Disney Cruise: Boat Life

The boat was adorable.  

Case closed.

 Dress-up Night

 Mickey surprised us during dinner!

Eden bounced and screamed and clapped and giggled in delight.  

It was pure pixie-dusted Disney magic.  And maybe one of my favorite moments of the cruise.

The shows:

They were just so grand.

Toy Story was amazing.

And then Dreams.  All about the princesses.  It knocked my socks straight off.
I mean, it snowed in the theater.  Snowed.

Such a satisfying experience to share with these little people.

 Pirate night.

My children were not impressed I did not bring costumes.

It was a legitimate oversight. 

My apologies.

 But there were fireworks.

 And random princess sightings (which kudos to the parents who wait in a ridiculously long lines to hug someone in a wig and a costume.  We are not those parents.)

So good was this vacation.  So simple and full (the kids only spent three hours in the Youth Clubs because we were having too much fun) and fun and easy and relaxing and exhausting and warm and cozy and entertaining and mesmerizing and magical (I'm going to get at least one more magic in before this post is through).  

It was good.

We arrived home to a -18 degree windchill.

I still haven't forgiven The Garden State.

Disney Cruise: Key West

Our last port landed us in Key West.

It was a chilly 60 degrees (which is a hilarious thing to say, considering how New Jersey is dressed for February), so we elected to enjoy adventures of the indoor kind.

Stop One: The Aquarium

It was a cute and quaint little place with far more nurse sharks than necessary.

 Both these uglies stole my heart.

 The aquarium also featured an exorbitant amount of rays and sea turtles.

Perks of hanging out in the middle of the ocean one might suppose.

And this.  Which makes zero sense in this aquarium.  Or any aquarium really.

 Next we hopped on a trolley and headed to the southernmost point in the continental US.  Which I am sure must be considered super cool because the line to take a picture in front of that painted rock was hours long.  

We just plopped ourselves on the side, snapped a shot, and checked that off the non-existent bucket list.  

 People are weird.

 Our real purpose for passing that super {in}significant point was The Butterfly Conservatory.

 Featuring flamingos!!!  

We concluded our tour of the city with conche fritters and chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick.

And if we're being righteously honest here, that pie was really Key West's only redeeming quality.

It was stupid delicious.

Disney Cruise: Nassau

Our next stop was Nassau.  

We hopped on a ferry and headed to Blue Lagoon Island for some legitimate ocean fun.

It was a day made for the memories.

I mean, dolphins.

DOLPHINS.

I really wanted to take him home.

 Sea Lions.

 And this:

 Just another day in paradise.

Real, true, paradise.

 And naps.  Bless those hammocks.

 I prayed to the heavens that time would stand still.  

I don't think I was heard above the coconut palms.