February | 2014 | will & talia's great adventures

Well, we just returned from a really amazing vacation…celebrating 40 years for Nan & Boppa…great memories were made! We are extremely lucky people to get to take a trip like that…with so many family members by our side.

Walt Disney World and Orlando – We managed to squeeze in one beautiful pool day before the cold weather hit – such a great day! (video below) We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort (which I highly recommend for its family accommodations), it had a really amazing pool and great play areas for the kids. Grandma Jen and Ernie joined us here for a few days – they were troopers hitting the Magic Kingdom in the cold (and later rain). We had a very cool Finding Nemo suite, which Talia loved. Will on the other hand, loved the mini fridge. Not really that surprising to those that know his love of beer and recycling.

Magic Kingdom was fun to visit. Because it was so cold and rain was expected, we barely waited in a line and managed to do most of the suitable rides in just a few hours. We had to buy towels to keep the kids (and Dad) warm…and Grandma Jen bought us ponchos when the rain hit (thank you!). Favorite ride – It’s a Small World. It was actually the favorite of all the kids we met that day – Andrew, and Charlie & Jane Scholey. It was too cole to hold out for the fireworks – but we’ll be sure to catch that next time we have a Disney Extravaganza 😉 Big highlight for me was running into my friend Hugh at It’s a Small World – so ironic. Made my day to say the least! Nothing like running into amazing old friends at the happiest place on earth 😉 Dad debates the happiest place on earth part due to no beer being sold in the magic kingdom – you can bug him about that when you are older 😉

Disney Cruise Adventure!

I’ve seen Disney Cruise ships many times before in Vancouver harbour…but seeing the Disney Fantasy up close was really impressive. I can’t imagine a nicer ship – every last detail was truly spectacular. Lucky us, we met up with our party of 20 shortly before embarking the ship. Talia was over the moon to see her cousins!

The boat had stops scheduled in Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Castaway Cay (Disney’s Private Island). We stayed on the boat with the exception of Castaway Cay. Will is in the midst of terrible two’s…and it was kind of nice to enjoy the ship when the majority of people were ashore.

Highlights – Family breakfasts and dinners! So amazing to have quality time and the food was really great – across the board. Service…unbelievable. We even had a lunch in one of the nicer restaurants, and when Will started to get fussy, the servers succeeded in entertaining him with magic while we ate our lunch. Really amazing. The Aqua Duck slide was so much fun – on the last night Tal and I went 7 times in a row! Movies under the stars while swimming in the pool – pretty fun experience. The Oceaneer’s Club was really cool – Tal loved being in there with her cousins. She didn’t want to leave when they did the cooking class! Nice intro to independence from her parents.Will will get to enjoy it next time – but there is a good video below of his fun in ‘Andy’s Room’ from Toy Story. Fireworks at sea – seriously…when would you every get to do this? The staterooms were small but laid out really well. Tal slept in a bunk that came out of the ceiling at night…it even had stars painted on the ceiling above to help send her off into dreamland. And selfishly, the adult only area and Palo brunch. We didn’t see much of it, but it was amazing to have a few hours, quiet, sunshine, mimosas 😉 Jay & I had brunch at Palo on our last day at sea…we managed to stretch it into 2.5 hours. So delish and nice to have time with hubs 😉

While it was sad to disembark – it was such an amazing trip! We are all so lucky!

Photos and Videos to follow over the next few days!