My attempts to document the rest of our cruise (
read about day one here) before it's
forever lost in the mommy fog have made some more progress this week. As much as I enjoy looking at the pictures and reliving the memories, I'll be happy to finish writing about it. Once it's in writing I can make space in my brain
for new concerns, like homeschooling or plans for celebrating the 4th of July...
When we woke up on the second day of our cruise we were just
getting ready to pull into port at Nassau. We snuck the kids up to the grown-ups
only area (shhh…) at the front of the ship so we could see the island as we
approached and snapped a quick picture of the view before breakfast. I stayed
up the night before memorizing our Navigator to make sure we didn't miss
anything. We had just enough time to eat breakfast and get autographs from the
princesses before our excursion in the morning. Breakfast is my favorite meal
of the day anyway, and Disney didn't disappoint. There were so many options; it
was truly a global buffet. If you want eggs, waffles, and sushi at 8am, Disney
can accommodate you. I opted for doughnuts. Close enough. The only reason I
practiced any restraint at all was knowing I'd be squeezing myself into a
swimsuit later in the day.
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| Good morning! |
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| Healthy food! (Only 1 doughnut!) |
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| Nassau, here we come! |
I left Matthew finishing breakfast plate #3 (in terms of
food, I think we actually made money on this cruise...) and took the kids to go
wait in line to meet the princesses. This was really the only line we had to
wait in for our whole cruise, and considering it was 45 air-conditioned minutes
to meet six princesses I can’t complain. Side note: I could not understand the
appeal of meeting characters until I took The Bug to Disney for the first time. We got her an autograph book, and now I am
like mom on a mission. ONLY FOUR PAGES
LEFT!
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| This is what The Bug sees when waiting in line with us. |
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| This is what we see. |
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| Tiana |
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| Snow White |
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| Ariel |
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| I love how they make each little kid feel special! |
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| Rapunzel |
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| Cinderella |
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| Belle (My favorite! A princess loves to read!) |
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| My own royal family. |
When we finished rubbing shoulders with royalty we departed
for our off ship excursion: a glass-bottom boat tour I booked online through
the Disney Cruise Line website. It was
reasonably priced and I figured it would be a good way for my not-strong-swimmers
to see the fish without me potentially being touched by one while in the water.
On our way out to the reefs we were given rum punch and a trivia tour of
Paradise Island until it was time to see the fish. The first were interesting
for about 5 minutes, but we live too close to Sea World to be really amazed. When
our tour was over we made a quick stop at the Straw Market in Nassau before
heading back to the ship to get ready for pirate night.
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| But first, let me take a selfie. |
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| Pirates! |
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| Atlantis |
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| Fishies. Terrifying little fishies. |
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| Those eyes though. I can't even. |
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| Please, no pole dancing jokes. He just likes to climb things. |
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| A nice, refreshing cliche... |
Pinterest is full of ideas to help you make the most of
Mickey’s Pirates in the Caribbean Party. I made some easy costumes for the kids
and bought some foam swords and hats (thank you Target dollar spot!) and we
grabbed our autograph books to meet some real pirates. The Bug and Bean liked
meeting Jake (of Neverland fame) and Pirate Minnie, but Captain Jack Sparrow
was absolutely enchanting (and convincing)!
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| That's her pirate face. Arrrr! |
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| SWOON. |
In my mind we were going to enjoy a nice family dinner and
then take in the pirate show and fireworks together. In reality, we ordered
room service for the kids, made a nursery reservation for The Bean and checked The
Bug into childcare for Tinkerbell’s Talent Show so we could enjoy a grown up
meal in peace. Unfortunately, there was something funny in that coconut Matthew
had on the island, so *I* enjoyed a nice grown-up meal (and the rest of the
wine) by myself. Matthew took his dinner to go and went to watch Maleficent
until his tummy felt better.
I picked up The Bean (at 10:30 he was still WIDE awake) but The
Bug was more interested in finishing the pillowcase Pluto gave her at his
pajama party than seeing a bunch of swashbuckling scallywags set off fireworks.
The boy and I went to deck 11 for the show but his head was on my shoulder halfway
through the fireworks. My sleeping pirate and I collected big sister and the
kiddos were soon sleeping, leaving me to make plans with my copy of the
Navigator and a second plate from dinner.
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| Jolly Roger (or JR) the host of our party. |
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| The Bean wore all of these to the pirate party, so I let The Bug use them for a nightlight. |
