Day 2: beach, port, boat...BIG boat

You remember how my previous post ended with us heading to Patrick AFB for the night? We "Space A'd it". For those of you not familiar with the term, it means Space Available, in this case referring to lodging. Basically, those who had priority over us didn't need lodging on base the night we needed a place to stay which essentially opened up a TLF (think duplex or house) for us.

The base and time of year will determine how far in advance a reservation can be made. Typically its about 2 weeks out before you can make the reservation. However, one place we frequently visited in Texas had a 24 hour rule. You can bet I stayed up until midnight to make that phone call a few times--but it was so worth it.

Not only does it really save some pennies...okay lots of dollars, but it also gives us a minimum of a two bedroom unit because of the kiddo (part of the rules with this deal...which is so not a complaint and way more ideal than having to go to bed at 7 when the kiddo does).

Some places are better than others, all have character, but they've all been clean and comfortable and very convenient with the full kitchen and laundry machines accessible in the unit.

A trend that started a few years ago and is becoming much more popular is the number of bases that now have Pet Friendly units. This is a HUGE help for families in the process of moving from one base to another.

This is the website that I use to find the info for whatever base I need.

So enough of this seeming mini-advertisement and back to our little family vacation. :)

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The place we had at Patrick AFB was directly off the beach. Seriously. We were quite surprised, and it wasn't until the next morning that we discovered just how close we were. (We had arrived just as the sun was setting and had to focus on getting dinner and situated for the night.)

Sweet P and I went out exploring early the next morning checking out the beach and picking up some breakfast while my love had a chance to finally catch some zzz's.

"Finally" you ask?

Haha...we had quite the night (quite possibly the most sleep deprived night the three of us have had as a family). Sweet P did not sleep well. Actually, she only had about 4 hours of sleep compared to her usual 13. Yeah, 9 hour difference there. So not kidding.

Sweet P woke up at 12:35am, just as we turned our light out for the night. Despite everything we tried, she refused to go back to sleep and was quite vocal about it. We checked everything, did anything we could think of, my love even took her out for a drive like we did back in her newborn days. Nothing worked. Nothing we did mattered. If we didn't try to get her back in bed, she was happy as a clam; but the second she sensed you were going to put her in bed or try anything sleep related, she'd let you know she wasn't going to have any of it. It was rough. In the end, we came to the conclusion that she may have gotten a wee bit scared of the dark in an unfamiliar place.

We totally thought we were hosed for the first day of our cruise considering how little sleep we had all had.

A couple hours later, we drove our short 30 minute drive to the port and of course, the kiddo fell asleep. We didn't complain. In fact we stretched her nap as long as we could with me sitting in the car while my love took our luggage to check in.

Now yes, we knew we were getting on a cruise ship--and that cruise ships are typically large. But we weren't quite prepared for just how large this was. It even dwarfed a few of the other cruise ships that were in port at the same time, almost embarrassingly so. Almost.

True to Disney style, their mastering of lines was clearly visible when we checked in. The picture above is the two of us just sitting and waiting for our ticket number to be called to board the boat. Disney characters were out and about to take pictures and Disney movies were playing all throughout the big waiting area. It sounds like it could have been the start to Disney overload, but it wasn't. Disney knows what they're doing.

Obviously we met up with Minnie. Sweet P was very excited seeing all the characters but a little reserved once we actually stood next to one.

Finally, it was our turn to board. This is what we saw the minute we stepped on the boat.

Let me just pause here and state, I sooo wish I had taken more pictures of the inside of this boat. It was amazing, fascinating, and so detailed. The imagination that went into this was crazy. The eye candy abounded. Another thing I loved was the art deco theme on the ship...one of my favorite periods of art history.

We boarded around noon, grabbed some lunch at the one place they had open called Cabanas. Cabanas is a buffet style type of place and we automatically assumed it would be so-so.We were so completely wrong. Fabulous food, fantastic service, and excitement abounded.

image source: google via about.com

We then went to our room and found our luggage had already been delivered.

We didn't leave the port until after 5 and dinner was at 6. After a little bit of fun time up in Nemo's Reef (kiddo fountain and water fun area) we headed back to our room to change into our dinner clothes. We waved to people who were parked on the peninsula waving at us from our veranda. It was kinda fun!

Oh, and dinner was so good! Disney does rotational dining through their on-board themed dining rooms. The first night we ate in the Royal Palace. Again, major attention to detail and super yummy food. Each dinner during the cruise consists of a four course meal. Honestly, take a chance and try something new...there's very low risk because if you hate it, you can get something else.

image source: google via about.com

Another awesome thing about this being Disney? They are incredibly family friendly and unlike other fancy restaurants, you don't have to worry about a little tantrum or other kiddo antics. Its expected, accepted, and the wait staff assigned to your table also interacts with the kiddo which brought plenty of smiles and giggles from our little one. Think puppets made out of a dinner napkin and magic tricks.

Okay, so I think that's plenty for this post. :)

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**Wanted to offer a couple of tips.

1) Highly recommend flying out the day prior to cruise and returning home at least the next day after returning to port. It eases the stress of travel burdens, eases you into and out of the amazingness of the cruise, and helps out with any unexpected stuff.

2) If you have kiddos, trust me, take the early dinner and early show. We were originally slated for the 8:30 dinner seating but thankfully we were able to get it changed to the 6 o'clock dinner seating.

P.S. If anybody out there reading this has any questions regarding Disney cruises, let me know and I'll try to address them in the coming posts about this vacation.