Reminiscing Our Disney Cruise

This one's for my blog buddy, Melissa, who will soon be departing on her Disney Cruise voyage!

Disney Wonder- November 4th-November 8th, 2007

The morning we had been waiting for had finally arrived! After spending 4 glorious days at the Disney resort, we would be driving down to Cape Canaveral, Florida to board the Disney Wonder!

2007 marked a special year for us. We were in the double digits baby! Our 10th Wedding Anniversary! It is hard to believe 10 years had passed by us. I suppose the saying, time flies when you're having fun, is definitely correct. In the past 10 years we welcomed two beautiful children, bought our very first home, a few cars, and have grown deeper in love with each other with each passing day. (I know that sounds corny, but it's true!) So in order to mark such a special milestone in our life, we decided we would relive our honeymoon trip and vacation on a cruise.

Since the children have never cruised before, we decided we would play it safe and book a 4 day cruise with a mini vacation at Disney World prior to it. After all, we had no clue if they would get sea sick or start whining they wanted to go home during day 2. We needed not worry about that! In fact, they were begging to stay on the ship longer by the time Day 2 was done!

We decided to go for breakfast at the Polynesian resort before driving the hour it would take to get to the port. We were so excited, we were done with breakfast in no time and we anxiously hit the road.

Before you knew it, we were crossing the bridge and the breathtaking view of the Disney Wonder came into sight. We were all in awe. She looked even prettier than the videos and brochures. Checking in was extremely quick and painless. We got boarding pass number 6. Since boarding would begin at 12pm, we decided to take a look around the port terminal. Characters came out and took pictures with the children. We went outside and watched all the cast members busying themselves preparing the ship for our embarkation.

In true Disney fashion, boarding commenced at exactly 12pm. It only took about 25 minutes for them to get to calling those guests with boarding pass 6. We excitedly approached the Mickey Ears and our dream cruise began! We took our picture before heading to the gangway and onto the ship. Just remembering them introducing our family on the loudspeaker when we entered and having all the cast members clapping and welcoming us aboard brings tears to my eyes, even today!

As planned, we went up to deck 9 and Leilani and Christopher made a mad dash to the pratically empty Mickey pool. They enjoyed it this way for about 90 minutes! We had to literally drag them out of the pool in order to get lunch at Beach Blanket Buffet. The food throughout the whole cruise was delicious! Afterwards we decided to go see our room. We got a wonderful deal since we booked a secret porthole room. It is an oustide room, with minimum obstruction for the price of an inside stateroom. The room was perfect! We showered and got ready for the safety drill. Again, quick and painless! Before you knew it we were up on Deck 9 waiting for the Sail Away party to begin! And our vacation officially began!

The four days went by in the blink of an eye! The restaurants served delicious food. Christopher and Leilani both needed to be dragged out of the Club and Lab. They wanted to spend every waking moment there. Disney's island, Castaway Cay, is definitely a paradise in the Carribean. We loved every moment we spent as a family. And thanks to the wonders of Disney, every moment was magical. We took in the shows at the theater every evening and enjoyed ourselves immensely. (Melissa, do not miss the DREAMS show! The kids will absolutely LOVE it!) And Mike and I enjoyed our one on one time together. We managed to score reservations to the adult only restaurant Palo's for brunch on our at sea day, and let me say it was amazing!

It was sad when it was time to disembark. We said goodbye to all the wonderful cast members that helped make our stay a wonderful one. And we drove away with the spark that another cruise will come on the horizon soon!