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!"