FAMILY CRUISE

Taking kids out of school to travel weighed heavily on my mind. I say my instead of our because  Mr. B.T.C. was not worried in the least bit to pull the kids out of school for a travel experience. I on the other hand was worried because although I have some responsible children who wouldn't dream of leaving on vacation unless ALL their homework was collected ahead of time, I still have two children that the thought would never even cross their little minds. That means major catching up.

Pulling an elementary student from school for a few days would be fairly easy but we were considering  removing them from school for an entire week.  I have a middle school child and two high schoolers who rotate among different subjects during the day as well as teachers.  For this reason I was a bit uneasy.

We weighed out the factors and Mr. B.T.C won! The kids were thrilled!  We scheduled our flights, packed our bags and were off to a place none of us had ever been before.

We flew to Orlando and stayed a couple days before heading to Port Canaveral, Florida to board one of the most recognizable cruise liners.

I'll let the pictures do the rest of the talking...

The night club is where both adults and children were entertained.

One of the most relaxing places I visited while on board(Thanks Mr. B.T.C for the facial and massage) Oh, and for doing all the laundry while I was off being pampered. You are truly the BEST!

Decked out halls

This location turned into our "hang out" place.  

The views were exceptional.  Take a look for yourself.

Dessert menu.

 I'll confess that I didn't even try one of these desserts

 considering we just had dinner. The kids thought the desserts

 this particular night looked better than they tasted.

This next photo is what I had for dessert following dinner one evening.

  This one was as good as it looks!

FIRST PORT 

St. Maarten

Our group packed into a small boat and headed over to the beach.

There were many waiting to greet us.

With the exception of lunch this is the only other thing Mr. B.T.C purchased on the Island.

We walked the shops

And fed a few friends.

Just a few more shots before heading back to the ship.

SECOND PORT

St. Thomas/St. John

Third Port

Castaway Cay

Totally awesome Dad here. Helping to apply the sunscreen!  This speaks volumes about him in my opinion.

Kristi you are amazing! We pretty much had a back handspring clinic right on the beach.

We had plenty of photographing moms lugging their cameras around to capture the memories.

We had plenty of photographing moms to capture the memories.

Group photo.

Heading back to the ship as our Castaway Cay experience comes to an end.

Our Disney Cruise experience was packed with lasting memories. When we first arrived we headed to our state room.  Both rooms were located on the second floor.  

Next, we headed to a lunch buffet located on the 9th floor.  We found lots to choose from and of course the sea food and salad was what I lived on for the entire week.  The kids lunch menu included hamburgers, hotdogs, tacos, pizza, salad and fresh fruit which was located near the pool area.  I'm sure they took advantage of the free soda fountains and ice cream machines located on deck 9.

We enjoyed our dining experience which consisted of moving between 3 different restaurants.  Our evening servers were wonderful and treated us like family.  We really enjoyed getting to know them and learning about their culture, families and livelihood.

The kids had various activity centers(depending on their age) located on different levels of the ship.  There was plenty for them to do and never a dull moment.  We enjoyed watching movies in the Disney Theatre.  Times and locations were posted to visit the various Disney Characters but I quickly learned that my girls weren't interested. I guess they've outgrown that sort of thing. They did however enjoy the comedy shows and live theatre shows that only Disney can do so magically well.

Our excursions included swimming at the beach in St. Maarten.  The views were breathtaking. I felt as though I were viewing a postcard.  The sand felt like sugar between your toes and the water was crystal blue.  We thoroughly  enjoyed the beach and the water. 

Our next stop, St. Thomas was our favorite! We thought the water was crystal clear at St. Maarten until we arrived at St. Thomas. I've never seen water that clear. EVER! We enjoyed snorkeling/swimming while the teens and dads enjoyed their scuba diving adventure.  Our experience was superb!  

Our last excursion was Castaway Cay.  There was a variety of things to do on this Island however, we pretty much stayed in the water most of the time.  We enjoyed the slides and various beaches. 

Thank you to our wonderful friends who made this trip even more enjoyable and rewarding.

  Although our cruise came to an end our vacation had not.  We still had another week to enjoy in Florida.  We packed up our luggage only to head to another resort and enjoy more time together as a family.  More on that later!