7 night Disney Cruise - Eastern Caribbean - Day 4

Day 4 we pulled into St. Maarten/St. Martin in the Virgin Islands.  St. Maarten is a small island owned by two different countries - the Dutch and the French.  We took an island tour going to both sides and learned a little about the history of the island.  They have two separate governments - french and dutch.  But, you can pass freely between both sides without having to use a passport.

 There was a small shopping area in Marigot - the French capital of the island.  We were able to stop and buy a few souvenirs.  The Dutch capital is Philipsburg.  We did not stop there.

 It was very warm - hot actually!

 What a beautiful island!  Kind of wishing we did a beach tour...although we will get our beach time in at Disney's island :)

7 night Disney Cruise - Eastern Caribbean - Day 3

Day 3 we were at sea again.  We played and swam.  That evening the ship had a Halloween party complete with trick-or-treating. 

 After the trick-or-treating everyone ended up on the deck for the Halloween party!  There were lots of fun costumes we saw.

 Brena decided to sit in the middle of it all and eat some candy.

 That night for dinner we went to Lumiere's.  I think the kids ordered the Mickey Mouse ice cream bar every night for dessert.

 Sam always was making fun designs on the plate for the kids' ketchup.

 And making things out of napkins.

 We didn't get paired up last year with dinner guests.  This year we did.  I was hesitant at first, but we came to love the Kinjo family.  They had 2 girls our kids' age.  Their oldest girl and Tyler share the exact same birthday - March 26, 2003.  Their youngest girl and Brena both were born in August 2005 within a few days of each other.  I am sure the boat put us together for that reason, and I'm so glad they did!  They are originally from Japan, but are living in Maryland while he works at a Cancer Institute for 3 years.  They will have to go back to Japan in a few months.  Brena loved playing with Kana and Natsuki.

Sachi made me an origami swan that night at dinner.

7 night Disney Cruise - Eastern Caribbean - Day 2

Day 2 we were at sea.  It was lots of pool time and play time.  Tyler spent a lot of time in the kids club and the kids lab.  They have two separate areas for kids age 3-10.  They have a nursery for the babies, a club for 11-13 year olds and a teen club for 14 and up.  There were always scheduled activities going on in the club so the kids had things to keep them entertained.  Of course they always had the option of not participating in the activities and playing on the computers, wii, slides, etc.  So, if it seems there are more pictures of Brena than Tyler, it's because Tyler was most likely in the kids area.

Our one and only character picture this year.  We got a lot of pictures with the characters last year, but I guess no one wanted to stand in the lines for it this year.

Brena with Daisy.

Brena and TJ playing some ping pong.

 Tyler shooting hoops.  He loved doing this.

 The water was an indescribable blue green.  It was gorgeous and it was fun to watch the jumping fish we sometimes saw.  Try as I might I just couldn't capture the color of that water.

 Dinner at Parrot Cay. We LOVED our servers Brian and Sam.  Brian was from South Africa.  Sam was from Indonesia.  He was married with 2 children and 1 on the way.  They took good care of us and spoiled our kids. 

 Sam making paper roses for Brena.

 Night 2.  We went to a show in the Walt Disney Theatre - Twice Charmed - An Original Twist on the Cinderella Story.  It was excellent.  I love that we can see wonderful Broadway like shows every night!  So much fun and the kids love it. 

7 night Disney Cruise - Eastern Caribbean - Day 1

The day for our cruise finally came!  We were so excited to drive down to Port Canaveral and board our ship!  We cruised on the Disney Magic this year. 

 Inside the terminal waiting to check in.  I choose a later check in time and I'm glad I did.  It was not crowded at all and we didn't have to wait in any lines, unlike last year!

 On the boat!!

 Our stateroom.  I booked the cheapest room possible, but we must have gotten some kind of upgrade because we had a nice large window in our room.  It was really cool to have that window to be able to look out and see where we were.

 Up at the Micky pool. 

 Of course our first stop was for ice cream!

 Brena went down that slide many, many times!

Horses

Tyler's scout troop needed to finish up some work to get their horse pin.  The kids went out to a horse farm.  Luckily siblings got to go, I think Brena would have flipped if she wasn't able to go ride!  Of course, they had a blast.  I didn't get to go because I had a church meeting I had to be at.  Thankfully daddy was able to take them and get some cute pictures too!

 

Cookies!

I had to make some cookies for a church party.  The kids had fun cutting and decorating!  Can't believe I forgot to take a picture of our awesome end results!  They sure were yummy :)