Meeting the princesses

Terefech braved standing in line for about an hour in order to meet the princesses.  She was completely enamored.  I am not a huge fan of the princesses.  I actually had to ask the 18 year old in front of us who one of them was.  Terefech hasn't even seen any of the movies that the princesses were in.  But, I have to admit, they didn't disappoint.

Ariel told her she wished that she had curly hair like Terefech.  I could have cried.  Terefech was proud of her hair!

Tiana remembered that she had met Terefech two nights before.  How did she do that?

Aurora (that was the one I didn't know) made another hair comment.  She loved Terefech's hair and T just beamed.

Belle was my favorite.  She looked so glamorous.

And here is Terefech with her prince...he looks like a keeper, don't you think?

Fun on the shiop

 This was just a cool picture!

 We spent some time playing miniature golf up on deck.  It was Terefech's first time, she was completely bewildered at first but caught on quick.  The last hole you hit the ball down the kitchen sink...she really wasn't sure what to make of that!

Animator's Palace

As a family, our favorite meal was at Animator's Palace.  The entire restaurant is based on Finding Nemo.  The screens you see below are TV screens which have animation much of the time.

Dinner started with a show by Crush the sea turtle.  He talked to the whole restaurant, played some games and had us all drawn in.

During dinner, the silver fish swim in and make different shapes for you to guess.

The best part is when Crush came around and talked to everyone at the tables.  It was amazing to have a personal conversation with a cartoon turtle.  He was spontaneous, had great expression, and it left us saying how do they do that????  It was just all around Disney fun for everyone!

Pirate night and the Stingrays

 We had a ton of fun dressing up like pirates.  I think initially they thought I was a bit crazy when I suggested we actually dress up but everyone got into it quickly.  Declan appreciated that everywhere we went the staff would give him a thumbs up for being a pirate (they all dress up as well).  We attended the pre dinner pirate show up on deck, the kids played piratey games, and we got to learn how to be a pirate in order to win the ship back from Capt. Hook.  

 As an aside, here are the kids playing the Midship Detective Agency.  They had a blast trying to find out who was responsible for stealing all the paintings!  You flash your badge in front of paintings and receive clues from the paintings.

 Here we are at Castaway Cay enjoying the beach and stingrays.  We got to feed, pet and snorkel with stingrays.  Everyone, well almost, loved it.  Declan did not enjoy it and spent much of his time digging in the sand.  Terefech and Rich spent a long time snorkeling around with their new friends.  Amazing creatures!

 And can you believe Jack Sparrow was on the island with us?

 The kids love Chip and Dale cartoons so they were thrilled to run into them.  I was thrilled that we didn't have to get our picture with Daisy Duck.  We were the last ones to get in with C and D!   They had no idea who Lilo was but hey, she was a character so they wanted their picture taken.

Our towel friends

More cruise...

We had an awesome waiter, Tony, on the cruise.  He amused the kids every night with magic tricks.  Here he is with disappearing water!  The kids were very freaked out that it was dumping on their head.

Loving her royal cupcakes...finally a dessert with no chocolate or ice cream.

Enjoying his first kids pina colada...the eyes are closed cause he is just savoring every sip.

Our ship was docked in Nassau.  I had been there before but no one else had so in we went.  It was soooooooo hot that everyone was wilted in minutes.  We had a quick look around and headed back to the ship.  Not before we got Declan a drum and Terefech a glorious shell ring.  Declan was thrilled to now say he is an international traveler.

The view from our verandah...love that blue water.

Disney Cruise

Finally we are on the cruise...the kids were so excited to see the Disney Dream the first time.  It is so big and especially next to all the other cruise ships.  We spent the first afternoon/evening getting our sea legs and exploring the ship.  We were on teh cruise to celebrate Rich's parents 50th anniversary so we decorated their door a little and someone else was turning 40!  We signed up for the Midship Detective Agency game.  You are given a badge and a sheet with possible criminals on it and the locations of possible clues.  You run all over the ship waving your badge in front of paintings that then change and turn into cartoons.  Mickey and his friends then give you clues about who (in our case, there are two different mysteries) stole the paintings.  It gets the kids to go all over the ship and to be honest, it was fun.  They were thrilled when they found out who the criminal was.  Just one of the many fun touches all over the ship.

The Ranch Mickey..our assistant waiter was an expert at making all thick liquids into a Mickey.  A treat at every meal!

You gotta love turn down service each night.  And touches like this pillow made it all the more special!

We met Captain Mickey right after we got on the ship.   And by all miracles there was no line to see him!

The view from our verandah in port.  We just dwarfed the other ship.  The dream has a ton more rooms with verandahs than the older ships.

That is our room!