100 Years Ago Today

Disney seems so integral a part of the American experience that it's hard to believe all four of my grandparents were on this Earth before Disney became "Disney". 

 

Pirate Night!

Pirate Night on day three.

Some Vacation Pics on the Disney Dream

Disney Dream 12/12-12/16

Junie and the Disney Selfies

Junie made a habit of taking a selfie with the Disney characters she met on the cruise.

Our Stateroom Door

The door to one of our staterooms. Lisa had the decoration designed for us. 

Now and Then

The first photo (with the white shirt) is from Cruise #2, in 2014, and YaYa asked to recreate it this time around. (click on the pictures to see how close we got). It was *much* harder than it looks, because the bright Bahamian sun was in our face and we couldn't see the camera screen at all LOL.

An Iconic Photo

The picture with the 3 year old Olivia is from our first cruise, back in 2006. In honor of its tenth anniversary, we recreated the picture on Day Four of this trip :)

We're Back!

So, from Monday morning until Friday night the family enjoyed a short cruise aboard the Disney Dream. There's no internet access (well, none I'm willing to pay for) from the middle of the ocean, so for a week there was no news, no Words with Friends, no Facebook. I enjoyed that break, and apparently so did you. Quoting Sandra Si "I didn't even realize you were gone!"

Rogue One

Last night at 11 pm eastern time -- or, as Disney proudly told the crowd, "An hour before any other fan in the hemisphere!" --  Smiley and I saw Rogue One. Watching it on the ocean lent a VR quality to the movie, with each roll of the ship making you feel like you were in the action. As for the movie itself: Aside from being visually gorgeous, it has a strong, dark story, great characters, and very little of the schmaltz that burdens the series. Plus it has Peter Cushing. What else could you ask for? #DisneyCruise

 

 

 

Almost There!

On our way to the Dream!

Stingray Freakout

Mom and LuLu -  remember when we were snorkeling and Mom got all freaked out about the sting ray? I looked up stingray barb and oh my lord if I had known I wound have been swimming back to shore faster than Phelps - YaYa

All stingrays around castaway cay are de-barbed for safety but I didn't know that at the time that's why I was freaking out! That snorkeling with you girls was one of the most fun things I've ever did! - Lisa

Pirate Night!

Pirates night is taken seriously on a Disney Cruise. I’d forgotten all about it in the years since our first visit (just like I’d forgotten about the tradition of decorating your stateroom door), but it all came back in a hurry. People – children, adults, the elderly – walk around in full pirate get-up, and a rash of “Rrrrrr’s” echo around the ship. 

If it wasn’t so much  fun, it’d be crazy. 

We all went for dinner and had a great time. The night before Junie had talked the ears off an elderly gentleman at the table next to us, and so I’d moved her over a seat that night. The elderly man was disappointed, saying he enjoyed her company and that she reminded him of the mischievous character “Eloise”. 

After dinner we dispersed as normal. Say it with me: Smiley to the club, YaYa and LuLu to The Edge, Lisa, Junie and I to the nightly musical. Only that night it wasn’t a musical, but a comedy performance by juggler Max Winfrey. It’s not normally my cup of tea but the guy was HILARIOUS and I’d love to see him again. We had good seats too, sneaking our way down into sole possession of the box seats in the balcony. 

Before the show we’d spent some time on Deck 4 enjoying the sights and sounds of the ocean as Lauren played on the deck. Even by then it was obvious LK was pooped, and by the time the comedy show was over our plans to put her in The Club and go out for some adult time were zapped by the zzz’s of our littlest Slap. 

Meanwhile, Lisa had earlier located the launderette, and so around 11 I picked Smiley up as usual from the club and enlisted his help in doing nearly a weeks worth of dirty, stinking underwear and socks for Team Slap We also took our WDW mugs up to the 11th deck to fill them with soda, which is where I found a midnight showing of Pirates of the Caribbean on the big screen by the pool.  Smiley and I took a seat in some lounge chairs and lo and behold, here came my two oldest and some of their friends to occupy the rest of the row.

 Eventually YaYa signed off and went to bed, then Smiley petered out and I took him to the stateroom. OJ and I stayed until the end of the movie, then headed back down to bed. 

What a great, great day! Top 100, easy!

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