Surprise! Instead of going camping we are going on The Disney Magic...Our first cruise trip report.

Well I think I need to start this soon before I completely forget what I want to report...So without further ado here is the story of our cruise, or some of it anyway...

Our family consists of myself, my handy husband whom we will call HH, my 10year old daughter "S" and my 5year old son "W." My HH is not too comfortable with this whole trip report thing so he asked that I not show many pictures of him or the kids. I can work within those parameters...

Anyway, for months we were planning a camping trip on the Oregon Coast for spring break, I had requested March 27th-April 7th off of work and been approved. In early January the "kids sail free" on The Magic out of Galveston offer came across my email. I of course went to the Disney Cruise Line website and checked the dates. There was one 8 night Bahamian cruise that left March 29th and returned April 6th...! I cautiously emailed everyone's favorite Kingdom Konsultant @Disneyfalcon and got some price quotes. It was obviously meant to be because we could afford it! So without giving it too much consideration, lest I talk myself out of it... I just decided to go for it and we reserved a category 10 gty room. Then I found super cheap airfare from Spokane to Houston on Southwest. Then my HH and I decided to not tell the kids...

It was a ridiculously hard secret to keep, especially as we got closer to departure day. I had to pack the suitcases while they were at school and then put them back in the closet to hide them. Finally the morning of March 27th arrived. We had originally planned on not revealing anything until the morning of the cruise...but I just couldn't handle it anymore. So as we got ready to leave for our 5 hour drive to Spokane, my daughter finally asked why we weren't taking the camping trailer camping. I responded, "We don't need it, dad and I decided we would sleep in tents instead." Her face just fell, I guess the idea of 10 nights in a tent during the rainy season in Oregon wasn't too appealing.

I asked the kids to sit down for a minute as I retrieved their Mickey Ears. I looked at them and said in a serious tone, "Dad and I have been keeping something from you for the last couple of months." That got my daughters attention, I think she thought it was going to be some kind of life changing bad news. So I handed them their Mickey "horns" as my son calls them and said, "We aren't going camping, but where we are going you are going to need these, we are going on a Disney Cruise and we are leaving right now!! "

Cue the stunned silence.

After about ten seconds, my daughter said, "What? What?! WHAAAT!!!!!! " Then she started jumping up and down and screaming. I almost started to cry...I loved surprising them with that.

We loaded up for what would be a very long but thankfully uneventful travel day. I took no pictures. We landed at 1am at Houston's Hobby airport and were met by the Supershuttle driver Mohammed (thank you @sweetpee_1993 for recommending I call them) And by 2:30am we were tucked into our beds at the adorable Harbor House Hotel in Galveston Texas.

First real vacation day March 28th in Galveston Texas

This was the view from our hotel room that we woke up to. The Magic would be parked out there to whisk us off on our vacation the next day. We had a whole day to kill so we explored everything within walking distance of our hotel.

First stop the Museum of Offshore Oil Drilling, no trip to the gulf coast of Texas would be complete without it.

All jokes aside, it was actually very interesting. They had an actual oil rig that you could explore.

It was directly next to our hotel. Here is a view of the hotel from The Ocean Star.

On the opposite side of our hotel you can see the sailboat mast sticking up, that was the tall ship Elissa and the Seaport Museum. Our next stop.

You can see all the oil rigs in the bay in the background. And this is the back of our hotel. What an awesome location!

We loved the Harbor House, the building was a renovated old warehouse on the pier. I wish I had taken more photos of the room. They had two queen beds, a couch, a fridge and a microwave. The folks at the desk were super friendly. The continental breakfast was pretty sparse, but it was free so I can't complain.

Directly behind the Oil rig museum was Joe's Crab Shack, we have never eaten at one before and since it was so close, we went over for lunch.

Lunch was good. I don't know if I would go out of my way to eat there again, but it was fun. Our server wrote on everyone's bibs to personalize them. My HH was "The king of all crabs." S's said, "Too cute to be crabby." And W got, "Mommy's little shrimp." I didn't get a bib, because I ordered coconut shrimp and I guess he just thought I was a neat and tidy eater...

After lunch we did a walk around The Strand, which is the older business section of Galveston.

This place was awesome, we bought a bunch of truffles to eat...

Later on we got dinner at Fuddruckers which has really good burgers, we have one where we live...so not very adventurous of us. But we just wanted a good burger...Then my husband and I sampled the local microbrew on the steps of the hotel while our kids ran around and played with rocks...simple minds as they say...

Everyone was excited to get to bed so we could wake up and walk here...

 

[Sumrdog]

April 5th sea day

We awoke to rough seas and wind on the balcony. We had been sleeping with the door open and at some point in the night it began making a negative pressure type sucking noise so I closed the door.

I was feeling fine and was so relieved. We went up to the buffet for breakfast and S and I avoided the salmon. I have no idea if that's really what made us sick the day before, but in my mind it is. So I got some fruit, and cream of wheat. I got S to try to the cream of wheat which she liked. It was our last day on the ship and it looked like it would be an indoor day. The wind was howling and the waves were big. It was pretty neat to watch.

Our first activity of the day was a family craft. We made masquerade masks.

Ta da! My HH's is the one with full feathers, mine is above his, W's is the black and S made the pink. Not sure when we will have an occasion to wear these, but I tucked them safely away just in case we get invited to a masquerade ball this year.

After the masks S wanted us to watch Jack Jack's diaper dash with her. It was hilarious...the babies had no idea they were in a race.

It drew quite a crowd.

I noticed this little detail rimming the atrium after the baby race.

After the diaper dash, we dropped S at The Lab because she wanted to do the Friendship Rocks show. At 1pm we went to watch the show, we didn't really know what to expect. But basically all the kids get brought on the stage, they sing a little song and Mickey and Minnie came out. They showed a nice slide show of the kids from the week and a picture of our son was on it. And S got a free t-shirt!

After Friendship Rocks,(which you cannot say without raising your right hand in the air as you say, "Rocks!") We went back to The Promenade Lounge for more crafts. This time it was bookmark making. S and her friend from the club decided to turn their bookmarks into goggles which was pretty funny.

Then I got out the deck of cards and my HH defeated me at rummy 500 while we sampled the drink of the day. It was lovely, some kind of cranberry and vodka concoction.

The kids wanted to go to The Lab before dinner. So my HH and I just relaxed on our own for a few hours. We hit up the seafood buffet at Parrot Cay and they had a sundae bar! . We had a really nice lunch, our dinner companions were seated at the table next to us, so we caught up on what they had done the day before. After lunch my HH and I wandered a bit and then spent some time relaxing in our room. It was a little cold and windy on the balcony.

Dinner was the goodbye dinner and we were back in Parrot Cay which was my favorite restaurant because of all the windows.

I had the goat cheese appetizer. It was yummy but a little too much cheese.

For dinner I had a seafood pasta.

My HH had the beef Wellington, after trying his, I wished I had ordered it too...

My son drew this picture of HH and I. We both have our glasses on...So cute!

For dessert there was a festive parade that involved a flaming dessert!

Dessert...

This was S's dessert a chocolate mousse cake I think.

Apple cobbler!

And the Trio!

We exchange addresses with our dinner companions who really became our cruise buddies. Then we said goodbye to our serving team. They had been great, they really made our vacation special. We enjoyed talking to them and getting to know about their lives at home and on the ship. I really can't say enough about what an excellent job they did of being attentive without overwhelming us. And they entertained the kids with magic tricks and riddles. My son asked me today if we went on another cruise if we could have the same servers.

After dinner I went back to the room to pack our stuff since it needed to be in the hallway by 10:30pm. W wanted to go to the Lab, which was insanely busy. S and I went to the Farewell show which was similar to the Welcome Aboard show. It was fun. Then I collected the boy and we returned to the room for our last night on the ship .

 

[Sumrdog]

April 6th back in Texas

We were up and dressed by 7am, I had been up earlier around 6am and watched some of the turning of the boat with my coffee. I was endlessly fascinated by the way the ship could spin in place. We were told that if we wanted a sit down breakfast we had to be there at 7am. We decided to skip that in favor of the buffet. So we went back up and got all our favorites, fruit, waffles and bacon (no salmon). When we were done with breakfast we went back to our room to get our carry on bags. We returned to the lobby atrium a little before 8am.

There was a line of folks getting off with all there luggage and we were informed that if we had planned on doing "express debarkation" and had all our luggage we could get in line, otherwise we needed to wait a half hour. So we went to one of our favorite places the Promenade Lounge grabbed a table and began to wait. The kids started playing pick up sticks. Within a few minutes our dining companions showed up and the children all began to play together while we sat.

After 30 minutes they made an announcement that everyone could start getting off the ship so we rose to join the line, that's when we realized that the line spread from the lobby atrium to the back of the ship and up five flights! So we waited a few minutes trying to figure out what we should do, since we couldn't even find the end of the line. Then everyone in the Promenade just rose and made a new line that was merging with the existing line, that was also getting confused with the line to enter Lumiere's for late breakfast. We hopped into line and got separated from our friends in the chaos.

We went on another cruise with Celebrity and we had debarkation times...It was very organized and civilized...Just a suggestion for Disney.

After we filed off the ship we ended up in a giant room where all the luggage was neatly arranged in sections. Ours was in the Goofy section. We found our bags and filed outside where we were directed to the shuttle buses. We were taking a bus back to the Hobby airport. We briefly saw our friends said a hasty goodbye as they got on the bus to the Bush airport. And in a moment it was over. I didn't even get any pictures, it all happened so chaotically.

The kids slept on the bus, and I talked to another mother across the aisle. They had similar plans to ours, rent a car for the day and visit the NASA Johnson Space Center. However her little girl wasn't feeling well. The mother mentioned that the night before when she was retrieving her children from The Lab, a little girl had gotten sick all over the floor right at the entrance, and now this morning her daughter had already been sick.

I immediately got out the hand sanitizer and disinfected my whole families hands after she told me this. Disney did an excellent job of making the kids wash their hands going in and out of the club, but there is no accounting for the germs that children can spread. After 45 minutes we got to the airport and found the shuttle to the Enterprise car rental. We picked up our cheap little car and went to find our hotel to check in.

We were spending the night at the Houston Marriott South. It had an enormous atrium.

And a pool.

We dropped our bags in our freezing cold room. I turned off the AC but it still didn't seem to matter, the room was cold the whole time. Then we got back in the car and drove to the Space Center which was about 15 minutes away.

My HH and I were so excited about going to The NASA place. I am fascinated by space exploration. I have never been to The Kennedy Space Center, but my HH says it's really cool. So this was hopefully going to be just as awesome.

Directly past the entrance to the space center was an Angry Birds themed three story play structure with a ball pit. It was swamped with kids, in front of it was a set of bleachers where a whole line of parents sat. Naturally W saw this and wanted to do nothing but go play. It was so loud next to it. It kind of bothered me. Especially because this was supposed to be a space center, its very quiet in space. Instead my HH and I felt like we had just walked into a Chuck E Cheese...We told W that the play ground would be the last thing we do that day. We wanted to see the space things first.

We were super hungry, so we first found the food court and got in line. Everyone was a little irritable from being hungry, the food court was crowded with about a thousand kids from some school group all wearing the same colored t-shirt. It was a little off putting, we got some lunch and found a table outside away from the noise. After we had eaten and I had time to examine the visitor's guide. We decided to do a tram tour.

We went outside and got in line to wait for the next tram. They have two tours, we took the red which was the first available. We departed the main visitor center to see the actual working parts of NASA...I was super excited!

I was told this was a replica.

We got off the tram at an enormous building where they develop and practice with various space vehicles, rovers, space station replicas and robots. It was really neat. A lady behind me said that on weekdays people are in the building working and you can watch them testing out their machines.

 

[Sumrdog]

We got back in the tram and were shuttled to our second stop, The Saturn V Rocket. When we were let out, there were several smaller rockets outside and then a large steel building. We had no real idea what was in the building, when I opened the door I was absolutely overwhelmed by the size of this rocket. I am not sure the photos do it justice. The rocket boosters were each the size of my house.

Unfortunately they lost funding and this rocket never made it to space.

Along the far wall were pictures of the astronauts and small descriptions of the Apollo missions. Which reminds me that I promised S we would rent the movie Apollo 13. An older gentleman was giving a guided tour and my HH and I poached a spot along side to listen. He told two stories about what a humble man Neil Armstrong was. I am glad we got to hear them.

I like this quote.

The second most famous NASA quote; from the Apollo 13 mission.

We were allowed as much time as we wanted to explore this area. When we had seen it all we got back on a tram and visited the Space Gallery. There were displays with information about moon rocks, replicas of the space shuttle and stories about several of the space missions.

A cool lifesized diorama of the Moon landing.

It's hard for me to believe that is has been over forty years and we have not been back to the moon. Technology has advanced exponentially. I would think that at this point there would be a resort up there. Its kind of sad that the space program has lost funding in this area. They seemed to have changed the focus to unmanned missions, like the Mars Rover, which I guess is safer...

After the Space Gallery we went to a show on the logistics of personal hygiene in space. That was almost too much information for my daughter. But I was fascinated. And then finally we let W play on the giant slide thing. It was so loud in this area, and the kids from the school group were pretty rough, one boy kept taking balls away from him. Anyway after 15 minutes I was over it.

I lured W away with the promise of the hotel pool and we drove back to Houston. We dropped off the car and Enterprise returned us to the Marriott which was only about a mile away. The kids swam in the pool for an hour, my daughter mastered her dive from the edge of the pool which was really cool, since she is on the swim team and has trouble with that. W made friends with a woman in her 20's in the hot tub. Which was kind of funny, he was telling her all about our vacation. She assured me that he wasn't bothering her...

After swimming we went up to our room and changed. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant which was remarkably good and not overpriced! Then we went up to our room to take it easy. The next morning we got up at 4am for our flight home. We made it back to Spokane without incident and were on our way back to Montana at 10:30 in the morning. We arrived home to some very excited dogs at 4:30 and just like that our vacation was over.

 

[Sumrdog]

Final Thoughts.

This was our second cruise, the first one was on a Celebrity ship that was smaller and didn't really have a lot for the kids. So we decided to give Disney a try. Compared to visiting the parks, this is a completely different vacation, it involved lots of relaxing and plenty of time together or apart whatever we each felt like doing. There wasn't a lot of pressure to be anywhere at a specific time. And there was so much to do!

I loved sitting on our balcony reading or watching the world go by. I also loved that meals were a no brainer we just showed up and got to eat. It was fantastic! Castaway Cay was our favorite stop, and I wish Disney would do a cruise that just stays parked out there for two or three days.

I was a little disappointed in the pool situation and the chaos of the kids club. My son had multiple encounters where he felt like other kids were rough with him, or knocked over a block tower he had spent a long time building and then just laughed about it. The counselors had their hands full with checking kids in and out, so they really couldn't supervise the play area. We solved that problem by bringing him there with his sister or his friend so that they could all look out for each other. The kids aren't really sorted by age so the little kids and the big kids are mixed together and I think that might not be the best choice. Despite all of those issues, my kids loved going to the clubs. My daughter did all the activities like Flubber and volcano making. My son played blocks and video games.

I think that some of my issues with the pool being so crowded was that we were on a Kids Sail Free sailing during spring break. So if ever there was going to be a cruise filled to capacity with children that would be it.
These things must have bothered me a lot more than my kids. We put a lot of effort into teaching our kids good manners; don't cut in line, apologize if you knock into someone, speak in a calm voice etc...It's always apparent to me whenever we travel that not all families put as much emphasis on those things, so it naturally grates on me and my husband.

My kids loved the cruise and they want to do another...my son said he wants to do a cruise and Disney World together again. Which I think would be ideal. We all were left wanting after our Disney World day, the spring break crowds were nuts. So a vacation with a few days at Disney followed by a 4-5 night cruise might be ideal for us. There was so much on the ship we didn't even get to, we never set foot in any of the adults only spots onboard including Palo. And we never went out to any of the nightclubs...Next time!

We spent a lot of time as a family doing crafts and just being together and that was really my favorite thing about the whole vacation. We had lots of time to be together. I would love to do an itinerary that stops at a few more places and I think my HH would've liked that too. Its fun to wake up some place different and get off and explore without having to unpack. The only downside to all of this is that now that we have gone on a Disney Cruise it's going to be really hard for me to ever go on one with a different cruise line

 

[Alley7728]

This has really been an awesome trip report. I felt like I was there and part of your family. Glad everyone made it home safe and sound. It's been a pleasure

 

[Sumrdog]

This has really been an awesome trip report. I felt like I was there and part of your family. Glad everyone made it home safe and sound. It's been a pleasure

Thank you so much! I am glad you liked it!

 

[Pooh'sBuddy]

That's awful you got sick (after having the sunburn), but I'm glad y'all had a great time.

And a trip to the Johnson Space Center! How cool is that?! They also offer "camp in"s for groups. I'd like to do that.

Your W is so much like my W. Hittin' on the older ladies in the hot tub! j/k, but he would do the same.

Thank you for bringing us along. Oh, I've got to figure out a way to get the hubby to agree to a Disney cruise! Like you said, it's relaxing but so much to do, too.

 

[Sumrdog]

That's awful you got sick (after having the sunburn), but I'm glad y'all had a great time.

And a trip to the Johnson Space Center! How cool is that?! They also offer "camp in"s for groups. I'd like to do that.

Your W is so much like my W. Hittin' on the older ladies in the hot tub! j/k, but he would do the same.

Thank you for bringing us along. Oh, I've got to figure out a way to get the hubby to agree to a Disney cruise! Like you said, it's relaxing but so much to do, too.

Thanks for reading! I am looking so forward to hearing about your trip during Star Wars weekend!

Good luck convincing the hubby!

 

[farrellbarrel]

What a wonderful trip!! I'm sorry you got sick, what a bummer!! You seemed to shake it off well

 

[oogravyoo]

Had a fun time reading your report.. thanks for sharing

 

[dkosdros]

Awesome report. Enjoyed reading it and it felt like I was right there with you all. After reading it I am so glad we decided to do a few days at Disney before our Disney Cruise. Sounds like we would have regretted it after the fact if we didn't.

 

[ladydi]

I've got a fair skinned child who sunburns very easily. if you ever are in the situation where you can't find aloe, get a bit of vinegar and dab it on the burns. You smell like a salad but it takes the sting away and the kids can get to sleep relatively pain free!

 

[WishIWasAtWDW]

It looks like you have caught the Disney Cruise fever! After our first cruise in 2011, we feel in love. We can't wait for our cruise on the Fantasy in 16 days! Ahh I'm so excited!

I loved your trip report. It sounds like you have very sweet kids! The story about your son's Jedi training experience is adorable! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Sumrdog]

What a wonderful trip!! I'm sorry you got sick, what a bummer!! You seemed to shake it off well

Thank you! I am really glad I didn't get any sicker!

Had a fun time reading your report.. thanks for sharing

Thank you!

 

[Sumrdog]

Awesome report. Enjoyed reading it and it felt like I was right there with you all. After reading it I am so glad we decided to do a few days at Disney before our Disney Cruise. Sounds like we would have regretted it after the fact if we didn't.

Thank you! I think that the "land and Sea" vacation would be the ideal! Have so much fun on your cruise!

 

[Sumrdog]

I've got a fair skinned child who sunburns very easily. if you ever are in the situation where you can't find aloe, get a bit of vinegar and dab it on the burns. You smell like a salad but it takes the sting away and the kids can get to sleep relatively pain free!

Well that is an unexpected remedy! I will have to try it some time.

 

[Sumrdog]

It looks like you have caught the Disney Cruise fever! After our first cruise in 2011, we feel in love. We can't wait for our cruise on the Fantasy in 16 days! Ahh I'm so excited!

I loved your trip report. It sounds like you have very sweet kids! The story about your son's Jedi training experience is adorable! Thanks for sharing!

I loved the Disney Cruise! I can't wait to do another one. Hopefully with my sister in law and her kids, not sure when though! Have fun on your cruise, you must be so excited you can barely stand it! I want to try one of the bigger ships next time.

Thank you it's nice to hear that my trip report was a good read! I am extremely fortunate to have super good kids!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

I'm caught up!
We have done Kim Possible in sweltering heat, and it just wasn't as fun as it could have been.
Sorry you got sick! That's not fun.
I love Jack Jack's Diaper Dash! It's hilarious!
What a fun way to spend debarkation day!
I loved your report!

 

[5thGenTexan]

I too enjoyed the banana bread at Cookies Too and intended to go back for more, but somehow getting back to the beach was more important.

 

[Sumrdog]

I'm caught up!
We have done Kim Possible in sweltering heat, and it just wasn't as fun as it could have been.
Sorry you got sick! That's not fun.
I love Jack Jack's Diaper Dash! It's hilarious!
What a fun way to spend debarkation day!
I loved your report!

Thank you Tammy! And once again thanks for all your help in planning this it was so much fun!