5 Night Western Caribbean on board the Disney Wonder - Day 3

Soooo excited! Today marked my first visit to the Cayman Islands! I had traveled a lot to the Bahamas but never the Western Caribbean, so this port was really exciting for me. The girls had watched a Travel Channel show featuring Grand Cayman, and so we decided on an island tour which included a stop at the Cayman Turtle Farm

First, we had to get to the island. Due to the nature of their port, we had to be "tendered.' This means that we boarded smaller boats to bring us from the ship to shore. Since my kids keep me pretty busy, I make it a point to travel light, whether I am traveling with six or two! So my cell phone did double duty as my camera on this trip. I was pretty happy with the shot I got of the Wonder as we were tendering.

The next picture is not a good picture at all, but it shows you one of the other boats we used to tender.

The port area was similar to the port in Nassau and other ports I have been to. A gentleman was selling coconuts full of coconut water. I bought one for the girls to try. Eva, like mom, enjoys her coconut water, Norah thought it was gross.

Most of the tour involved being driven around while the driver pointed to this building or that. One thing we noticed right away, having chickens at home, was the large number of chickens running wild on Grand Cayman.

5 Night Western Caribbean on board the Disney Wonder - Day 2

Today was our first sea day, and we spent it in a pretty leisurely fashion. We started with breakfast outside on Deck at Cabanas, which was really cool because we had views of Cuba in the distance. It was warm, but cloudy. The girls snapped this photo of me after breakfast.

We spent a lot of the day enjoying the pool and took in a screening of the Adam Sandler film "Blended." Unfortunately, by spending the day at the pool my phone/camera went dead and ended up being left in our room to charge. So not a lot of photos today, but Norah really enjoyed "The Golden Mickey's."

5 Night Western Caribbean on board the Disney Wonder - Day 1

With my husband working on the Thanksgiving holiday, and the younger kids busy with my sister's family, I decided that my oldest daughter and I had not spent any quality time together for a while, and my middle child was deserving of a break due to very hard work in the school department. So, early Thanksgiving morning, I headed to Miami with my daughter Eva (14) and my daughter Norah (9) for a 5-Night Western Caribbean cruise aboard the Disney Magic.

We spent the night at the Comfort Suites Miami Airport North, which is one of my favorite pre-cruise hotels if you have a tight budget, which we did for this last-minute trip. Our rate included a full hot breakfast, parking for the length of our cruise, and a shuttle back and forth to the cruise terminal.

From the minute we stepped into the terminal the girls were beside themselves with excitement! The Miami terminal is not as "disneyfied" as the one in Port Canaveral, but the friendliness of the castmembers is apparent from your first encounter. There were plenty of great photo opportunities as you board the ship.

We were on the boat by 12;30, and the girls were immediately impressed by the grandeur of the lobby and how beautiful everything was. We had a great lunch at Cabanas, the weather was great and the views at the Port of Miami are also much nicer than in Port Canaveral, in my opinion. I got a great panoramic shot at lunch.

After lunch we headed to the spa for the raffle they have on every sailing. If you like spa treatments, (who doesn't?) this is a great opportunity to win some free treatments. Next, we went to check out  our room. For this sailing I got a nice discount on an oceanview stateroom and the girls were impressed with the oversized porthole. All of our luggage arrived before the 4:00 safety drill. In no time at all we were up on deck for the sail away party. Waiters circulated with the "drink of the day" in souvenir glasses. Since they were serving Pina Colava's, a favorite of mine from the Disney parks, I indulged in a couple, safe in the knowledge that I did not have to drive for the next five days! The party was fun and full of energy.

For this sailing we opted for second seating, which I really like with older kids. Norah wanted time in the Oceaneer's Club. Eva & I went back to our room and ordered our fave room service item, the "All Hands on Deck" cheese plate to nosh on while we changed clothes and got ready to head to the Walt Disney Theater for their great stage show, "All Aboard! Let the Magic Begin!"

After the show we grabbed Norah, and headed to Parrot Cay for dinner.

https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/onboard-activities/parrot-cay-restaurant/

At dinner we met our table mates, another mom with her daughter, aged 9, and a son, aged 11, It was apparent to us that Disney took time and care to pair us with a similar family. Norah had already met the other two kids in the Oceaneer's Club and we let our server know that we wanted to take advantage of "Play and Dine." Norah, and the other young kids got their dinners when the rest of us got our appetizers and they were off again with the activities staff before the entrees came out.

Eva and I spent a little time in the hot tub before retrieving Norah and heading back to our stateroom. Our excellent stateroom host had left a lovely surprise for us with our evening turn down service.