Disney Land and Sea 2008

This year for my personal vacation time Will and I went on a Disney Land Sea vacation. This was if not our best vacation, the closest to it! We spent 4 nights at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and 3 nights on the Disney Wonder. Disney transported us from the hotel to the ship and back and made the whole process seamless.

The hotel we stayed at was fabulous and loved everything about it. The rooms even had a fridge and we bought breakfast and lunch foods at Albertsons to save some money to splurge on wonderful Disney themed restaurants for dinner. Our favorite dinner was the Luau dinner show at the Polynesian hotel. The food and entertainment were amazing. We packed our sandwiches and apples and put those in a cooler and brought a backpack in to the parks. The fridge was a lifesaver. We also thought that the lobby and the pool areas were especially nice. The resort even has Savannah view rooms where you can sit out on your balcony and animals such as Giraffes are right there in front of you.

We got a 2 day Park Hopper Pass and spent the first day at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. The next day we went to Animal Kingdom for the whole day. We had such a great time at all the parks. We especially loved the Roller coaster and went on thunder mountain railroad 6 times and Everest 7 times! I know we are crazy like that. We mostly did that with fast passes so that we did not have to wait long. I am a huge fan of the fast pass! We also did the safari in Animal Kingdom and saw tons of animals. I was actually very surprised at how much we saw. We also spent a whole day at the Blizzard Beach water park. That was a ton of fun and wished we had more time there.

Thursday they had a motor coach waiting outside our hotel that took us over to the cruise ship. It was about an hour ride and than, there we were on our 3 day cruise to relax after running around the parks. Nassau we just got off for lunch and went to the Seafood Haven in the Fish Fry area. I love their conk fritters! Than we spent the rest of the day on the ship to relax in the adult only pool area and lounges.

Castaway Cay was my very favorite day. We docked right at the island so no need to tender it. That saved valuable time for relaxing. We went right over to Serenity Bay which is their adult only area of the Island. They even had a tramway to take us over there. They had their own buffet and equipment rental booth. We rented floats and laid out all day and the weather was perfect. We than had lunch at the buffet which was great! They had ribs, chicken, steak, burgers and fries. They even had fresh tropical fruit like mango and papaya. I was bad and had the cookie dough ice cream :)

The Disney shows were great and was so impressive. They did a Toy Story the Musical show on the second night. I usually skip the shows but on here I went to all three. The rotated dinning was fun as each night we were in a different themed restaurant. My favorite was Triton's for the food and Animators Palate for the theme.

Really there was so much I could say about this trip but the video below says it all!

Family cruise on Star Princess

Feb 28 2007
Star Princess
Family Cruise



Last Feb. Will and I went on a cruise with his parents and sister! It was their first cruise so they were a little nervous. They were also excited and full of questions before they left. They were coming a longer distance than we were as they live all the way up in Vermont. They flew in one day early to avoid missing their cruise due to air troubles. They stayed at a hotel near the port and had a nice time going to dinner the night before. The next morning they took a shuttle and met us at the pier. They were so excited the got to the pier 2 hours before they began embarkation!

Seeing them as they entered the cabin for the first time was exciting. They were so happy and ready to set sail. The first thing they did was walk out on to their balcony, which they loved! We started out our vacation by touring the ship together from top to bottom. My Father in law was very impressed with the size and amenities of the ship. We all had a blast at the sail away party on the Lido deck. We danced and had some drinks hoping to win one of the many prizes. No luck this time though :( Maybe next cruise.....

We had tons of fun at each of the ports either taking shore excursions or going off on our own. I think we had the most fun as a family in Ocho Rios when we went to Dunns River Falls and lunch at the Ruins. I had no idea what I was getting into with Dunns River Falls...I thought it would be a short easy climb and it was 45 minutes walking up the waterfalls with water rushing down. Luckily we were all holding hands helping each other up. I am so glad we went though cause it was so much fun! Our tour guide also took us all over the Island. Cozumel was fun.... the ladies went parasailing and then we spent the rest of the day at the beach sunning, eating our Nachos, and drinking our pina coladas....Most of us renting snorkel equipment for only $5 a piece and set out to the reef and saw tons of fish!







As for the ship, I loved it! I loved having my cabin in the back of the Aloha deck so that I was right near the back deck where it was never crowded and was an adult only pool. It was also so convenient to grab breakfast from the buffet and sit back take in the view. Our favorite meal was our champagne balcony breakfast, and was so worth it. (see picture below)We had a whole 5 course meal with champagne delivered and set up on our balcony. What a way to wake up!



We took advantage of the afternoon tea this time and I loved the whole experience. We went twice and sat with the same people both times. We met some very interesting people and had some very yummy scones and real cream, pastries, and party sandwiches with some hot tea. The whole thing was white glove service. I felt so special :)

We tried both specialty restaurants this time and the one I liked best was Sterling Steakhouse. It was well worth the $15 a person cover charge. I went all out and ordered a porterhouse steak! The service was exceptional and the whole meal was great...side note: I almost had to be rolled back to my cabin...hehe

The whole thing was such a blast and we all were able to spend time together like we wanted. My parents came off the ship ready to do it again.....so I will report back after our next family cruise........