When Mark told me he was doing some work on the newest Disney ship called “The Dream” and we were all going on for 4 days, the last thing I ever thought I’d have to say to my kids was, “Are you alright? Are you having a fun?”

Zeke has been going thru a phase in which he spends most of his days with his hands covering his ears. I’m very impressed how inventive he can be to get things done while keeping them covered. We had his hearing checked and it’s not a volume thing. Seems like it’s an overload thing.

Having said that, I’d like to present to you our family photos from our amazing Disney Cruise:

Checking out our cabin:

On deck, checking out the pools, slides & movie screen:

Listening (?) to the boat drill instructions:

Mommy trying to “persuade” his hands off his ears:

Enjoying (?) the spectacular show in the theater:

The pirate show (Zeke LOVES pirates) up on deck:

Resting his little pirate arms:

The first meeting with the Princesses didn’t go so well. Nate had bought into all the “Princesses are lame and for girls!” talk from the boys in his class. It took all my master spin-doctor skills to get him to even walk over to one.

“Nate, if Princesses are so lame, why do all the super cool Princes risk life & limb to save them?”

“What’s a limb?”

“That’s another word for arms and legs.”

“Mommy? I don’t remember any part of any of the stories when a Prince almost got an arm or leg off…except Capt. Hook but he’s not a Prince and that happened before the story started.”

“It’s just a saying, Nate.”

“Is a saying the same as a lie then?”

“No, it’s not a lie…it’s…uh…uuummm…Listen, if you go over there and meet the Princess, I’ll let you go to the Kid Center and play video games.”

I’m not proud, I’m just addicted to photo-ops: (Notice the stiff-arm “I’m not hugging you, but you can hug me” pose.)

“Mommy, Sleeping Beauty was REALLY nice!”

“I told you, Nate. That’s why the Princes fight so hard to save them.”

By the end of the cruise, he was courting them all. I couldn’t drag him away:

Zeke had a different agenda:

At the end of the cruise, we walked through the ship’s doors and stepped onto the gangway. Zeke whipped around, dropped his hands from his ears and proclaimed at the top of his voice, “THAT WAS THE BEST VACATION I EVER HAD IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!!”

(Sigh) I’m glad you liked it, Zeke.