Daniel & Annabel's Adventures: Double the Vacation Fun: Part 2!

Up next for our amazing double vacation: a Disney Cruise to the Bahamas!

But FIRST we had two days to kill, so we headed to Disney World for some fun! We said goodbye to the beach that Saturday morning (July 27) and drove the two hours to Orlando, first stopping at Aunt Wendy's house. There, we met up with Grandma Mary Kay and Grandpa Larry. And we unloaded beach stuff we wouldn't need again until we headed home- that stuff would stay at Wendy's house for the additional week we were gone. We went out to lunch and then went to check into our hotel, before making our way to Epcot. (We dawdled because...remember my dead phone from the beach? Well, I was REALLY hoping my new phone would arrive at Wendy's before we headed to the parks, but alas...)

We stayed at the Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort, which was new to us all. We had quite a nice room for the mere two nights we needed it. But we weren't there to stay in the room of course...we were headed to Epcot first because one of the things we most wanted to see was the new Ratatouille ride. It was also one of the parks Wendy could get us into- which was a win for us anyway. When we planned this little mini-Disney World stop back in the spring, we learned that Wendy could get us into all the parks except Magic Kingdom. We were bummed at first since we all LOVE Magic Kingdom- that's our favorite park. But it worked out okay because there were things we wanted to see at Epcot and Hollywood Studios, too, so that made our plan pretty easy actually. I had always wanted the boys to see Star Wars land (at Hollywood Studios) ever since it opened a few years back and we STILL hadn't been, so this was a great time to make that happen.

I have to say the parks weren't as crowded as I thought they'd be for summer. We were pleasantly surprised by this. I mean, they're always busy, but I really expected much longer wait times. We fared pretty well with all of our lines, really. I do think the heat probably kept people away... because, whew, it was HOT! It was hot at the beach, too, but we hardly noticed because we were in the water all the time. Not so much at Disney...no beach or pool to cool off in! Our cooling cloths got a LOT of use this trip!

Anyway, the Ratatouille ride was super fun. Other rides we enjoyed that day at Epcot were Spaceship Earth (of course- this one is so classic and one of my favorites, though they took out one of my favorite parts!), Mission Space, Gran Fiesta Tour, and Journey into Imagination with Figment. And of course we wandered the lands and enjoyed good food. We stayed for the fireworks that night, too, which is always a great time. Back at the hotel, we found a balcony to sit on for a few minutes where we could see the Magic Kingdom all colorfully lit up. So it was a busy Day One!

Sunday, we shopped in the hotel store first since Daniel had seen a 2024 die-cast Disney bus that he wanted (it would go with his other one back at home!) AND Wendy brought my new phone!!!! She'd charged it up overnight, so Ben quickly got it started doing its thing and then we went off to Hollywood Studios to check out Star Wars land and enjoy other rides there, too. Annabel LOVED the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster! We did the Star Wars Rise of the Resistance ride, of course. The whole Star Wars land was pretty cool- it feels like walking through a set. There are large replicas of the space ships in the open plazas, and there's a cool little street you walk through, too. Toy Story Land was another land we hadn't seen yet in its new form either- VERY cute! Disney thinks of everything- all the details are spot on! I love the Toy Story movies so this was just a really cute area for me to see.

All in all, at Hollywood Studios we enjoyed the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster as I mentioned (some of us did the Indiana Jones show instead), Rise of the Resistance, Toy Story Mania, and Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway (which used to the Great Movie ride, which I actually loved, but this was cute, too). And then...guess what? Wendy checked and we COULD get into Magic Kingdom after all!!! It was blacked out until 2:00 PM, but she found out she could check after 2:00 and see if it was open to cast members then and it was!!! We were SO excited and we bee-lined there quick as we could!

We were SO happy we got into Magic Kingdom! We felt pretty lucky! We had seen what we wanted to see at the other parks and that was fun- our stops at Epcot and Hollywood Studios were literally perfect, but we were really wanting to ride all the classics we love so much at Magic Kingdom. So, we were pretty pumped! Everything was just really working out so well for us this trip.

So at Magic Kingdom we rode on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, did the Enchanted Tiki Room attraction, rode the Haunted Mansion ride, It's a Small World, the People Mover (some did the Jungle Cruise), Buzz Lightyear, and finally Space Mountain (duh!). We had a little bit of rain but none of us minded a bit because we were so hot! We just kept walking. The rain did delay a lot of our rides, so we had to make do with other attractions while we waited out the rain. The rain also meant we didn't ultimately get to go on some of the rides we would have liked- I'm looking at you, Tron (NEW ride we desperately wanted to try!) and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (I STILL haven't been on this!!!)- because between the rain and the rides breaking down (this happened SO much this trip!) the lines were too long or closed down and the fast ticket line numbers were out of reach, and so on. Oh well. We still LOVED our day here! Grandma Mary Kay, Grandpa Larry, and Aunt Wendy headed home early evening, but the rest of us stayed to get on some more rides and we saw fireworks from our lines, too. We enjoyed having a little time to ourselves to close out the night.

One fun story I must tell you- we were just about to get in line for Space Mountain at one point when it broke down- we were SO bummed! So we rode the People Mover and gosh, hot tip alert!-- when Space Mountain breaks down, hop on the Mover because then you can see the inside of Space Mountain all lit up while they work to fix it! SO cool! It was still broken afterwards, so we decided to move on. We did other rides and then at one point, we were walking past the Space Mountain entrance again and I slowed down and joked gee what if it opened right as we walked past and out of the corner of my eye, what do you know? IT DID!!! I saw people rushing in and boy did we fly to join them and basically walked on to the ride (which is unheard of, really). So fun! We did ride it again later that day. But we never made it onto Tron or the Mine. Annabel and I were in line for the mine late that night, when it closed again on us, to our chagrin- but at least we could see fireworks from our line. We ended our night with shopping and ice cream!

We maxxed out our days at Disney, I'm telling you. SO glad we could make this mini stop here before heading southbound for the cruise on Monday!

And now that brings us to Monday! CRUISE DAY!!!! First, we had to drive down to Ft. Lauderdale, which runs between 3 1/2 hours to 4 hours. We tried to get as early a start as we could to get to the port and get on the ship. It was an antsy ride down with so much traffic and a couple missed turns and we just wanted to be there already- the excitement was hard to contain, but we made it, safe and sound! Once there, we met up with Uncle Brad, Aunt Rose, and Gwen, too. We checked in, did fun group pictures, and then boarded and oh boy it was so exciting to be back on a cruise ship! It really is such fun to cruise.

We love exploring the ship...we found our rooms, we had lunch, we watched the ship sail away. We just really loved wandering. Of course we got ice cream. We enjoyed the show that night, a late dinner, and so on. Ben and I made the decision to get the photo package in advance and the kids knew this (we had their buy-in), so throughout the whole cruise, we took advantage of as many photo ops as we could. It's all so fun.

Tuesday was an exciting day! This was our first stop on the cruise- first up was Castaway Cay and we had exciting plans for this day! Annabel and I had booked a parasailing excursion!!!! To say we were excited is a big understatement- we were WAY EXCITED and could not wait! Daniel went to the island to hang out with Grandma, Grandpa, Brad, Wendy, and Gwen. Ben went for a run on the island, which is something he likes to do here because they have a nice trail for running.

As for us girls, Annabel, Rose, and I... We had booked a pretty early time slot for parasailing, but not too early since some of us do like to sleep a little, haha. After breakfast, we headed to our excursion meet up spot. It was all very well organized and I had zero time to get nervous about what was actually going to happen. The guys who ran it were very good, very clear, very supportive, and it was just a really great, positive experience. I had taken my old hearing aid, so if anything happened, it wasn't my good one- I felt so smart and clever for thinking of details like this, and I had done all the research. Everything I read said we take off from the boat and land on the boat, so I wasn't worried about getting wet and this backup aid was a good solution for me to still be able to hear and enjoy the outing.

We got directions, we got life jackets, we were on the boat lickety split and then we were the first group up in the air!! Whoa. Like I said, I had zero time to get anxious. They hooked us up to the bar in one line, all three of us together, which I was really glad about- I wanted to be up there with Annabel and then they let Rose go with us, too, which was nice. Your legs are straight out, you're hanging on, they run the motor, and whoosh, the parachute gently lifts you up and you're off and gliding in the sky! AMAZING!!!! I can hardly contain my excitement just typing this all out! It was THE MOST fun! Annabel's face was BEAMING and I got an awesome picture of her excitement. I'll never forget it. And you know what else? It was soooo quiet up there. I had not expected that. So peaceful and quiet. Just gliding along. We could see our cruise ship. We could see the island. Rose loaned me a waterproof pouch for the phone, which I actually hadn't planned on using. I just wanted to savor the moment, wasn't going to take pictures, etc., but at the last second, I popped it in and thought oh just in case. I'm glad I did actually, because that one picture of Annabel is among my fave from this trip. I took just a couple pictures, because I mainly just really wanted to look around and enjoy the ride, which I truly did. We could feel the tug of the line pulling us back to the boat and we were all three instantly sad it was over. So sad. Like I could feel us being reeled in, I exclaimed Nooo!! I had this instant reaction of sadness that it was over. I wanted parasailing to last longer- the time goes so fast. Anyway- Lifetime highlight, that was!

We went back to the ship to change, grabbed some day time stuff, and then headed back to the island for lunch, shopping, and beach time! Ben had come with us by this point, too. We saw the rest of our group, too, but they were done on the island since it was so hot and they were headed back already. Ben and I enjoyed the water. Ohhhh so relaxing. Annabel enjoyed some hammock time, also relaxing. Dinner that night was dress up themed and in the Tangled-themed restaurant- which tickled my fancy! I LOVE Tangled! The lights! My favorite...sigh.

Anyway, oh such a fun day!!

And now that I've written a novel, you can see the pictures, too. :) Enjoy!

Disney World: Saturday July 27

Happy to be here!

Ready to ride Ratatouille! Cute kids!

Fireworks- always a fun show at Disney!!

Disney World: Sunday July 28

Daniel got a die-cast Disney bus to match his other one back at home! AND I have a phone again! This was the first picture I took. :)

The Rock 'n' Roller Coaster was SO fun!!!

We all enjoyed Rise of the Resistance. Very cool! This moment was actually kind of terrifying, all the Stormtroopers.

Loved Star Wars land. Such cool details!

Toy Story Land was adorable!!!

So glad Wendy checked and we could get into Magic Kingdom after all!!

On the People Mover since Space Mountain broke down...from this ride, you can see inside a lit up Space Mountain while they fix it! Very cool!

Annabel is much taller than the last time she was on this ride at this park! (link goes to October 2017- so cute!) (Also, none of us could believe it had been this long since we'd been at Disney World- what??!)

The Tron ride looks SO cool. Alas, we didn't get to ride it this time. Still, very cool to walk past.

Pretty castle lights!

Cruise Day 1: Ready to set sail!!

Monday, July 29

Ready to go! We're a happy family crew!

Annabel still loves to open the doors to our rooms. :)

Lunch with Annabel!

Wendy always makes cute door decorations!

Watching the boat leave port...

Cruise Day 2: Castaway Cay

Tuesday, July 30

I happened to be awake very early that morning, so I headed up top with Ben to watch the boat pull into the dock at Castaway Cay. It was so peaceful and quiet and I loved doing that. I always love when I'm up early in the morning, I just don't like to BE up early, I like my sleep too much, haha. Anyway, I loved that I was awake to do this.