Florida

As if the Disney Cruise wasn't enough...we also spent 3 days in Florida!  

First stop was to the Waffle House... a restaurant we discovered we liked last time we were in the south 4 years ago.

Next, we spent the afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center. 

The very tall building where they build the space shuttles.

I was hoping to see at least one... can you spot the alligator?

This was one of my favorite parts of the tour... a reenactment of Apollo 8 launch, the first manned space craft to leave earth, orbit the moon and return safely to earth. 

And this was amazing too... the rockets on the bottom of the space shuttle... humungous!

We weren't sure if we should since we have Disneyland here, but we figured that the kids would have the most fun if we went to the Magic Kingdom.

Everyone dressed up in Halloween spirit wear because we went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party that night, too!

The Magic Kingdom... so familiar but different. 

Dear Maggie, 

Please don't ever stop being so sweet to your little sister!  

Love, mom

Dear Zoey, 

You're so lucky to have a big sister who loves you so much!  

Love, mom

I'm glad we went to the Magic Kingdom... we had a great time!

The castle all lit up at night.

On our last day in Orlando, we drove through some older neighborhoods near downtown called Lake Eola Heights and I loved the Spanish Moss hanging from the trees. 

Disney Cruise to the Bahamas

Our family had the extraordinary opportunity to go to the Bahamas via Disney Cruise!  Cory's parents treated the whole family to this wonderful vacation and we had a great time!  

The trip is about to begin!  Waiting at LAX to board our plane to Florida.

The cousins were sure excited to be together on vacation!

Once we got to Florida, we stayed the night at Disney's All-Star's resort.  In the morning, we boarded Disney's Dream cruise ship. 

Our first port stop was Nassau, Bahamas.  There were lots of port adventures to choose from, but we chose to see the island via Jermaine the taxi van tour.  He showed us several points of interest and ventured us through the richest and poorest sections of the island. 

He took us to Fort Fincastle, which offered spectacular panoramic views of the ocean!

This was one of my favorite spots we visited, Queen's Staircase.  This limestone staircase was built by slaves to honor Queen Victoria's help in the abolition of slavery in the Bahamas. 

He took us to Fort Charlotte, which features underground passages and dungeons under the old fort which was built in 1787.  

The interesting thing about all these forts is that they were never involved in any battles, so the soldiers were pretty bored while there.  

We learned quite a bit of history at these old forts... which made up for the fact that the kids were missing school for our fun vacation!

We stopped at the Atlantis Resort for a quick peak...

The structures on top of the columns they call the Cloisters.  They were purchased by William Randolph Hearst in the 20's of a 14th century French monastery.  

We visited a really nice pirate museum which was quite impressive!

Overall, we were pretty satisfied with our informative tax van tour of Nassau!

Our next port stop was to the beautiful island of Castaway Cay... Disney's privately owned island.  It was beautiful and practically perfect in every way, just like Disney does it!

Cory's parents rented a private cabana for our family that day... now that's the way to do it!  

The kids enjoyed access to our own private beach.

The cabana was nice and relaxing!

The girls got their hair braided by real Bahamian women who braid faster than I'll ever learn!

And though the ports were adventure enough, there was still plenty to do on the cruise ship!  Shows, movies, swimming, the Aquaduck waterslide, kid's club, food galore.  It was eat, drink and be merry!  And by drink, I mean unlimited amounts of Coca Cola!  Here the kids are dressed up for dinner on Pirate night. 

We had a nice porthole view of the ocean from our room.  The room was great, it's amazing how nicely it was laid out in such a small space. 

And we had a cute housekeeper who made us adorable creations out of towels everynight.  It was a highlight for the kids to come back to our room after turndown service to see what she had created!

Disney does it right!

Legoland

Sorry kids but this is probably the first and LAST time you'll see pictures of us at Legoland.  Let's just say... I'm really glad we went... to get it out of your system, but Legoland is NO Disneyland.  In the future, we will just put our money towards Disneyland.  Cause one thing is for sure... Legoland is terribly overpriced... even with the coupons!  I'll admit though... the kids did have a fun day at Legoland!  And I thought the Lego exhibits where they built entire cities including Las Vegas, New York, San Francisco and scenes from Star Wars... that was cool!

The kids are already planning their next trip to Legoland... how do we break it to them!?