Just a quick note:

Today I was once again woken up to Mommy rubbing my back and saying “Time to go see Mickey”. We had the character breakfast today. It wasn’t as fun as I had hoped. I like it better when the characters come to your table so you can take pictures rather than the new Island Jam theme where they basically dance around and sing songs and play games. I still liked seeing the characters. No one (Mom, Dad, G’ma, G’pa or me) was impressed with breakfast. Cold eggs and cold Mickey waffles. Oh well!

Me and Grandma Jo dancing to the Jam.
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My gal Minnie!
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Grandma Jo and I tuckered out from dancing.
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I played at the nursery today when G’ma/G’pa/Mom/Dad ate brunch at Palo’s. They picked me up 2 hours later and could barely move from all the tasty food. Mommy was sad that there was no fresh roasted garlic but she enjoyed the garlic filled hummus instead! We did a quick buss through of the Roy Suite (thanks Ron/Monica for sharing!!) where I fell asleep right as we walked in the door. Everyone got their lanyards and then went our separate ways. Mommy is watching me while I nap. Everyone else went to the stem-to-stern wine tasting.

DISers have been dropping off all sorts of candy/magnets/and other treats… I even got a little stuffed turtle!!! I LOVE turtles! 🙂

More later, hopefully they can work out the internet kinks or Mommy will be venturing downstairs to the lounge to do all of this…UGH!

Day 1 on the mouse ship

Today was a busy day again. Busy waiting in lines… but not that bad. We got up early this morning, by we I mean Mommy & Daddy I slept in!

The bellhop came and took our luggage to take it to the Mickey ship and we enjoyed another WONDERFUL free breakfast at the Hilton Diagonal Mar (Breakfast is 35e/person normally… DCL included the mean with the hotel stay!!!). After breakfast we took a taxi from the hotel to the port (~9e) because we wanted to get on the ship pretty early to fix our dining time and try to get Palo brunch and high tea.

Finally we are HERE!
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We met a TON of DISers… too many to name. Everyone was SOOO wonderful. I ran around the terminal until we could finally get onboard. I got to meet Mickey too!
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They also had entertainment.

This was a human statue…neato!

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And Dancers…

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Once onboard, Daddy went and took care of the food issues… we got brunch and are #2 on the wait-list for high-tea. They said that there are over 1000 Castaway Club members on the boat this time… that is a LOT… so Palo will obviously be hard to get! We checked me into Flounders for pre-registration and verified all my times that I will go there. We also learned that there are only 33 kids under 3 on the ship this time! WOW!!!! So Mommy & Daddy could book over the 10 hour preliminary limit with no issues. We showed G’ma and G’pa around the ship and then went to our rooms to unpack. One of G’mas suitcases went missing but eventually showed up.

(there it is!!!!)

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I took a quick stroller nap and then played in the room as Mommy & Daddy got all unpacked. We then took G’ma on a run of the hallways. I am a pretty fast little kiddo! Then back to the room to get ready for the life-boat drill. Just like last cruise… I HATED it!!!!

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Get this darn thing off of me!!! NOW!

We finished the drill and headed to Animator’s Palate for dinner. It was a “non-show night” so the room just stayed black and white. The wait staff was trying so very hard but things were very confusing. No staggered dining meant everyone piled in at one time and AP is a muster station so they had to turn from muster to service in about 15 minutes!!! Once the meal got going things started to click in Disney style. Mommy and Daddy had Lobster over pasta. G’ma & G’pa both had the beef wellington. I had mac-n-cheese (aka No-nees at least that is what i call them!!). Everyone enjoyed their meals and deserts too. I downed an entire bowl of ice-cream Reed-stlye… GULP GULP GULP! The small spoon slowed me down a bit! hehe

After dinner a quick bath and then we headed up to the first night show. Very good… the comedian had everyone rolling on the floor. I tried to nap through a bit of it but was just too excited to see the characters. It was nice to be introduced to the executive crew members. Someday I want to be a Captain of the largest ship in the world… hehe Shows over… AWESOME SHOW… and I am heading to bed. No deck party for us tonight… I am beat.

Tomorrow is a full day for us:
Character Breakfast
Palo Brunch (I go to Flounders)
DIS meet in the Roy Suite
Stem to Stern wine tasting for G’ma/G’pa/Daddy
Tea with Alice and the Mad Hatter

I think we will be eating our way to the next port??? ugh!

Lions, Tigers and Bears… OH MY!

Mommy’s update from yesterday: Barcelona Pre-Ship

Last night I finally crashed at 9pm (BCN time). I woke up at 1:30 shouting my normal “Mommy, Are you??? (meaning Mommy get your butt outta bed and come hug Breighton!!). She gave in…eventually. Mommy tucked me back in and then I fell back asleep until 8am when Mommy & Daddy were standing over my awesome port-a-crib rubbing my back to wake me up. (BTW the port-a-crib was overly comfy, nice thick mattress and cute teddy bear sheets and blanket)

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I allowed them to get me out of bed and changed and ready for breakfast. We went down stairs to the hotel food place and had our free breakfast. I really enjoyed the waffles (now, it’s no Mickey waffle), grapes (with seeds that I instantly rejected), and ONE spoonful of yogurt. Mommy and Daddy ate all sorts of nice meats, cheese, yogurt, veggies and fruits. We met a family that is on an eight month sabbatical from life to tour the world with then 3 kids (all between 9 and 12), wow, bless their hearts!

After a nice breakfast we headed to catch the Tourist Bus (19e per adult, I was FREE). It was a short walk and then we got of the bus It was a bit chilly out so we sat down-stairs on the first bus.

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We rode the bus for about 30 minutes and then switched to a different bus line (goes to a different part of town).

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We were intending on making a full loop and then going back to the Gaudi Sagrada Familia, but the bus broke down (just our luck) and then unloaded everyone… it just HAPPENED to break down in front of the Sagrada Familia, how odd!
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We walked around the outside of the church and got a call that G’ma & G’pa were all checked in at their hotel by the airport and were ready to go site-see. They took a cab over to meet us. Meanwhile, I found a playground and lots of neat toddlers to play with. Nothing like the playgrounds like home but there seemed to be a playground or tiny little green park on every corner. Very kid friendly! I played in the sand and got all dirty.

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Soon I saw G’ma and G’pa and ran to hug them. Dad and Grandpa were taking turns with the picture taking. It drove everyone NUTS!
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We toured the church and saw several DISers (people on the repo-cruise) on a tour. It was too crowded or we would have said Hola! The church was amazing to thing it was started in the 1800’s and isn’t projected ot be finished until 2025!! Quite fascinating. There were lots of people hard at work carving marble and granite.

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After the Sagrada Familia we waited a but and finally all got on the bus and sat up top and tours the city. I got a bit buggy while waiting so Mommy had to walk around with me a LOT!

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When we got on the bus trip was very pretty and full of neat architecture, people and things to look at. I kept telling Mommy that I saw a “fruit cow”. Mommy was rolling her eyes and then finally saw it! A fruit cow… or grape moooooo…. It was an advertisement for something! Silly I know.

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We hopped off the bus and grabbed a quick lunch at “Pans”, a local sandwich chain… YUMMY. I took a nap in the stroller for a while. Then we rode the bus for another hour or so until things just all started to blur and look the same to us. Daddy let me take a picture of him. That was FUN!

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Daddy thought this was cute. The sign reads “remain seated!” HAHAHA.

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We hopped off and went to the ZOO… the highlight of my day. I saw so many fun animals. The zoo is deceptive from the outside. It is quite large but the animal habitats aren’t exactly PETA friendly. All the animals were VERY active, we figured since it was close to zoo closing it was also close to FOOD time for the animals. The hippos were great… they were swimming all around.

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I saw so many different animals and really enjoyed this part of the trip. It is a MUST for kids who like animals!

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I really enjoyed reading the map and pointing out where I wanted to go. I could name ALL the animals by the end of the trip!

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This bear kept smiling at me! 🙂

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The laziest lion in the world.

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Grandma Jo bought me a MONKEY! 🙂 Fun!

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We were all tuckered out after the zoo and caught a cab back to our hotel (G’ma & G’pa came too). I came upstairs with Mommy while Daddy found out about how wonderful it is too book your transports to the cruise through Disney. They will pick-up our luggage at 8am and then us at noonish. They will even have our Key To The World cards for is in the morning! Mommy & I got cleaned up while everyone else went and picked-up dinner. I snacked on fruit and yogurt after my bath. By the time that was done it was nearly 8pm and everyone…me especially… was past beat! I finally crashed at 9pm and could hear Mommy & Daddy playing with candy or something.

This was the view from our hotel.
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I will try to post more regularly now that we will have LESS expensive internet connections. Our time ran out last night and it was $$$$ for another day. Not worth it!

Best of luck as our journey continues. I miss all my friends and family already.

NEXT UPDATE: Boarding and more Barcelona Play… I want to convince Mommy & Daddy to go to the Aquarium tomorrow!

What a long day…

Today is Daddy’s turn to post to my blog. It’s going to be a super short post because our “24 hours of internet access” expires in about 10 minutes and the Hilton we’re staying at charges a FORTURNE for internet — especially if you have more than one laptop! Mommy plans a long post tomorrow with pictures, so hang in there!

In a nutshell:
* I fell asleep at 9 pm and Mommy & Daddy had to get me out of bed at 8 when they were ready to leave for the day.
* We went all around Barcelona. How fun! We took the Tourist bus.
* We saw all types of buildings by Gaudi.
* We went to the zoo. I discovered that Black Panthers seem to have hairballs too — at least they make the same (but *much* deeper sound) that our cats make. I also heard Mommy & Daddy & G’ma & G’pa Reed talking about the animals (Peacocks and Ostriches being “randy” and the Male Gorilla doing things to himself… Whatever. I don’t get it.)
* After a long day we were back at the hotel at 6-7 pm and I’m SOOOO tired I’m already mostly asleep. Early night for me unless Mom & Dad want to fight with me all night!

By the way, it’s worth it to stay at a Disney affiliated hotel for this cruise. You can actually check-in at their “table” in the lobby. They will pick up the bags at 8 and have the Key to the World cards available (here at the hotel) sometime in the morning. How cool. No need to do *anything* in the Barcelona Terminal. Just walk on the ship. Awesome!

Alright, off to bed!

On my way…

So the first part of my journey has been pretty darn good. I ran Mommy ragged in the airport in Tampa. I hid behind every pillar and climbed on every chair. We had a snack of pretzels and OJ in the “US Airways Club”. Afterwards we headed down to the main terminal and waited for the plane to get ready. Daddy set up my seat and I settled right in. I fussed for a few minutes, Mommy said I was exhausted after getting up at 5:45 again, and then actually fell asleep. I fell asleep right as the plane taxied to the runway for take off. I slept for about 25 minutes and then someone came on the overhead speaker and it startled me and woke me right up. (Daddy said: “US Airways is the most insane/inane airline — the announcement was how by signing up for a US Airways/Bank of America credit card you could get 20,000 bonus miles — then the co-pilot proceeded to walk down the aisle of the plane pitching brochures. This airline is seriously in need to being liquidated if they have to resort to that type of behavior.” I think: good riddance if it happens!) Anyway, I played with my new Thomas the Tank sticker book and watched a few short cartoons on Mommy’s laptop. Daddy sat across the aisle and read his book. I survived the first leg of the flight. YIPPIE!

Before my journey
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Playing in the airport
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On the plane
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Sleeping on the plane…
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Awake and cranky
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So here is where the fun begins… we are safely in Philly and I ran up and down every concourse and row and chair and hallway I could find. I completely wore myself out running around. Then I had a terrible meltdown because the plane was delayed by 40 minutes…. then 1.5 hours…. then 2 hours…. then 4 hours!!!! Then it was 6 hours and a new plane! This is getting past silly. I am opting for finally falling asleep. We will see if this journey can get better. Wait, it did… our flight is now delayed 8.5 hours!!!! This is silly. They changed the gate so Mommy & Daddy put me in my stroller and wheeled me to the new waiting area. We were supposed to depart at 6:20pm… I fell asleep at 7:30p. I got restless in the stroller because I wanted to flip around so Mommy let me lay on the floor with her for a while until at 1:45am we FINALLY boarded the plane! FINALLY! The flight was wonderful with only a bit of turbulence. I was awake when we took off and landed but did some random sleeping in between. The flight crew even complimented how well I behaved! Even I as impressed. I was just so darn tired. We met a few families traveling on DCL with us… no DisBoarders yet though!!! 🙂 We spent a lot of the layover chatting with two teens from California… they were really nice and fun! 🙂

Me crashed at the first gate….
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Moving towards gate #2
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Crashed on the airport floor
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We arrived in Barcelona and got off the plane on the tarmac and took a shuttle bus to the immigration area. We buzzed through quickly and then went to claim our hideously ugly bright colored luggage! BTW to all you travelers out there… the easy-kart (luggage carts) are FREE at the Barcelona airport… a MAJOR help! 🙂 We quickly got our luggage and went through customs (a TOTAL breeze). We walked through the exit and there was the Disney Cruise Line people…waiting for us. Mommy & Daddy said they figure since there were so few of us arriving today that they didn’t have busses running. We got a personal driver and a 30 minute ride to our hotel (Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona) we got unloaded and Daddy went to get currency from the ATM. Mommy & I took a quick back (only a bathtub in our room!) and then waited for Daddy to get cleaned up. I played with the bidet, took all the telephones off the walls, raided the mini-bar and made stinky diapers (Mommy said gross to share but I was awesome about stinky diapers and didn’t do one the entire 24 hours of travel). We went and bought diapers at AlCampo (A store like Super target). They don’t sell my brand in Spain! Mommy & Daddy bought some off-brand and they are HORRID (Dodot??). Tomorrow we go buy a pack of Huggies to last us until Italy where I can get REAL diapers.. Maybe this will be incentive to just finish potty learning… 🙂 MAYBE! 🙂 We picked up some snacks and are now in the room and ready to crash. Mommy and Daddy are crossing fingures that I sleep all night!

BTW: From our hotel window we just looked out and can see the Magic pulling into port!!!!! It is just about 9:30pm… tell me if we were wrong.. but it sure looks like it! 🙂 WOOHOO!

I am off o try to sleep… Good-night folks.

Tomorrow we are going to try to take the hop on and off bus and if we are rested and awake we will try to join the fellow DIS people at the magic fountains! 🙂