September 2013 Super Vacation Part the last one: MNSSHP & Fun with Friends

I posted the following on Facebook on the last full day of our vacation:

While we all wanted to the fun to keep on coming, we were also ready to get back to our own beds, routines and "normal" lives.

But not before a few more surprises!

First, we surprised the kids with tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, also known as MNSSHP to Disney freaks like us.

You didn't really think we were going to stay in Florida that long and NOT go to a Disney Park, did you?

Besides, MNSSHP is Scott's favorite and it was, after all, his anniversary trip too.

As was typical on this trip, the forecast called for rain, so we packed our ponchos and headed to the Magic Kingdom.

Dead men tell no tales at Pirates of the Caribbean.

In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki room...

Magic Carpet Ride.

Enchanted Tales with Belle.

Eliza Grace was chosen to play "the Beast."

Waiting for the fireworks to start - and posing like Mickey and Minnie topiary.

I love it when they project graphics onto the castle.

 

 

 Main Street U.S.A. all dressed up for the party.

The day after the Halloween party we told the kids we were going to keep it low key that day and hang around the resort pools.  What they didn't know was that weeks before we had secretly arranged to meet up with our good friends at our hotel for dinner and swimming after they arrived in Orlando for their family vacation.

Late that afternoon I made up an excuse to step out of our room and ran down the hall to let our friends into the building.  Then I went back into our room and told Eliza Grace that I had seen something really odd in the hallway and if someone knocked on the door to go ahead and open it. Guess that seemed normal enough to her because a few seconds later the knock came and she leaped out of her chair to open it.

All 6 members of the Harloff clan yelled "Surprise!" and Eliza Grace and Will totally flipped out. Lots of excited screaming, bouncing and joyful hugging ensued and we had a fabulous night of pizza and pool time.

But wait, there's more!

The Harloff's had invited us to stay the next night in one of their Disney resort hotel rooms so we could stay an extra day in Orlando and spend the next evening with them.  When the kids heard this they were even more thrilled!

We had a wonderful time with great friends and topped it all off with a great meal and Irish dancing at Raglan Road at Downtown Disney.

And then - finally - it was time to go. 16 days after we first departed, we packed our bags for the last time and headed back to NC.

It was a wonderful vacation that we'll always remember, full of firsts and fun, friends and fabulous surprises right 'til the end!

September 2013 Super Vacation Part 6: Good Surprises Abound!

More often than not, true surprises (unexpected things) in life tend to be not so great. 

Surprise! You have a cavity.
 
Surprise! The stock market tanked.

Surprise! Your company is laying off 4,000 people.

You get the gist.

So whenever possible, I like to plan surprises that are pretty much guaranteed to be good. It's my way of trying to bring a little balance to our world.

With that philosophy in mind, Scott and I made plans to stay in Orlando for the week after our cruise but we didn't tell the kids about it until the night before we disembarked! 

Eliza Grace, who is always asking "What are we doing next?!" was thrilled. 

Will's reaction fell much more in line with his homebody personality.  At first he was a little upset.
"But I want to play with my toys."
"But I want to see my friends."  
"But I just want to go home."

However, once we shared some of the things we'd planned to do in Orlando, he jumped on the excited bandwagon.

So we said our goodbyes to the Disney Fantasy (sniff, sniff), made the one minute stop through customs, got in our car and headed to Orlando for the week!

I'll just gloss over the SURPRISE we got when we realized we left one bag at the cruise terminal and say only this: it is for things like this you should stay in Orlando for a while after your cruise AND it was the Disney Cruise Line who called us to tell us we left it behind, then couriered it to our hotel free of charge!  So it ended with a nice SURPRISE!

We spent the next couple of days getting our land legs back, hanging out at Downtown Disney, SeaWorld/Aquatica/Discovery Cove and the Wyndham Bonnet Creek resort pools.

Panoramic view of the resort.

Leave it to EG to find a frog in the pool.

SeaWorld:

Posing in front of an iceberg in new Antarctica ride.

Penguins!

Eliza Grace and I conquered Manta!

She was very proud of herself, as was I of myself!

 Braving the splash zone at the Dolphin show.

Ready to hit the slides and wave pools in Aquatica, the SeaWorld water park.

One of the most fun things we did all week was spend a day at Discovery Cove.

We got to have a nice visit with dolphins Jenny and Capricorn, who took us each for a little ride while the sun was still shining bright.

If we couldn't find Eliza Grace in the water somewhere, we knew she would likely be in the Aviary feeding the birds.  The Aviary was awesome.

Some live action from the Aviary:

Will, who further fell in love with snorkeling, spent a lot of his time in the Grand Reef amongst the multitude of stingrays and tropical fish.

Here's a peek at our time in the water. Warning: my underwater video skills have improved only marginally.

As you can see from that last part, about halfway through our day the storms rolled in and stayed until we left at 5:30 that evening.  Of course, the rain didn't deter us and we had a wonderful time.

One would think that all of these fun activities would be enough, but Scott and I had a few more fun surprises in store for the kiddies.

Next up (and finally the last post from our vacation!): MNSSHP & so much fun with friends from home.

September 2013 Super Vacation Part 5: Disney Cruise - Ridiculous Photo Glut

In this digital age, y'all know how many pictures you can take at a single event.  Imagine just how many you would take on your family's first ever seven day cruise.

Exactly. 

So, in an effort to wrap up the cruise portion of our fabulous extended vacation, I have whittled down nearly 1,000 pictures to my most favorites that I have not yet shared.

Let's start with the ship itself and its amazingly beautiful decor.

The Minnie Mouse statue in her art nouveau style graces the bottom of the grand stair case on Deck 3.

The below reliefs are made to look like sand castles. They depict the castle found in each of the Disney Parks across the globe.

Cinderella's pumpkin coach light fixtures found in the Royal Court dining room. 

Speaking of light fixtures, everywhere you looked you saw beautiful glass, crystal and scroll work.

The amazing Deck 3 chandelier.

A close up.

Another beauty.

Eliza Grace captured it's reflection in the marble floor.

A majestic peacock captured in iron surrounds the midship glass elevators.

The hand laid tile mural walls in the ladies room, yes the bathroom, in the nightclub area. And yes, I took a picture of the inside of a bathroom, because, y'all look at that!  It was exquisite.

   Tile and other beautiful artwork was everywhere.

Next, some of our room steward's towel/blanket folding skills:

A lobsta! (you have to use a New England accent for that one).

 Da Bear.

 Cool monkey dude.

 Shark!

They actually offered a free class on towel folding, but alas we never had the time!

Up next, random photos of the kids sitting in big port hole window seats:

Dressed up for Pirate night. Overlooking Cozumel, Mexico.

Speaking of Pirates, here are our little cuties all dressed up for dinner on Pirate Night!

Here we are up on Deck 11 during the pirate party. My camera had a tough time acclimating to the humidity, thus all the soft glowy lighting.  As you can see, the wind was doing its best to whip us around.

Don't you just LOVE the shirt I made for Scottie?  This was his pirate costume :)  The font (free download) is called Pieces of Eight and I used PowerPoint to design the graphic to look like one of those OBX stickers. 

He got a lot of comments on that shirt, mostly from Cast Members.

Hook and Mickey battled it out for the helm of the Fantasy.
Then Jack Sparrow, er, I mean Captain Jack Sparrow showed up to save the day with some Iron Man looking arm thing.  I guess they had to improvise since it was too windy for him to do his regular repelling down the funnel.

Anyhoo, the good guys win and the thingamabob on Jack's arm "triggered" the fireworks at sea, which were, in typical Disney fashion, marvelous.

On to the food.

 EG had salmon or steak every single night.

 Escargot!  (EG even tried one.)

 Beef Wellington.

 Again with the Lobsta!

The bread baskets are little coaches :)

Our typical breakfast fare.

 Big beers.

Desserts! 

 Eliza Grace was very partial to the banana splits.

 And yes, she ate the whole thing.

 Our anniversary treat!

Ok, that's enough.  And yet, there is so much that I could go on about.  Suffice it to say that it was a great first experience for our family and we will cherish the memories for a lifetime. 

Up next, part 6 - "Surprise!  We're staying in Orlando for the next week!"