My Year With The Mouse

Day 2 was a sea day and I’ll be honest, I think sea days are the best part of any cruise. Seriously, I’m there to enjoy the boat, and there’s SO much to enjoy on a Disney cruise. I’ve heard of people who don’t even get off at port, and honestly I don’t blame them.

Kevin and Theo headed off to the pool. It has to be pretty warm for me to get in the water–any water, anywhere, but Kevin is much more willing to brave the cold so off they went. Good thing too, Theo has consistently said that one of his favorite parts of the cruises was the water slide. And the other nice thing about swimming in the cold? Barely any lines. He went down the thing like a million times.

Violet and I headed to Toddler Time in one of the lounges. I wasn’t sure what to expect but I was delighted when I got there. Basically the nursery staff brought out a big bunch of toddler toys and it was open playtime. They had coloring sheets but Violet was much more interested in the toys.

Violet loved this spinner thingy

She also liked the ride-on toy

But she LOVED the bar menu. Girl after my own heart!

We headed back for our nap, once again rejoicing in our suite where I could read in peace. Then as I was reading, I heard a huge commotion coming from the balcony next door. It sounded like this:

“Excited mumble, excited mumble, Dolphins! Look! EXCITED MUMBLE DOLPHINS!!!”

So of course I grabbed my camera and headed straight out to the balcony. Then the neighbors apologized for making a ruckus but pointed out that there was a whole pod of dolphins swimming in the ship’s wake. It was awesome! I couldn’t believe what we were seeing! I double-wrapped the camera strap around my wrist and tried to take a picture.

I SWEAR there’s a dolphin in this picture.

Can’t you see him?

Or to zoom in  a little,

There he is!

Actually he (she?) kind of looks like a shark in that picture but I swear, you could tell it was a dolphin in person.

Also, do you like my classy graphics work? Yeah, I probably could have done something in Photoshop but Paint is much easier and quicker for a non-Photoshop person like me.

After the nap we saw a show. Naturally I took no pictures and cannot remember which one it was, but the kids liked it. The shows are great onboard, really professional-quality. There are two seatings for dinner, the early one at 5:45 with a lot of kids because it’s closer to most people’s normal dinners, except for us, and the 8:15 seating which is what we chose, where there tends to be fewer kids. If you have the early seating, the show is after dinner, if you have the early sitting, the show is before dinner. Two shows, don’t try to work out the fuzzy math.

It was semi-formal night for dinner, but since I love dressing up we made it formal. Unfortunately this turned into a HUGE battle with Theo who refused to wear the bow tie from his tux (tux purchased on ebay for $35). There was a significant amount of crying and pouting and frustration on all sides until we all compromised on the vest that matched Violet’s dress but not the bow tie. We stopped by the photographer hoping to get a good family picture, maybe for the Christmas card. Hahahahahaha! Family pictures, so elusive!

3 out of 4 of us look cute

Wait, that must have been the Golden Mickeys show because Mickey is wearing his Golden Mickey outfit. If that’s the case, we didn’t go to that show. I have no idea what we did. Sorry.

Anyway, Theo’s pouting continued through dinner *sigh*

Hey there grumpypants

But Violet did great.

She liked having both water and milk

This is what I did at almost every dinner:

Cooling off the mac and cheese

However, dinner perked up considerably after Theo had a bite to eat, and especially when he got his dessert. Every night, he ordered plain vanilla ice cream with Mickey sprinkles. It was pretty much the best dessert EVER. In fact, he missed it so much the night they ate at the kid’s club (Pirate Night) he was totally bummed he didn’t get it. But more on that later.

Violet was also a fan of dessert.

Yum!

I highly recommend bringing along waterproof long-sleeved bibs. They saved many dresses and made for easy cleanup!