Friday Favourite Moments #11

If you don't follow me on Instagram, you may not know that we were on a Disney cruise this past week!!! It was so fun and I have so many favourite moments but, for this post, I'm going to just pick one from each day. Many, many more stories to come next week but here's a small taste :)

1) Lunch with a view (Fort Lauderdale, Thursday)

This was our first day of vacation and one of the things I found to do in Fort Lauderdale was to go to Ann's Florist & Coffee Bar. We had a delicious lunch sitting at a counter with a view into the flower shop. There was an opening (as opposed to a window) so I ate lunch while smelling the flowers. It was so amazing! And then we shared a raspberry tart and a key lime pie for dessert. I would be here at least once a week if we had something similar locally!

2) Flying the Millennium Falcon with Dave (Boarding the ship, Friday)

I mean, this was "boarding the ship" day so there are so many memorable moments but one of my favourites was flying in the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars with Dave! This was in one of the kids' clubs and they had an open house. No one else in my family wanted to check it out so I went on my own. And then texted Dave a picture of R2D2 and said, "You HAVE to come see this!!!" It was so fun!!!

 

3) Midship Detective Agency (Marvel Day at Sea, Saturday)

We were on a new ship this time around and one of the features was the Midship Detective Agency. You visited the office (at the middle of the ship, thus the name), and got a card and chose a case (there were three options). Then you had a map and went to visit certain pieces of art. The card interacted with the art and you gathered clues as you visited the art. The interactive card allowed you to unscrew a crate, burn through ropes, pop balloons, or other fun things. Eventually, you put the clues together and solved the case. The picture below is of Rachel completing her first case! I ended up doing four different cases -- two with Rachel, one with Sam, and one that Dave and I did.

 

4) Rachel participated in the flash mob on Pirate Night (Cozumel, Mexico, Sunday)

Although we had a port stop in Cozumel, Mexico this day, we also celebrated Pirate Night that evening. Rachel had a few practices for the Flash Mob which consisted of tweens and teens from the clubs and happened after the Pirate Night party. Dave and I joked that we couldn't get away from Rachel's dance schedule, even on a cruise! But Rachel had such a fun time doing this and the Flash Mob was so fun to see!!! (Rachel was in the back row; she's wearing the bandana on her head in this picture.)

5) Traditional time change celebratory ice cream (Day at Sea, Monday)

We have a tradition of celebrating the Spring time change by getting ice cream. As Mexico doesn't mark the time change, the ship didn't mark it until Sunday night, so on Monday, we got a car ice cream sundae from Vanellope's Sweets 'N Treats. It was a super special, spring time change, ice cream! (For reference, you can see other time change ice cream celebrations here and here.) 

6) Rachel, Dave, and I earned our Castaway Cay 5K medals! (Castaway Cay, Tuesday)

One of the things you can do on Castaway Cay (Disney's private island) is run/walk the 5K and get a medal. You used to have to get up early, get off the ship. and run it as a group. Since Covid, it's done on an honour system. So Dave, Rachel, and I walked it and earned our medals. I am so proud of us!!! 

7) Rachel and the alligator (Travel Day, Wednesday)

Disembarkation day, and travel home day, is always depressing and hard. We had 12 hours between getting off the ship and our flight home so we'd rented a car and went to explore the Everglades. We did an airboat tour (where we saw four alligators in the wild), ate at their outdoor grill (Dave had an alligator taco, the rest of us ate more traditional food), and Rachel got to have an alligator on her shoulder, which made her day! 

 

8) At home day, Thursday

Sleeping in my own bed after returning from a vacation is always the best!

So those are just a few memorable moments from the last week. Next week, I'll have more posts about our vacation. Until then, I'm catching up on laundry, grocery shopping, and remembering how to cook. Hahahaha!!!