Trip of a Lifetime-Day 3, Part 1

I probably don't say it often enough, but I'm pretty darn lucky that one of my best friends is an amazing photographer. My hubby keeps telling me to get a nicer camera, but I know that a large portion of this has to do with skill...that I just do not have. The memories she has captured on film I will treasure forever.  Nothing makes me happier after coming home from a vacation then to see a Dropbox alert that she has sent me pictures.

The more pictures I see from this trip the luckier I feel that we go to travel with them...but more importantly than amazing pictures, without fail, we have an absolute blast with them.  Vacation with friends or family isn't always easy but we can never hesitate to plan vacations with Lauren and Patrick.

Ok enough of the mushy stuff! It's time to get onto Day 3. You are all in for a treat today! Not only do I have some amazing pictures BUT Lauren has included a video of us boarding the ship!! 

The day started out EARLY!  We left around 6 a.m. for the drive up to Vancouver due to a bridge being out (we wanted extra time). If you are driving up to Vancouver, I can highly recommend parking right at Canada Place. We went online ahead of time and pre-paid (http://www.vinciparkcanadaplace.ca/).  It was tricky to find at first but only because it was so obvious lol!  Once you get inside, you have to stop at the parking office FIRST! Once we did that we found a spot right by the elevator, went upstairs and we were literally right there. It was so easy!!

We had gone through customs into Canada when we drove across the border, but in order to board the ship we had to go back through U.S. Customs. We had enhanced drivers licenses that allow us to drive/boat into Canada and Mexico but many people didn't recognize it and it gave us a bit of trouble. Once through customs, it was time to check in. Both Lauren and I completed online check-in at the same time. were given the same Port Arrival Time and checked-in at the same time but they were given a MUCH lower boarding number.  Remember, if you are traveling with multiple parties you can board with whoever has the lowest number!

While we were waiting I tried to get Eric and Patrick to record the first of what should have been several videos....here is their best attempt...

Hopefully they get better later in the trip! We had a while to wait so we took a few photos! After we checked in and headed to the waiting area, we were given our first Personal Navigator to begin planning our day!

Before we knew it was time to board! We had a little fun while boarding that I'll be sharing later this week on Facebook!

As soon as we boarded we headed to Parrot Cay for lunch and we were starving! On a side note, we had been gone from Kennedy for 3 days now and it was SO weird not having her with us. We immediately starting planning her next cruise. How odd to eat without having another mouth to feed!

After lunch we explore the ship and secured our Palo reservations since we weren't able to in advance.

The boys even got in a little basketball!

Next up, our room is ready and it's time to sail away!!

Trip of a Lifetime-Day 2

Seattle Day 2
After a quick brunch, we were off for a fun filled day of seeing the sights! First up? Pike Place Market!! I've always wanted to go here and it did not disappoint!

We found the cutest little chocolate shop and hubby and I couldn't resist buying a few pieces (although pricey...3 caramels and 2 chocolate covered oreo's cost us $13!!!)

Next up....the famous Gum Wall!

Um gross!! We didn't stay long..it was so gross. I wish I had a better word to describe it but YUCK!! It was time to walk off those yummy chocolates so we headed down to the water.  Eric and I were so impressed by the cleanliness of the city...except for the gum of course!

We stopped in this great little shop that had all sorts of weird and fun things to buy!

Lauren and I even got our fortunes!

We had a few errands to run still so it was time to get going.

But not before some ice cream!

We had a great time at the Market and I'm so glad Lauren and Patrick took us!

After we left we took a drive out to visit Penny, Lauren and Patricks dog who was at this amazing Horse/Doggy day care!

The drive out was amazing!

And we got to see this gorgeous water fall!

We had an amazing day but it was time to head back for dinner and to get ready for our cruise! We would be leaving bright and early Monday morning for the drive up to Vancouver!

Top 5 Reasons to Cruise with Little Ones!

After saying that we would never take our daughter on a Disney Cruise until she was much older (3 and potty trained!) we couldn't pass up a great rate. At 17 months our daughter enjoyed 7 full nights on the Disney Magic to the Caribbean! Read along to see the top 5 reasons that it wasn't the disaster we feared it might be! We discovered that a Disney Cruise was a great vacation for our little family and can’t wait to take her again!

1) Children that are NOT potty trained and/or are still in swim diapers may not use the pools on board. I think this is the biggest deal breaker for most folks. It was for us at first, until we got an amazing price to sail on the Magic. We decided for the price we'd go, have a great time and not worry about the pools. You know what? We had a great time! Our daughter LOVED the splash area and there was lots of other children for her to play with. I will admit the Splash Area on the Fantasy totally blows the one on the Magic out of the water but I think only I would noticed that (not my child).

*Update!! The Magic has been totally reimgineered and has an amazing splash area for the whole family!! We can't wait to try it out!

2) Children over the age of three have the added benefit of FREE kids clubs. For those traveling with little ones, you have the great option of dropping them off in the nursery for a fee of $9 per hour. I'll be doing a separate post on the Nursery in a few weeks but we loved dropping our daughter off her. They were amazing with her!

3) Food...if your little one is eating solid food then a cruise is the place to be. Kennedy love eating fresh fruit daily as well as pancakes every morning. There was always something for her to eat. Also, our servers at dinner were just amazing. They helped entertain her, always brought her favorite food and even introduced her to her first Mickey bar!!




4)If your family loves meeting the characters than there is no better place to be than a Disney Cruise. We loved the short wait times and the intimate moments Kennedy shared. She danced with Chip and Dale, had a play date with Cinderella and Snow White and even gave Goofy a few kisses.

5) Family time...we LOVE going to Walt Disney World but with all the hustle and bustle of busy days, we don't always have as much quiet time together as we'd like. With a Disney Cruise we get all the fun activities that are offered plus some time to just be together. My husband works the night shift and is busy going back to college during the day. He doesn't always as much time to spend with us as he'd like. We love just hanging out together and relaxing on a Disney Cruise.

Trip of a Lifetime-Day 1

Hello everyone!! It's finally time to start recapping our amazing trip to Alaska! Before we start, if you've missed it, here are some posts during the planning process:

Trip Announcment
Alaska Here We Come

Brrr...but Alaska is Cold!

Bottoms Up

Overpackers Anonymous

Alaska Here We Come

First and foremost I'd like to remind everyone that the majority of the pictures coming in the next few weeks are taken by Lauren Kennedy from Lauren Kennedy Photography. Lauren is based in Seattle, and photographs families, babies and weddings! Be sure to check out all her sites:

Facebook

Twitter

Blog

Ok so let's get started! Today I'm going to share with you our first day in Seattle!! We left bright and early on a Saturday morning (6 a.m.).  The grandparents had picked up Kennedy the night before. She had a great weekend full of sun and swimming!

Seattle Day 1

If you don't know, my hubby is terrified to fly. We normally take direct flights to Florida so I was very nervous about not only a connecting flight but a rather long flight out west. He did great and before we knew it we had landed in Seattle! We were super excited that our first sight was:

Since Lauren and Patrick weren't back from their week in Hawaii until later that night, we had the whole day to explore on our own. We picked up our car (a sporty 2 door since we never get to drive something fun!) and just started driving! We had no plans except to spend the day together.  Before we knew it, Seattle loomed in front of us!

We decided to just drive around the city a bit, with no specific destination.

We finally decided we were starving and a burger. Since we didn't really know anything about the city we did a bit of googling and before we knew it we had arrived at UneedaBurger. It was a cute, hip little open air restaurant that served up some amazing burgers and onion rings!!

After we filled our tummies we decided to hit the zoo next. Imagine our surprise to find out that it was jut 5 minutes down the road. We had a great time but often found ourselves saying, Kennedy would love this!

I wish I could say the rest of the day was fill with excitement but to be honest at this point we were exhausted. I had been up since 2:30 a.m.  EST and Eric had never gone to bed in hopes of sleeping on our long flight to Seattle. After a failed attempt at ice cream, we ended up back at the airport around 5:30 p.m... and Lauren and Patrick's flight wasn't supposed to get in until 10!! We grabbed some coffee and tried to watch a movie...and tried to stay awake!! Finally they arrived and we were sound asleep before we knew it!

Alaska Here We Come!

It's finally here! The day we leave for our 11 day adventure to Alaska!! Once we return home we'll have tons of video and photo to share! For now be sure you are following me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram....you never know when an update will appear!