We woke up at 7 am. Lucas and I went out to the hotel balcony just to
hangout and all of the sudden Lucas yelled “a big ship!!”. I didn’t
even notice at first but right across from our balcony we can see Port
Everglades and we could see a few cruise ships.
We went to the breakfast buffet at the hotel. It was pretty good. Lucas ate so much! He had so many sausages and grapes. It was nuts. Then we walked around outside for a bit. We got lucky to see a drawbridge going up for a ship to fit into the harbor.
It was only 9:30 so we decided to go in the pool. Just Lucas and I went to
the pool because Don was packing some stuff for the cruise. Lucas did such a good job swimming! We got out of the pool around 11 so we could get ready for the big ship!
Our hotel had a shuttle bus to the port at 11:45. We were not supposed to get on the ship until 1 but when we arrived, they said it was open boarding so we just got in line. Once in line a lady told us to go line for people who have been on Disney before. The line to get checked in and go through security was pretty quick. I think we were on the ship around 12:30 but our room was not going to be ready until 1:30. I think the check in here at Port Everglades was way more efficient than in Port Canaveral.
We went to the Oceaneers Club to hang out until 1:30. This is the kids club, where usually only kids can go but during this time it was an open house.
By about 1:15 Lucas was getting really grouchy, thankfully our room was
ready by 1:30 and we had our swimsuits in our carry ons so we decided to check out the pools. The pools were pretty crowded, but Lucas had fun. We got ice cream and pizza. Then we headed back to the room. From our balcony we watched a Carnival cruise ship leave. Then we went to the mandatory safety drill. It was weird, I have only been on 2 cruises previously and our meeting spot for the safety drill had always been outside on deck, but this time we were packed in a theater type room.
After the safety drill we watched a bit of the sail away party. We were sure to make it to our balcony to watch the ship start to move.
Since we had time before dinner, we got our magnets out and decorated our door. We had dinner at Animators Palate. Our servers for the week are Wayan and Tricia. Lucas had mac and cheese, veggies and fries. Don had salmon tartare, which Lucas tried. He also had a salad and beef tenderloin. I had a ham and cheese appetizer and chicken for my main dish. For dessert Lucas got a Mickey Ice Cream bar. Don had a sundae and I had cheesecake. Overall, I was not super impressed with the food. There was an interactive Finding Nemo show on the all the TVs. We also decided to get the wine package which gives us 3 bottles to use all week for around $100. This may seem expensive but last time having individual glasses/drinks we exceeded this in 3 days.
After dinner we walked around the ship. When we came back to the room it was all nice and made up and there was a Marvel sticker on the window. Lucas tried to go to a dance party in the Oceaneers Club by himself, but he came out crying within 5 minutes.
So then we decided to start the Detective thing on this ship. You start by
going to one of the kiosks and picking out a detective badge and picking out a story line. There are number of interactive pictures throughout the ship that respond to the QR code on your badge. You go to each picture picking up clues to figure out which Disney villain committed a crime. Our first crime was the case of the missing paintings.
At 8:30 we went to the Golden Mickey Show. This was a live show basically set up like an award show that went through popular Disney movies. It was pretty good. We had to cover Lucas’s eyes and ears when Ursula came out. He liked the part with Beauty and the Beast. It was cool, a firework went off and before your eyes the beast changed into a person. He also got to see the Hunchback from Notre Dame for the first time and at first he was scared but then we tried to explain why he looked that way and now he just keeps asking, “how did the man hurt his back?”
After the show Lucas was so tired. He took a quick shower then as he was trying to get out of the bathroom he ended up falling out of the bathroom because there is a step to get into the bathroom. Then Don was taking something out of his bag and didn’t know Lucas was right there and something hit him right in the face! We went to bed around 10. Lucas was instantly asleep; he had no nap today. We must rest up because tomorrow is going to be a big day—Marvel Day at Sea.
Lucas woke up at 6:30 to say, “time to get up, do you wanna go to the big ship or not?!” So needless to say, he is excited. He got to experience hist first cab ride to O’hare. It went pretty well. Right when he got in the car, he asked the driver, “do you know the big ship?”. Of course the driver did not listen to him and had no interest in the big ship haha. So pretty typical first cab ride in Chicago. Later when the driver and Don were having a conversation Lucas looked at me and said, “what English is he speaking mommy?”
We got burrito beach for lunch at O’hare. Our flight to Fort Lauderdale was a bit delayed due to “spring break traffic” per the pilot. Lucas made friends in the airport. He introduced himself to a couple named Mark and Sue. He had a few other older people talking to him also.
Once we got on the flight Lucas slept for about an hour and then he watched things on his new tablet. We got to Fort Lauderdale around 5 and took another cab to our hotel. The cab actually had a Curb app so I linked it to my Curb app to pay for the ride. I don’t think this driver had ever experienced anyone doing this and it seemed like at first he thought I didn’t pay. We stayed at Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. It was a pretty nice hotel and super close to the port.
Immediately when we got there Lucas wanted to swim. I wasn’t sure it would be warm enough, especially because it was getting dark, but the pool was heated and amazing. So we swam while Don picked up Chipotle for dinner because there wasn’t much in walking distance and we needed something quick. So after having Burrito Beach and Chipotle in the same day I can safely say that Chipotle is loads better.
Lucas woke up again around 6:15. We packed and played store again a bit. We sat on our balcony and then we had breakfast at the hotel. We had a little bit of time so Don found a little free space history museum next to space x. A worker named Larry greeted us. He gave Lucas a scavenger hunt that had like 12 pictures on it. That was fun and he got a pin and a patch for it. Don also bought a little stuffed Astronaut for him.
Then we made our way to Orlando airport to drop off the car. It was pretty easy. We had Chinese for lunch. Lucas was choking /gagging on an egg roll and spit up into his lunch. Luckily, we were pretty much done. Then we went to our gate. Storms were moving in so gates were getting switched and delayed. After boarding our plane and getting it loaded up with our stuff we were sitting on the plane for an hour. Lucas fell asleep during this time. He slept most of the flight thankfully.
Traffic was horrendous on our way back to our house. We decided to have dinner at Brownstone. We also talked about how we needed to plan another trip!!
Lucas was up early again! This kid is an early riser. We had to be up early anyway for breakfast in the dining room at 6:45. It was an ok breakfast but not as good as the previous days. I really missed the eggs benedict!! After we finished they announced we could get off the ship. The line was long and winding but it surprisingly went very fast.
Once off the ship we got to our car easily and there was no traffic! Seriously so easy. We called Hampton Inn to see if was possible to check in early and it was only 8:30 am, surprisingly they had a room ready! The room is so spacious and great with a balcony.
So we got in and Lucas played a bit while we got settled and then we got our swimming suits on and went to the pool. Lucas tried his snorkel some more but he gets frustrated. Eventually we got him to just swim and we had fun. He was swimming really well with his goggles and puddle jumper. He even jumped from the steps a few times.
For lunch we ordered BBQ and brought it back to the room. We watched Bluey. Lucas was so cute and tired. He laid his head on my legs while he finished his food.
He quickly fell asleep in his pull-out sofa bed for his first really good nap of the trip. We all napped. After nap we went to Golf and Gater. We held a baby alligator; Lucas was not sure about it and the picture shows! Then we fed them. There was a mineral treasure hunting that Lucas did. He loved it. He asked the worker if he was a pirate because he had treasure. It was crazy hot here. I don’t know how people live in Florida.
Next we went to the boardwalk at Cocoa Beach. We got a candle for Gigi. Lucas got a baby turtle hatchling and a little keychain with his name. We looked at the beach and watched people surf. Then we went over to PizzaVola. We had a cesar salad and pepperoni pizza. It was absolutely delicious. It was NY style pizza. We came back to the hotel and Lucas played for a bit. We all fell asleep pretty early and we go back home tomorrow.
We woke up at 6:30. I told Lucas “Let’s pack our bags to go see some rockets what do we need Lucas?” and he said “safety fire stuff”. To get in the spirit of Disney we all got a disney tattoo of Cars and Toy Story. We had breakfast at the hotel. Lucas had 3 sausage patties! Then we made our way to Kennedy space center. We got there when it opened and everything looked super cool. It was not crowded at all but it was hot. The garden of rockets was super cool and we took a lot of pictures. We saw a Charlie Brown little play. The exhibit on the Atlantis shuttle was pretty cool. Lucas had a lot of fun sitting in the shuttle seat and pretending to be in space. After Atlantis we went to the kids play area. We met up with Don’s friend Shane and his daughter Madelyn. This play area was way too crowded and wild. Most of the things were too old for Lucas.
We decided to go to Fish Lips for lunch. On the drive there Lucas slept for about 15 minutes. I felt bad that he didn’t want to get up and eat. Once we got in the restaurant he perked up and ate some mac and cheese. He also had quite a few pieces of my fish. I had fish and chips and Don had clam chowder and wings.
After lunch we all came back to the hotel. Since we missed the nap opportunity we went to the pool. I noticed Lucas had a blister on his foot from his crocs. Lucas practiced snorkeling with his puddle jumper. He looked like a pro! We let him play with the underwater camera and we stayed at the pool until about 5. Shane and Madelyn left and we ordered pizza from Kelsey’s. It was ok. We watched some of lion king. Lucas ate well and played. Then he was out by 8:10
