I’m going to try to keep it light around here and only talk about my cruise for a couple days. That way maybe I can sort of pretend like I’m still there for awhile longer, instead of here dealing with the stuff of real life.

Our trip was a little like Planes, Trains and Automobiles. We drove a car to Detroit, rode a shuttle to the airport, took moving walkways through the terminal, flew on a plane to Orlando, took a van to the hotel and back to the airport the next day, road a coach bus to Port Canaveral, lived on a cruise ship for three days, rode a jitney across Nassau, took a speedboat to the Sandals island, and rode trolleys around Disney’s private island. So many modes of transportation! Not to mention all the walking and swimming we did.

Tuesday we drove to Detroit and flew to Orlando where we stayed the night. Wednesday we went back to the airport and took our transfer to Port Canaveral. The first day on the ship we spent most of the afternoon giving ourselves a tour. By the way, did I mention this was a Disney cruise? It probably wouldn’t have been my first choice of cruise lines, and I was a little wary of the potential for kid overload, but it turned out to be really cool. It wasn’t a stuffy upscale ship, but it wasn’t a crazy party cruise either. It was the perfect in-between experience with just a few too many Disney characters thrown in. The ship (Disney Magic) was incredible. We had so much fun checking everything out—the pools, the bars, the restaurants, the lounges, the promenade, the theatres.

After our lengthy tour we went to a deck party, then to dinner. The food all week was pretty good. I wouldn’t say amazing, but definitely better than anything I eat on regular basis. Plus there was a free 24-hour ice cream station, so nothing else mattered a whole lot. We hung out on the upper decks and the promenade for a couple hours after dinner, but we were both so exhausted that we ended up in bed pretty early that night. Before bed though, we went to the indoor movie theatre and watched a showing of Enchanted which was, as we repeatedly described to each other, SO cheesy!

[That's me at the deck party. Photo courtesy of Erica.]

Our stateroom was surprisingly spacious. We had an inside cabin, and Erica had me prepped for living in a large closet for a few days. But what we found was comfy and offered plenty of room to move around, lounge and unpack. The lack of a window meant it was completely black at night, which actually helped me sleep better. I’ve since tacked an opaque blanket over the window in my room (classy I know) in hopes that a darker room will help me sleep better at home too.

That first day was hard for Erica because the rocky seas got to her stomach. It was comically windy which made walking around the upper decks a laughable matter, and it also made for a wobbly ship. Everyone was walking around like they were drunk because the boat kept throwing us into each other and against walls. Since my stomach was spared, thank god, I just found the whole thing funny. It was a hard day for me for a different reason though. For some reason I just could not shake this sadness that was plaguing me. The day before we left I was jittery with excitement and it felt amazing to be happy and excited again. But that first day on the ship I just couldn’t block out the blues. I tried everything to cheer myself up, but I knew I just needed to wait for it to go away. Fortunately by the next afternoon I was feeling happy again and the rest of the trip was nothing but smiles.

Coming up next: our perfect day at Sandals.