Disney Cruise- Day 1

Playing the drums in the French Quarter.

Leaving the lobby at Port Orleans.

Our transportation to Cape Canaveral.

The gangway to board the ship.

Our embarkation photo.

The beautiful deck.

The Mickey pool.

Mandatory safety drill.

Faith in her life vest.

Grace is about to get her groove on during the sail way party.

It's time to wave bon voyage!

Grace and mom.

"Hi Minnie! Hi Mickey!"

"And, we're off!"

Daddy and the girls look out the porthole.

The ceiling of the lobby. It was similar to the Bellagio in Vegas.

The girls had many opportunities to meet the characters with little to no waiting.

Yes, they got up on stage and started to take control of the mic.

How do they even know how to do this?

Dinner at Animator's Palate.

Morgan and his girls.

The walls start out black and white but slowly end up in color by the time dinner is over.

Grace wants Dad to try on her bow. He's such a good daddy. :)

We came back to our cabin to find the bunk beds turned down.

Faith wanted the top bunk.

We found a swan towel and chocolate mints on our bed.

We're now home and getting settled back into our routine. We all remained healthy on our trip, thanks to all your prayers. It was a great family vacation with lots of fun memories and new experiences. The girls are quite the little travelers. They were as perfect as can be on the 5 hour flight back home. I will post on each day of the cruise, followed by a summary at the end and then finish up with one last post of the rest of our trip. Here goes day 1...

On the morning of the 19th, we left Port Orleans French Quarter and boarded a Disney Cruise bus from our hotel that took us straight to Port Canaveral aboard the Disney Wonder. Morgan and I have been on quite a few cruises and we have to say that the Disney Wonder is truly the best cruise ship we've ever been on. We enjoyed the subtle Disney decor, the opulence of the lobby, the squeaky clean and enormous ship, and the fact that Disney cabins are 25% larger than most cabins in the industry. And believe me, when you're traveling with kids, an extra 25% is huge. They actually had two bathrooms in the cabin and one of them had a shower and tub combo. Tubs are not the norm on cruise ships but of course, Disney has the family in mind. We also commented on how comfortable our king size bed was. On top of all this, Disney's concern for health and safety for its passengers were of top priority. Hand sanitizers and wipes were passed out before entering a restaurant or coming back from port. There were also signs posted everywhere that asked you to wash your hands often. We appreciated the conscious effort by the cruise line since no one wants to be sick on a cruise ship.

By the time we got situated and unpacked into our cabin, we had enough time for lunch on the deck and the mandatory safety drill. After that, the ship was in party mode so we made our way to the sail away party on the top deck. The girls were still tired from the day before so they barely made it through the party as Faith began to fall asleep in Morgan's arms. We went back to our cabin and took a long nap before making our way to dinner. Each night of our 3 night cruise, we were scheduled to have dinner at a different restaurant on board the ship. First up was Animator's Palate. This is the restaurant that starts out with black and white sketches of different Disney characters on the walls. As you progress through dinner, the pictures slowly begin to change colors and by the time you're done, the restaurant has transformed into a colorful animation. Although we were disappointed at the service and food at this first restaurant, it was neat to experience the much anticipated and famed Animator's Palate. On further conversation with the restaurant manager, he sincerely apologized and said that sometimes, the first night out is a bit hectic on the crew. We kept our high hopes for the quality of food since lunch was wonderful and most people we talked to about the cruise seemed to think that the food was top notch.

After dinner, we ran into several of the Disney characters around the ship and snapped some cute photos. We loved the fact that the girls could see the characters without waiting in lengthy lines. Then we ended our evening at the ship's night club where it was family dance night. In the morning, we'd be docked in the Bahamas and looking forward to a sunny day at the beach.

Sail Away Party.

Dancing Queens.