Just realized that on Tuesday it will be 5 weeks till we leave. Got our cabin assignment we got an sideway inside on Deck 5, beside the room we were in on the Wonder in March, exactly what I was hoping for. Deck 5, is a great location close to the kids clubs.

Changed hotels in London we are now staying at the Park Plaza Victoria Station, and have decided to take a car service into London, instead of the tube, so that is arranged.
We have tickets to go to the Royal Mews after we arrive in London, Lauren is disappointed we are not doing Buckingham Palace, but the latest ticket for the palace is 3:15 and I did not think we would make that. Hoping to do St George Palace in Lisbon so once Palace should be good.


Need to get serious about packing.

A couple of pictures from March on the Wonder, we are so excited to be heading to the Magic, no Castaway Cay this time though.

So we are at the 100 day Mark I figure it is time to start getting organized.

We are heading back on the Magic, this time we are going from Dover to Barcelona. It will be the girls first trip to Europe so there should be lots of new experiences.

Got lucky with airfare we are flying Air Canada to London direct on July 27, and returning from Barcelona with a stop in Montreal on Aug 8.

Have hotel reservations booked for London, Dover and Barcelona, but still hoping for an employee rate at the Renaissance Chancery Court, but I will not hold my breath on that one. We currently are staying at the Premier Inn Victoria which is close to Victoria Station, Premier Inn Dover, and the new Novetel City Centre Barcelona.

Booked the train from London to Dover on the weekend so that is done. The plan is to take the tube from Heathrow to Victoria Station, but the girls think the bus might be better as they don't want to get lost.

Need to work on plans for our short stay in London. I think we will all be pretty tired from the flight so I don't think I will plan much. I just discovered that google maps gives directions for walking so that will be a good planning tool.

Lauren is getting excited. She is following a family's trip on the TA to Barcelona and that has really made her interested.

Saturday post 9

Saturday.

Was out of memory for the camera so we have no more photos.

The alarm went off at 7:00 and it was a chore to get the girls up, but you need to be out of the room by 8:00. We made it with a few minutes to spare. I was hoping to head up to Topsiders for breakfast but the girls were sad about leaving and just wanted to go.

We headed off and went through the dreaded “See you real soon sign” .

The plan today was to rent a car and spend the day in Cape Canaveral, we had the car by 8:45 and were on the road. We went and played mini golf, by the time we were finished the girls had that “I have had too much fun and I can’t do anything more look” so I decided to head to Orlando.

I had won some Hyatt Choice Certificates so we were staying at the Airport tonight. Lauren fell asleep immediately and had quite the nap. We stopped for lunch and to also pick up some snacks for the flight home.

The girls did not believe me when I said we were staying at the airport and kept asking me where we were going, and were quite amazed when we got to our room over looking the airport security lines.

The Hyatt is a nice hotel but you sure to do notice that it is not the same level as Disney, and after a week of being treated like royalty you notice the difference. The pool area was a disaster with towels and garbage everywhere, but we had a nice swim.

We headed to Chili’s for dinner and then it was tv and bed. The girls were asleep by 8:30.

Our Flight was at 9:30 so we had to be out by 7:30 or so. Looking out the window you could see that security was busy. It sure is nice staying right at the airport and it made things so easy.

Flights home were on time. The Flight from Atlanta-Buffalo was oversold and I kick myself for not volunteering to be bumped, as they were offering $400 per person plus hotel, breakfast lunch and dinner, but they could not guarantee that we could get our luggage and I did not want to be stuck in Atlanta with no bathing suits.

We landed in Buffalo, got our luggage and headed home. The border was a zoo and it took over an hour, so we did not make it home till 8:15.

It was an amazing trip and such a treat to be able to spend time with the girls without having a million other things to do, but have fun.

Friday post #8

Friday- Castaway Cay.

We wake up to another beautiful day and the ship is backing into Castaway Cay.

We head up to Top Siders for Breakfast this morning, and then we head down to spend the day on the beach. We are joined by Donald who walks off the ship with the girls.


We decided to rent bikes this morning and explore the bike trails. S is a little rusty but no way does she want a bike with training wheels and after 15 minutes is riding like a pro again.

We head to the tower and are able to see the island.

By now it is getting hot so we headed to the beach. The play structure is closed I guess due to low tide and the water is cold so we do not spend long in the water. The girls play in the sand and then decide they are hungry.

We have lunch and head back to the beach. Someone had taken the second lounge chair that we had our stuff on, and both girls want to sleep so we decided to head back to the ship for a nap.


I do some of the dreaded packing and the girls rest and watch tv.

Being our last day we took a tour to the favorite spots, Beat Street and Shuffle Board for one last visit. While in Beat Street Mickey comes out of the Lounge and the girls have a visit with Mickey as he walks by.



Our last dinner was in Lumiers and it is just us again, for another nice peaceful dinner. We quickly said good bye to our servers as we headed to the lounge for the talent show.


At this point L had a breakdown, I think she realized that the trip was coming to an end and she only had 1 chance to be alone with me. S was a good sport and went to the kids club and L and I had a couple of hours alone. L did a great job in the talent show and was so pleased with herself when she got a certificate for participating.

Anytime we had questions we ended up at the Guest Service desk and a young man from Bulgaria always seemed to help, and L was most disappointed when he was not there to show her certificate to, but several of the cruise staff stopped to congratulate her so she was pleased.

We quickly picked up S from the clubs and headed to Remember the Magic show. In the show was a ventriloquist. I thought I had seen the girls giggle a lot already, but it was nothing compared to tonight, wow did the girls enjoy that show.

The girls exhausted once again we headed back to the room to finish the packing. I was able to pack all the luggage and get it out in time for the 11:00 PM deadline. I packed much lighter this time, but we still had too much stuff.

Thursday post 7

Thursday Sea Day

How can it possible be Thursday already, we have done so little it seems.

Room service is on time again, I really should not have ordered the night before as the girls would have slept for hour in our dark room if the phone had not woken them.

Today L headed to the clubs for Detective School and S and I headed for the Lobby for the princess gathering. S is in heaven with all the princess and is giggling when Snow White tells her a secret. S could have spent all cruise looking for characters and she would have been beside herself.



We were able to convince L to leave the club and we headed to Lumier’s for lunch. Lunch is so much more peaceful and relaxing than dinner, and I always think it would be best to have lunch in the dinning rooms and skip dinner altogether, but the girls always want to go to dinner for some reason.

We headed to the family kite making, but they were out of kites so L headed back to the kids club for the Raotuille cooking school and S and I headed to Beat Street.

L had decided before we left than she wanted to go in the talent show, so she brought some piano music and the rehearsal was at 3:00 .

I was able to convince the girls to skip dinner so we could make the last showing of Bolt. I saw the movie in December when I was on the Wonder and I knew L would love it, and they both did what a great movie, a lot of giggling and S even cried.

Dreams was the show tonight and it was about Peter Pan helping a girl learn to fly with the help of some, faith trust and pixie dust. I think this was the girls favorite, the singers and performers are just amazing and when Marie flies through the sky of stars the girls were on the edge of their seats.

Afterwards L wanted to head to the kids club once more for the newest Kim Possible show. Well I guess the show is interrupted for you Kim Possible fans by Wayne, dracon is trying to capture the ship and Kim needs help to save the Ship and Castaway Cay, so the kids are on a mission. I would say this was the highlight of the trip for L, and when I arrived to pick L up I have never seen such a room full of excited kids. The ship is saved and we are free to head to Castaway Cay so all is right aboard the Disney Magic.

St. Thomas post #6

Wed St Thomas.

Room service again but I had not booked an early morning excursion so we did not have to rush today. We pretty much had the ship to ourselves. We headed up to the pool and enjoyed the view and the girls swam .


St Thomas looks like a lush tropical island and it reminds me of Hawaii.



We met at 11:40 for our island tour and visit to Coral World. Everything in St Thomas is on the side of a mountain and the views are amazing.



We headed to the Mountain top in an open air van where you can see to Puerto Rico and all the island . I don’t think I would want to be driving on all the switch back roads, but it was something to see, and I wish more of my pictures had turned out.

We got to Coral World at 1:30 where we had an hour and an half to tour the small aquarium. A sea lion show was just about to start so we headed there. They brought out 2 of them and put on quite a show, including some singing and painting.

We just missed they sting ray feeding and I can see that a Sting Ray adventure is not in the future for S, she did not even want to get close to them.

There is a section where you can go in and see tropical birds. S did not want anything to do with that either but luckily it was small and I was able to see L the whole time so she was able to go in by herself. There was 1 other family in there that had some nectar to attract the birds and asked L to help them so she was thrilled to have the birds land on her.


We took a quick tour through some of the under water areas and then it was time to head back.

We got back to the dock about 3:30 and the ship was leaving at 4:00 so there was no time to do anymore exploring. St Thomas looks like an island that would be wonderful to visit for an extended vacation, and I hear employee discounts at Fisherman’s Reef are always available.

Dinner tonight was in Animator’s Palete and the restaurant was in changing colours mode, but I still have not figured out what is supposed to be so impressive about this and how they could justify the $4 million cost of this restaurant. We skipped desert tonight and headed to the theater to catch High School Musical 3, this trip we had a hard time fitting in the movies, and only caught the last half of the movie tonight.


Mike Super was the magician performing tonight and his show was a hit with the girls. I think L has dreams on being a magician one day and she sat in awe for the whole show.

Tonight in the Kids Club it was the High School Musical Talent show and L headed there as S and I went on a hunt for more pictures and characters.

Another late night, but the girls are having so much fun.

Tuesday post 5

Tuesday. St Martin

Room Service was scheduled for 9:00 and if they had not called prior to delivering breakfast the girls would have slept for hours, but we had to meet at 10:00 for our excursion. Today we were heading out on the SeaWorld Explorer.

St Martin is a not a lush tropical island but the ocean is a beautiful turquoise colour. It was about a 20 minute drive to the French side of the island where we were to board the semi submarine. We had a bit of o wait so L headed to the beach and played in the ocean and luckily she did not get all wet. The beach we were at was small but lovely sand and the water was warm. It would have been nice to go for a swim but no time.




The semi submarine is not what I expected. We boarded what I though was a tender boat, but once we got out a fair distance they opened a hatch and sent us down to this narrow hatch that had windows on both sides and seats that fold down with a person on each side. Up on deck they send down a diver with food to attract the fish. The girls were amazed at what it looks like under the ocean. We got to see an amazing variety of fish, sharks, turtles and coral. We were down for 45 minutes and then it was time to head back up to the surface.




After the bus ride back to the port we went back on board for lunch.

I was hoping to head back into town after lunch but L wanted to go to the club for Lava Flow, and S wanted to go to the empty pool so that is what we did. It was a beautiful afternoon on top of the ship and we even got to catch Stitch up on Deck 10 all by himself getting into mischief teasing the passengers on the RCCL Liberty of the Seas docked beside us.




Dinner tonight was in Lumiers and our table mates and the table beside us did not show up so we had a nice, quiet and quick dinner.

Tonight was pirate night, but both girls were too tired to stay up late so we had an early night and the girls were asleep by 9:00.