School Projects

Throughout everything with the trip and getting back we've still had school and school stuff to do! Since it's Catholic Schools Week, everyone had big projects to be on display for the open house. 

I don't know why?! Do other parents really look at the other kid's projects? Why teachers, why? 

M had her turn at the 3rd grade community. Do you remember when C made a church? And then M and I got COVID and we couldn't even go? 

Well M has a new teacher this year so they didn't get assigned the buildings they took turns picking buildings. M opted for a restaurant when it was her turn. Solid choice M. She knew I was gunning for "house" but I wasn't there and she never seemed that excited about my choice. 

She opted to make Whitey's, a local ice cream chain. And you know what? It was way simpler than the church. Locations have different colored roofs, the one we go to often has a black roof which is what I thought we were doing, but during our Michael's run, she told me she distinctly wanted a red roof. 

Since I was already buying vinyl for the logo I said we could use that as the roof too. Kudos to M for insisting, and to me for coming up with it. Because all it is cardboard wrapped in vinyl so it couldn't have been easier and it just adds so much flair! 

And here's the thing: other than cutting the cardboard pieces with a box cutter, M did all the work. She hot glued the walls together with Husband's help. She cut out the siding pieces and glued them on. Okay, the Cricut cut out the Whitey's logo but she stuck it on the sides. She also helped wrap the roof pieces in vinyl. 

The windows and doors are a cereal box cut up, with white paper (with sharpie marks) glued on, then a layer of cellophane to make them look like glass wrapped over it. Then she glued on black paper shutters or door frames. 

She made the benches with the 3D pen and she hot glued them on! 

In 5th grade, we were given a full week's notice to create an ecosystem. And everyone had a different kind of ecosystem to make. C was assigned a swamp. Because of course, he was. 

His involved a lot of crafting. And patience. The idea was things above water were 3D and below water 2D. That didn't fully pan out since the rocks and roots underwater are 3D but just go with it. 

It was C's idea to use twine string as the cattail roots and I think it's one of the most interesting parts of the project. You can tell better in the process picture. And make out more clearly the turtle who hides in the roots. 

I am not sad that it is no longer taking up our kitchen table. You can't really tell in the completed picture but there's cellophane over the water area to make it shiny. It gives it a little something. 

Here they are at open house! 

Here are more community pictures because I love them so much! 

Here are the kid's contributions to the full school mural: 

And since it's Catholic schools week, there are always days to dress up. This year, new to the themes is "Dress Like Your Favorite Holiday." Well... I genuinely think that's fun but M's favorite is Halloween. We didn't have a Halloween shirt so for $4 we bought one and then M designed a pumpkin face for us to screen print on. 

And I think it turned out super cute. But is just one more project we've got going on. It's going to be a good week, 

TLDR: Overview of Our Trip Reflections with Never Before Seen Photos

So for the TLDR: We were gone 8 days. 1 sleep at MCO. 3 sleeps at Walt Disney World at the Art of Animation resort. 3 sleeps on the Disney Cruise ship The Wish. 

• The Hyatt at MCO has been great both times we've stayed there. Clean rooms. Kind employees. Will likely stay there again. Also, they have day passes available and while I've never done that, I would consider it in the future instead of killing hours and hours in the airport. 

• Initially, we had planned just to cruise but added some park days onto the trip as well. Ultimately I am glad we did this. WDW is familiar to me and cruising wasn't. I needed the confidence of that portion of the trip for sure. And doing just our favorite two parks was really fun and special.

• Topolino's Terrace Restaurant's breakfast is officially added to my top meals at WDW list. Also on the list are Ohana and Storybook Dining at Artist Point. I recommend all of them without hesitation. 

• Art of Animation was not my favorite. Admittedly, I don't know any value resort would be my favorite. But I didn't ultimately hate it the way I expected to. However, for being the most expensive value resort I don't know that it was worth the price difference. I also found the theming in the rooms to be garish and unnecessary rather than adorable. You may not feel the same as me. It is a very popular resort and has been where C was DYING to stay. 

• The Skyliner is a really handy mode of transportation. They should build more. And also I would stay on the route again. But maybe at Boardwalk or Riviera. 

• When reading tips and tricks for the cruise everyone said the best cruise is the longest cruise. I don't know about that, but for us 3 days weren't enough! But we were glad we did the land portion first: some do it in reverse and I think having the exhausting walking portion before chilling and relaxing is the way to go. Nothing on the ship felt far away after a day at Epcot. 

• 

• The cruise had a million options of things to do and all had Disney magic. We never felt over Disney-ed but those elements were always there and we loved that. 

• The only two things I bought for the cruise stateroom were a multioutlet plug with USB ports and some magnet hooks for the walls. We never used the plug on the ship, funny enough only at the hotels. The magnets however were awesome. 

• No one got seasick or felt claustrophobic at any point on the cruise in our family. We are prone to motion sickness but small spaces don't bug us. Take that for what it's worth. 

• 
  
  

• January is generally one of the least expensive times to cruise because the Caribbean isn't that warm. Well, the 80s and 70s felt warm to us northerners who dodged 2 ft of snowfall and came back to windchill warnings. Although, I didn't spend a ton of time in the ocean though everyone else in my family did. 

• We will absolutely cruise again. This time with a longer itinerary and no WDW portion of the trip beforehand. We did the big WDW trip in 2022. Land and sea in 2024... so a cruise-only trip next just seems right. 

Thank you for following along on the Family Land and Sea Trip Recap. 

Day Eight: Going Home

Monday. Martin Luther King Day. Another day the kids weren't missing any school. And we were all sad to wake up. 

No one was excited to be going home. It was -30 there. And we had missed 2 full feet of snow. But all vacations must come to an end. It was Monday at this point. We had an early 6:45 breakfast slot where we said goodbye to our lovely servers. Loredana and Agus. I miss them and I hope their current sailing is going well. The head server Kruno took this picture for us and he was wonderful too. 

I regret I didn't have any eggs with my breakfast. That was a poor choice on my part. Someone remind me to never underestimate protein and its importance on a long day. 

Then we killed time waiting on the ship. So Disney recommends that your flight doesn't leave before noon on disembarkation day, and our first flight didn't leave until 4:30 so we were not in a rush. We waited a good little while before we decided it was time to say goodbye.

But alas, we did eventually have to leave. M cried the entire way off of the ship. She really loved cruising. I am going to toot my own horn here by saying my plan of BBB the night before was genius because her hair still looked great and it was perfect for traveling! No tangles over here. Even with all of M's feelings throughout the day.

We had LOADS of time to kill at the airport. We did 2 hours outside of security. Pacing ourselves with visits to the stores and letting the kids play switch or watch shows on their Kindles. 

Then we went through security which went incredibly well. And we went to have lunch at Outback. We had promised C we could do that when we passed it on the way into Orlando since it's his favorite restaurant and ours closed years ago. Well, they didn't have the Outback bread OR blooming onions so it was a total bust. 

But even those overpriced cheeseburgers were still a good way to use up some time. Then we went to our gate and sat around there for another bunch of time. The kids played with their Disney Cruise line bath toy set that 100% paid for themselves just by entertaining them without screens at the airport. For the record, after a week of barely any screens, I was not opposed to using whatever worked to get through this long day of waiting. I was delighted it wasn't all screens though.  

I love that my kids still play with figurines and they use other bath toy sets as outdoor toys in the summer. Sadly, actual bath toys are not a part of our life anymore. But these passed the time and in the time since the trip they have played with them again and again so I am glad we got them!

As we were boarding at MCO they asked for volunteers to check their bags all the way through. I am adamantly a carry-on-only girl and my entire traveling Philosophy is "Don't relinquish your bag!" Very much ala "Don't relinquish your wand" from Harry Potter. But we were going home. Where we had no need for shorts or swimsuits. And it would certainly make getting around Atlanta easier, so we volunteered and got ourselves on the plane earlier than our boarding group to boot. 

We got to Atlanta and got to our next Concourse. We had promised C a soft pretzel and it turns out there was a Krispy Kreme there too! C's teacher had brought Krispy Kremes to school and we don't have them near us. He had been telling us about the "life-changing doughnut" and he was so delighted to get both a soft pretzel and a donut! I even bought some extra to have at home. *Husband and I had definitely had Krispy Kreme before but it was cute to have him sell us on these. M had never had one before, she liked it. (I mean, come on.) I funny enough saved mine to eat for breakfast at home and C "accidentally" ate mine as well as the one I bought for him at home. At least he's cute. 

We also got some Le Ann Chin orange chicken because protein. It was as snacky and clobbered together as an airport food court meal could become. But we were in full survival mode. Do you want a doughnut? Fine by me. 

Then... the kid lost his tooth. In the airport. As one does. Lol. So ignore the face... he's tired. His cheeks are full and we were only in Atlanta with a long way to go. All of the people in the airport were huddled around a television behind us for the football playoff game. 

We moved to our gate and spent hours sitting there. Eventually, even the pilot and flight attendants were there. And then Delta switched our gate. So we all walked together to a totally different concourse. Lucky us we didn't have our carry-ons! Thank you, Jesus! Oh and because of this, the flight was delayed. Luckily, school got canceled for the next day! 

M lost it. She was convinced we were never going to make it home. She had been up for like 15 hours or so at this point and switching concourses was her last straw. Even though we walked with the pilot. But then... a minor miracle. One of her friend's uncles was on our flight too! And he got her friend Lexi on the phone and that made M so happy! Such a fantastic bright spot!

Apparently, the plane had been sitting there ready to go for hours only no one told the airport so we were all at the wrong gate and could have left on time if anyone had known. Oh well! 

We got on the plane finally and got going. C fell asleep before takeoff. M held on. She is our high-needs sleeper and needs a bed. 

But the fun didn't end there. When we landed at home they couldn't get the jet bridge out because it was so cold. So we waited on the plane for over a half hour. It got to the point where they passed out snacks. Never a good sign after you've landed. And then, ultimately we had to climb down the steps and walk across the tarmac. That was an adventure! 

The kids and I waited for our bags and then waited for Husband to dig the car out. We had put a shovel in the car so at least there was that. There was also a guy in a truck driving around the airport to help dig out cars. 

It was a total nightmare. It's midnight CST at this point. We're all tired and crazy. So the kids and I walked outside to get to the car and we couldn't find Husband. M was scream crying because she was so cold and we ended up going back inside. Then we actually found Husband, got to the car and C couldn't get into his door because it was frozen shut. 

We drove home going 30 mph. It was ridiculous. (I legit don't think the roads were that bad but we were all tired and I wasn't going to argue.) 

We pulled into our alley and there was someone PARKED IN OUR DRIVEWAY. Blocking the garage and taking up almost the entire parking spaces! The actual nerve. Who does that?! 

We squeezed the car into our spot and got into the house. Got pajamas on quickly and had the kids in their beds and asleep fast. Then Husband and I stewed about the car. 

We ultimately went to bed. Then got up at 7:00 and called the police to report a stolen or abandoned car in our driveway. The officer came and he called the owner, it was not stolen. (Though it has two different license plates...) They took their dear sweet time showing up and then Husband could finally go to work. 

It was as we suspected our neighbors who converted their two-car garage into their home gym and outdoor living room. We have never spoken to them before. And they simply took advantage of the fact we weren't there. They might be annoyed we called the police but I am annoyed that they blocked our garage and honestly, we could have called it in at 1:00 am and we waited until after 7:00 so there's that. Or we could have just had it towed. 

So getting home was an adventure. But then we were in fact home and that's a very good place to be. But how many days before we can go back? That's what I want to know! 

It's amazing how we could wake up on a cruise ship in Florida and get home 19 hours later. There was a ton of waiting in airports. And still, I wouldn't have traded it for anything. Though I was so glad there was no school on Tuesday the 16! 

And that my friends is the full saga of the 2024 Land and Sea Adventure! 

Day Seven: Castaway Cay

Did we wake up early on Sunday morning to see the Wish parallel park at Castaway Cay? We did not. But we did have the foresight to order a continental breakfast to our room. Admittedly, it was less than lackluster as they forgot the milk for C's cereal and for me to drink with my croissant. But it was better than getting dressed to find food before getting off the ship. 

We were not about to miss a second of Disney's private island. 

Admittedly, there isn't a ton to say about the day. We were delighted to be in the Bahamas even though it was cool, in the mid-70s and cloudy. But we knew it was also -30 at home so... it's difficult to get too sad about that.

C's Christmas gift was the Stingray Excursion. He and Husband went to the Stingray hut at 10:00. They first heard a little lesson, then got to feed them in these little stingray drive-throughs. There were seaweed bars and shrimp treats on Mickey plates. C loved it!!! He did not scream but apparently, most of the other kids and their moms did. 

Afterwards, they went snorkeling with the stingrays. C did not love snorkeling as it turns out. I had initially booked all four of us for snorkels all day but canceled it because I had read there were plenty available so we didn't need the reservation. Anything prebooked you were automatically charged for. Since I barely got in the water it would have been a total waste of money for me. (Though let's be real, if we were charged for it I would have been snorkeling all day.) 

I read my book in a lounge chair. The kids swam and played in the sand. M went to the kid's club on the island. 

This was my kid's first real beach day and they were definitely fans. We want to do it again very soon! C had initially not wanted to cruise or ever go to a beach because "what would he do all day?" He did not have any trouble filling his time!

We had a delicious barbecue lunch and the seagulls scared the bejeezus out of me. (A low point to be sure.) 

And after we were content for the day we headed back aboard. Everyone took a shower and we all watched The Parent Trap (1998) in the room during the process. Hey, it starts on a boat! And it was a good downtime to relax and not nap exactly but just to have some chill. 

Our dinner for our last night was 1923 which is the fanciest establishment. We didn't dress in formal wear or in 1920s fashion like some did but we did dress up a little bit. First, we walked about the ship and took a lot of pictures. 

Then we had a DELICIOUS dinner. C lost his mind with excitement in 1923 because of all the original sketches and the Oswald and Steamboat Willie all over. He loves all that and even has the Oswald Magic Band. 

We took my favorite family picture of the trip in 1923. Admittedly, I still look like a lobster but I promise it wasn't painful at all. 

M and I had to cut dessert short however because she had her own Christmas present to get to: Bippidi Bobbidi Boutique. 

Yes, she did this on our last trip at WDW but this was again special because it was on the cruise ship and though girls can go until they turn 12, I can just tell she's aging out of the magic of it. So once more. This time I let her get the full Captain Minnie Outfit. I also told her she was going to be Captain Minnie for Halloween so there's that justification. 

M picked Captain Minnie almost immediately. She had been plotting it since we got on the ship. And I get it. It's cute and exclusive to the cruise. 

Our fairy godmother Miranda was so kind and sweet to M. We loved her.

And here we are at the end. M was trying so hard to be brave because she loved it. But the minute we left I asked her if she was disappointed in the backpack. See, we had been talking about the new BBB backpack, the sparkly Minnie backpack. And she got the cinch sack kind she got at WDW. 

So, I told her we could go ask. M looked so sad. The front desk person was different than the one we had just an hour before and she told us that it was the fault of the former person for not explaining the backpack wouldn't be the sparkly one. And that they aren't available separately because they're part of packages and brought on board in sets. 

But then she took pity on M who was genuinely so sad about this and said if we could come back in 20 minutes she would see what she could do after calling her manager. So we waited around in the lobby. I explained to M that it might not happen but to just keep looking sad. 

Well, we went back and the manager told us we could buy one! So... an upcharge yes, but at that point it was Disney Magic because she wanted one so badly. And this likely sounds lackluster and "obviously they were going to let you they just hoped you'd change your mind in 20 minutes" but for real, the Fairy Godmother had a heck of a time ringing it up because it actually wasn't marked and she had to go get a binder with barcodes from a closet. And M's fairy godmother came out to present it to her as well, which was also so sweet of them. M was just absolutely beaming! And so grateful. 

After we oohed and ahhed over it, I dropped her off at the kids' club and booked it to the Walt Disney Theatre to meet up with the boys to see Aladdin. 

After the show, which was C's favorite of the offerings, we picked M up and headed back to the room. I will tell you that M really enjoyed her time in the kid's club and would have spent more time there if we had let her. I am so grateful that she had a good time there!

We had to have our suitcases in the hallway for pickup by 10:30. It wasn't a problem. After we ordered some (included) room service desserts, Mickey bars for the kids, and Chocolate Cake for the grown-ups we snuggled in for our last sleep. 

M took these pictures of the ceiling above her bunk. Her bed comes out of the ceiling so it was difficult to capture the image. I let her do it. 

We had the tiniest cabin possible: an inside stateroom. We had NO problem with it. It is small, but here's the thing: so is our house. We packed light knowing we'd do laundry so storage wasn't an issue at all. Everyone slept great and we didn't spend a ton of time in our cabin during the day anyhow. When we did spend time in our room we didn't feel cramped. 

I would have no problem booking an inside stateroom again, especially since we all slept so well every night!