Disney Cruise

First day of Lindsey’s Make-a-wish vacation.

Sunday, November 09, 2014, on the plane to Orlando. All the kids have been very excited.  Who are we kidding, Stacy and I are very excited. We drove over yesterday, and stayed in Boise. Went swimming and the boys practiced snorkeling. Last week we went to Allen’s swimming pool to practice snorkeling. Hopefully the practice pays off. Older kids have figured it out, but Gage needs a bit more practice. After this 4 hour flight we are staying at the Hyatt in the Orlando airport. Tomorrow, Monday, we take a one hour shuttle to Cape Canaveral, then board the Disney Dream cruise ship at 11:30am. Sure looking forward to this.  Very amazed at the Make-A-Wish foundation for pulling this off.  This is the wish Lindsey wanted from the time we followed her around with traeh nilreb, or the Berlin Heart. I tried to convince her back then that a guided moose hunt in Alaska with her Dad would be a great wish, but NOOOOO she wanted to go on a Disney cruise. We are all very excited!!  

First, I need to report on the last month.

Had a fun deer hunt with the kids. Roper shot a nice buck. Two weeks ago I went on the elk hunt into the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Ryan Merrill, Stacy’s brother, drove up from Logan with 4 horses and all the packing equipment.  Between the two of us, we took 7 horses in, loaded for elk camp.  Fun crew goes in to hunt, Jon, Eric, Sky, Flint, Chris, Blake, Ryan and I.  Great games of pinochle, and good elk hunting. Blake and Sky both got elk, and Ryan and I shot a 6 x 0, it only had one horn on one side and a 4 inch stump on the other.  I really enjoy the back country wilderness hunting.

Stacy had another great dress up Halloween party with homemade donuts and food. That is a great tradition she has maintained since she was a kid.  Kids are all involved in school, sports, music and church activities.  Megan had a great year in volleyball. They were undefeated in their junior high season. Also took a trip to Sugar City to watch Michon play volleyball. Fun trip.

About ready to land, check in later.

Friday, November 14, 2014, on our way HOME.  Holy cow, what an experience. I had ZERO time to blog. It was a great vacation for our family.

We stayed Sunday night at the Hyatt, a very nice hotel in the Orlando airport. Ate at McCoy’s, swam, and watched Maleficent. Monday we packed up and headed to the Disney check in.

Took a one hour bus ride, and went through the check in process, then we saw the ship. A massive 14 story floating city, it was incredible.  It was a rainy day upon our arrival.  Had us a little worried at first, just what was this weather going to be like. From here on the events all begin to run together. I know we slept every night, I think, from midnight-ish to 8-9ish, ate lots of great food, was very entertained, and ate more food.  Monday afternoon we walked around the ship getting oriented to the various venues.  There was an area exclusive to 3-10 year olds called the Oceaneers Lab. Hunter, Gage, and Lindsey had a ton of fun there. All kinds of activities and councilors and was open very late allowing parents to get out (which we did on occasion). Megan and Sierra went to the Vibe, an area exclusive to teenagers.  They loved going there; in fact, it was tough to get them to come back, a bit of teenager attitudes at times.  You may notice quite a few pictures with just our youngest 3.  I know Lindsey wants to be a big girl too, just not there yet.  During those times, Stacy and I worked overtime to make sure the younger 3 had a good time.

Anyway, Monday night Stacy and I signed up for a fancy dinner at the Palo on deck 13.  We left our kids at the Enchanted Garden dinner with Neville, the server, and we went all dressed up to our fancy dinner.  Our waitress had a thick French accent, and was very enjoyable to listen too. We ate whatever she recommended; it was a very romantic experience with my beautiful wife and best friend of 17 years. Kids said they had a blast with Neville and NeNe, the servers. After dinner we all went to the show called the Golden Mickey Awards; a fun show with lots of Disney characters, singing and dancing. After the show, kids wanted to go to the youth groups and Stacy and I had a bit of time to ourselves.

Tuesday, we woke up docked at Castaway Cay (pronounced Key), the island exclusive to Disney. We signed up for snorkeling, but the water was very rough.  The weather was very nice, a bit windy, but the temp was in the 80’s all day.  We swam, did a little snorkeling, biked around the island, ate some more, layed around the beach, played on the Pelican Plunge, and took some fun pictures.  At one point, Lindsey got turned around and lost in the crowd. It took about 20 minutes to find her. She walked the wrong way in big crowds for a long ways.  We got one big hug from here when we finally met up.  Stacy was out looking for her and came back with a hunky tan lifeguard who had been helping in the search for Lindsey.  Anyway…...that night we ate at the Royal Palace, had the same servers Neville and NeNe, then headed to the show, Villians. It was a funny musical about the villain characters of Disney. After that it was a bit of a blur. There was swimming and activities until about midnight. Honestly, the pictures say it better than I can do.

Wednesday was a second day at Castaway Cay.  This time the water was much calmer. Gage went to the youth activities and the rest of us hit the beach. I was so proud of the all the kids. I held Lindsey’s hand and Stacy held Hunter’s while we snorkeled way out into the bay. We saw fish, stingrays, sunken ships, treasure chests, and even Davey Jone’s locker.  We fed stingrays and went out on paddle boats.  The older girls went to the teenager beach activities, while we played with the younger 3 on the beach at Pelican Plunge.  Once we were all beached out, we headed back for an exclusive Make-A-Wish meet and greet with Mickey on the 14 floor.  He spent good time with all our kids and made them feel special. We meet the other four Make-A-Wish families and had a great time.  More swimming on the ship then it was dress up, pirate style, for dinner. Neville served us another great meal. We met Captain Jack in the D Lounge, then off to the featured evening show.  It was a comedian and ventriloquist, Taylor Mason.  When our kids heard it was a ‘puppet show’ then all turned their noses up and wanted to go to their youth groups.   I warned them that this was the feature show of the night and it might be good, but they decided go elsewhere. That was one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. I laughed so hard my guts hurt. Stacy told me to ‘just breathe’. The way he brought those puppets to life was amazing. I am chuckling now remembering some of the skits he did. He had a Spanish speaking pig, another shy American pig, a punk teenager, and other goofy looking puppets, all with different personalities and accents. The funniest was when he had 3 people out of the audience come up and run the puppets and he put words into their mouths. He did a round of Row-Row-Row your boat. A little 7 year old was running the shy little pig and the comedian had to work to keep up with her.  It was great, I wish so bad by kids could have seen it.  After the show we went up to deck 11 for the pirate party. There was Captain Jack, Black Beard, dancing and fireworks.

Thursday was all at sea. Lindsey met Minnie and the 4 princesses, Cinderella, Ariel, Bella, and Rapunzel. Then back to Deck 12 for more time on the Aqua Duck. All the kids loved it. It was a tub ride with waves and splashes. Hunter was tall enough to go solo and take other kids with him. Lindsey was too short had to be accompanied by someone taller, like Hunter. That was funny!! She took it very well and the two of them had a blast going down the run. Oliver, a worker from Australia, gave us some tips on how to go faster.  All the kids from Gage to Sierra had fun on the Aqua Duck. We hit the pool again, then to the theater to watch Big Hero 6 in 3D. The theater and show rooms are huge, the whole ship was huge. We played some miniature golf, ate more ice cream, then down to dinner for the last time with our servers, Neville and NeNe.  We watched the last show, Disney tribute to magic starring the Genie of the lamp from Aladdin.  It was another high quality fun show to watch. Stacy and I both got a bit emotional, it was the last night and Lindsey’s dream was winding down. Memories of all she went through came flooding back, how sick she got, the Berlin Heart, the blood clots and seizures, the transplant and recovery, and now the ongoing monitoring. To look down our row and see her and all her siblings eyes lit up as they watched the Disney characters on stage was an emotional experience for their Dad. The magic of the trip was about over, but not yet!!

After the show, at 10:30, we went back to the theater to watch the premier of ‘Zombiefied’. A show the teenagers made at the Vibe. Sierra and Megan both had parts in the show as they showed it on the big screen.  After the show we put the kids to bed and Stacy and I went to the adult club.  We went wild and shared a virgin pinacolata. We listened to a live band, danced a little, walked around the ship and called it good.

This morning, Friday, it was all about packing up. We had breakfast with our servers Neville and NeNe for the last time. Took pictures and thanked them (with tips). We finished packing up and were off the ship by 8:30. At 11:30 the ship starts with a whole new group of passengers, and head right back out to sea. We took a bus to Orlando airport then ……we……sat. From 9:00 to 4:00 we just sat, read, slept, and played games.   Bit of a long day compared to the entertaining events of the cruise.

Which brings me to here, sitting on the plane, somewhere between Florida and Idaho. This was an amazing, once in a life time experience for our family. It was almost magical the way we were treated, from Neville and NeNe our servers, to Wayen our room host, to Oliver, the Australian, to the characters, to the entertainers who interacted with our kids, to the Castaway Cay guides, to the youth councilors who our kids loved!! They all went out of our way to make it special for our family.

Now it back to the ‘real’ world, school, home work, office work, nursing, SNOW, cooking for ourselves, cleaning up after ourselves, bills, California checkups, sports, coaching, and life. It’s all good, and we are ready to get back into it.  Remember, this blog is not to show off or brag about what we did, it’s a way for me to record the special and sometimes trying times in our lives. I hope my kids can read this someday and appreciate the generosity of others that allowed us to do this. There are wonderful people out there.  

Till next time.

Jason