Early this summer, we headed down to Florida with Grandma and Grandpa to catch our first Disney Cruise out of Port Canaveral. We hit some turbulence on our descent, which Emily thought was just the greatest thing ever. Grandma and Mom were gripping their seats while Emily was giggling and cackling every time the plane shook or dropped. After landing in Orlando, we caught a shuttle to a hotel in Cocoa Beach. We got there just in time to grab some dinner and then head to bed.We woke up the next morning (June 10th) and took a quick stroll on the beach. Mimi and Uncle Trey coincidentally were in Orlando meeting up with Trey's girlfriend, Ashley, so they came out to say hi. We grabbed some breakfast with them and then headed out to the port to catch the ship. We cruised on the Disney Fantasy ship, which was pretty awesome. They had a theater for live shows (and also movies), a full-sized movie theater, two pools (that kids could use) on deck complete with an awesome water slide, three dining rooms, and a huge kids area (called the Oceaneer Club) with interactive games like Star Wars and Dr. Strange. We spent the first day exploring the ship. Kara and Dad stumbled upon the Midship Detective Agency activity, which was actually Dad's favorite part of the entire cruise! Basically, you get a case assigned to you at a kiosk in the middle of the ship. They have a couple Mickey Mouse mysteries, but they also have a Muppet one, which was the one Kara chose to start. From there, you go to certain framed pictures on the ship. When you hold your picture up, the pictures will come to life and give you clues or otherwise help you with the mystery. The cards can be used to complete actions (eg turning a wrench or popping balloons). They had several variations, so you could do it more than once (which we did). We had dinner the first night in the Royal Court dining room. Both girls tried escargot (Emily actually ate a couple snails!) and we finished off the meal with Mickey Ice Cream Bars (except for Mom and Grandma, who opted for more grown-up desserts).
Day 2 was a day At Sea. We started off the day by hitting the pools. Kara also hit the big water slide, called the AquaDuck. Emily was a little too small for that slide, so she did the smaller slide over and over again. After swimming for a couple of hours, we headed back to our room to get ready for our character greeting with Elsa and Anna from Frozen. After that we grabbed some lunch and headed back to the room for an afternoon nap (both girls were pretty good about taking naps on the cruise). We took it pretty easy the rest of the afternoon, checking out the ship some more and getting some pictures with characters. We had dinner that night at the Animator's Palate, which has TV screens all around the dining room. They had an interactive show with Crush from Finding Nemo. He would talk to the kids and make jokes with them. Unfortunately our table wasn't situated right next to the screen, so the girls didn't get to talk with Crush. They enjoyed watching him, though. After dinner we hit the Aladdin musical show, which was basically a condensed version of the movie (still entertaining). It was almost 9:30 at night when the show got over (which is late for Kara and super-late for Emily. We got both girls back to the room and to bed, so we could get rest for our next adventure.
On Day 3 we stopped in at Cozumel, Mexico. Both girls were up and at 'em by 7 am (of course). Cozumel was where we did our big excursion for the cruise at this port. We did the Dolphin Experience. It was pretty awesome. All of us got into an enclosure with a dolphin. The trainer then took turns with us giving the dolphin kisses and letting her kiss us! We all had fun (even Grandma). After playing with the dolphins, we spent some time at the pool before heading back to the ship. We took the rest of the afternoon pretty easy, just walking around the ship. We finished up the evening with dinner at the Enchanted Garden dining room, which was decorated as an arboretum. 
Day 4 took us to Grand Cayman. We decided to just hang out on the ship for the morning (the girls were a little beat from the previous days' activities). After a short nap, we took the the tender into Georgetown to see what they had. We happened to run into Grandma and Grandpa (who had headed over earlier in the morning) on the street and checked out Del Sol with them. Mom and Dad had dinner at Palo, which was a fancy restaurant onboard to celebrate their 14th anniversary while the girls had dinner at Royal Court with Grandma and Grandpa. After dinner, Mom and Dad rejoined everyone else to check out that night's show, Wishes. The show got over around 9:30, so we herded the girls back to the room to get some rest.
Day 6 was a Day at Sea. We spent much of the morning recovering from the excitement of Pirate Night and took it easy most of the day. The girls spent some time in the kids club in the morning. In the afternoon, we did a few cases with the Midship Detective Agency. We had dinner that night at Animator's Palate. They put on a pretty good show. Each person draws a character, which was then animated. After dinner we hit the show - Believe, which is about believing in magic. Good entertainment for kids.
For Day 7 we stopped at Disney's private island in the Bahamas called Castaway Cay. It's a pretty small island with a protected beach that can be found here. We started off by just wandering the beach. They have a few water attractions (a slide and a climbing structures out in the water). While Kara and Grandpa were waiting for their turn on the waterslide, the lifeguards closed down the slide and sent everyone because they saw a storm approaching. They weren't kidding! As soon as everyone got back to shore, it started to rain. Dad and Grandpa, who had wandered pretty far down the beach with the girls, quickly found some shelter thinking it would just blow over. About 20 minutes later, it was still pouring! The storm did eventually dissipate, and we wandered back to find Grandma and Mom. We stayed out on the beach until early in the afternoon before heading back to the ship and getting in a little quiet time. Late in the afternoon we headed to the movie theater to check out Cars 3, which had just been released in theaters. The girls thought the movie was pretty good. On the downside, we didn't get out of the movie until after our dining time, so we grabbed dinner at Cabana's (quick service buffet). Since we'd hit the movie in the afternoon, we decided to skip the last show of the cruise.
We disembarked and headed home the next morning. The trip home was uneventful, which is just the way Mom and Dad like travel to be. The girls are already planning our next cruise!
Link to pictures
