The Professional Mother: Disney Cruise: Part 1

Disney Cruise is now a completed bucket list item. We had a lot of fun, all thanks to my brother Tom and his wife Jennifer. Seriously, some of the coolest, most laid-back people I know. I adore them! How lucky for me that I was able to vacation with them and their son Rocky. Luke, Evie, and George had a blast - all in different ways. Luke loved every minute in the Oceaneer Lab playing video games. He acted like an annoying tween whenever I pulled him away from the video games. Yuck. I was fed up with that nonsense pretty early on and even threatened to put him on a plane home when we landed in Key West. He shaped up for the most part, but his sulking continued on the rare occasions that I pulled him away from the video games.

Evie and George were less enamored with the kids rooms, and even with the characters. I'm pretty sure Jennifer and I were the most star-struck with the characters. Seriously, we loved seeing the characters all over the ship. I didn't even have to meet them, to be giddy. It was awesome!

Luckily, we adults were able to snag some kid-free time. It was lovely. A full three hours at the spa on the first day at sea and then several hours to ourselves on the Disney island (Castaway Cay) and even a few more hours by the pool on our days at sea. Loved it! Plus, I even came back with some tan lines. Wonderful!

I think my favorite part was definitely Castaway Cay. The island was pristinely beautiful! I could have stayed there all three days at port, but we also spent a day at Key West and a day at Nassau. Another wonderful experience was being able to watch Frozen and Saving Mr. Banks on the ship. They had plenty of different TV shows and movies playing all the time for the kids, so some of their favorite parts of the trip were just hanging out in the rooms playing with their cousin or watching TV. I think it's a little sad, but who am I to question it, right?

The short story is that we simply had a wonderful time!

Of course, we are also very glad to be back with Chuck and in Fort Worth for Christmas. Loving life. Loving family. Loving friends!

Just got on the ship!

Dinner our first night.

Finishing off my first bottle of wine!

George & Evie prancing down the hall.

Fun at dinner.

Key West!

Chocolate covered Key Lime Pie in Key West (with a side of George). This was the best thing I had to eat on this trip. Uh-May-Zing!

On the Trolley Tour of Key West. Saw more wild chickens than anything else. Weird.

Looking at the cool Banyan (sp?) trees.

Mailing their very first postcard (to their dad).

Castaway Cay!

Posing with Olaf from Frozen. I LOVE that movie! Saw it twice on the boat!

Waiting at the bar while the bartender makes Mommy's drink.

The view. I cannot exaggerate how wonderful this place was.

Going out on a limb and posting myself in a swimsuit on the beach with Captain Jack Sparrow. He was fantastic. He did the entire bit - all the mannerisms and the way he talks. Awesome.

The view from the adult beach (also where I saw Captain Jack Sparrow).

Back at the family beach with the kids. Evie decided to bury herself in sand (after she buried Luke, of course).

Back on the boat, here are just some of the characters we met.

Evie and George met my favorite princess - Ariel.

George was up past his bedtime every night and fell asleep a lot. This is one of the times Uncle Tom carried him all the way to the room from the theater on another deck. That man is wonderful!

George got a kiss from Minnie!

Nassau!

Group picture as we waited to board our boat to Blue Lagoon.

Coconut bowling at Blue Lagoon

Enjoying a cocktail and reading my Book Club book (oh, yeah!).

Evie discovered this tree stump with hundreds of hermit crabs. They were all over the island. The big one you see in this tree stump was the size of my hand. Seriously. Evie spent a lot of time with the hermit crabs and showed each member of our party this wonderful "Hermit Crab City" that she discovered. I have to admit, it was pretty cool.