Trip Report Our (mostly) Dream-y June 2014 Vacation

Hi all! We returned from our trip 5 days ago, and I'm ready to relive it through this report!

First, let me introduce myself and my family in case you aren't familiar (here is my PTR if you are interested: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/my-dream-vacation-a-june-2014-ptr.865397/)
Here we are on the last day of this trip:

Me (Amy), my 6 year old, Owen, my 11 year old, Logan, and my 9 year old, Lily. Also on this trip were my parents (Nanny and Papaw to the kids), my brother, Scott, my SIL, Beth, and my twin 4 year old nieces, Macy and Allison.

Unfortunately, my husband wasn't able to take this trip with us. I am greatly disappointed by this, as he ended up not starting the fire academy like he was supposed to! Long story short, the city of Columbus sucks! They told him that one of the 40 spots was being held for him as long as he passed all of the testing. Well, he did pass all the tests, but they said his labwork took too long getting back and they already gave all the spots to other guys. They guaranteed him a spot in the December class, but he also had to be available the first three weeks of the June academy, "just in case" someone didn't show up or dropped out. Of course, that didn't happen, so he missed the whole vacation and still won't start until December! The only good thing to come of this, is that my mom had me schedule a cruise in October for just me and Brian!

Ok, back to the actual trip! Let me just say that I will not be going on any more family vacations with my SIL and nieces. I will say that their time management (or lack thereof) is much different than mine, and not say anything else about it! We had a great time despite our differences!

We had a 6am flight on Wed. morning, so we drove from Dayton to Columbus Tues. night and stayed in a hotel. Here are the kids getting ready to leave our house:

We made sure to leave early enough so we could visit a few stores for the kids once we got to Columbus.


We grabbed dinner at Max and Erma's. It was about this time that my stomach started bothering me. I just assumed it was nerves (I was really nervous about making sure 9 other people had a good time on this vacation!) and being upset that Brian wasn't going with us. Well, it was more than that, and I was up sick all night!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then I texted Logan on the Wave phone to have him come back to the room. We then went to get Lily and Owen. I liked how they were able to tell me exactly what room they were in when I got there! They both complained that it was boring when I picked them up! Oh well, they are the ones who begged to go in the first place! We then decided to try the Midship Detective Agency. We had a lot of fun, other than the arguing that ensued while deciding who got to go next!!



In the middle, we ended up on the pool deck, and had to stop for some ice cream! I indulged myself, so no pics this time!
One more pic of Nassau from there.

We finished our game, and headed back to the room to get ready for pirate night.

We then headed down to meet Pirate Minnie and Mickey before dinner. We were a little early, and wasted some time in the atrium first.





Then Peter Pan showed up and played hide and seek with a group of kids.

Finally, it was time to meet Minnie.


Then we headed upstairs to get in line for Mickey.
The kids ran downstairs to get Peter Pan's autograph.

And I took pics while waiting.




It still was not quite time for dinner, and Tinkerbell was out, so we decided to meet her.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then it was time for dinner.

We were seated at the big table in the middle of the room!



I loved the bread baskets!


The kids got these hats:

Logan was starting to not feel well.

He ended up leaving early to go back to the room and take a nap. He actually ended up sleeping through the night and missing out on the rest of the pirate night festivities.
Owen, however, had a great time at dinner!

These two sat at the table next to us and hammed it up when I started taking pictures!


Then they moved to our table and interacted with us. It was so fun!



They drew this on our tablecloth, then blamed it on the kids!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I ordered the duck confit to start.

I did not care for it at all! Just not my thing!
Then I had the potato and leek soup. I liked it much better than the duck!

Then I had the filet for my entree. It was good as well.

The dessert menu:

Owen enjoyed his ice cream!

I had the Sweet Temptations (peanut butter mousse, mango cheesecake, and Tahitian Vanilla Creme Brulee). All were good.

We all were excited to be at the "best" table, but it was so large that it made it difficult to have a conversation with anyone other than the person that was right beside you. I happened to be sitting by Owen and Logan's empty chair, so I didn't have the most titillating conversation that night!!
After, we headed back to the room to check on Logan.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Lily was the only one who wanted to see the Pirate show, so we headed up to deck 12 to get a spot.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then back to the room to get Owen for Villains Tonight.
Beautiful view from the verandah.


Then the three of us headed to the theater to get a balcony seat.

After, Lily and my dad and I went up to get a spot for the fireworks. Unfortunately, we didn't pick the best spot, but it was really crowded by the time we got up there!





Then a few pics on the way back to our rooms.

 

[ginadee]

This looks fantastic. Ill be on that in a couple of months so this was great to see. Thanks.

 

[TheMouseFan]

This looks fantastic. Ill be on that in a couple of months so this was great to see. Thanks.

You're welcome! And thanks for reading!

 

[stevehousse]

The cruise sounds so fun! Will have to try and go in a few years when the kids get a little older!

Do you end up back at Disney World after your cruise? Not to jump ahead, but I am just curious! Loving your report so far!

 

[TheMouseFan]

The cruise sounds so fun! Will have to try and go in a few years when the kids get a little older!

Do you end up back at Disney World after your cruise? Not to jump ahead, but I am just curious! Loving your report so far!

The cruise was fantastic! You will definitely have to try one! Yes, we were in the parks for 5 days after the cruise!

 

[olinecoach61]

Great TR, thanks for sharing!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Great TR, thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Next up was the day I had most been looking forward to...Castaway Cay! It did not disappoint! The only complaint I had was that the day was not long enough!

Logan and I were up early to get ready for the 5k. I also had to get everything ready for Lily and Owen to go ashore with my parents. The view from the verandah that morning:


Logan enjoying some cereal while I ate my room service meal of fruit and muffins.

We finally caught sight of Castaway Cay.



It was interesting to see the whole docking process.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then it was time for Logan and I to head down to the meet up for the 5k. Luckily, Logan was feeling better this morning. Not totally back to normal, but he said he felt well enough to try the 5k. I had planned to walk it anyway, so no real change in the plans!
Our final destination was Evolution, but I had to get a few other pics along the way.

Another photobomb by Logan!

We signed in when we got there and received the pins for our bibs and they went over the route with everyone.


We had a little hiccup trying to get off the ship. Apparently, I needed to put my own name on the list of adults that could take Logan off the ship since he wasn't in my stateroom. Silly me, I just assumed that my name didn't need to be on there since I was the one filling out the form!! I wasn't the only one that this happened to, and guest services ran the form down to us to fill out correctly. By that time though, the rest of the 5k participants were halfway to the start point, so we had to walk very quickly to catch up! We made it though! Here we are right before starting:


We started off jogging just so we wouldn't be trampled, but we quickly slowed to a fast paced walk. Luckily, there was a nice breeze the whole time we were walking. We were definitely sweating, but it wasn't unbearable!



Water break:

It was always the same water station, but you hit it 4 different times through the course.





Almost done:


Finished!

We finished in about 49 minutes. I didn't think that was too bad considering Logan wasn't 100% and it was so hot!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We took the tram back as far as we could, then we walked the rest of the way back to the ship to clean up a little.




We ran into our room host, Kerry, on the way back out. He wanted to make sure everything was okay since we were on the ship and not on the island! It was very sweet! He was so concerned!
Then we made our way back out to the beach to meet up with everyone else.







Stitch was having fun playing in the bushes in between his photos.

We stopped along the way to buy our 5k tshirts and a few other things before finding the others. This is how we found them:

I wish we could start every day like this!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We spent the rest of the morning in the water.










My three wanted to go check out Pelican Plunge. I tried to tell Lily and Owen that there wouldn't be anything to do but the big slides, but they insisted on going anyhow.




This is how they spent their time after they realized I was right!

Logan at the top:

Logan at the bottom:


Then we made our way back over to everyone else.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Some more relaxing was done in the water until lunch time! I loved being able to sit in the chairs in the water and do nothing! It was a very relaxing way of keeping track of the kids while they played with their sand toys on the beach and in the shallow water!





Then we headed up to lunch.


Everyone ate well!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Logan and I had to leave before everyone else to make it to parasailing. Logan was in a snit on the way there. He had himself so worked up, I thought he was going to refuse to go! I didn't give him the option because 1) I knew he would like it once we were in the air, and 2) I would have to pay for it whether he went or not, and it wasn't inexpensive!!

We took our time getting over to Marge's Barges.

 

[TheMouseFan]

Before we knew it, we were in the boat and on the way out to open water! That was when Logan told me he was more worried about the boat ride than the actual parasailing! We go to Tennessee every summer and spend a week on the lake in a speed boat or a pontoon, so this just amazed me when he said it! He got over it very quickly, and absolutely loved the whole experience!
Some pics on the way out:




There were two other pairs on our excursion, and they both went before us. Finally it was our turn!















Way too quickly, our time was up! I was more worried about the landing than anything else! You had to land on your feet on the back of the boat! No worries, it really was very easy!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we returned to shore.


Logan and I then made our way back, again, to everyone else and spent a little more time in the water. We made a stop along the way to get ice cream, since we didn't have time after lunch like everyone else did! They had the most incredible banana soft serve!! I sure hope they still have it in October!



Sadly, it was soon time to head back to the ship to clean up for dinner and to start packing.



I was so sad that our time at Castaway Cay was done!! Not to worry! The cruise I scheduled for me and Brian in October has two stops at CC!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

On the way to dinner, we stopped for some last minute shopping. Among other things, I finally decided which Chamilia charm to purchase.

The one on the far right is my new one. Here it is, a little closer:

Dinner that night was at:





We were seated at a table right under one of the screens where Crush would appear.