Back from Vacation and had a whale of a good time!

Just back from our land and sea disney vacation this past spring break and I already wish I was going right back again. Tay and I had a great time and the best part was no rushing thru airports and long transfers. We just drove to socal disney, something we do anyways and from disneyland it was a quick trip (with stops) to the port. It was so lovely to see that boat in the harbor.

Here's the rundown with limited pics ( I forgot my camera and relied on my iphone)

We left our home and my booboo kitty in the dark of night with all intentions on being early into the park. Tay slept the whole way down, lucky girl. It was a pretty uneventful drive with a couple of cars swerving at times. I like driving in the middle of the night, less traffic and no whiny kid. I stopped for gas/coffee at magic mountain around 6am and got to disneyland around 7am. A nice traffic free drive. We were staying at the Villas at Grand California, DVC's new addition to the Grand California Hotel. I gave my bags to the bellhop and moved our car to the free guest parking across the street. I decided to take a quick 20 min cat nap since the park didn't open until 8am. Tay was wide awake now and let me get a quick "zzzz". We headed over to DL and walked right in at 7:55am. I was trying to get something to eat quickly but nothing opened until 8am. In retrospect it was a good decision as our first ride was space mountain and it left me a tad queasy. I have noticed that the rollercoaster rides are now leaving me feeling ugh when I get off of them. It's a bummer but I'm sure comes with my old age. I think thats why my favorite ride is toy story mania now. Mellow shooting game..aahhh

Tay and I had finished out all of the main rides and headed over to California Adventure right as they opened.

As we were waiting in line for Screamin' tays dad called to let us know they had arrived. Tays dad, stepmom and stepbrother were meeting us down in DL. They had to leave later as R made it into the science fair the night before. We did a couple of more rides at CA Adventure then headed over to meet up with dads fam in DL.

First ride was Matterhorn. R was very excited! We padded around both parks until our room was available. Downside of DVC at DL is they clean those rooms last and they are NOT available until after 4pm! We got the call at 4:05 that the room was ready. We headed over, had the bags delivered and got in our suits to head to the pool. Did I mention that it was freakishly hot on friday. R stayed in the room while the adults and tay headed to the pool for swimming and cocktails, shirley temple for the kid. It was nice to relax before heading over to the park again. We went back around and split off..I came back to the room at 10pm while the rest went to ride space mountain. Our room at the VGC was beautiful. A balcony overlooking World of Color so I sat in the room watching the show while getting ready for the next day. We had early entry to the park at 7am. Up early saturday morning to hit the park running. We had a big day saturday. Hit all the non fastpass rides in the morning then did the plaza character breakfast.

Then off to ca adventure to get our fast passes for world of color. Tays dad had never been to Ca Adventure and R hadn't been to DL since he was 6 so he barely remembered. It was fun to see the park with newbies. I love their excitement and enthusiasm. Once again we took a break in the middle of the afternoon. It wasn't warm enough to swim on saturday but J and I took a cat nap. Tays dad headed off to watch the muppets and then we were supposed to meet up with him to watch aladdin. Unfortunately he had R's ticket on him. After a little begging the lovely ladies at the gate allowed us to enter the park w/o a ticket for R. Tays dad did not have a phone but luckily tay got her had stamped from CA Adventure. PHEW! Needless to say R's mom collected his ticket and kept it with her. After Aladdin we went to ESPN zone to have a nice relaxing dinner with many drinks. I love vacation! We headed back to CA to watch world of color and then once again called it a night. Another early entry day on sunday and they we were going on a BOAT!

Sunday we all did early entry to get some final rides at DL. After that tays dad and his fam left us to head out to the boat while tay and I headed to CA Adv. to do some final rides. I wanted to ride Toy Story and Tay wanted to do screamin' . We finished in just enough time to get back to the room and check out at 10:59am! The night before tay had fallen with her phone in her hand and completely destroyed it. On top of some underwire issues I was having, we decided to pack the car and head out to do some errands before the boat.

My plan was to arrive late to the ship for 2 reasons...1. I didn't want to hit another 24 hour period for parking, save myself 12 bucks! and 2. I wanted to carry my bags on straight to my room. This was selfish as I just didn't want to pack my bags to protect breakables. Thank goodness for a stop at Macy's and AT&T. We arrived at the port at 2pm. Perfecto! No lines, no waiting, just picked up our Key to the World card and headed on board. Straight to our room. Dropped the bags and went to go find everyone. Found tays dad making sure his lifejacket was proper. Even thought you don't need to wear it to the drill he wanted to check them out. Below is a video of how he felt about us making fun of him.

I went to the disboards meet but briefly. Met my dinner companion and some other nice people. We stayed up on deck for the sailaway party for a sailway that didn't happen right away! I went down to my room to unpack after the party and an hour later found us still in port for some unknown reason. We met up with tays dad, j and r for the show and then dinner that night. Once again I found myself in a new situation. The bumpy sea was messing with me. This was new to me. It took a day to get my "sea legs" but thankfully they arrived. It was pretty bumpy that night however it rocked me to sleep! The next day was a sea day and a little chilly so I did alot of inside things in the morning. Trivia, DVC meeting, more trivia. Later in the afternoon, I took tay to the sports deck to play capture the flag and as usual she made fast friends. That night at dinner was the last night we saw tay. She was off with her middle school BFF's she had made. Tuesday we arrived in Cabo, a little late and lots of long lines for tenders but it was no sweat for me as I had no intention of leaving the boat!

The view from our SPH room on the boat in Cabo. It was gorgeous this day. I put on my suit and headed up to the pool to find a mecca of chairs and just a few people. A true luxury on a packed cruise ship. I spent my day at the pool, to only leave to refill my drink or grab a snack. Tay was off with friends. This pattern repeated itself on wednesday in Puerto Vallarta. My view was not so great this day as they were doing maint. outside my window most of the day. Thankfully since I was at the pool I didn't care. They had extended our day in PV that morning to a 10pm onboard. Had I known this in advance I would have done some research and planned an authentic dinner of the ship but no internet met dinner onboard. Tay went off with her dad and fam to go ziplining for the day. She came back tired and cranky. She didn't have alot to say about ziplining. But I found out later that if there was no hiking involved it would have been more fun. Talk about lazy kids.

Sea day on thursday and pirate night. Now at this point in the vacation I started to get a sore throat. Thinking nothing of it, just overdoing drinking talking etc. Little did I know....

Friday we were in cabo again and I had heard that many people were staying on the ship which prompted me to leave and walk around for a bit. Tay and I headed out with the Hughes Clan to check out cabo. It was pretty hot and the kids were kinda whiny, but it was pretty. We ended up getting a beer and some snacks at CaboWabo, some cough drops at the pharmacia and then went back to the ship. We saw a seal/sea lion playing in the water as we headed back to the ship.

Such an awesome boat! I went back up to the pool deck and right back into my tanning mode. As usual I have noticed that my age is making my skin burn instead of tan right away, but I did get a great tan for a week. I should have gone to the tanning booth before but oh well. On our way out of Cabo we saw whales. Below is a video and If you can look beyond my crappy iphone skills and my reflection in the window you will see what they were doing for a while alongside the boat. It was awesome!
It became super windy that afternoon..I mean SUPER windy. Everything blowing everywhere so my tanning was over :( In fact most of the outdoor deck activities were over. It was so cold and windy as we headed back to LA. Saturday was more of the same. At one point Pat, Nolan and I went to the front of the ship and watch nolan waving in the wind. Hysterical! This was the last night and I made tay come to dinner for a bit. She was waiting for her friend to finish and once they were both done they headed off to edge for the final night. We relaxed and finished up dinner. I went back to the room to pack up for the next day and then headed down to pub night with kim. My favorite night on the ship. If I were not upon the sea..... My cold had come on full force now and I was regretting not getting antibiotics in mexico. The next morning we headed down to breakfast with our luggage for our last meal on the wonder.

Tay and her shipboard BFF! They were sad to leave each other at the end but she lives close so there is hope they will have a playdate!

Since Tay and I had our bags we could leave anytime we decided. So after breakfast we headed off the ship. Tays dad had not been called and we actually walked off briefly with the hughes but got seperated at immigration. There was a small line to show your passport and then we walked out of the port, saying goodbye to the ship and hello to our very dirty car in the lot. It took a little time to get out of the parking lot then we were on our way home. Tay slept for about 4 hours in the car. Which was nice because I didn't look forward to the "are we there yet" and "i'm hungry" utterances.

All in all a fabulous vacation. So great that we rebooked for next spring break. I doubt we will do disneyland too but we'll see. Maybe next year we'll stop and do universal studios. I haven't been there in a LONG time. Long time to plan. Fun things to do. And once again a reminder that I used my disney time share to pay for this vacation. My cash out of pocket for the whole trip including gas/parking was under $500. That's a great deal for 10 days! If any of you are considering DVC, don't forget to say my name! Pay it forward. Our next vacay will be a trip to our new home resort on the island on oahu later this year. Cya later!