Disney Cruise Ship Casts Spell On My Boys…

 

The magic started to happen on the hour drive to the ship’s port. Nate & Zeke looked up from their books, turned their heads towards each other, smiled and began to TALK to each other! Not one of the sentences started with, “Give it to me! It’s not fair!” or even, “I’m telling!” What was happening? Who were these kids and can I keep them?

Nate started the conversation:

“Zeke, what’s the first thing you’re gonna do when you get on the ship?”

“Well, I’m gonna find our room, see if we have a port hole or a balcony, then I’m gonna go into the bathroom…I’ll probably have to go poop by then.”

Their excitement was palpable. The closer we got to the ship, the more they resembled the children I have in my dreams at night. Hey….wait a minute…we were cruising on the DREAM! I don’t know how Disney does it, but it was 4 amazing days of my boys being happy, nice, polite, friendly, helpful and loving…to each other. Don’t take my word for it, here’s the proof:

They played together:

 

 

 

They swam together:

 

They played tricks on Mommy and made her heart stop:

 

They posed for every photo with REAL smiles:

 

They watched every show on the edge of their seats:

 

Sometimes, it was too exciting to watch:

 

They snuggled the Mouse…Zeke, inappropriately. (Yikes! Sorry, Mickey.):

 

And if you STILL don’t believe in Disney magic, I give you “BOYS WITH PRINCESSES”:

 

Disney cast a magical spell on my boys. I rest my case.

 

 

Disney Cruising…With a Happy Ending!

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.