Our first stop on the cruise was in San Francisco. We were there for 2 days. The first day, we went to the Aquarium, and the wax museum. In all honesty, the aquarium for being in San Francisco, was pathetic. It was small, and didn't really have much. I guess maybe my expectation were too high.
The wax museum was interesting and impressive. They had tons of sculptures that looked very lifelike.
The second day, we just walked around the downtown city. We saw the sea lions on the pier, and walked to Ghirardelli square. When we got there, we were a little disappointed that they didn't do tours anymore, but we still had a great time.
Our second stop was San Diego. My sister Becky had recently moved down there, and we thought it would be more fun to spend the day with them, rather than do the ship excursions. We got to see their house, see where Marcus works, and the Amtracks (sp) he works with. The Amtracks are like floating tanks, and they were very cool. Then we went to the beach on the base, and had a great time.
Our last stop was Ensenada, Mexico. Our ship was parked next to the a bunch of sea lions, and we enjoyed watching them. We also walked around the little town. We didn't find too much interesting, so it was a short walk. Besides, the ship in reality was way more fun.
We particularly liked item 7 and that mittens were forbidden, I didn't know there was a rule against keeping your hands warm.
We had the opportunity to go on a 7 day Disney Cruise with my parents. I will say, that of all the vacations I have ever taken, this was our favorite vacation ever. There was just the right balance of relaxing, fun, Disney, and sight seeing. It was the first vacation that I wasn't ready to go home. Dusty and I both looked at each other when we were done, and said, lets just do our laundry, and do it all over again.
Our cruise boarded in LA, sailed up to San Francisco, down to San Diego, then down to Ensenada, Mexico, then back to LA to disembark the ship.
Here are some pictures and highlights from our trip.
Preparations: Mom wanted to make Alice a little princess dress to wear on the cruise. At this time, Alice was very into Ariel and Rapunzel. We elected to go with Rapunzel. We made a wig, a dress, and she was absolutely adorable.
Such pretty long Rapunzel hair, before it was braided.
All dressed up
We got upgraded on the flight to first class. What a treat!
Boarding the ship
She insisted on helping carry the suitcases
The Ship
It was so funny, a couple days into the cruise, Alice was walking by a porthole, and she suddenly stopped and said "Mama! Water!"
Alice loved to see all the towel animals they would make for us every night
We spent our time swimming
Partying with pirates
It was so funny, one little girl actually thought Dad was Captain Hook
ARGGH!
Mom and Dad in their awesome pirate costumes
Met lots of characters. For some reason, she really fell in love with Stitch. She had never even seen the movie.
Took lots of pictures with the Ariel statue.
Danced, all the time
Ate delicious food, including way too many mickey icecream bars. They were on the kids menu for dessert, and by the end of the week, our waiter, just knew to bring 5 of them after dinner for us.
Our waiters even made us funny napkin hats
Missed seeing the princesses. She kept saying she wanted to go down there and see them.
Fortunatley, they came again, and we made it a priority to be there early. She got to meet, Belle, Snow White, Ariel, Cinderella, and Tiana.
The funnest part of the ship, was the consistency of the characters. They were really able to get to know the children. Belle on the final day of the cruise, was just wandering the ship, and sat down with Alice. She said "Oh, you are not wearing your dress today."
We also watched lots of Disney movies, both in the room and in the theatre where they had first run movies owned by Disney. There was music playing all over the ship, and the evening entertainment was phenomenal. It captured the attention of all ages. All of us, including Alice at 8:00pm were glued to the amazing productions.
Alice took a rare nap. Surprisingly, despite the lack of sleep, she did remarkably well all week.
Our ship passed right under the golden gate bridge. It was very neat to see.
Stay tuned for part 2 for our adventures off the boat.
