Europe 2016...On the Cruise

 This is a post dedicated to the fun adventures we had on the ship over the course of a 12 night cruise.  We started in Dover (see the white cliffs above) and went on to visit 8 ports with 3 sea days thrown in so that we could rest.  We packed all sorts of fun into those two weeks.  Below you can see that we clearly did not pack light for this trip!  Thank goodness for luggage handler people.  :0)

 Notice my "Mad Hatter Selfie" skills!  We took this in the cruise terminal waiting to be welcomed aboard the Disney Magic.  The first thing we did when we got on the ship was have some lunch and then the kids and I took Cheryl on a tour of the entire ship floor by floor end by end. 

 We stopped to sit in a porthole and also visited the Kid's Clubs where Cheryl and Joe tried out the state of the art handwashing stations.  Then we played in Andy's Room and visited Iron Man. 

 It was a pretty windy day as you can see in the picture above.  We all enjoyed the Adventures Away party though despite the wind.  This is a big fun dance party that they do on every ship before leaving port, you can't help but get excited when you watch them. 

 The desserts are always amazing of course. Below was the first of many, many character pictures.  So many that they will be in a post all their own.  Just wait for it...coming soon!

 Our first full day on the ship was a day at sea.  They always offer animation classes on Sea Days and Cheryl and Joe and I were there for a few of them.  We started with Mickey Mouse, not too bad!

 Our first sea day was also formal night, we dressed up pretty well.  Notice that I am not pictured here...I didn't look so great and since this is my blog I get to pick not to post pictures of myself.  :0)  At dinner every night, our servers do magic for us.  Above is Stilyan doing some sort of trick with Joe.  This is our third cruise with Stilyan, we have really enjoyed getting to know him a little bit over the last three years.  He couldn't believe how much Joe had grown over the last year. 

 A lot of the mornings were quite cold but one or two mornings were warm enough for Cheryl and I to take our breakfast outside to eat and enjoy the view of that day's port. 

 We both read a whole book over the course of the cruise, Joe captured us reading one afternoon, probably minutes before we were both sound asleep.  Below we are trying on the Dory hats.  We didn't know until the next to last night that we were definitely going to get to see "Finding Dory" on our cruise.  We were getting off of the ship on June 17, the day it premiered but with special permission, they showed it the night before at 10 pm, a whole two hours early.  It was a great movie and we all loved it!  One of the days on the ship was "Speak Like a Whale Day," and Cheryl and I attended a class where we learned to speak like a whale.  It was pretty funny. 

 Cheryl ate a few Mickey ice cream bars.  :0)  Below, one night instead of magic, our servers made special hats for us all out of napkins.  I'm not sure why I don't have a picture of Cheryl's hat...I'll have to find one and post it later.  Harriet's was especially funny because they used little creamer pitchers like earrings to make her look like a pirate. 

 One night the menu was French-inspired and Grace ordered escargot.  Our server brought an extra to our table and for the first time ever I tried one.  I can't say I liked it, but I can say I have eaten snails now.  Below, is our cruise director on one of the days we were in Scotland.  He spent the day in full Scottish dress including a kilt.  He was a great cruise director and was a lot of fun.  He had some fun dance moves and could do the Carlton (from Fresh Prince) like nobody's business. 

 Above, an amazing sunrise, and below, my partner for Disney trivia.  We didn't win. 

 Another animation class, this time Donald Duck!  Cheryl won this one.  After our class, Maroly, the instructor took some time and gave Cheryl a private lesson on how to draw Pluto.  Later in the cruise she also sat down and taught her how to draw Goofy as well.  We loved her!  She was from Mexico and said we could call her Maroly Poppins and instead of a spoonful of sugar, she has a spoonful of salsa. 

 Our servers, Stilyan and Ida were so good to us.  In the picture above they are cleaning up the table after Grace spilled her drink.  Notice a pattern here?  Grace has always been a big drink spiller but only twice in two and a half weeks might be a new record.  There are always so many amazing shows on the cruise but we got to see one special one this time, a new one, "Tangled--the Musical."  It was perfect and we loved it so much we saw it twice!

 The band, "Liverpool Legends," played a concert for us the day we were in Liverpool and they got on the ship a few days before that.  Our table was near theirs so I took some stalker pictures of them.  They were amazing. 

 We had an extra long day in Liverpool and our ship stayed in port until 10:30 so that we could see the fireworks they were setting off on shore in honor of the Queen's birthday.  There were loads of Liverpoolians in town that day to come see the ship and so many kids dressed in Disney princess costumes, they were really cute!

 Cheryl and I had one coffee date in the little coffee shop, we colored and chatted and drank coffee.  Three of my favorite things.  Below...Harriet has found us some fun door magnets.  First we had Mike and then Eeyore. Some of Grace's friends stole Mike and put him on the ceiling outside our door and then later one of them stole Eeyore's ear and put him on the ceiling way down the hall.  Crazy kids.

 One of the nights we had a Freeze the Night Away party with Anna, Elsa, and friends.  We were literally freezing so when they made fake snow it felt totally real. 

 Above, is me in a porthole reading a book for an hour or so one afternoon.  They have the most comfy cushions in these portholes.  And, below, Joe and I spent some time playing Ping Pong, it was so fun...we didn't do it until almost the last day.  I didn't realize how much fun we could have playing ping pong, I wish we had started earlier in the cruise. 

 The rest of these pictures are from Hannah and Grace's phones.  They made lots of friends.  There were two kids that had been on previous cruises with them, one last year and one the year before.  They both made lots of friends and had a great time as you'll see by their pictures.