Magnetic Memories

As I prepared for our cruise I did a lot of reading on DISboards – Disney Cruise Line Forum.   It’s a purely Disney Cruise Line chat board!  One of the many things I learned there was about how some people decorate their stateroom doors with magnets.  It was one of the things I prepared quietly and didn’t tell either Hannah or Sharon about them.  I’d ask questions like, ‘Who is your favourite character?’ or, ‘Who is your favourite princess?’ but they had no idea why.

On DISboards I found a number of people who create personalized images that I was able to print, laminate and then add magnetic tape to the back of them.  I changed up our door fairly regularly and it was fun to find that others added magnets to our door too! 

Here are a few pics of our various door decorations.

Day 1.  Hannah was super excited when she saw our door decorated with ‘Frozen’ magnets!!!

This pic was taken about half way through our cruise.  By this time a Minnie Mouse series had been added as well as some princesses.

On Hannah’s birthday I switched the door entirely and it became a door of birthday wishes for my sweet girl!

I already shared this video but for those who might have missed it here it is again.  Also, it shows you how much Hannah enjoyed finding the new magnets.  This was special because of her birthday but she was excited each time she discovered new magnets on our door.

Our door the final 2 days of our trip with all decorations together.

If you decide to go on a Disney cruise I highly recommend doing this as not only will your family enjoy them but so will others walking by your stateroom!

And The Birthday Celebrations Continued!

(Thursday, February 27)

Unfortunately as supper began Hannah had a bit of a sore tummy but thankfully she turned the corner after a bit and was able to enjoy the rest of her birthday.  Poor pet not feeling well on her birthday.

This evening we were dining at Animator’s Palate and it was going to be a wonderful new experience for all of us.  We were asked to arrive at the dining room 5 minutes earlier than normal and each of us were given a place mat and marker and asked to draw a figure.  Hannah’s cute little gal.

This is what they did with out pictures.  So cool!!

Jacob and his family gave Hannah a couple of beautiful gifts and even though at the time she was pretty subdued due to her tummy, she’s played with them often and always talks about Jacob giving them to her.  Such a sweet friendship these little ones share!

Poor little Jacob, he was so concerned when Hannah wasn’t feeling well.  When she perked up he perked up too.  Sweet boy!!

I didn’t take a lot of pictures of our food but had to capture this amazing lobster tail!  It was huge and oh so delicious!!

My sweet birthday girl on the mend.

Birthday wishes for my sweet girl.  She was absolutely glowing!!

On our way back to our stateroom we stopped to capture some special pictures.  Priceless treasures of this most amazing trip!!  We love you Hannah!!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!  I love you more than words can express!!! xoxoxo

Happy 5th Birthday Hannah XiaoFen!!!

(Thursday, February 27, 2014)

My amazing baby girl turned 5 years old on February 27th!  Happy, happy Birthday Hannah!!  Mommy loves you SOOO much!!

Hannah’s birthday was a day at sea and it was a wonderful time to spend so much time together!  Such an amazing blessing!

It was fun to surprise Hannah with new magnets on our stateroom door, all in celebration of her!!

The first morning we were on the ship she had a Krispy Kreme as part of her breakfast and liked it so much that she had one every single morning.  Ah, cruise life!  Soon enough she’d be back to her regular cereal and oj so this was a fun little treat!   I thought it was fun the way she would choose to eat them off her fork.

Nana and I treated ourselves to eggs benedict this morning.  Oh yes!  One of the many reasons we enjoyed all the walking and swimming involved in our time on the ship!

After breakfast we stopped to visit the big cheese himself!

As we left Mickey we noticed Jacob in line so stopped to snap a pic of our kiddos together.

We stopped at our room to find that Mickey had left a gift for her courtesy of Miss Giesel.  (It makes me laugh during the video when I refer to her as ‘Princess Hannah’ and she corrects me to say she’s just ‘Hannah.’  Whenever she wore her Rapunzel dress I could call her Princess Hannah but the moment it came off she was just plain ‘Hannah.’  Too funny!

Hannah had really enjoyed playing Midship Detective Agency earlier in the week so we signed up for a new mystery and Hannah figured out who had stolen the 101 Dalmations!

Hannah and I happened to be up on Deck 11 at noon and found out that this is what happens each sea day.  Nana, we’ve found a new job for you!!  Cruise ship horn playing!!

After lunch we dropped Hannah off at the Oceaneer’s Club for a while as Sharon and I had a galley tour booked.   We had left this restaurant only 15 minutes before the tour started so were shocked to see how they had already cleaned up and it was ready for dinner service 3 1/2 hours later.  What a fascinating tour!!  Hot line that meals are served from

Vimal our guide who is one of the head chefs onboard the Fantasy.

Soup and sauce urns

Mickey pasta anyone?

It was a great tour and all the way through we talked about Papa who spends much of his summer volunteering at a children’s camp in northern Ontario.  He would have loved this tour!

After we were done we went to pick up Hannah but she was having too much fun.  She was on a Heffalump Hunt with one of the counsellors and asked for more time.  I love how much fun she’s had at clubs when she’s chosen to go.  Even at those times when we’ve had something booked so needed her to go there for a bit she always went happily and sometimes like this time she required extra time before leaving.  We filled our time by taking a couple of pics in the beautiful port holes.   We were now on day 6 of our cruise and I was still pinching myself at the beauty of this ship and how blessed we were to all be here together!!

Nana headed outside to enjoy some time in the fresh air and I grabbed my laptop and sat in this port hole working on a blog post.  In the end Hannah chose to stay almost an hour after I initially went in to get her and I was so happy.  She was right where she wanted to be and having such a great time so I was glad I didn’t have to hurry her along.

As normal, the first words out of her mouth were, ‘Mommy!  Can we go swimming?’  Sure thing!!  (Loved having the DicaPac to put my camera in so that I could capture these cool underwater pictures and videos!!)

We ended our swim this afternoon with some time in one of the hot tubs.  These are beautiful and the view from there is outstanding!  They are on Deck 11 with Plexiglas walls and even a portion of the floor is Plexiglas!  Check out this view!

An Early Birthday Celebration

Since we’ll be away on Hannah’s birthday we decided to celebrate with the family a couple of weeks early this year.  She understands with the cruise we’re not going to have a ‘friends’ party this year so she’d told me she wanted a ‘Frozen’ party with her friends when she turns 6 next year.  This led me to go on a crazy search to purchase Frozen items for this year’s party.  It was a rough go but I eventually found a place online that had everything in one package and they could ship it in time for her party.  Woo hoo!!

Here’s Hannah’s reaction to her ‘Frozen’ birthday party surprise.

Hannah and a few of her cousins waiting patiently for supper.

Hannah’s Auntie Trish offered to make her cake and it was beautiful!  Thanks Auntie Trish!  What a special gift your cake was to Hannah!  The doll was Hannah’s gift and she loves it!  What she didn’t know what that Grandma and Grandpa had bought her the matching Elsa doll so she has both. 

Celebrating with a cool flowering candle.

Wow Sweetie!  I can’t believe you’re almost 5!!!  Mommy loves you so much!  Happy Birthday!!  We’ll celebrate again soon when we’re on ‘Mickey’s Boat!’