To top off our time in Europe we (along with Dan's parents) headed off for a 12 night
Disney cruise in the Baltic and North Sea in early July. Luckily we had perfect weather, smooth seas, and plenty of stuff to do. In the summer sunrise is at 4 am and the sun stays up until as late as 11pm!
Disney had the "service thing" down pat and seems to know a thing or two about kids. Seriously, Allison wanted a steak one night and presto: steak delivered to the table with a waiter who cut it up into kid-sized pieces and then made Mickey Mouse ears with the ketchup. Ethan absolutely loved the kids' pool and would spend up to 5 hours a day in there - coming out only to eat a bite of chicken fingers or fruit. Then again, you can't blame the kid since he found the section of the pool where the "older" girls were hanging out. Time and time again he played the cute card to strike up a conversation with a 7 or 8 year old. What can I say, the kid has game.
What was so nice about the cruise was the Kids' Club - a section of the ship where you can drop off the kids (all day if you wanted to) to do various activities, meet the Disney characters, and play with some Disney folks who seemed to love my kids more than I do. Of course, Allison's favorite activity was meeting the Disney princesses. For some reason that never got old to her.
Twelve nights gave us the opportunity to visit 7 countries - Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, Russia, and England. The first few countries saw Bleichers young and old depart the Disney Magic ship, but by the second set of countries only the adults left the ship whereas the kids preferred to stay at the Kids' Club - can you say perfecto!
Here are some pictures from the ship (pics of the port calls to follow).
Meeting the Disney princesses in the lobby each evening never seemed to get old to Allison. Can't say the same for all of us!
Papa and Dan hanging out on the deck as the ship departs Germany.
Ethan didn't know what to make of many of the Disney characters, but he ran to meet Chip and Dale. Funny, I think that was his first time ever seeing Chip and Dale.
Papa and Gega hanging out with Ethan on the ship's deck as we navigate through the Norwegian fjord south of Oslo.
Allison and Ethan crushing Mickey Mouse.
We are in our stateroom sleeping as Papa and Gega took the kids to a character breakfast this morning. Don't worry though, we hit an unreal champagne brunch sans children a few hours later.
Allison resting for a moment before continuing to run up and down the deck, oblivious to the gorgeous Swedish archipelago passing by in the background. The island chain includes upwards of 24,000 islands of all shapes and sizes.
Allison about to say good night to Woody.
The ship had kid friendly shows each evening. This night Allison volunteered to go up on stage and participate! No idea what that ship did to our shy little Allison.
As luck would have it, just a day before the cruise Ethan took a nasty spill at the playground. He was holding a toy in each of his hands and opted to protect the toys as he fell down...at the expense of his face. It made him look pretty tough though!
