Disney Cruise 2012 Part 1

I know many of you want to hear about our Disney Cruise.  There is a lot to tell so there will be no shortage of blog posts.   There is no way I can sit down and write it all out at once so there will be several parts.  So check back soon for the continuations……

Part 1

Wednesday, May 16^th

We left Imperial after picking Abby up from her last day of 2^nd grade an hour early.  Douglas drove us all to the airport.  (THANK YOU DOUGLAS!)  We were all very excited about the airplane ride as much as anything else. 

Unfortunately, things didn’t go too smoothly.  {Despite Cameron dealing with some diarrhea for a few days already.}  We had a transfer in Atlanta.  Well, our plane leaving St. Louis had some issues.  We had taxied out to the runway but they were unable to start the 2^nd engine.  So we had to taxi back to the terminal.  Maintenance had to be called to start it.  Then they had to replace the amount of gas we had lost during that time.  So our flight was late taking off which made us miss our flight out of Atlanta. 

We were put on stand by for the next flight out but that flight ended up being full.  We were given seats for the next flight which happened to be at 10:50pm.  So that put us at waiting in the Atlanta airport for about 4 hours.  Luckily I had looked at our tickets and noticed that we were given 5 seats scattered throughout the plane.  This would not work!  Not with 3 children under the age of 8.  So we spent a bulk of our four hours working with different agents to get seats together.  We did succeed, thank God.  I was finally able to relax and eat some dinner. 

We arrived into Orlando around 12:00am.  We had to make our way from one side of the airport to the other with 3 very sleepy kids to get our rental car.  We still had an hour drive to Cape Canaveral and check into our hotel.  We arrived at about 2:30am.  Everyone went to sleep and we all slept until about 9am. 

Thursday, May 17^th {At this time Cameron was still dealing with diarrhea. }

We missed the hotel breakfast so we found a local diner and ate.  Abby was really dragging and we just chalked it up to the travel and lack of sleep.  So we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the beach.  (Our cruise didn’t leave until Friday afternoon.)  Just as we were literally walking out the door, Abby vomited.  Oh boy!  We cleaned everything up and she said she felt fine and seemed to be doing good.  So we headed out.  (No time to be sick….there was a beach to get to). 

We had a GREAT time at the beach.  The kids loved the sand and Abby and Leah loved, loved jumping and playing in the waves.  Cameron played in the waves for a little while but was actually intimidated by the large waves and how loud they were.  He was perfectly content playing on the beach.  The weather was perfect and the day was too.  We walked down the Pier and played on the playground. 

Then Abby started to drag again.  She was getting real tired and said she felt like she would get sick again.  So we headed back to the car rental place (our car was due by 5pm) and the hotel.  She didn’t get sick up until this point but just felt nauseous and crumby.  We opted to order dinner in for the rest of us.  Abby said she was hungry and just ordered a plain salad.  She ate it well and we thought we were in the clear.  We were wrong.  She threw up 2 more times in the middle of the night and once before breakfast.

That’s when I started to panic.  We had come all that way.  We had planned all these months.  We had spent all that money.  Would we be able to go?  We decided to go for it.  We kept bags with us in case she got sick again. 

Friday, May 18th

We made it through the check in and loading onto the ship with no major issues.  We went to Topsiders restaurant (a buffet) to get some lunch once on the ship.  Abby didn’t eat and was wiped out.  We all ate and then ended up checking out our room.  While I unpacked, Gregory and Leah went to explore the ship and Abby napped and Cameron rested. 

We had a mandatory safety drill and then we headed to the Sail Away party!  Cameron and Leah were so tired and crabby they didn’t participate much and Gregory held Abby the entire time as she lay on his shoulders still wiped out.

We then headed to our first dinner at Lumiere’s.  It was a take on Beauty and the Beast.  We met all of the servers who would be with us the entire week and we met our table mates.   They were a wonderful family from Michigan who also have an 8year old daughter.  We got along really well with them. 

After dinner, we headed to bed.  It was about 7:30pm and it had been super long day.  No one had any trouble falling asleep and sleeping that night.  Abby slept in her own bed with a trash can nearby.

(to be continued.)