Cruise

Get ready for the time of your life (and lots of scrolling)! These are not completely in chronological order. Some pics have captions and some don't. 

Airplane ride to Houston on 1/25. Jasmine thoroughly enjoyed the onboard snacks.

We stayed at a hotel near the airport that night and took the shuttle to a local BBQ restaurant--Pappa's. Really good stuff.

P.S. I have never seen so many restaurants supposedly belonging to "Pappa" (spelled with two p's). At the airport there was "Pappacito's Cantina, Pappa's Burgers, etc. I guess Texans love pappas. P.S. I ate a Texas-shaped waffle at the hotel breakfast. Oh, and I saw horses hitched up at a restaurant we passed on the shuttle. 

 

 Bus ride from the Houston airport to the port at Galveston!

 All aboard

 Boarding the ship

 Our assistant waiter always made designs with the kids' ketchup. It's the little things...

 Chandelier in main lobby

 Poor little buddy was just an inch shy of being tall enough to go on this slide, but Rose sure had a blast on it!

 Mickey-shaped pool

 My kids love to draw--especially Rose--so she loved the drawing classes at the "Animator's Palette" restaurant.

 Jasmine likes to draw too! I get a kick out of her rubbing her pencil parallel to the paper, trying to make a mark.

All our Mickeys

 My Donald

 

Rose's Donald. Every good artist signs his or her artwork. Excellent artists sign twice.

 Chandelier at "Lumière's" (Beauty and the Beast theme)

 Sevak ordered escargots. My first time trying the little buggers. Not too bad.

 Jasmine was eying my French onion soup

 Latin dance party. You can imagine how my Zumba-loving self boogied down. Even with a baby on my back.

 At the Walt Disney Theater, getting ready for the night's show (and enjoying the recently purchased souvenirs from the gift shop, which were rewards for not crying at the kids' club while Mommy and Daddy went to the spa)

 Towel folded like Pluto

 Ahi tartare

 Jasmine was always jealous of people having their own plates, so we started getting her her own meals.

 And her own ice cream. 

 Dinosar towel. And Sevak tackling Simon.

 Our home sweet home aboard the ship. We could pull a curtain across to separate our bed from the kids'.

 Beautiful shot of our ship as we took smaller boats to Grand Cayman.

 They fed birds. Can you just imagine how thrilled Rose was?

 

We snorkeled in here with the fish. So neat.

 BBQ chicken, rice & beans, plantains, and coleslaw

 These guys were just chillin' all over the place. Even more so in Mexico.

 That was one yummy coconut. Sevak cracked it open by banging it on stuff and prying pieces off with his hands. Simon couldn't get enough of the meat inside.

 Our little pirate at our pirate dinner.

 Pirate party

 At the San Gervasio Mayan ruins (on Cozumel). Or the "Maya houses," as Rose told my parents

 The guide told us to be careful because this was a fertility arch. We don't need any more fertility.

 A shot of Simon in one of his grumpy fits

 Not happy about getting hit in the face by a wave

 Enjoying piñadas (virgin piña coladas)

 Looking for shells

 Minnie Mouse bow/ears made out of a napkin, courtesy of our assistant waiter Allan

 There's Allan

 Peter Pan napkin hat

 Pocahontas

 Jack Sparrow

 At the Oceaneer's Club

 Jasmine participated in Jack Jack's Diaper Dash. She wasn't a winner, but she left the starting line, unlike many of the other contestants!

 

Her bib from the race

 Rose was in a little show. Simon didn't care to participate. 

 This is the happiest baby ever. And very popular with everyone on board. The lady at Flounder's Reef (the nursery) couldn't stop singing praises. She said Jasmine kept laughing at the other babies and wanting to talk to them, as if she wasn't a baby herself.

 Simon ordered surf and turf--how cute is that? I'm pretty impressed with his fish consumption. He ordered it a couple of times and gobbled it up! He loves shrimp.

 Baked Alaska

 The chefs walking around with baked Alaska

 The kids got a Mickey bar every night. By the end the waiter didn't even have to ask what they wanted for dessert.

 Our awesome waiters. Loved them.

I was glad to get back home (I'm a landlubber), but we really did have an amazing time. I am already feeling nostalgic. Disney does an excellent job of making you feel that way. :) I'm sure we'll be repeat customers.