Trip Report Land and Sea Disney Christmas Trip Report!

Well, Its that time again , another trip you plan for and get excited for to have it fly by and be over with in a wink of an eye! Lets Start this report!

Cast: My Parents Penny and Tom, Myself Beth 29, My daughter Madyson 5, My son Beau 3. Coming in after the cruise we have Jeff 29, and Haylee 7.
Where: Pop Century Dec 1-3 , Disney Dream 3-7th, Pop Century Dec 7th-11th.

We woke up excited for our trip it was Saturday December 1st. We live in Chicago and it was COLD! We packed in my grandmas car and headed to Midway Airport for our southwest flight!
After arriving way to early we were on our way to the most magical place on earth!

We arrived around 5:30 and waited for my parents to pick us up! We headed to Art of Animation for Dinner and we walked around the grounds after all that time in the plane!

After wearing out the kids we walked over to Pop Century got settled for the night and got ready to go to Universal Studios the next day!

 

[Disneydreamer23]

December 2nd-
Day 2- We woke up excited to get to Universal since we were only going for 1 day! We got dressed and headed out. We arrived around 10:30. We headed to Islands of Adventure first! Our first ride was Cat in the hat, the kids loved it so we ended up riding it 5 times with no wait After Cat in the hat we headed to the Carousel and Spider Man. We also hit the storm ride and Flight of the Hippogriff. We had to do that one 3 times as well. By that time I was starving so we headed to the diner by the Betty Boop stuff, I got a pizza and breadsticks for the kids and I to split.
After we ate we headed to Hogwarts Express and headed to Universal!
It was around 2 when We got to the Universal side, We wanted to do the Christmas Parade which started in 2 hours, We headed to Diagon Ally and rode Escape to Gringotts. My daughter was a little scared because of Voldemort. After that we headed to Men in black, Whirl and Hurl then it was time for the Parade, It was AMAZING!

Due to Living in the Moment this is my only picture of the day!
We had an hour till Park closing so we let the kids play a game in Simpsons land, then headed to ET and we made Minions with just enough time to get on ! After a long day we headed over to NBC to have dinner.
Well to say the least it was not a great experience, my mom has ALOT of allergies and they sent out food she ended up getting sick after she took a few bites realizing something was on it that shouldn't have. I wont be going here again. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to pack for the cruise!!

 

[Disneydreamer23]

December 3rd Monday- CRUISE DAY!!!!
We woke up and checked out of POP Century checked in with the cruise staff up front and got ready to get onto the bus, This was my first cruise and I didn't know what to expect. As we pulled into dock and I seen the cruise I was in Shock how big it actually is! It was amazing. We checked in got our room and headed to lunch at Cabanas. The food was decent but I was more excited for the sit down dining later that night.
After eating and settling in we decided to check out the open house at the Kids club.

The kids loved it and so we decided to sign them up to get taken after they eat since we had the late dining. It was an hour till our first show of the evening so we went to the Sail away party.

It was cute! After that we headed to get seats for our first show "Golden Mickeys." At that time someone came and asked my daughter if she wanted to be in a play! She of course said yes, they took her away my son fell asleep and the show began!
When Snow white came out I recognized one of the seven dwarves.

They allowed taping during this scene which was awesome my daughter loved it ! After the show we headed to our first dining experience at Animators Palate. Atmosphere amazing! Food was decent but not my favorite of the trip, my kids ate and got taken to the kids club and My Parents and myself relaxed for an adult dinner !

After dinner we grabbed the kids because they were having a holiday party in the lobby, where we seen some characters and Santa Clause, My son did not want to leave the death star he was driving so he stayed in and my daughter came to join the fun!

After the fun it was getting late so we decided to get the kids some ice cream cones and head back to the room. We did some looking out the verandah and fell asleep

... but not before getting some coke zero for the room !
Up Next : Day 2 , the bahamas

 

[Disneydreamer23]

December 4th- Bahamas
When I woke up I instantly went outside on the verandah, beautiful we were pulling into the bahamas and it was just amazing, My mom and I sat there for a while before the kids woke up and joined us, we got dressed while docking took some pictures and headed to breakfast the Royal Palace.

The breakfast buffet amazing! I loved every bite that I took!
We decided to get off to to go the straw Market and then get back onto the ship, it was around 11:30 when we headed off!

We got some key chains for people back home and headed back onto the ship, the kids wanted to go to the kids club so we headed there after grabbing of course ice cream, that became My sons favorite part of the cruise.. the unlimited ice cream!
We took some pictures of course along the way!

We dropped them off around 2 and My Step dad went back to the room for a nap and My mom and I decided to go on deck 4 for a walk. UP next: Part 2 !

 

[Disneydreamer23]

Part 2-
My mom and I walked around the ship 15 times so our feet were wearing out, we decided to head up to Flo's cafe for some fruit, the fruit on the cruise was by far the best I have ever had especially the watermelon. We decided since alot of people were off the boat It was the perfect time to go swimming ! We grabbed the kids got dressed and headed to the Pool!

After swimming an hour my daughter wanted to go on the aqua duct, so my son decided to take a break and relax with ... take a guess??

We waited 30 minutes for the slide and it was so amazing ! Being able to look out on the Ocean like that! After we were done swimming We were getting hungry for lunch, I have an allergy to chlorine so I ran up and showered and headed down with the kids clothes, we changed and had lunch at Cabanas. It was nearing 5 so we headed back to the room to get ready for our next show " believe ." This is when my son told me tonight he didn't wanna go to the kids club, he then asked if we can get popcorn . Using my old mommy trick " If you try the kids club after dinner tonight il buy you any popcorn bucket you want." 22 dollars later we had a pluto bucket! We stopped at the gift shop so the kids could use some one their gift cards , I decided this trip each child will get a 150.00 gift card to last the whole trip to help with over buying! My daughter picked 2 stuffed animals , my son picked a wand and I got a cruise pin! We headed to the show. Another amazing show, I couldnt believe how amazing . I felt like we we were watching a broadway show!

After the show we headed to dinner at Royal Palace, this was my favorite one!
Today we were celebrating my " 30th" So I had a few cocktails, they were quite strong haha

Dinner was amazing, the kids went off to the club and My parents and I headed back to the room around 10, I decided to go look around the ship and deliever our Cruise Extender Gifts that we signed up to do. I enjoyed the time alone checking out the ship.

11:30 rolled around and I went to grab the kids that of course didn't want to leave, as we were headed back to the room Beau wanted ice cream! They shut it down at midnight and we made it at 11:58, got a cone sat on deck and then headed back. Showers and jammies and then I went on the Verandah to call home to check on the house and the dogs, every thing was good so I took a shower and headed to bed. Tommorow was waiting for us and it was Castaway Key Fun!

 

[DisSplash]

Love the Family T-shirts, and the view pulling into Nassau is so nice from the verandah. Wish I was there now! The Gingerbread House in the Atrium looks amazing - we are taking our first Merrytime Christmas cruise in December 2019, and I just cannot wait to see all of the Christmas decorations and theming and activities! Your kids also look like they were having a blast in the water play area ... I love it when the ship is that empty.

 

[Disneydreamer23]

December 5th-
We woke up and wanted to head out to Castaway Key because we had a frozen fast pass for 1 pm and then they had gingerbread cookie decorating at 3, so we headed off the ship around 10 after breakfast of course!
Castaway Key was beautiful after seeing it for Christmas I don't know if I could ever go back unless it is Christmas time!

We went for a dip in the water and did the Character Dance party, it started to rain at that point pretty hard so we decided to head back to the ship, once we got back on we went and got changed from the rain and headed to the Frozen Meet and Greet!

We had 20 minutes to kill so we went to get some ice cream and then headed to Gingerbread Making!

It was amazing and delicious! I usually Don't like gingerbread this one took the cake for sure!
Tonight was the Pirates Party so we asked the kids if they wanted to hang out in the kids club for a little while before the party and they wanted to, we brought them up and My mom and I decided to go to Deck 4 for a walk.

on our walk we seen this strange guy sleeping so we took a picture of him... just kidding that is my Step dad haha.
After the walk I wanted to show my mom the 21 and over area or was is 18, not sure but I wanted to show her so we wondered up there grabbed a chair and just looked out on the Water for a while.

Up Next: Part 2

 

[Disneydreamer23]

Part 2-
We had an hour until Dinner so we headed back to the room and got ready for Pirate Night. We got to take some good pictures since the kids weren't there to bug us haha

We headed to the Kids club and brought the kids back to the room to get dressed, my son Who has Austism was not into keeping on his Hook outfit so he just wore a bandana, my daughter wanted to be Uma.
We had Dinner at Royal Palace again tonight which was amazing . After dinner we went to get a spot for the pirate Show and Fireworks!

Seeing Fireworks on the Water as simply AMAZING!
After the fireworks Cabanas had a buffet we swung by grabbed tacos and desserts! We ate and headed back to the room around midnight, after baths and showers we were falling asleep and thinking about our last full day on the cruise!

 

[Disneydreamer23]

Love the Family T-shirts, and the view pulling into Nassau is so nice from the verandah. Wish I was there now! The Gingerbread House in the Atrium looks amazing - we are taking our first Merrytime Christmas cruise in December 2019, and I just cannot wait to see all of the Christmas decorations and theming and activities! Your kids also look like they were having a blast in the water play area ... I love it when the ship is that empty.

You will be in awe the whole experience was MAGICAL! This was my first cruise and will definatly not be my last! Have a great Trip this year!

 

[Disneydreamer23]

December 6th-
Day at Sea
We woke up and headed to breakfast at Cabanas today, after breakfast we had a while till our show so we walked around the ship and ran into a princess,

We decided to go swimming and did that most of the day until 4, then we went and got some ice cream of course and took the kids to the kids club, my mom and I took another walk and then went to get some fruit from Flos cafe. After our walk we picked up my step dad and went to grab the kids, tonights show was Beauty and the Beast, now I am big into theater and this show BLEW me away it made me cry it was amazing, after the show it was our last sit down Dinner and it was at a new restruant that was princess themed, they had french onion soup which is my favorite!

We were so full we waddled away from dinner around 10 pm , the kids were in the kids club but I promised them we would do the game on the ship where you go around to find a criminal, we picked the " who stole the missing puppies game." Was it fun of course but man! They send you through the whole ship, I walked over 40,000 steps that day! We completed the mission around 12:01 , perfect timing because they stop it at 12! We headed back to the room took showers and the kids went to bed, I enjoyed my last night on the balcony looking over the water.
Up next: back to Flordia, and Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party!

 

[Disneydreamer23]

December 7th-
We woke up and looked out on the Verandah to see we are back in Florida Booo!!! We had to be on the Magical Express at 9 so we woke got up and headed to Cabanas for our last Breakfast.

I enjoyed some amazing dessert for breakfast!
We headed down and grabbed our luggage got onto the Magical Express and headed back, on our way back our bus BROKE! So we had to wait an hour and a new bus was there and we were on our way. We arrived at POP around 12, My friends Jeff and his daughter were staying at Art of Animation so I decided to get off there and surprise them, Beau got off with me and Madyson stayed With my Parents. They were Swimming and Beau wanted in and I had extra shorts so he got in as well!
After swimming we changed the kids my Parents picked us up and we headed to check out the Christmas Party!
As we were walking in seeing that castle always my Favorite part of my Trip, it was amazing. We had lunch at Pecos Bills I had Nachos with the little toppings bar so amazing extra Cheese and Lettuce ! I also had a cocktail since it came with the Meal! Kids had Mac and Cheese! We ate then hit up a bunch of rides and then got a seat for the Parade.

After the Parade we did more rides and the fireworks, we loved all the amazing cookies and treats at the party! Snow Cones were a big hit for the kids!
We were pooped and closed the party

We left dropped Haylee and Jeff off at Art and we headed to Pop Century and passed out very quick, the next day was Animal Kingdom!

 

[DisSplash]

I'll bet is was hard to get off of that ship! But at least you had a WDW visit right behind it!! I am sure that the promise of that WDW visit made it much easier for the kids to get off of the ship.
And what a bummer about your bus breaking down - but it sounds like they remedied that fairly quickly, as you only lost an hour. But still ... I would have been so stressed over that!
Looking forward to reading and seeing some more of your WDW fun!