Disney Cruise Part 4: Port Stops

Grand Cayman Islands

Our first port stop was at Grand Cayman Islands.  We had to take a little boat to get from the ship to land.  We had a great view of the ship.

 We got a bus to take our big group to the Sea Grape Beach for a beach day and it was really fun.  The kids loved the shallow beach and white sands.  

You can see Teagan lounging in the back on our beach chairs, he was exhausted and starving after all the swimming and sand castle building!

The adults took turns snorkeling.  We saw several different fish, it was so cool!  The water was really clear.  

 Zac and I got bored so we decided to rent some Kayaks and go for a spin out in the ocean.  I LOVED it so much.  I just felt so free out there and it was a good workout.

We came back to shore periodically and gave the kids rides.  Teagan was not too sure about it, probably because he saw Zac trying to flip my Kayak any chance he got.  I will add that Zac never tipped me!  Boo ya!

 And the Kayaking was all made possible by the wonderful Elise who entertained Eloise, she is the sweetest person alive, Brian is pretty lucky!

Costa Maya, Mexico

Our big plan for Costa Maya was to go see the ancient Mayan ruins.  We really wanted to see the ruins from the Book of Mormon times and thought it would be cool for Teagan to see that and have a visual for when we read the Book of Mormon as a family.  

We were first greeted by some "Mayan Indians" (Lamanites) who were kind enough to pose...and then shamelessly ask for a tip, "no need to give a fifty, 20's and 10's are just fine."  If I had a dollar for every time I was asked for a tip I'd have at least 10 dollars.

This picture is cooler...except my darn eyes.

 We found out that the ruins were an hour away and we could only stay an hour and that it would be $50 each...then we also found out that there were fake ruins just down the street that looked like the real ones.  We settled for a $20 golf cart rental and the fakes.  :)  Zac is still convinced that the fake ruins are real.  He climbed really high up, it was pretty steep and freaky!

I have to admit that we told Teagan that the guys were Lamanites and the ruins were real.  One day he will read this and probably never talk to us again....

 We shared a golf cart with Brian and Elise and of course have no pictures with them.   Eloise loved to help drive.

 There was a guy selling coconuts on the side of the road so we each got one and he chopped it open for us so we could drink the coconut water, it was nasty.  I dumped the water out and he got the flesh out so we could try it, it was better, but tasted nothing like sugary coconut that you can buy at the store.

 We stopped to see a lighthouse and Zac spotted this little guy.  It was HUGE!  Way bigger than normal lizards, maybe the size of Ellie's arm or something.

 Zac loved seeing all the different houses, it reminded him of his mission to Brazil.  I couldn't believe that people lived in such terrible conditions.  It made me feel extremely spoiled and a little guilty for all that we have!

 This made us laugh.  A terrible looking house with satellite TV.  

 This was a motel...no thanks

We went and browsed through the shops and Teagan found this awesome alligator to climb inside of.

Cozumel, Mexico

This port stop was all of our favorites.  

There were some shops you had to walk through before getting to any activities.  This guy jumped out and about made me die of fright when I ran by.  Teagan thought he was awesome though.

 We didn't mean to, but ended up meeting up with the whole family and getting a glass bottom boat to take us all snorkeling with a guide.  It was AWESOME.

They had these big hole/window things that you could look through and watch all sorts of fish and such  as we drove past them.  The kids loved this part!

Eloise was pretty content to just walk around the window and point at anything she saw.

Teagan loved it too!

 We stopped to snorkel at two different spots.  At the first stop Grandpa Durtschi stayed aboard with all 14 kids while all the adults (and Rachel) went snorkeling, it was such a treat!  We paid $10 for an AMAZING underwater picture of Zac and I with all these tropical fish swimming around us, one that could never be replaced, and then we promptly misplaced it.  I'm sick about it.  Luckily, Julie, my aspiring photographer of a sister got some wonderful shots. :)

They must have thrown out some fish food because the fish were literally swarming us, they were so bright and colorful and there were so many of them!

Our guide found a sea horse!  He would swim down to the floor and point things out to us.  We saw two different sea horses and a lobster, along with a ton of fish.

At the second stop we let the kids and Grandpa go.  Teagan was a little nervous but we just threw him in.

 Zac sat on the edge of the boat and went into the water backwards like a scuba diver.  

 Once in the water Teagan put his face in the water and saw about 1000 fish swimming around his legs and got really scared (froked out, if you will).  He was nervously half laughing and half crying,  but then he got used to it and says "I LOVED IT!"  when I ask him about it now.  Silly boy.

We bought snorkeling gear from Target and spent quite a bit ($40) to get a good set and they were awful, constantly filling with water...definitely returned those.

Eloise wore this life jacket for about 15 seconds before she was done and we decided to just leave her on the shady boat to look through the windows.

 After the boating excursion was done we took the kids back to the boat and signed them into the kids club then headed back to Cozumel for some adults only fun.  We rented mopeds with Julie and Jeff, Whitney and Joe, and my dad.  We got to drive through the jungle, along the beach and through the city.  We stopped at a store so Zac could buy some of the beloved cookies he used to get on his mission.  It was pretty fun, but a little too scary for me.   We posed with me in front for the picture, but Zac drove the whole time and was crazy.  He was going really fast and I swear he was aiming for potholes, trying to catch air.  Apparently stop signs only matter if they're in your language... Never a dull moment with him around!

Castaway Cay, Bahamas

This day was so amazing, the beaches were so clean and nice.  Disney owns the island and their cruise ships are the only visitors so there are a bunch of people trying to sell stuff and it was just really nice.

I am now realizing that I took zero pictures of our kids playing on the beach!  Luckily I found a few from others that had my kids.  They have a water slide tower in the ocean that me and Teagan and Zac were able to go on.  The kids enjoyed playing in the sand and Eloise was a trooper and took a couple catnaps in the stroller so we could stay at the beach all day.

Third beach day and she was still trying to eat the sand.  Adorable.

They had a snorkeling area that was pretty fun.  It was pretty cloudy because of all the sand people had kicked up, but Julie got some fun underwater pictures of me.

There was a whole swarm of little yellow fish that I was able to get so close to, it was really cool.

Standing next to the statues wasn't enough...Teagan had to be right on top.

 They had wagons waiting for us to use for free, Teagan had my camera and took a picture of his handsome daddy pulling him.  (There were also several pictures of both of our behinds and legs, lol)

We rented bikes (only $6!) and rode around their paved trails.  They have a lookout you can ride to and see the entire island, it was pretty cool!

 Us on the lookout (Eloise was sleeping at the beach at this point, we picked her up later).  You could see the entire island with water all around it from the tower.  

 On our way out we saw a splash park so we had to stop and play for a while.  The kids loved it so much.  Teagan was sword fighting the water streams, Eloise was content to put her hands in the water and Zac and I tried to plug up the jets so the water went higher, fun for the hole family!

 I wish we could go on a vacation and just stay at Castaway Cay for a week.  There was so much that we never even had a chance to do that would have been fun.  It was our last full day and it was a perfect day of family fun!

Disney Cruise Part 3: Evening Fun

 My favorite time on the boat, by far, was the evenings.  The dinners were wonderful, I love ordering whatever I wanted and not worrying about the price.  The food was delicious but the service was even better!

These were our Waiters, Marcos and Kaya, they were AMAZING!  They knew what drinks we would want and had them waiting when we arrived, they entertained the kids, didn't roll their eyes when we ordered multiple desserts and even cut the kids' food for them!  They followed us around each night to whichever Dining room we were eating at.   If Eloise started fussing they were there to talk to her and bring her ice cream to keep her happy.  It was wonderful! 

 Grandpa was happy to share dessert with Eloise too.  

 At one restaurant they had an interactive movie of Crush from Finding Nemo.  It was super funny and entertaining, Teagan thought it was so cool.  Crush would talk to different people sitting at the tables.

 This was formal night, eating our delicious food.  Lobster Ravioli for me and maybe a stuffed mushroom smothered in gravy for Zac.

 Eloise and Teagan both loved the Mac N cheese.  All healthy eating and food battles went out the window for a week and it was a nice break for all of us.  They both had Mac n cheese for almost every meal.  I was surprised that the adjustment back to normal was fine, the kids went back to good food pretty easily.

 It was not uncommon to order two desserts.  We both did pretty much every night.  Teagan LOVED ordering desserts.  We had Teagan at a table behind us with some of his cousins and he loved giving Marco his order, I think he felt pretty grown up.  

One night we all got to draw pictures on these special mats.  After dessert was served we got to watch the pictures come to life on screens around the room.  Mine was the giraffe on the left.  We never saw the kids' pictures and I missed a picture of Zac's. dang.

 Our autographs, that came up after the show was over.

One night was designated as "Pirate Night."  Everyone gets dressed up and the food is pirate themed and they have a live pirate show on the top deck that is really fun.  They even had a firework show.  It was pretty amazing.

Teagan loved getting facial hair, via eyeliner.  He was saying "Arrrrrrrg Matey" all night.

Buffest pirate you'll ever see.

 Several people pointed at this little cutie and said: "Oh look!  A pirate princess!!!"  

The day we figured out having the older kids sit at their own table so more adults could sit together was beautiful for everyone!  The kids got a little more freedom and independence than usual, and the adults got the same.  

We went to see several of Disney's broadway type evening shows.  This particular time was Aladdin.  It was so good.  I think we all really enjoyed it.  Teagan looks mad, but you should have heard him rolling over the Genie's funny jokes during the show.

I think our favorite part was the late evenings when our best friend David hosted different activities.  He was so hilarious and he was good to "keep it Disney" even with the adults only, late night crowd.  

 We played Battle of the sexes, team scavenger hunt, match your mate, 80's trivia, and a few more that I can't remember.  Every night David had different games or entertainment for us that had us laughing so hard.   On the scavenger hunt night Zac was our team leader and his expertise and quick feet won us first place!  It was close between us and one other team so Zac had to do a dance off with another guy and he killed it!   Zac actually did the worm.  It was hilarious.

 This was a family show, it was an amazing juggler who was pretty hilarious too.  The kids loved it (except Eloise, she was totally unimpressed).  He walked onto a unicycle while juggling, it was crazy!

He invited the kids to go sit up front to get a better seat.  Teagan was so amazed, a few times he walked right up to the stage, jaw dropped, for a closer look.

The last night we got to go to a fancier, adults only, dinner at Palo.  The food was incredible.  The service was above and beyond amazing.  There was only one server per table and he kept a close eye on all of our needs.  It was the perfect ending to our cruise.