The Vanguard family vacation

[vanguard]

I took the family on a Disney cruise and it was a blast. This is our third time so we kind of knew what to expect.

This is my wife, Jackie, dancing with my son:

This is Hope in her Paris glasses dancing in a crowd:

Here I am doing one of my favorite cruise activities:

Hope was selected to be one of the dwarfs in a play:

We all went out dancing on one of the nights. Hope is on the left, Jackie is in the foreground, and Colin is in the spotlight:

Is Grand Cayman they have a place called stingray city. It's a few miles off shore next to a barrier reef and it's filled with stingrays. Hope and I decided to check it out.

Fish doing their fishy thing:

I figured out how to swim to the bottom and bring stingrays up to the surface for Hope and anybody else to pet. Here's one swimming around:

There was no shortage of them:

(more coming)

 

[vanguard]

Somebody talked Hope into kissing one on the wing. She's having a good time:

This is the stinger. Keep away from the business end of these guys:

We took this 65' catamaran out to the barrier reef:

This is the Disney Magic:

This is my wife, kids, and parents dancing. It's a little late for the boy, he looks ready for bed.
http://www.just4fun.org/family/Disney Cruise/images/p9300167.avi

I'm not really a watermelon carving expert but this looked pretty cool to me. It was pirate night:

(more coming)

 

[vanguard]

I towed Hope out to a reef on the Disney island and let some potato chips loose in the water. Fish came from out of nowhere, it was pretty neat:

http://www.just4fun.org/family/Disney Cruise/images/pa030262.avi

This is Colin with his camera. Sometimes it's neat to see his world after a night on the town:

My daughter, Hope:

This kids playing in the water:

My son in his suit:

 

[InDaShop]

cool deal. where'd did you disembark from, and what ports did you hit? How many days, etc....?

 

[vanguard]

We left from Port Carnaval (Florida) went to Castaway Cay (Disney Island), Grand Cayman, Cazumal Mexico, then back to Castaway Cay. It was a 7 day cruise. We all had a great time but it's nice to be home again. Now I'm looking forward to my next Harlan trip later this month.

 

[Juan_Hong_Loe]

Me and my wife, we swam with the sting rays in grand cayman! That is one of the coolest things I've ever done. they are pretty cool!

 

[Speeding]

This picture made me LOL:

Lil dude's got the dancin' on lock!

 

[CHASMAN9]

We did the trip 3 years ago with the family unit and had a great time. The pager deal with the kids is a great idea, they want you they page you. Had dinner upstairs at Plaetos, great stuff. Castaway Cay was great, swimin in the Lagoon. My brother is going on his fifth time on the cruise. Everyone with kids should do this at least once.

 

[bigsilly]

Thanks for sharing. We have looked at doing this with our children sometime. My daughter is almost 9 and my son is 3 1/2. I think I want to wait until he is about 5-6.

 

[vanguard]

Thanks for sharing. We have looked at doing this with our children sometime. My daughter is almost 9 and my son is 3 1/2. I think I want to wait until he is about 5-6.

That would be a good age. The ship is pretty well equipped to handle everything from 6 months to teenagers. At 5-6 he'll be making flubber, playing with the other kids, watching balloons explode in the hands of a nutty professor, baking cookies, etc. At 11 or 12 she'll be doing the guitar hero challenge, dancing, watching magic shows and comedians, etc. The big difference is that about half of the off the ship activities open up around 5 years old. The stingray city excursion was actually pretty affordable and it starts at 5 years old.

If you have kids and want to go on a cruise I'm convinced that the disney cruise is the one to do. They are just so well set up for them. The even have "secret" tunnels for the young ones as they move around the ship so that they don't get separated from the group. The staff is enthusiastic and they just know what kids like. The best advice I can give is not to be lazy. Something about being on the ship makes it easy to go to your room and relax all the time. If you do that, you'll miss out on so much in terms of shows, parties, dancing, and fun. In terms of cost, the cruise is about the same as staying in the park but I like it more.

 

[wngrog]

bikini pics or band

 

[vanguard]

I'm limited to what I have on the camera but I do have one of my wife. We've been married for 13 years.

 

[CHASMAN9]

I am not sure if they still do this, but you could request one of the disney charactors to come to your room in the morning at a specifed time and they would come get your kid and give you a pager so if your kid(s) want you, they can page for you. so imagine Pluto coming to your door ar 7a.m. and taking your child away. Chas was pumped. We never received a page the whole time. They keep your kid(s) occupied all day. The little Explorers group was awesome for my son. At Castaway Cay they took all of the kids out on the Island and had fun the whole day. Good family stuff. 8)