It's A Wonderful Life!: October 2010

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Family Vacation Part II--Disney Cruise--Nassau and Castaway Cay!

Emma and mommy at dinner the second night of the cruise!

At the Set Sail Party!! We are officially on VACATION!!!!!!!!!!!

All I can say is--cruising on the Disney Wonder was awesome! I will never forget our family walking onto the ship, and a cast member announced, "Welcome aboard Tharpe Family!" Everyone was clapping and shouting, and we knew that we were in for a wonderful adventure! The ship was beautiful and clean, the staff was so friendly and nice and lively (just like at Disney World). The food was amazing, and the musicals were fabulous! We saw Toy Story 3 and Disney Dreams, which was my favorite and left me teary-eyed! Clayton, the cruise director, was so funny and EVERYONE loved him! The set-sail party at Goofy's pool was so much fun--we were out partying by the pool as the ship left port for Nassau.The Pirates Party was a blast, and then afterward they had a dessert buffet. We watched movies out on the deck of the ship, under the stars. One night we watched fireworks, which were shot off of the ship, in the middle of the ocean! It was amazing! OH, and the Oceaneer Club and Lab were awesome, and inclusive! The kids LOVED going there! One night, we checked them in and then Mike and I went to "Adult Cove" (which was the adults only pool and spa). Simply fantastic! Our cruise was a 3-night--we set sail Thursday, October 7, arrived in Nassau, Bahamas on Friday. In the Bahamas, we toured Nassau and went to the world famous straw market. Then the kids wanted to go back to the ship to swim at the Mickey's pool. Saturday we arrived in beautiful, Disney's private-owned Castaway Cay! It was pristine! We walked from the ship to the Family Beach. It was immaculate!! The water was crystal clear! And the weather was absolutely beautiful! The restaurants on the island were inclusive too--and delicious! Everything was so clean, just like at Disney World Parks! We were very sad when it was time to get back on the ship! On Sunday we arrived back at Port Canaveral and then headed home. It was a fabulous cruise, and we decided that next time we want to do a longer one. We will never cruise anything but Disney, that's for sure!! And next year they brand new Disney Dream starts sailing--we plan on cruising again in the (near) future!!

Swimming at Castaway Cay!

Emma loved finding shells, (which we had to leave there)

Our handsome little guy

Gabe just couldn't wait!!

Our ship in the distance...the weather was perfect!

We were walking to Family Beach.

The Flying Dutchman (original one used on the Pirates movie)

Movie night under the stars

Gabe was singing, "It's a Pirate's Life for me!"

Midnight Buffet

Watching the Toy Story 3 Musical

The Disney Wonder

We literally ran into Donald and Daisy strolling the decks!

Minnie and Gabe

Minnie and Emma

Mickey's pool!

With Captain Mickey!

This was the first night after dinner--they just stood and looked out at the dark ocean!

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Family Vacation 2010 Part 1--DISNEY WORLD!!!

What a wonderful vacation the Tharpe family had! WE LOVE DISNEY!!! We flew to Orlando on Friday, October 1st and took the magical express to our resort--Disney's Beach Club. It was located inside Epcot--it literally took less than 5 minutes to walk from the resort to Epcot (entering into the park inside the world showcase between England and France). We loved going to eat in the world showcase! Magic Kingdom was decorated so pretty for the Fall--and we went to Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween party which was amazing! The kids went trick or treating, and we watched the Halloween parade which was so fabulous--we didn't leave Magic Kingdom until midnight! We had lunch at Cinderella's castle! We exhausted ourselves, but we went to every park and rode and saw just about everything, and the kids did fantastic! Gabe and Emma were tall enough to ride most of the rides, except for 2 roller coasters (one at Animal Kingdom and one at Hollywood Studios). We had so much fun! I'll never forget standing outside Magic Kingdom waiting for it to open, and watching the Disney charaters arrive in a train singing "Zippity Doo Da, Zippity Day..." The looks on Emma's and Gabe's faces were priceless!

The first night, we did not go to any of the parks. We decided to relax at the pool (which was quite amazing by the way), and then go to the campire and movie on the beach. The kids loved roasting marshmallows and singing songs around the fire. Then as they were starting to put the huge movie screen up, a cast member came over and asked us if we would be interested in taking a pontoon cruise (free) down the lake to watch Epcot's illumination show. This year's theme at Disney is "What are you celebrating" and we rode on the "birthday cruise". When I booked the vacation back in the Spring, they asked me if we would be celebrating anything, and I told them we would be celebrating Emma and Gabe's birthday! So Emma was wearing her "birthday" button, which I assume is the reason why the cast member asked us. There was another pontoon that was decorated for the "anniversary cruise". It was very cool, to say the least!