trip report and pics

Our vacationThursday morning we woke up and left for Orlando. We took our time and had dinner with Michael's brother Tim and his family. Basil, who is almost 3 is getting ready to have a little brother and it was neat to hear him tell me Bible stories and communicate pretty darn well. Had dinner at Tijuana Flats..YUMMY. We made a surprise visit to one of Michael's friends and spent the night with Michael's mom. Its always nice to visit her.

Friday arrived and we made a stop at Subway before visiting our friend April, and her 2 girls. it was the first time we had met Smiles and she and her older sister Love (older sister) truly entertained me. April, I had so much visiting your girls and spending time with you. Thank you for the sweet sweet gift!After lunch we hit Edgewater to spend the next 7 days with my family. We got to Mom and Dads and the niece and nephews were in the pool. We had dinner at a sports bar and did one more shopping trip. Michael played trivia on the NTN box while we ate and he won 1st place in the round he got to play from start to finish. At this point, I was just too darn excited. Now I hope you are still reading and didn't skip to the boat.

Saturday morning, we woke up and relaxed. We are about an hour from the port and this time I was in no hurry to get there. We packed my Honda and Dad packed his truck and we headed to Port Canaveral. Anticipation was quite high and yes, I teared up when we drove across the bridge and saw the Disney Magic. It is just an awesome site to know that you are going to spend 7 days on this big boat. You would think either I was a kid or had small children. So we get our luggage out and park and walk to the check in. This was sooooo smooth. We saw Mickey and had our picture taken with Goofy. Dad and the gang came in about this time so we grabbed Janie and Seth and got a pic too!!!We waited a short time and walked on the boat having had "the Christopher family" introduced. Michael being the supportive Weight Watcher husband coarsed me into walking the 6 flight of stairs to the lunch buffet. He even suggested seeing how long we could go without using the elevator, which was quite cool of him. But that didn't last long. After a crowded lunch, we hit our room and quickly unpacked.I have to say that the smiles on my niece and nephews were priceless. It was a joy to see this cruise through their eyes. We went to the traditional drill and after that we grabbed Owen for a while. This was very fun. Michael and I and almost 3yo Owen went to the sail-away party and he got so excited to see Mickey and the gang. It was so awesome to see the joy in his eyes. I just can not explain his face.We dropped Owen off with Kelly and got ready for dinner. Dinner was good and we went to the first show of the week. WooHoo! We did a lot of walking around, visited the stores and watched part of Mary Poppins on the big screen outside. Yummy pizza too! In case you are a WW friend, I took the week off and until I have a weigh in, I don't feel guilty at all.

Woke up early the next day I hit the gym. Woohoo. I was proud of myself. This was a day at sea so I spent 35 minutes on the treadmill staring at the ocean. It was too cool. I woke up Michael and we had the character breakfast and went to the morning worship service. I'm so glad Michael mentioned this. It was such a neat experience. The man who lead the service was from the Phillipines and had some broken English but played The Lords Prayer and As the Deer. His heart was beautiful and talked about how when earthly fathers may fail you, your Heavenly Father never will. We then went to the pool. Before the worship service, we had breakfast with several Disney Characters who were sooo much fun with the kids. Owen got so excited and Janie and Seth also had fun.I keep forgetting a lot of stuff. But we had a lot of pool time and buffet time. HeeHee. I think we had a sit down lunch on this day. We got resevations for the adult only restaurant and it was formal night so we had to go get ready. If you ever do this, Palo is just an awesome place and the service is fantastic. We did not make the show this evening, but thats okay as we had seen it before. I forgot what we did but Michael's report may be a it better.

Monday was another day at sea so I got up early and did the treadmill thing and had breakfast with my husband. Movies, food, swimming and sun was today and it was a blast. Dinner with the family and Twice Charmed was the musical for the day. Michael and I spent the most of our pool time in the adult pool. We met sooo many cool people. We had dinner with the family and went to watch the adult program which was an amazing dude who played the guitar and could sing any song you screamed out. Totally worth and it was so much fun..Tuesday was St. Maarten. I had no interested in this island so Michael explored the island and Kelly, Mom and Dad went on a fishing excursion. I stayed on the boat and stayed "on call" in case Owen needed out of the nursery. Usually anyone under 3 has to go to the nursery but since Owen is potty trained, they let him stay in the kids' club. They didn't call me once.!! Yeah Owen. Also during the cruise, Michael and I played a lot of general trivia during the day and that was fun. there is plenty of stuff for adults to do on the Disney Cruise. Fun Fun!!!!! Dinner and show ended our day.

Wednesday was St. Thomas Day. We had to get up and be in the auditorium by 7:00 for an immigration check. We still had time for breakfast and to stare at the sky. This was a beautiful island. We did something different. Michael, me, mom, dad, kelly and her 3 kids all did an excursion together. We took a bus tour of the island really saw the island. BEAUTIFUL. We took some amazing pics on top of the mountain and enjoyed talking to each other during the ride. Even though, I booked the trip, I had no idea we were stopping at OceanWorld, a small aquarium of sorts. This was cool. We got to see sharks and touch stingrays and you could swim with sea lions if you wanted. We had 2 hours here and I think it was really worth it. The kids enjoyed it. We got back from the excursion and Michael and i walked around the shops before heading onto the boat for some chill time, which was quite limited. Dinner was good and we headed to a family show before going to bed.

Thursday was a day at sea so breakfast, pool, lunch, dinner, pool movies. Michael and I actually took Seth and Janie to the arcade and that was a hoot. Oh they were sooo funny. Meals were good today. Seth actually beat Janie at air hockey and then they loves it that Michael beat me badly (7-0).

Friday. Our last full day. This was Castaway Cay day, which is Disney's private island day. This was fun as Michael's picture will show you. Disney knows how to do an island. The Piratesof the Caribbean boat was there (The Flying Dutchman) and after spending some time on the family beach, Michael and I spent the rest of the day at the adult beach, where I had a Konch Cooler. Dude, those are soooo good. We got back early to the boat and spent the rest of the day at the adult pool on the boat.We had dinner, packed and went to Pub night where the staff put on a show for the adults. We watched some of POC on the big screen and went to bed. Got up early, got sad leaving my family and headed over to Orlando..Saturday we took long naps, had dinner with Michael's mom and went to bed. Sunday we got up, had lunch with some new adopting blogging friends and headed home!!The Disney Magic has a really nice movie theatre and we were able to watch the newest National Treasure movie and Superdog, I liked both!

BTW, I skipped my weigh in today but will be back next week!Michael has posted a few pictures already and has started his first post-cruise contest, so head over to Valtool's Box at http://www.valtool.blogspot.com/ to learn about and participate in his giveaways. Can I tell you nice it is to travel with a photographer? Michael took about 98% of the pictures and captured soooo many memories.

Thanks Michael!!