Disney Cruise 2015 ~ Sea Day Number 1, Part 1

(Sat, Feb 21, 2015)

Each family has their own reason to choose a specific cruise.  In our case when we looked at our choices for this cruise we considered price and destination mostly.  We love the sea days where we do not dock and all the opportunities that these days offer.   This cruise offered 2 sea days which was great for us!

Saturday was our first full day and even though it had been cooler when we left Miami the evening before, we woke to a bright, sunny, warm morning and we quickly took advantage of being outside!!

Hannah was with us for only a short amount of time before she was asking to go to the Oceaneer’s Club so I dropped her off there.  I grabbed my book  and the wave phone so that the club could reach me if necessary, and went back up to hang out on the deck with Nana and Papa.  You can see it was a big challenge for Papa to flip into vacation mode and relax.

After a morning in the sun we headed back to our staterooms to prepare to go to Palo for a special lunch.  Palo is an adults only dining location so Hannah and Ava were happy playing at the Oceaneer’s Club and Lab and they fed them lunch too.  Bonus!!

Unfortunately my mom was a little under the weather so she wasn’t able to join us for lunch.  Missed you Mom! 

Our server was Sasha and he was amazing!!  So knowledgeable and an expert at what he did!  He started our lunch by offering to take pictures for us.  Palo is located on the 10th deck so the view is breathtaking!  Our group was: Liz (a friend from home who was on the same cruise with her daughter Ava) myself, Sharon, Larry and Dad.

The offerings at Palo are exceptional!  These are the appetizers that I narrowed it down to.  LOL! 

I had a delicious chicken parmesan on risotto but it was so delicious that it was gone before I remembered to take a picture of it!  My dessert choices…plus 2 helpings of strawberry soup not pictured here.

Needless to say we thoroughly enjoyed our lunch at Palo and will book again on a future cruise.

After lunch dad went to check in on mom while Sharon, Larry and I took a few minutes to take a few pictures. 

I went to pick Hannah up at the club and she’d had a great time!  

We decided to take in a showing of ‘McFarland, USA’ that was playing in the Walt Disney Theatre.  Hannah was happy to draw and colour for a bit and then dozed off for the final hour of the movie.  If you have the opportunity to see this movie, GO!  It was AMAZING!!!

After the movie Hannah was rested and raring to go so she and I quickly changed into bathing suits and hit the pool.  We were in rougher waters at this point and the water in the pool was sloshing from side to side.  That didn’t bother Hannah one little bit as she and her new little friend Miranda enjoyed some swimming time together.  In the end, we met Miranda and her family at the pool each day as the girls became fast friends and I got along with her parents too!

It was also a treat to swim when the pool was so empty as most of the cruise it looked like‘kid soup’…

but that never bothered us a bit either!

Up next….’Argh!  Pirates in the Caribbean!’

*Character Time and Palo

(Monday, February 24, 2014 - AM)
We woke Monday to another beautiful sunny day!  It was our second day at sea as we sailed towards St. Maarten.  One of the reasons I originally selected this cruise besides that it was the week of Hannah’s birthday was that it included 3 days at sea.  If we were going on a cruise I wanted to give us lots of opportunity to enjoy all that the ship had to offer and I was so thankful for that choice!
Hannah was up early and dressed in her sailing dress.  This is our stateroom door decorated with magnets and a ‘fish extender’ I’d brought from home.  I’ll share more about the fish extender later.  The magnets are characters that represent each of us and are just fun decorations.  I learned a lot about our cruise on DISboards and one of the things was how people bring magnets to decorate their stateroom door.  It was a fun surprise and almost daily I would change them or add new ones.
Hannah was up early this morning because there was a new character on board for her to meet and she couldn’t wait!  Anna!!!

After breakfast we set off on a morning of character greetings. Hannah and Daisy in their matching dresses.

Princess parade
The wait for the princesses was longer so Aladdin stepped in to greet the children as they waited.
Cinderella
Tiana
Belle
Snow White
By now it was mid-morning and Hannah was ready to go to clubs for a while.  She would eat lunch there this day which she though was pretty neat!  Nana and I had some time before we needed to get ready for lunch so we went to our happy place – the upper decks to soak up some sun!  Ahh!! 
A glance to our right showed the family deck, Aquaduck and blue skies as far as the eye could see!
I love the look of the Disney ships from top to bottom.  Fun, bright and classy all at the same time! 
On this day I had booked a special lunch for Sharon and I at a beautiful adults only restaurant called Palo.  It’s located on the 11th deck Aft and the view will take your breath away!! 

Happy Retirement Nana!  We’re so glad you’re here with us!!
The view as we left.  Check out the blue, blue, blue, blue water!  Never had I seen anything like this in my life!  BEAUTIFUL!!!