Its not the destination, its the journey

To cruise or not to cruise.

We have debated along time about doing the Disney Cruise. A few years ago I was all for it. Then I thought maybe being out over open waters is not the best place for rambuctious boys.  Then  a while back a friend told me about the "kids sale free" promotion and we decided to try it. And Im glad we did. It was fantastic and the boys absolutely loved it and beg to go back.  These pics are not in order but here is the lowdown in random sequence.

 Briefly rained in Cozumel as we were about to get back on the ship. Does it really matter if it is raining if it is still 80 degrees?

 Just chilling in a porthole in one of the lounges

 Ambushed by pirates as Im coming out of the bathroom

 Since it was a Caribbean cruise the theme was "Pirates in the Caribean" which was awesome for our handful of little boys. Also a great marketing ploy by disney since they have dress up night and a whole gift shop full of pirate gear.

Sunsets over the ocean every night. Very relaxing.

My little Cordon worked so hard at the Disney trivia contests and finally won a trophy on the second to last day.  He kept asking me how proud I am of him.  

Our luxury suite for a day. So on the second to last day not only did we wake up to some pretty strong swells but also to a leak(as in water running down the wall and streaming from the light fixtures) in our room. They would never tell me what happened but Im guessing it had something to do with the pool since our room was right under it and when I went up on deck it was closed and halfway empty (or half  full if you prefer). Anyway, so they moved us next door which just happened to be a huge suite. We were pretty happy about this until we just got unpacked and we noticed a small leak in the master closet.  Thoughout the day it progressively got worse until it was no longer livable either. They moved us again and gave us some compensation.  It was kind of a pain but it was obviously a rare situation and they were very apologetic and embarrassed.

Boarding the ship in Cozumel

Heading in to Grand Cayman.  So this port is one of the only ports that you have board a smaller boat and get taxied in.  This was a pain because the lines were long and took up valuable time that you could be on land. Nonetheless, it was beautiful and we past a way cool pirate ship on the way in.

Behind every picture like this is a mom freaking out and a husband telling her to relax.

We took this picture. How cool is that.

Darren feeding the stingray.

He fed them these little squids. He loved this and was on cloud nine the whole time.

The beach on Grand Cayman where the boys found a real live starfish but were bummed they could not keep it.

Good day at the beach. Not bad for the middle of January and 2 feet of snow back home.

Iguana everywhere

Watching Disney movies on the big screen from on of the hot tubs

Cam hiding because he doesn't want to leave the hot tub.

All the ice cream cones a kid could want (with a view).

A little afternoon ping pong up on deck

Dinners were awesome. Some really amazing food and delicious desserts. The process was long and dinner usually took about an hour and a half. With kids that is about an hour and ten minutes to long. On the last night Lance and I took the kids to the kids club and decided on a nice dinner without them. After dinner we picked up the kids and headed back to the room where I found a message waiting on our phone.  It was from a super nice lady that informed me that while Lance and I were at dinner our son Darren went to another restaraunt on the ship and sat down with another family and ordered his meal.  She said after he had eaten he looks up at them and asks if anyone knew where his family was. They asked him the same thing.  He said he didn't know and that he was going back to the kids club. And she called to make sure I had found him there.  Good thing this cruise was all inclusive or my son would have either stuck them with his bill or been initiated in the dine and dashers club. When we asked him about it he said he didn't want what they were serving in the kids club so he decided to go find something better.

We kept the cruise a surprise until we were in line to get on the ship. This is them in the car on the way there.  Lance and I wonder if we should be worried since as were are walking up to the huge ship with Mickey Mouse on it, Cordon says, "I wish we could go on a Disney Cruise"

HIGHLIGHT of the trip. Riding on a dolphin was the boys favorite part. Pure joy on Darren's face.

Cordon was nervous at first but he loved it and was so proud of himself for being brave and riding the dolphin.

So this was a super long post but trust me you just got the short version of this trip. It was truly magical and so many fun memories. Sure there were a few hiccups but what vacation doesn't have some of those.  I definitely see us doing this again but maybe I will wait until the room stops spinning. If you are thinking about a Disney Cruise you will not be disappointed.