolphin Cay is. If you've never been to Atlantis, this place is HUMONGOUS. We walked for what seemed like forever, asked for directions from 3 different people, finally made it to the right building, walked through the lobby there, and eventually found the aquarium.

The aquarium was nice, and we enjoyed it, but I'm glad that it was included in our excursion fee because I don't think I would have wanted to pay for it separately.

LOVING your trip report and pictures!!!

sounds like you had a lot of fun!!

 

on your next cruise, try sea bands...

 

both my daughter and i suffer from extreme motion sickness (ships, trains, planes, cars, buses and even just walking around the house)..

 

the only thing that has helped us are sea bands...

 

they apparently help about 60% of the people who use them, so it's worth trying....they were a life save for us...

 

i even cruised through hurricane sandy without feeling ill at all...miraculous!!

 

and i use them whenever i have an attack at home (as does DD)

I will definitely be getting him some for our next trip! I've heard good things about them.

We got down to Animator's Palette way early. We had a good 20 minutes before it was actually time to sit down for dinner.

So of course we took pictures, sat in the windows, etc.

You will notice people missing from this picture. That would be my sister, brother in law, and sweet Emily.

They were still asleep and said they would just skip dinner tonight lol. Noah still wanted to go though so he came with us!

When it was time to sit down, Jacob told me that he didn't feel so good. He said he could feel the movement really bad. I asked him if he would be ok for dinner and he said yes, that he would try and sit through it.

We made it through the appetizer, and up to the point that the entree was served. He got the steak with an extra side of broccoli as usual, and the servers cut it up for him like always. Jacob made it through about 3 bites and was white as a ghost.

Ok, time to leave!

I asked my mom if she could please ask the servers to get me a dessert to go, and then started walking Jacob out of the dining room. Juan, one of our servers, actually stopped me on my way out and asked if everything was ok. I explained what was going on and he asked if he could send dessert to our room lol. I said that would be wonderful, gave my order and thanked him, and then went on our way.

He seemed a little better by the time we made it to the room, and he immediately put on pj pants and laid down. Our room had already been serviced tonight so the pull down bed was ready for him. I got him some water, gave him some more medicine, and we just watched cartoons for a while again. The ship was REALLY moving, it didn't bother me, but it was definitely noticeable to me on this night. So I did everything I could to keep his mind off of it. We watched cartoons, read a book, played games, literally everything I could from our room. My mom came back a little while later with my dessert, and changed into some clothes to wear to the pirate party. She asked if I wanted to go to the party while she stayed with Jacob, but I told her it was fine and that Jacob and I would just hang out. But I did ask her to take videos for me!

They said it was a really great show. Joey lasted for a little bit and then said he couldn't stand out there anymore, it was too much movement for him and he went to his room to lay down. Despite that, he said it was really awesome lol.

When it was over my mom came back to the room and told me all about the show and showed me the videos she had taken. It looked amazing and I can't wait to go on another cruise so I can see it in person. Jacob was passed out at that point so we tried to not make a whole lot of noise while watching the fireworks videos, and we went to bed ourselves.

I know it sounds like I spent an awful lot of time in the room, and I supposed I did, but honestly it was nice. The room was quiet and relaxing. I never get the opportunity to read or relax at home, so this was a dream come true!

We ended up going to eat at around 11:30ish at Cookie's. It wasn't terribly busy, maybe because we went before noon? But it wasn't bad, we just hopped in line and made our way down the row of deliciousness! It wasn't anything fancy, but it was all very good. They had chicken, burgers, hot dogs, etc. typical BBQ stuff. After downing lunch, we had ice cream dessert, they had soft serve machines just like on the ship! Then we went back to our little spot on the beach to play for a little bit longer.

We made sand castles for Emily's princess dolls, we made a giant fort wall to see if it would stand up to the waves coming in, we helped the boys dig a "lake" for their fort, and we just relaxed. My mom did end up buying the soft sided cooler they were coming around trying to sell. It really seems well made and like it will hold up to regular use. I think it was $34? for the cooler and a 6 pack of beer.

We took a picture of us grown up girls

And then my mom wanted one of all of our feet in the sand

The tiredness began to hit us hard. We'd been in the sun, playing, the kids had been swimming, and we felt exhausted. Jacob actually asked if we could go back to the ship and relax, so we picked up our things and started walking. Not even thinking about it, Noah asked if he could go with us and I said sure, and so did my sister. I told her I'd meet her at the ship. Except, he didn't have his key to the world card with him, it was with my sister. We realized this as we were walking through the souvenir shops and I said crap silently to myself.... So we just wandered around a general area looking for her, because the cruise app doesn't work on shore. Thankfully my sister walked into the shop about 15 minutes later and the crisis was averted. Jacob picked out some magnets for his grandma back home, and also got a stuffed manatee for himself. I got a magnet and some writing pens for my office.

We found the entrance to the tram, and one came very quickly! My mom, and my sister's family were still shopping so I told them we would meet them a little later. Jacob wanted to sit in the back of the tram so we grabbed the last little cart available and climbed on in. It was SO nice to sit down, I hadn't realized how tired my legs were.

Some pictures I took on the way back to the ship

And my sweet Jacob with his crazy hat and glasses, and his manatee

I love that there are photo ops all over the place

Getting back on board was a breeze. There was hardly anyone waiting there and we practically walked right on. The kid who always opts to take the stairs and race me to the floor we're going to, while I ride the elevator, said there was no way he was climbing stairs. Until we waited FOREVER for one to come up. Then we said whatever, let's kill our leg muscles and climb up 6 flights of stairs.

I really thought I was going to die.

Or at least need a break.

But we did make it! Alive!

Jacob showered first, then me, and then we did just what he wanted to do.

Relax.

He laid down on the couch, and I laid on the bed watching cartoons. Next thing I knew it was 2 hours later and my mom was coming in the room. Turns out, she never came back on the ship, when her and my sister were done shopping she went to the adult's beach and laid there in peace and quiet for a while. She said it was perfect lol.

So now it was time for dinner, and it was PIRATE NIGHT! Mom got in the shower while I got mine and Jacob's pirate shirts out and we got ready for dinner.

Not going to lie. I didn't swim all day. I never went past knee deep because it was too chilly for me lol. The really cool thing about the beach here though is that you can walk out a looooooooooong ways, and it's still not very deep. My mom's only 4'11" so the fact that she could walk out almost all the way to the end, and still be touching the bottom, is amazing. The kids were able to play, splash, run around, everything. They had so much fun! Emily had never been to a real beach, and the last time Noah was at a beach was when he was a baby so they were extremely excited to be playing in the ocean.

After a while Jacob decided he wanted to go on the slides, so he ran over there and played. When I walked over to let him know that it was time to grab some lunch soon he was telling me all about how he went down BOTH of the slides, and how this beach is the best beach he's ever been to. He LOVED it!

November 28th - Castaway Cay!

We awoke bright and early today! I had been reading about Castaway Cay for so long, I could not WAIT to finally get to see it for myself! We ordered our typical room service this morning so Jacob could eat while mom and I were getting ourselves and our things ready.

When we arrived on deck 9 to grab a quick bite to eat,I was blown away. It was gorgeous.

I couldn't stop staring, and was incredibly ready to get in the crystal blue ocean. While we were eating as fast as we could, my sister texted me that they were off the ship and finding a spot to put their stuff down. Once we were done eating, pretty sure this was the fastest breakfast of my life, we headed off of the ship ourselves and started looking around for my sister and her family.

We walked past the trolley because even though she had texted that they were off the ship, we had no idea where they actually were so we walked along the beach looking for them. They ended up being down where the big water slide/play place is (I forget what it's actually called....) We set our things down, and Jacob headed straight into the water with Emily and Noah.

After dinner, all the kids wanted to go back to the kids club so we dropped all of them off, and then went to the Cadillac Lounge for a few drinks.

It was very relaxing in there, and quiet too. There were people in there, it wasn't empty, but I guess with the music and everything it made it seem like we were the only ones there because we couldn't hear other people's conversations or anything. I liked this lounge the most.

We ended up having one drink each, and then all the kids were texting our phones to come pick them up lol. Such is the life of a parent! We went and got them immediately, and my mom said that The Little Mermaid was playing out on the deck so we went up there and found a place to sit.

We also got more pretzels and ice cream to snack on.

Again, don't judge me. I'm on vacation.

We settled into some chairs on the deck and watched the movie for a while.

I know this sounds so sappy, but I teared up a little. I could not believe that after a year of planning, and several years of my son asking for this vacation, we were actually there. Even with Jacob's outburst earlier, this was an amazing trip. I was getting to relax more than I ever do, and I was getting to watch my son, nephew, and niece have the time of their lives. I told my mom I was so thankful for this trip for like the 80th time.

It ended up getting pretty windy, and the boys weren't that entertained with The Little Mermaid so I took them inside and we all put on pajamas, and laid around watching cartoons.

My mom came back into the room when The Little Mermaid was over, and my sister picked up my nephew to take him back to her room with them. Then we all climbed in our beds, and blissfully fell asleep for the night!

You could even see the ship from the top of the fort!

We really spent our time here and walked around a lot. By the time we were done, we were tired of walking and knew we wanted to call a cab. Luckily, we had phone service here! There had been taxi cards at the concessions stand so I grabbed one of them, and we requested a cab pick us up at the entrance to the park. It was a company called Friendly Cabs, and they were there within about 10 minutes. The drive back was less than that, and only cost $5. We tipped him, and then did some shopping.

We went into a CVS and picked up some random things we needed, then found a convenience store where my mom bought a 6 pack of beer and a pack of cigarettes for my brother in law. Disney allows you to bring on a 6 pack of beer or 2 bottles of wine/champagne at each port.

On our way back to the ship I saw an ice cream shop and knew that if I didn't get an ice cream cone I would regret it. The last time we were here we got ice cream from this place too. It's hand churned and they also sell 1 pound cookies there too. I can't remember the name of it, but it is close to the port area.... I'm sorry, I'm a terrible reporter lol.

So we snacked on more junk food and rested our feet, then got back on the ship. Reboarding was super easy, we showed our IDs and our key to the world cards, and walked up to the ship. They had a water station outside where you could get free iced water, and also sanitizers so you could sanitize your hands before getting on board.

We found my niece and nephew and they were all decked out from the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique!

This is my sister's picture of them from earlier

Emily was just adorable, and insisted she was a princess. The kids wanted to go to the kids club for a little bit, so we took them there and then I returned to our room because I wanted to read my book and nap.

I enjoy my nap time on vacation lol.

I woke up and started getting ready for dinner, my sister picked up the kids this time and brought Jacob back to our room. Tonight technically wasn't his or my nephew's actual birthday, but our servers celebrated their birthdays this night at dinner.

They showed up at dessert time with chocolate cakes and everyone sang to them, it was wonderful! Dinner was delicious too, I had more steak and so did Jacob.

Emily had gotten a little antsy between courses tonight, so my mom took her out into the atrium where she ended up meeting one of the ship's officers!

You enter the fort on the bottom level, and there are stairs so you can walk on the top of the fort walls up top, and on the bottom you can walk through some of the covered areas as well. There are cannons set up, which was by far Jacob's favorite part. There were also rooms that had been restored to look like they did when the fort was built. They had some set up as sleeping quarters, dining areas, school room/church, prison cells and a room that said it was used for court.

Mom was pretending to be a prisoner

Jacob was all smiles at this point, and he was very excited about being in Key West and on our way to a real war fort.

When we arrived at the state park, we paid $2 to get in (total! For all 3 of us!) and walked down the road, following the signs that said "concessions" to take us to where we could get some bottled water and find the nature trail. If we ever come back to Key West, I'm bringing our bathing suits here. The water was a beautiful color, and it looked very nice to play in! Since it was November, the water was admittedly a little chilly, but if it was a little warmer you definitely would have found me in the ocean.

We were hungry, surprise surprise, but not super starving. Jacob wasn't hungry at all and just wanted a snack. I didn't want us walking on trails and around a fort hungry so mom and I split a hot dog, we got some waters, Jacob got a cookie, and we split a coke. There weren't any tables available by the concession stand, so we found a nice shaded bench to sit on while we ate.

Jacob had asked me to take a picture of the sunglasses he had picked out. He picked them because (his words) "he loves America."

We found the entrance of the nature trail and began walking. We never actually saw a lot of wild life, but we did see a gigantic lizard that was running through the brush. Somewhere near the end of the trail is the entrance to the Civil War fort.

I am rather obsessed with history, so this was right up my alley.

We had pulled into Key West ahead of schedule so I walked around the deck taking a few pictures.

They made the call over the speakers that we were allowed to go ashore at that time, so I went hunting for my child.

Our plan today was to get off the ship, walk to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park and go see the Civil War fort there.

This is when I had the most embarrassing time ever as a parent happen.

I saw Jacob walking towards me so I handed him his shoes and said that we were able to go ashore now, so we were going to go back to the room so he could change into normal clothes and dry off. Now, I'm going to preface this by saying him staying on the ship was not an option. My niece and nephew had reservations at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique for makeovers, and I didn't want to be like "hey, can Jacob hang out with you, because I really want to go see this fort?" and I also couldn't say "ok Jacob, you stay on this ship completely by yourself and I'll see you later, ok?" We had already made it clear that he was going, there was not an option. He was even excited about it just the night before when we talked about the fort having cannons and that there was a nature trail we could walk on (he loves animals).

What happened at the moment I told him that we were going ashore was this:

He THREW his flip flops on the ground, stomped his feet, yelled that he didn't want to go, and then kicked his flip flops AT ANOTHER PASSENGER.

I. Died.

Right there on deck 9.

I almost lost it.

I snatched his arm, and got real close to his ear where I whispered that I was going to spank him in front of everyone if he did not put on his shoes and march his behind to the room right now. He was made to apologize to the person he kicked the shoes at (even though they were walking away and I don't think he heard, but I still made him say it). Then we marched right to the room where I very sternly explained he was acting like a spoiled brat. He was on a Disney cruise. He was excited about the fort and nature trail, but he wanted to keep sliding instead which was not an option. I do not tolerate this behavior, and he never acts like this at home. He was a hair line away from being spanked in the middle of the deck. Had I not been in total shock, he certainly would have.

I explained that I 100% understand that it's his vacation and he has things he wants to do. But it was mine and my mom's vacation too, and we wanted to see this fort. He would have the entire rest of the vacation to slide to his hearts content, but right now we were getting off the ship.

He calmed down, apologized to both my mom and I, and got dressed.

So. If the man that my son kicked his flip flops at by the pizza place on deck 10 of the Disney Wonder is on here: I am so sorry. I am mortified that my child acted like that, and I really hope that it didn't ruin your day or anything. I wish he could write an apology letter or something, seriously.

After everything was calmed down and I was breathing normally again, we walked down to deck 1 and exited the ship into Key West.

We've been here one other time and we hadn't been really impressed with it. The last time we had walked down to the most southern point and taken pictures, then to a dock that went into the ocean, and then wandered around shopping. It was decent, but nothing we were super thrilled with.

This time was the exact opposite. We had GORGEOUS weather, it could not have been any nicer out. Everything was clean, there were a ton of shops open that we wandered in and out of, and it was just really really nice. We realized pretty quickly that while the walk to Ft. Zachary Taylor is doable, it's a long walk, so we ended up getting one of those pedi cabs. The man was nice, and we ended up spending $30 including tip to get there. Yes, it was more than a regular cab was, but we got to feel the breeze, talk to him about the area, and I felt like we got to see more because we were going slower than a car.

First time in a pedi cab!

November 27, 2016 - Key West

We were woken up again by room service, but this time mom and I hadn't ordered anything. We had a brunch reservation at Palo at 9:45am! I had booked this for my mom as a thank you for taking us on this vacation.

Jacob ate his usual chocolate donuts while mom and I got dressed up. We dropped him off at my sister's room, they were going to keep all the kids while we had our brunch.

We headed up to deck 10 and walked into the gorgeous restaurant. We were greeted by several staff members, the restaurant was pretty empty so there were plenty of people there to help us out! I can not remember our server's name, but I remember he was very, very nice! He came to our table and asked if we would like a complimentary mimosa or glass of champagne, we both chose mimosas. There were real cut roses in little, square vases on the tables as well.

He showed us around the buffet tables, which were extremely elegant looking. He explained we could help ourselves to as much as we would like, and that we could also order as much as we wanted from a menu. There was SO MUCH food there. We tried several things that we never would have otherwise, like caviar, not a fan. But there were croissants, cheeses, meats, pastries, desserts, everything. It was heavenly. On top of the buffet we also ordered the chicken Parmesan that our server suggested, and the waffles with strawberries.

The waffles were Mickeys!

Our server told us that the only rule at the buffet tables is that at the dessert table, you can not leave with less than 4 desserts. So we made sure to follow the rules!

The plate closest to the camera is mom's. She got a coffee flavored dessert, a raspberry flavored cup of deliciousness, a vanilla yogurt with berries, and what I believe was a lemon meringue? Maybe?

On my plate was champagne jello, the one in the martini glass. I seriously need to learn how they made this, it was life changing. There was also a strawberry tart, a brownie with different mix ins, and a sweet pastry with whipped nutella inside.

The whole experience took about an hour and a half, and we were so incredibly stuffed. Personally, I felt like my dress was about to burst open where my belly was. We paid the bill and texted my sister, who said they were out swimming and on the water slide.

Mom and I went to the room, changed, and then headed out to deck 9 where I shamelessly ate another pretzel. I had changed into stretchy shorts, I felt like there was more room, don't judge me.

The boys were having the time of their life going down the slide over and over again.

And my sister had my niece in the pool right by the slide.

Sorry he got so sick! I know you said people were going to say its their job or its an act and I GENUINELY believe they care because I have seen it BUT it is absolutely a part of their watch for Norovirus. I have been quarantined on a ship (Royal) and learned a whole lot about the process and what multiple people are looking for. It's one of the reasons they check on you when missing dinners and such. Doesn't mean they aren't genuinely caring. But yes, cast members are watching for who is sick and why.

 

I was on this cruise with you and the motion was one of the worst I have ever felt. I have only been sick once from motion on a ship and that was on an inside lower deck cabin during a storm the ship was trying to get away from outside Mexico. Not sure what was causing it on this cruise but man it was rocky.

 

I, also, LOVED the hand washing station on this ship. I wish more ships did that.

I honestly hadn't thought of that, but it makes a lot of sense that they would be keeping a watchful eye! It's still nice that they pay such close attention though lol.