The morning after Meigo’s doggy birthday party we flew to San Diego for Spring Break. The airport and flight were a breeze — I like leaving the house at the normal time for school to catch a plane. The hotel shuttle was super easy and thumbs up for our Wyndham San Diego Bayside hotel and its super convenient location. The first thing the children wanted to do was go swimming at the pool even though it was only 65°. If there are palm trees, they will swim! Hazelwood Deli on the Bay did not disappoint for a lunch/after school snack. We peddled ourselves around in a surrey and the children got henna tattoos before playing at a fantastic park right across the street from our hotel. Hubby took K and D to swim again while I got M and N bedtime snacks and ready for bed. They were so excited for the next day but still managed to be asleep right before the swimming group came back.
In the morning we ate at Hazelwood’s, played at Waterfront Park and rode around in a surrey again before boarding the Disney Wonder. This was our first time on one of the smaller Disney ships and it definitely felt smaller but less crowded somehow. Michelle was able to meet characters left and right in hardly any time at all (and have them sign the pink pillowcase she brought). Everything seemed wonderful and brand new to our youngest child and our oldest 3 felt comfortable showing their friends, the O. family, around and disappearing on us. (:
Even though we had different seating times for dinner (and therefore different show times) we still had plenty of time for the kids to hang out at the pool and in the kids clubs together. Mary Poppins Returns was a fun movie to watch in the Bueno Vista Theater together before lunch and the pool and kids clubs. It was glorious to just sit in the sunshine in my swimsuit sitting next to my husband and K (and E and B) watching Tangled for the first time in years. Dinner at Tiana’s Place was quite the party! Turns out my kids aren’t big fans of jazz music but the food was wonderful. N was having a tough night and our waiter and head waiter were able to cheer her up using some comedic trickery and her refill of mac and cheese. Thank you, Disney, for having wonderful waiters (who also order my allergy friendly food the day before so it’s all ready the next day). The show that evening was The Golden Mickeys and my younger 3 were so excited for the Mickey confetti. It was so crowded we had to use the buddy system and sit in three different places when we arrived a full 15 minutes early. I had never experienced that before on a cruise! It is a fun show with lots of different characters so I can see why it’s so popular but all of us agreed we want our next cruise to be on one of the bigger ships.
Cabo San Lucas was a fun port of call. Hubby had previously arranged for us to go on a glass bottom boat tour and snorkeling. It was great. There were so many fish to see and in such shallow water. D snorkeled for hours and didn’t want to leave but the girls mostly played in the sand while Hubby and I watched because even though we were grateful to be in 76 degree weather being wet with a sea breeze was still a bit chilly. We liked Cabo and had a great day but we are thinking we will leave it for the college kids on spring break. And of course it’s easy to want to get back in the ship when you know it’s pirate night. Pirate night, in my opinion, is the best night there is. So many people dress up along with the crew and characters and dinner is amazing. The magic show was incredible. This time it was my turn to help N (and D) get to sleep while Hubby took K and M to the pirate party/show/fireworks. He said it was different than on the Dream and Fantasy but really good. I think M told me she liked it even better.
The next day was another day at sea, complete with Hubby taking K and D and some of the O. family to see Captain Marvel (they all really liked it) while I took M and N to things like the Diaper Dash and character dance party with S and R. We (Hubby, M, N and R) watched the Frozen show at 2pm so we could go to sleep at a more reasonable time. (We have noticed it is much easier for us to cruise on east coast time than pacific time.) D was NOT interested and played in the kids club instead but we thought it was really well done. I wanted K to see it so I encouraged her to hang out with the O. family longer and watch it with them at our dinner time. She said it was better then she thought it would be. Congratulations, Disney, I think that’s a pretty big compliment. That night was formal night and Hubby and M and N and I dressed up and ate dinner at Triton’s for the first time. We had fun watching a family game show with the O. family before they headed to dinner and we headed to sleep, excited for our turn in Ensenada the next day.
Hubby once again found us a third party tour in Ensenada that went really well. We thought the kayaking looked best since but N was too young for the Disney Port Adventure. In hindsight I bet N wishes we had left her behind. Turns out she hates sea kayaking. It was a little windy so we had some choppy waves that scared her into whimpering and crying even though she was with Hubby. Whoops. M decided she prefers kayaking on smooth lakes in CO better and thought it was a bad decision to share my kayak because sometimes I would stop paddling to take pictures. K was a total rock star in her own kayak and I couldn’t have been prouder of her. She is one strong girl. D was great at keeping up with our guides in his own kayak and when he got tired a couple times they would pull him with a safety rope for a little bit. We saw seals swimming near us and I thought that was more fun than canoeing with alligators in Florida like we did in 2017. Lol. Then our guides (we had two guides for just the six of us) took us to La Bufadora and K happened to stand in the best spot to get wet. My family reported that the churros there were even better than Disneyland. We then ate some fried fish tacos before getting dropped off to get back on the cruise ship. I really liked having locals take us around but I did have to promise my children we wouldn’t go sea kayaking again. Lol. I feel like there are a lot of things we enjoyed on this cruise but wouldn’t necessarily sign up for again.
That night was our last night on that boat and I literally cried at Animators Palate that night. Disney is too blooming good at bringing out all the feels. We saw the Dreams show and the O. family took K and D to watch the 11pm showing of Dumbo while the rest of us opted for sleep. They said it was really sad — I actually cried so much watching the cartoon as a child I’ve never let my kids see it. Hopefully K and D will believe me the next time I tell them they may not want to watch something. It was pretty neat for them to say they got to watch it opening night, though.
The next morning we ate a nice breakfast and played shuffleboard until it was our turn to get off the ship, walk across the street to turn our luggage in at our hotel and take Lyft to the San Diego Zoo. We hadn’t been there since August of 2010 with a huge double stroller on a hot day. This time was much easier. Perfect weather and 4 children old enough to walk. Of course we loved the koalas and were happy to watch a panda walk around from the bridge after only seeing a sleeping panda bum after waiting in line. Those were definitely the must see animals so we left happy and were astonished how much money it takes to feed six people after they have gotten used to cruise size portions. We got back to the hotel, swam, ate dinner and slept before packing it all up again to have the hotel hold our luggage while we took the trolley to visit Old Town and the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center like we did in 2015. We were lucky enough that Hubby’s high school friend, Kim, and two of her children came to meet us there. D got to dress up like a soldier again before the children panned for gold and did laundry 19th century style before walking to Cafe Coyote for lunch. Now those serving sizes were huge. We hung out at Waterfront Park for the rest of the afternoon (longer than expected because we found out our flight had been delayed an hour while we were there) and headed to the airport in plenty of time to eat a late dinner at the gate before getting on our flight home. The kids were real troopers and N got to sleep and I just let K and D have screen time the entire time. I figured it was already past their bedtime so let them do what they want before returning to the cold. We really didn’t want to go home even though we love it there because San Diego and our cruise were just so nice. I am grateful we were able to go and am already looking forward to next spring break. It is amazing what nice weather and the ocean can do for your soul.
P.S. Since M had two weeks off of school, she and Hubby took the train up to Anaheim to spend a couple days at Disneyland before heading back home. What an amazing surprise to find out two of Hubby's sisters and three of M's cousins were there too. So the second day they were there they got to spend it with family. Disneyland with cousins is the best!
P.S. Since M had two weeks off of school, she and Hubby took the train up to Anaheim to spend a couple days at Disneyland before heading back home. What an amazing surprise to find out two of Hubby's sisters and three of M's cousins were there too. So the second day they were there they got to spend it with family. Disneyland with cousins is the best!
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