Year of Disney

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[yearofdisney]

Disney Cuisine at Home: Try the Grey Stuff (it IS delicious!)

Since our cruise to Hawaii was cancelled (understandable but also all the tears) and now our late August vacation is up in the air we decided to try a little Disney magic for dessert tonight: The Grey Stuff!

I used this recipe from @disneyparks​ https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2020/05/disneymagicmoments-try-this-new-easy-at-home-grey-stuff-recipe-its-delicious/

And then this recipe for sugar cookies from my mom:

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper on a cookie sheet.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.

Pro-tip: definitely give yourself a lot of time. The Grey Stuff needs 1 hour to chill just a step in then another 1-2 hours (or more) to chill when it’s all completed. The sugar cookies come together fast, but ALSO need to chill in the fridge for awhile before you bake them. So plan accordingly! You also want to make sure you’ve factored in cooling time for the cookies because otherwise the Grey Stuff will melt!

But all in all it was definitely worth the wait:

I mean look at that:

It really was delicious! I thought the heaping pile of Grey Stuff would overwhelm the cookie but it really didn’t. And the kids were super thrilled about the unicorn sprinkles I found to top them off!

Now I’ve never actually had the Grey Stuff at Be Our Guest, but I’d definitely make this again. It was pretty easy, looked great, and tasted even better!

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 10

Today is another bittersweet day because this morning we would have gotten up way too early to disembark from the Disney Wonder, which would have made us sad, but we would’ve boarded a Disney bus to take us to Aulani for another six days, which would have made us happy! Very happy. Ahhhh I want to be there!

Ahem.

Luckily all of our friends woke up early to see us off:

And they even brought presents of placemats with each of the girls’ names on them:

And what better way to break them in than with a bunch of Mickey pancakes!?

They really weren’t that hard to make once I got the hang of it. Just regular sized pancake dollop in the middle near the bottom, then I used a smaller spoon to dish out the ears. I just had to be very careful when flipping them to make sure the ears didn’t disconnect! I’m pretty sure Victoria and Albert’s will be calling me any day now because of my clear culinary skills.

Neither of the girls really understand what’s going on right now beyond that there’s “a sickness” that’s going around that we need to make sure we don’t catch or spread to other people. They are both concerned that Mickey and Minnie shouldn’t get sick, so we should not go on “Mickey Boat” or go to “Mickey House” until “the sickness” is gone. B tells me that she misses Mickey every day and can’t wait to see him. She wanted to record a message for him so that he doesn’t forget about her and knows that she’s thinking of him. We couldn’t quite get the song melody down, but we did our best:

See ya real soon!

Up Next: Probably more Bermuda stuff since I never actually finished that 

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 9

Today fell on another busy work day so I’m afraid we’re pretty short on pictures, but today was the day that we were supposed to go to Hilo and do the Volcanoes National Park Junior Ranger Program! 

This was one I was REALLY excited for the girls to do because I was absolutely obsessed with volcanos when I was in 4th grade and we started learning about geology. So today we of course started the day watching the Disney short Lava:

Which if you haven’t see it is really, really great! This was along side of plain old boring stacks of pancakes:

JUST KIDDING! THEY WERE MICKEY PANCAKES:

Then we spent the morning watch documentaries about volcanos that the girls gave a passing interest to but mostly ignored. Sigh. Oh well, I’m sure they would have been impressed by the real thing!

The Junior Ranger program actually has a really fun handbook for ages 6 and under and then ages 7-12. Sadly this was one place where I wasn’t forward-thinking and we don’t have a printer so all we could do was look at the pictures and talk about what they were and how they’d like to color them in. Possibly I’ll get them done later on and then post them when the kids can color them in! They were both very excited about the turtle one.

We ended up dressed up in our Tiana dresses at one point to celebrate the fact that Tiana had a restaurant on the ship! Somehow we didn’t get any pictures, but also miraculously no one spilled anything on their dresses so I count that as a win! They did pay attention when The Frog Princess was on--Tiana is B’s absolute FAVORITE princess right now!

In the end I’m not really sure they got a whole lot out of us watching some things about volcanos, but I will never get tired of watching lava shoot out into the ocean and roll downhill. It did seem like at least a couple of things got through:

See? We clearly need to go to Hawaii someday to clear this up so that she can earn her Volcano Junior Ranger badge!

Next up: Disembarkation Day D: 

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 8

I don’t even have a picture of our itinerary for today because it was Maui and all of the excursions that were offered were going to take hours and I didn’t think the girls would like that at all--as much as I would love to see the Road to Hana someday, I think with a 4 and a 6 year old that’s going to have to wait a bit. And you know. For the pandemic to be over. But! That doesn’t mean we couldn’t have some fun today:

Looks like someone stopped by and filled up our Fish Extender! The girls got Trolls 2 coloring books and figurines (sorry Mickey, Trolls 2 is pretty big in here right now), Daddy got a Step 2 learning to read book so hopefully he can get through that someday, and mommy got some nail polish since she missed her spa day!

This turned into a real amazing time for the kids as they not only got to paint my fingernails with each one of them able to do their own color scheme...

But they also had me put my feet up so they could do my toes!

The toes were a little...less successful than the nails

Not shown are the places they decided to paint bows on my legs, assuring me “don’t worry, mommy, we can wipe it off after!”

Later that afternoon we decided to go out and watch the flyover of some F-15s. At least, I think that’s what they were. We wore our second set of matching Hawaii dresses and even Daddy got in on the fun!

Not the best picture of all of us but as fast of one as we could do before putting our masks on while staring into the sun. After that it was time for some good old fashioned running around:

And finally because our oldest is now obsessed with rock and roll (again, thanks Trolls 2) here’s her best work on a ‘guitar’

Next up: Hilo’s Volcanoes National Park Junior Ranger Program!

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 7

Today would have been the end of the sea days and our first island stop: Kauai!

 It would have been amazing to wake up and look out the verandah to see the beautiful mountains and scenery. Instead I...woke up and looked at my ceiling until ten minutes before work started. Because of a busy work day yesterday we really didn’t have any special things planned for today so we just turned on youtube and watched some beautiful footage of Kauai until the kids declared we were the most boring people on the planet and then we put on some movies. Sorry, Kauai, I’m sure they would have been more than impressed with you and your beaches in person!

On our afternoon walk the girls and I decided to put on our matching dresses and go out to spread a little Hawaiian cheer in our neighborhood!

They had a lot of fun trying to “dance like Moana and Lilo” while I got their masks ready and don’t worry, they went on right after these pictures. We got a lot of compliments! Had we planned better we would have made sure that we had some taco boats ready for dinner tonight what with it being Cinco de Mayo, but Tuesdays are when my husband heads off to the supermarket so our fridge was pretty bare. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow! 

Next up: Maui! 

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 6

We’re nearing the last of our at-sea days from our living room, but today was one I was particularly looking forward to since it’s

Spa day!!!! Look at that title! ALONE TIME! But, lol we are all stuck inside due to quarantine so instead we decided to do:

STAR WARS DAY! Technically this was not a Star Wars cruise but we’re making it up as we go along so whatever! 

May the 4th was too good of an opportunity to pass up!

We dressed up and ventured out to take a few pictures and then put on our masks and have a parade.

We walked up and down the decks (neighborhood) with the Star Wars theme playing and waving to fish (cars)! It was a lot of fun. When we got back we gave our friends a lot of love too 

And then tried to recreate a picture we took on an actual Disney Cruise a few years ago...more or less:

And while little Jyn wasn’t quite into it they had some final words for everyone today:

Next up: Best of Kauai...from home?

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 5

Today was our first beautiful weather day and also:

Palo Brunch and Stem to Stern Wine Tasting day! First up was brunch:

Not bad considering I’ve never made an omelette before! The kids wanted no part of it so we decided to take some food to go:

Yes that is Minnie Mouse on the bread!

Afterwards we decided to take a walk around the decks and ran into some local wildlife in the water:

And on the way back to our room we came across the cutest visitor!

When we got back it was time for my Stem to Stern wine tasting! But since we didn’t actually have any wine available, I walked around with my delicious Shirley Temple! 

Yeah we live in 510 square feet so this did not take long. And of course it was in a Frozen cup!

The highlight of the evening, however was this:

Palo’s famous chocolate soufflé and vanilla sauce! It was so good. SO good. So good we took a video of pouring the sauce on:

So good. So, so good. This post is so late because it was so. damn. good.

Next up: Star Wars Day!

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 4

I’m not sure if anyone else is having this problem, but housekeeping hasn’t been by in a couple of days and this place is a total mess! 

This morning we got up and started off the day with some corn muffins! The girls helped me make them and the kitchen only looks like a slight disaster after the fact:

Okay, we might be reaching for Disney breakfasts at this point but there are only so many homemade Mickey Waffles mom can make while she’s still working. But we were all VERY excited for what today was!

PIRATE DAY! (ignore the lone jedi, it turns out we just didn’t have enough pirate-themed things)

I was sad to find that the pirate Mickey shirts I made for them two years ago were too small (I shouldn’t have been surprised but they are getting big!) so we had to dig around to find some shirts that 1. would work and 2. they would wear. I think it worked out though:

We decided to venture out on a field trip today down by the water so we could get some fresh air and then walk the wharf to pretend we were on the boat walking around the decks. 

We found a pirate ship and had a lot of fun:

At some points it was almost easy to imagine we were on our verandah:

When we got back we watched Peter Pan and Peter Pan II and now both girls are terrified of growing up. We of course also had a discussion about racial stereotypes about halfway through the movie and so I’m a little glad neither of them seems interested in doing a rewatch.

We ended the day watching the Mickey Pirate Party on youtube. The girls were so, so excited to see the characters it was kind of bittersweet. 

As we got ready for bed, our oldest turned to us with her eyes full of tears and asked, “Do you think Mickey remembers us and misses us like we miss him?” I assured her he did and we called the Disney Bedtime Hotline so that she could hear Mickey wish her a good night which seemed to do the trick!

Still, talk about heartbreaking. It’s hard on us adults, but it’s also really hard on the kids. Which is why we keep doing this, trying to bring a little Disney magic to every day!

Next Up: Palo Brunch and Stem to Stern Wine Tasting! (maybe?)

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 3

It is definitely not getting any easier getting up and not being on a cruise ship to Hawaii, but today was so rainy outside we could at least pretend those sounds were the ocean? 

Today would have been our VIP Character Breakfast! What happens at a VIP Character Breakfast? Not only do you see Mickey Mouse, but Princess Sofia and Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates! My girls absolutely adore Sofia and I even made a Sofia dress for them years ago that miraculously still fit the younger one, though that might have been from the tears in it from years of funtime play. Oh well, at least it made it to Disney World once in its lifetime.

And if you’re wondering why sometimes it looks like we signed up for an activity twice, we were supposed to be traveling with Grampa and Nana in another stateroom and tried to match up our activities so they could be with the kids!

While I would like to say I got up and made a delicious buffet breakfast, everyone was pretty slow to wake up this morning and then work was crazy, so I did not take a picture of the nice bowl of cheerios and milk we had! 

We did get all dressed up and have a Sofia photoshoot though:

They even wanted to record another video where it was clear rather than two Sofias, what we had was Princess Amber dressed up as Sofia and then Sofia herself!

Being on a Disney Cruise right now would be a lot more fun, but we’re trying to still create some magical moments whenever we can! If only Cruise Director Brent was around to call us from activity to activity. 

Next up: Pirate Night (Day?)

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line at Home: Quarantine Cruise Day 2

I’m not gonna lie, getting up today was pretty hard. It would have been our first full day on the boat, we would’ve been so relaxed and having such a great time and instead we rolled out of bed and went to work...on our couch. Sigh.

Anyway.

Today was Princess Meet and Greet day! This one was a little tough to figure out, but in the end I think we did pretty well! First we had a breakfast fit for a Princess with Mickey waffles and pretty strawberries and blueberries on,  you guessed it, princess plates:

Then we went out for a visit to the pool but we decided it was a little too rainy to swim:

When we got back the Princesses were VERY excited to see the girls:

There were even fireworks behind the castle!

And all the Annas and Elsas turned out to take pictures:

In the end the girls had a great time playing dress up and presenting they were meeting Princesses and in the end decided that they took wanted to take their turn as Anna and Elsa:

While I wouldn’t want to be on a cruise ship in the current scenario man oh man do I wish I was on one. Especially one going to Hawaii! 

Up next: VIP Character Breakfast Day!

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line At Home: Quarantine Cruise Edition

Today was supposed to be the day we boarded the Disney Wonder (thus completing our set of being on every ship!) in Vancouver and set off for our 9 day Hawaiian adventure! 

(photo from Disney Parks blog)

After we arrived in Honolulu we were supposed to stay at Aulani for another week since we weren’t sure when we’d ever get to Hawaii again. 

(photo from Disney Vacation Club website)

This was going to be a really special, once in a lifetime trip and the girls were SUPER excited, not only because it would be the first time they were both old enough for the kids club, but because Nana and Grampa were coming with us! Of course because of the whole, you know, pandemic that’s happening we’re still home. But! That doesn’t mean we still can’t have some Disney-style fun while we’re stuck inside! Before the girls got up we dug out every Hawaii-ish related character we could find and pulled out the Star Wars pillows and blankets we got from a past cruise to set the mood:

My mother had sent them those skirts and headbands from Hanna Anderrson awhile ago and we were going to have them wear them for boarding. It seemed like the perfect time to bring them out!

Checking the itinerary the only thing we had to do today really was the sail away party, although we didn’t want to wait until 4 pm for that.

When they woke up we had them put on the outfits I’d made them last year and walk out to the living room where we had the sail away party playing on the TV (thanks youtube!):

Then we had a proper Mickey Boat breakfast on Princess plates:

And finally we hung up our fish extender even though it’s unlikely strangers will be passing through our living room to give us gifts:

While we’re very sad we’re not actually on the ship (well, in an alternate universe where there is no virus of course), we’re determined to make the best of it. After all we couldn’t get a champagne tasting on this cruise and yet, here we are:

Next up: At-Home Princess Meet and Greets!

[yearofdisney]

Disney World Rides: You Must Be This Tall...

Since we have two small kids I get very, very annoyed every time I try to figure out what rides they can or cannot ride. The Disney website does list them out...by themepark. All heights and restrictions jumbled together. So you really have to hunt and peck to figure out what rides are where and what heights (there are at least 5 of them!) are for what and where in the parks that is. 

So! I went through and made a handy list. I THINK both of my girls will be at least 40″ by the time we go in August and I just cannot express how much I cannot WAIT to be able to take them on my favorite, Thunder Mountain, along with a bunch of others! It’s going to be SO MUCH FUN!

If you have also found yourself scouring the website, please feel free to refer to this handy list!

If your child is ANY HEIGHT they can ride:

Magic Kingdom 

Astro Orbiter

Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin

Casey Jr. Splash ‘N’ Soak Station

Country Bear Jamboree

Dumbo the Flying Elephant

Enchanted Tales with Belle

Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade

The Hall of Presidents

Haunted Mansion

“it’s a small world”

Jungle Cruise

Liberty Square Riverboat 

Mad Tea Party

The Magic Carpets of Aladdin

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh 

Mickey’s PhilharMagic

Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor

Peter Pan’s Flight 

A Pirate’s Adventure ~ Treasures of the Seven Seas 

Pirates of the Caribbean 

Prince Charming Regal Carrousel 

Swiss Family Treehouse 

Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover

Tom Sawyer Island 

Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid 

Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress 

Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room

Walt Disney World Railroad 

Epcot

Advanced Training Lab 

The American Adventure

Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival 

Frozen Ever After 

Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros 

Impressions de France 

Journey Into Imagination With Figment 

Living with the Land 

O Canada!

Reflections of China 

The Seas with Nemo & Friends

Spaceship Earth 

Turtle Talk With Crush 

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Muppet*Vision 3D

Toy Story Mania! 

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park

Affection Section 

The Boneyard 

Conservation Station 

Discovery Island Trails 

Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail 

It’s Tough to be a Bug!

Kilimanjaro Safaris 

Maharajah Jungle Trek

Na’vi River Journey 

Tree of Life

TriceraTop Spin 

Wildlife Express Train 

Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park

Castaway Creek 

Gangplank Falls

Keelhaul Falls

Mayday Falls 

Miss Adventure Falls 

Storm Slides

Typhoon Lagoon Surf Pool

Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park

Cross Country Creek 

Melt-Away Bay

Runoff Rapids

Ski Patrol Training Camp 

Snow Stormers 

Teamboat Springs 

Toboggan Racers 

Once your child hits 32″ they can ride:

Magic Kingdom

Tomorrowland Speedway 

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Alien Swirling Saucers

Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park

Chairlift 

Once your child hits 35″ they can ride:

Magic Kingdom

The Barnstormer 

Once your child hits 38″ they can ride: 

Magic Kingdom

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run 

Slinky Dog Dash 

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Kali River Rapids

Once your child hits 40″ they can ride:

Magic Kingdom

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Splash Mountain 

Epcot

Mission: SPACE 

Soarin’ Around the World

Test Track

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Star Tours

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance 

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™ 

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

DINOSAUR 

Once your child hits 44″ they can ride:

Magic Kingdom

Space Mountain

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Expedition Everest

Once your child hits 48″ they can ride:

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith 

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Primeval Whirl 

Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon

Humunga Kowabunga 

Crush ‘n’ Gusher 

Disney’s Blizzard Beach

Downhill Double Dipper 

Slush Gusher

Summit Plummet 

Tike’s Peak 

The only exceptions to this list are these two at Typhoon Lagoon:

Kids must be 48″ OR SHORTER to play in Ketchakiddee Creek 

And kids must be 60″ OR SHORTER to do the Bay Slides

I hope that helps you with your planning! Please remember that these height restrictions are posted for your children’s safety, so don’t try to get around them. Just get them to eat their vegetables by telling them they need to grow so you can take them on all the best rides at Disney!

[yearofdisney]

Slight delay...

Posts have been delayed since I successfully defended my dissertation this week! Will pick up again next week :)

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise line (with TWO Toddlers) - Remy

If you’ve never had the chance to experience Victoria and Albert’s in the Grand Floridian because of the price, you definitely need to stop by and try Remy! Chef Scott Hunnel (from the aforementioned V&A) has designed the menu and it is amazing. Even for picky eaters like me, I find myself eating strange things like truffled egg and absolutely loving it!

If you have never seen the movie Ratatouille first of all you’re missing out, but secondly the small side room is designed as if you are dining at Gasteau’s and the theming lives up to excellent Disney standards. On one side you have your fake views of Paris and the kitchen from the movie and from the other...

You have amazing views of the ocean. Remy does have limited seating so you absolutely must book in advance to get the time that you want. We booked for our very first night to kick things off in style but met with a couple of hiccups along the way.

Unfortunately our youngest was still in diapers and too young to make it to the Oceaneers club, so she ended up in the nursery, which was actually great for her. Our oldest was old enough for the Oceaneers Club...and hated it. So about ten minutes after we sat down we got a message that she wanted to be picked up. This would continue about every fifteen minutes and we were ready to go down and get her until the front desk actually called down to tell them we were eating and to knock it off. Spoilers: when we went to pick her up later she was happy and playing hide and seek, but be aware that if you have small kids you can be interrupted. 

And they are very strict about the dress code. I was wearing what I thought were dressy strappy sandals, but was informed at the front desk that I’d need to change into ballet shoes that they had because open toed shoes were not allowed. Oops. It seemed like a pretty silly quibble to me since feet would be under the table the whole meal anyway, but a dress code is a dress code, so be aware. 

The meal is served in courses where you get to select the menu you want for the evening. We opted to have the wine add-on and then saw that there was a champagne tasting available instead. WARNING WARNING WARNING make sure you read things CAREFULLY because we thought this price would just be swapped with the wine pairings/dinner price but it was actually added on! So, we basically blew a huge chunk of our budget on our first meal on the ship. Don’t get me wrong, it was absolutely delicious, but we probably would have made different choice had we paid a bit more attention.

Dinner at Remy will run you $125 per person with an extra $105 charge if you want to do wine pairings, so that’s $230 per person if you want to have dinner and wine pairings. Expensive, but not quite as pricey as Victoria and Albert’s! Remy also offers a Champagne Brunch at $75 per person or $105 per person if you want champagne pairings (which is a little misleading if you ask me because wouldn’t you assume you’d get it from the name?), a dessert experience for $60 or $85 with wine pairings, and a Petites Assiettes de Remy, which I honestly can’t tell you what that is about that’s $50 per person and includes wine pairings per course.

We ended up doing the Remy champagne brunch as well (and were only paged once by the Oceaneer’s Club so, baby steps), which was fun but I don’t know that I would do it again. You got to meet the chef and he talked about the food and the champagne, which was nice, but I preferred dinner. And to me, Remy hands down beats out Palo in just about every area. The setting is so intimate and sweet and the views just can’t be beat. I definitely missed this restaurant when we were on the Magic, as Remy is only available on the Fantasy and the Dream.

If you can’t get a reservation online for the Remy experience of your choice don’t panic: just head to the customer service desk to ask where they’ll be taking signups when you get on board. The champagne brunches go fast, but you should not have a problem scheduling a dinner.

Bon appetite! 

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise line (with TWO Toddlers) - Castaway Cay

This was our first time back to Castaway Cay since we had gone there on our honeymoon years before and we were super excited to share it with the girls! Unfortunately the day we got there was overcast and rather chilly for the climate. Still, we gathered all our stuff and were some of the first family’s out the gate! Be warned if you have small children while there is a shuttle that will ferry you around most of the island, it is still quite a walk from the boat to there so smaller legs will get tired quickly. Keep that in mind when you’re packing seventeen bags to carry.

Unlike last time, since we had two kids we were unable to go to the adults-only section of the beach and headed off to the family beach instead. 

If the weather had been a bit better I think we would have really enjoyed it, but as it was the water was COLD and our two girls instead were more interested in building sandcastles and hunting for shells rather than really going in the water. 

Still, if you have slightly older children there is a cool looking water slide there that people were going nuts for.

But since our kids were not yet strong swimmers and were still pretty little they declined even going near it. We’re hopeful that maybe the next time we head down south for a cruise (5 or so years) this will be the highlight of their day!

As always the beaches are very well maintained by Disney, but we did still stumble across some broken glass, bottle caps, and cigarette butts in the sand, so water shoes for everyone is very advisable.

It wasn’t long before our girls were a little too chilly to stay on the beach, so we headed to get some lunch before going back to the ship. I have to say even if you don’t consider yourself a beach person, you should absolutely go have lunch on the island. The food is INCREDIBLE! Especially the spicy chicken sandwich. I have dreams about it. It’s so delicious. Our picky eaters found things they liked and we walked back to the ship shortly afterwards. 

Pro-tip, this is a great time to get a picture of your family in front of the ship if you can get them to stand still!

We could not get them to stand still. And yes, those are matching dresses that we bought on the island--I got one too and my husband got a matching shirt! They change the pattern every year I’m told, but I love blue so these are perfect.

And that’s one amazing thing about Castaway Cay--if you get tired of the beach head back to have the boat all to yourself because EVERYONE gets off to head to the island! We spent hours in one of the splash pads where it was just us or maybe one other family. A great time was had by all and you can take some amazing pictures of the family beach from the ship deck

 Honestly, I wish they let you stay for a couple of days so you can really relax along those beaches and try all the different things they have available like parasailing and snorkeling, etc. They have a 5k you can run that I didn’t know about and will be certain to sign up for next time! 

And don’t forget to stay on deck or your verandah to say goodbye to the cast members! They will stay out there and wave you off. We took a time lapse to show us leaving.

See Ya Real Soon!

Next Up: Remy!

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise line (with TWO Toddlers) - Pirate Night!

This is why you take a cruise, right? For pirate night! If you have never been on a Disney Cruise let me tell you, you are absolutely missing out! Everyone and I mean EVERYONE gets in on this. Maybe there were some people that didn’t dress up for Star Wars day (*coughmecough*) but absolutely everyone dresses up for pirate night, if only because your stateroom host will leave a pirate bandana for everyone the night before so there is no excuse! 

As you can imagine there are lots of pirate character greetings around. Much like Star Wars day at sea, all the main characters get into the dress up game and you can walk around and get your picture taken with an ever rotating cast like pirate Mickey, Pirate Minnie, and Pirate Goofy. Even Chip and Dale and Stitch get in on it! 

I had been so focused on Star Wars costumes that I completely forgot about pirate night and whipped up these skirts the night before we left. I’d do a better job on our cruise to Bermuda later that year, but you’ll have to wait for those pictures!

There’s a special fireworks show on pirate night along with a stage show that we skipped because it was late (after 10 pm) and our girls were tired after a day of hunting bilgerats and swabbing the decks. But I highly recommend that one of you parents sneaks out to go see it all. It’s really amazing to see fireworks at sea and the stage show is pretty fun as well. Just note that it gets VERY crowded up there so make sure that you’re wearing foot protection. We saw a lot of poor kids and even adults getting their little piggies stepped on.

And after all that you get to go back to your room to be greeted by a wonderful pirate towel animal bearing gifts!

Next up: Castaway Cay!

[yearofdisney]

Disney Cruise Line (with TWO Toddlers) - St. Maarten

Our second stop on this cruise was St. Maarten and after the #badbeach experience of St. Thomas we were a little wary of this one. Especially since it had around a 40 minute boat cruise to even get to the beach. But, that turned out to just be a highlight! The boat itself was glass bottom, which the kids loved, but even moreso was all the music they played the whole ride there and back! It was just a constant dance party!

When the boat pulled up to the beach we already knew that it was going to be a better experience than we had in St. Thomas. It was a little tricky getting on and off the boat with the kids since it didn’t (and couldn’t) pull right up to the beach, so we were jumping off in knee deep water after going down a ladder in the back. We managed, though. See that little white roofed shack at the far end of the beach? That’s where all the Disney people went and it was absolutely lovely!

Like St. Thomas there was a drop off right off the beach, but it was a bit further out than the previous one so the kids could play in the water a good bit. My oldest made friends with another girl that was there and they had a great time with a boogie board swimming in water that was like walking into a warm bath. Something to note, though, was that there was coral here that was INCREDIBLY sharp. Not an actual reef close to shore, but old pieces that had broken off and were in the deeper water. My husband ended up slicing his toe pretty badly, so everyone should always wear their water shoes!

We had so much fun here everyone lost track of time and we all had to run back to get on the boat! Once again boarding was the hardest part since we had to carry the kids through the water and climb a ladder, but it was all so, so worth it. It was one of the best, most relaxing parts of our trip. And all the way back the kids had a dance party while we had some free rum swizzlers, yum!

This also happened to be formal night as well, so everyone was nice and sunburned in all their pretty outfits for a fancy dinner at Royal Court. And of course, we had to take pictures in front of the statue in the main lobby.

Next up: Pirate night!