Saturday, November 22, 2014

Disney Magic Cruise - Day 2 - October 27, 2014

We had tickets for the first day at sea to meet characters. At 9:00am we met Queen Elsa and Princess Anna of Arendelle and then Tiana, Belle and Cinderella at 9:30am. I was not happy starting the first day of our cruise this early, but it was decided by the cruise line! As soon as we boarded the ship I went right to guest services to request tickets and they let the computer generate the time. The person at guest services didn't seem to speak enough english to understand I wanted a later time. So, while it was very early, I'm glad that we visited them right away and got it done with. We waited less than 15 minutes for both character meet and greet sets. I wish they would have done the Fab 5 as a ticketed event!
All the screens in the restaurant showed scenes from Frozen.

They talked with the kids about being siblings.

Even the carpet is covered in Mickey!

We loved the halloween decor throughout the ship. The portholes were either pumpkins or spiderwebs. 

After meeting Elsa and Anna, we headed over to meet some princesses. 


Belle asked the kids all about their favorite books and suggested that Jayden read the The Time Machine next!

\My children love Tiana, but wished that Prince Naveen would have been there.


We spent the afternoon with everyone else on the ship, hanging out at the pool! There was a great kids pool, but it was packed the first day at sea. The yellow slide was nice.

It was funny to watch everyone in the pool slide back and forth with the movement of the ship. The pools and hot tubs were full of kids!


The perfect afternoon snack delivered right to our room! Justin and I took the cookies and smooshed the Mickey's bars in between. They were sooooo good that way!


Haven't even made it to dinner yet and the Princess was sleepy. 

Getting ready for the show to start. This was my favorite show night, Twice Charmed, a twist on Cinderella! Disney knows how to put on a good show.

Our formal night was at Lumiere's so Julianna wore her Belle dress. On the left is Juli with two of the men from our wait staff.

Are you ready for your heart to melt? This girl had me crying! She amazes me every day. On this vacation she learned about karaoke. As soon as she heard about it and knew what it was she insisted on signing up. Even though it wasn't till 11pm! She took charge, chose the song, and as soon as they called her name, she jumped out of her seat and marched right up to the stage. The best part of the video is the last few second where she says "oops!" Haha, it is adorable, I hope you enjoy this video as much as we have. The host for karaoke, was amazing with the kids. We were all excited to run into her through our cruise. 

Another day is over! We love coming back to our clean stateroom with chocolates waiting for us and a fun animal. 


Friday, November 21, 2014

Disney Magic Cruise - Day 1 lesson - NEVER surprise an autistic kid! October 26, 2014

Julianna has wished for a Disney Cruise for a few years now. She memorized the advertisements and videos that Disney has put out and told everyone about it. Since I am a travel consultant, we decided to save up and make it happen on our own instead of going through Make-A-Wish. What an amazing feeling to surprise our children with the vacation of a life time! At this time we do not have a date for spinal correction surgery, but with a 30% chance of paralysis, we wanted to make sure that she had her wish granted and big brother was just as excited to cruise as she was! Enjoy!

The kids attended a homeschool session at the Atlanta History Center and learned about an Art Heist earlier in the month! Justin asked the kids a few questions about it and then hatched a plan with them to sneak onto the ship! 

Enjoying breakfast at a super yummy bagel shop we found in Cape Canaveral. 

Driving over to the port, Juli, came up with some crazy ideas for getting on the ship! 

Jayden was panicking! He was so scared that we were going to get into trouble. He even mentioned that he would never be able to become president with a police record!

Juli sees the ship!

When we arrived at the port to drop off our baggage, I pulled Jayden out of the car to tell him the truth. I handed him the documents and I think the video shows his relief and then happiness pretty well. Love this honest boy!

When Jayden hopped in the car, while we dealt with the luggage, he told Julianna! We were so sad that we missed the exact moment that she knew we were really getting on the ship! This was what she said when we got back in the car. You can tell that she was crying too. I had some very emotional kids that day! 

I wish we would have headed to the port earlier but everything I read about Disney recently said they were strict on arrival times. We got 1st boarding! 

Instead of boarding right away, we met Juli's favorite character, Pluto! 

Of course all of her dogs vacation with us! 

SOOOOOOOO EXCITED! 

I love how they welcome each family on to the ship! It was hard to film the kids while dealing with all of Juli's medical equipment though. I love the smile on Jayden's face. He was very excited.

Let's get this vacation started!!!!



They had a story time around the Halloween Tree on the first night. Each kid received a seed card to put in the bucket and during the middle of the cruise the tree was full of pumpkins!

My kids are always ready when they get the chance to dance around!

She wasn't tired at all...... She just needed to rest for a second!

Say hi to Peter Pan and Princess Tiger Lily!

I'm just an indian! 

Her first Mickey bar of the week!

What an amazing, fun, and exhausting day! 

If you'd like to see more pictures of Disney Cruise Lines, check out the Travel Depot blog! I will hopefully start adding to it this week,

Monday, November 17, 2014

Meeting up with family - October 25th, 2014

We started off vacation by meeting up with my sister and mom at Port Orleans, French Quarter. I love that we can stop by and meet them for dinner! After wandering around the resort for awhile, I know we will definitely stay here next time we visit Disney.



Julianna saw the fountain at the entrance to the hotel and insisted that she needed to make a wish! Of course if she did, Jayden needed to also. Right before they made their wishes we saw a replica of a Disney Cruise Ship and it was obvious that both kids had their hearts set on a Disney Cruise! If they only knew that the next day they would be boarding a Disney Cruise Ship!


If you'd like to see pictures of the resort, check out the blog post I did on Travel Depot's Blog!

Safety Village Field Trip - October 17, 2014

Learning all about safety in the kitchen and bathroom.

The kids loved the mock fire drill! They even make smoke come out of the walls.


Then they crawled out of a window and met at their safe place.


Julianna was chosen to call 911 when all of the class had escaped the "burning" house. She didn't want to give an address over the phone because I tolf her that she has to ask permission first!


Practicing Stop, Drop, and Roll!

This is the first time at Safety Village that they had the cars out for the kids to drive! Even Julianna drove! I fear that day!

Video of Juli driving.