Hello all!
I've been on many Disney cruises, and one thing you see a lot of is cute little girls in adorable Disney princess dresses. Well, I don't have a little girl I can dress up. So I do the next best thing and dress Alexander up in Disney BOY costumes. This is a challenge, of course, as you can't usually find costumes in his sizes in the Disney shops -- you need to get lucky or special order them. I ordered a Simba costume for him from Hong Kong (that was his first Halloween costume), purchased a Mickey Mouse costume at Disneyland Paris, ordered a Stitch costume from eBay, and got lucky with a Donald Duck costume in Disneyland (California). And when Alexander dresses up, he gets lots of special attention from folks, which he just loves.
So Friday night was a casual night here onboard, so I decided to try out his Stitch costume. It fit perfectly, so down we went to dinner. Oh, the smiles he brought to people's faces! Just adorable! Then I noticed that both Lilo and Stitch were out for photos -- how perfect! So I got two very cute photos of my baby Stitch with the "real" Lilo and Stitch.
Stitch and Baby Stitch
Lilo loves her little Stitch
And then, just for the heck of it, I had a portrait taken of Alexander in his Stitch costume. The photographer really managed to bring out some wonderful expressions and I knew those photos were going to turn out great. Sure enough, when I stopped by Shutters (the photo place) to look for his portraits, a cast member had Alexander's portraits in his hand and was showing everyone who walked by the "cute baby." And, oh, these photos are so delicious! We bought two of the poses -- the originals look best, but we took digital photos of our prints so you can see them, too.
Grumpy Stitch
Happy Stitch
The crew member who rung up our portrait purchase said she planned to display Alexander's Stitch photo in the frames that sit on the shelf behind the cash register. She was probably just being nice, but it still delighted these proud parents!
Saturday (day 7) was a relatively quiet sea day. In the morning Dave went to a "state of DCL" talk by DCL president Tom McAlpin. Among the old news, Dave learned that DCL will be getting new lifejackets which are much more comfortable than the current ones. Also, the spa expansion will include a glass-bottom hot tub -- wow! Still no news on new ships, but he did give us all hope by mentioning that new CEO Bob Iger had been onboard recently and was a new convert to the wonders of Disney cruising. Let's hope Bob can make something happen soon.
While Dave was at the DCL talk, I signed up for a Murder Mystery called "Dark Waters." There are eight characters, one of whom apparently "died," and the goal is to try to solve it over the next few days. I'm wearing a little button that identifies me as a player, and crew members will offer clues to the mystery as I go about my day. I've overhead other guests sharing their clues, too, so it's acting as a group activity of sorts. I don't have any idea who killed whom, but I'm interested in finding out! I'll keep you posted.
Beyond these activities, we watched the Robots movie (very good!), picked up the special trading pins we ordered earlier in the cruise (long lines, but manageable), and checked e-mail. Dinner this evening was in Parrot Cay, during which we received little maracas as souvenirs and were entertained by Chip and Dale doing a little latin dancing. Alexander practiced his walking by holding onto one of our hands and toddling about -- I think he did three laps of the restaurant! He got everyone into the act -- Marta and our server helped him walk around, too.
After dinner and back in our stateroom, Alexander took a few toddling steps without a helping hand or handy wall. These are his official "first steps" -- he took those at 11 months old. But since then he's restricted himself to the occasional step and still prefers cruising and crawling. We keep thinking he'll start walking any day now, but so far no significant progress. It was good to see him trying out those independent steps again tonight, though.
Download a video clip of
Alexander "working on his sea legs
The excitement about the Panama Canal crossing was palpable this evening. Stay tuned for a full report on our memorable experience! (I'd post it tonight, but it's been a LONG day and that comfy bed is calling my name.)