In spite of the commercialism and 21st century changes, the magic of Disney lives on.
Ryan's work took us on a Disney cruise to the Bahamas! We spent Wednesday night in Orlando and set sail Thursday. We had enough time still on Thursday to walk around and try to understand the enormity of the cruise ship. We ate lunch at a buffet while waiting for our room to be ready and our luggage to arrive. One thing I will always remember: Everywhere we went the staff would say "Hello Princess" when they saw Audrey. I thought it was really sweet. It must be a job requirement because no one missed her. When we went to dinner that night, our table was set up with a high chair at the end and a cup with a lid that said 'Princess Audrey'. We had the same three servers every night including a head server, server, and assistant server. They were from India, the Phillipines, and Italy. A very small percentage of the staff were from the United States. They were all so great. That night we went to a Broadway type show called 'The Golden Mickeys.' Audrey was glued to the stage as they did tributes to some Disney classics.
On Friday morning Ryan had meetings so Audrey and I went exploring. They had a nursery for toddlers and babies if I wanted someone to watch her but I wasn't going to do that. So I took her to the playroom for kids older than her and they said she could play there as long as I stayed with her. She LOVED it!
Besides the props and playground they had tables for coloring, computers for games and learning, books for reading, dress-ups for pretending, toys for playing, and music and hoo-la-hoops for dancing. We were meeting Ryan in our room at noon so I had to drag her out.
Our first island was Nassau. We could have chosen from any number of activities to do here and we chose this resort/casino/hotel called Atlantis. It was beautiful.
Our ticket to Atlantis included a section of beach that was so beautiful, I could have only imagined it before seeing it with my eyes. This was Audrey's first time in the ocean. The water temperature was perfect. She had the best time with the waves. The only way we could get her out was to promise her that we would go swimming in a pool. We spent awhile in the pool before having to drag her out to go to an aquarium.
That night Audrey made it through one song of 'Toy Story, the Musical' before she was asleep so we left early and went to bed. Saturday morning while Ryan was in meetings Audrey and I went to the Goofy pool on one of the top decks. The first pool was less than an inch of water with little spouts that would randomly shoot water into an unsuspecting toddlers' face.
There were also two pools (Mickey's ears) that went to Audrey's waist. The third pool (Mickey's face) went to her chin. I think she liked the ears the best.
Our second island stop was the Disney owned and operated Castaway Cay.
This is what it looked like from the deck of our room.
There weren't any waves in this part of the ocean and it was pretty crowded in the water so we bought some sand toys and got really dirty. That night we wanted to watch the ship sail off for the last time so while we were waiting on the top deck Audrey and Ryan played basketball.
We also finally got a picture of the three of us together.
That night was the BYU vs. New Mexico game so while Ryan watched the score update periodically on ESPN, Audrey and I went to the last show called 'Dreams.' It was another tribute to Disney classics and how the main characters were able to make their dreams come true. This post is already extremely long but I'd like to share three things I learned from the cruise.
1. I'll be a little kid my whole life.
-I got just as excited as Audrey when the characters came on the stage to sing the songs I've had memorized since I was little. I was also just as excited to finally swim in a warm ocean.
2. All little girls are princesses.
-Even if they prefer big wheels to baby dolls, run around like a crazy person for no good reason, and throw humiliating fits in public (all Audrey). They also melt your heart with a smile, giggle at the silliest things, and look absolutely beautiful no matter what they're wearing or doing.
3. It is a small world after all.-And the simplest things bring us together.
