Disney Cruise

We got back yesterday from our Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. It was seriously one of the funnest vacations we've taken. We loved having Grandma and Grandpa Jensen come along with us. The boys loved hanging out with them (especially Mason) and we certainly loved having extra eyes and hands on our kids all week! We also loved having lots of friends aboard (several families from our ward all went on this cruise). If anyone is considering taking a Disney Cruise, we'd highly recommend it!

We have lots of pictures, and I realize that the quality on a lot of them is sub-par, but lets be honest. I was more concerned with making memories than capturing them. 

Let's start off with the food. Who doesn't love cruise food? It was awesome to have a kid good friendly meal option every night. Our serving staff rotated to the different restaurants every night with us, and our kids loved Henry and Michael. Henry made us all napkin hats the first night. Mason's was by far the funniest! Here he is in his "Goofy" napkin hat devouring a chocolate covered Mickey ice cream bar.

Carson got to be Peter Pan. This kid ate a hamburger every single day. And he always ordered the Mickey Bar. It was his favorite dessert.

Jensen got a Captain Jack Sparrow hat. He was our pickiest eater of the trip, but somehow even he managed to gain a couple of pounds! I made the smart decision on the first day to tell the boys they could have whatever they wanted to drink for lunch, but at dinner they had to drink water, and at breakfast they could have juice or milk. They were so good about following the rule. It made it easy to let them have fun without overdoing it.

We had the awesome opportunity to go to the Atlantis Resort during our day in the Bahamas. We played at the water park all day. The kids loved the fun kid friendly water slides and play areas. 

 Mason loved getting snacks from Grandma!

 After a morning of playing and eating, Mason quietly napped on a bench while the rest of us experienced a little more of Atlantis.

 Dustin particularly loved the lazy river. I think this was pretty much all he did that day! 

 My dad and I took on this slide. Dad loved it. I could have done without the wedgie of a century. Dad asked the lifeguard at this slide if anyone ever lost their top. He replied "All the time."

 After Mason woke up we took a tour of the resort's aquarium. The manta rays were bigger than some of my kids!!! As was this fish!

The only real downer of the day (and of the trip) was my mom's accident. Right before we got off the boat to head to Atlantis she slipped and fell on the deck and hurt her knee. This was what it looked like on the first day. I have no idea how she walked that day we went to Atlantis, but she did (and she never complained about it!)

On Wednesday our ship docked at Castaway Cay- Disney's privately owned island. Apparently, they had 2 weeks of straight rain prior to our cruise, and we were expecting stormy weather while we were there, but to our good fortune, we enjoyed beautiful weather the whole trip.

 At Castaway Cay, Dustin and I participated in a 5K while my parents took the boys down to the beach. When we were done we went out to join them. 

 Mason enjoyed sitting at the waters edge and throwing handfuls of sand into the ocean.

 Jensen loved seeing the tiny fish swimming in the water while they played. Is that water not beautiful?

 Carson got in some swimming practice.

They also had a water slide that went straight into the ocean. Jensen was less than thrilled about this experience. It didn't help that he fell on his bottom at the top of the slide (he has the bruise to prove it) but he didn't enjoy getting spit out into the water like this either. Carson, however, thoroughly enjoyed it.

 In conclusion to our night on Castaway Cay we had a pirate night. The boys got to dress up for dinner. I love this picture. Mason's face says it all!

 We stayed up late with the big boys to watch the fireworks. Disney is the only cruise line who has permission to shoot fireworks off the ship in the ocean. They also had a huge dessert buffet that night, which we plundered like real pirates. 

We felt like there was never enough time to do everything we wanted! We got to see the new Disney movie "Chimpanzee" (which the boys LOVED) as well as 3 Broadway style Disney shows. Dustin and I got to play Bingo, Mason got to play in the nursery, and the big boys enjoyed the Oceaneer Club and Lab where they got to do fun things like make cars out of bars of soap and race them. They also did a cute little program called "FriendSHIP Rocks" where they got to go on stage with Mickey and Minnie and dance. Carson actually danced, but Jensen was a statue. But as soon as he saw us, he was all smiles! They even got to keep their t-shirts. Can we say "Free Souvenir?" :)

 Then there were all the characters to meet. The boys each had a small autograph book and we bought them a pen to use just for signing. Dustin hated standing in line with them for this, but I didn't mind so much. They loved getting the autographs and taking pictures with them. (And thank goodness we didn't have to stand in line for any of the princesses!)

 We were really sad to leave. No more cute towel animals on our bed every night. No more chocolates on our pillows. No more bunk beds (the boys loved their disappearing beds!) No more people cleaning our room and bringing us food. :( But fortunately, we got to spend our last couple of hours with Grandma and Grandpa Jensen on the plane. We were on the same flight. We got off in Austin, and they continued on to Vegas. It was a long day of waiting in the airport, but we made it through. 

 My mom's knee certainly took a beating during the trip. Her whole leg was blue and swollen by the time we left to go home. I'm sure she's mortified by these pictures, but I had to take them for documentation purposes. Besides, no one in the rest of the family would believe how truly nasty it was without these pictures! 

 All in all, a wonderful family trip. We're ready to start planning our next Disney Cruise. Anyone want to come with us?