Cruise - Day 11 Back to life

We ate breakfast at 6:45 and left the ship immediately afterward, not our choice, but how it was arranged. Goodbye Disney - we love you!

If we ever go on a cruise again, here are a few of our lessons learned:

1) Plan in a few down days, either short excursions, or days where the kids stay behind. Especially with kids as young as ours, it was asking a lot to put them through so much.
2) Eat at the Palo restaurant a couple more nights. It wasn't expensive at all since we don't drink alcohol, and the food was much better than anything else we had on the ship.
3) Book in more evening time at the nursery for Phinn. I had him in the nursery in the afternoons, and that was when there were the least activities for Dave and I to go and do. We didn't mind all that free time, but it would have been nicer to be able to go to movies, etc.
4) Don't worry about not having something you need, the ship stores carry absolutely everything.
5) Buy water bottles at the Duty Free shop at the port and bring them on the ship to take on excursions. That is cheaper than buying them on ship, and it was nice to always have water.
6) Bring your full stroller. It was so nice to have ours. Phinn was comfortable all the time, he could sleep in it reclined, we could portage extra baggage on it and the older kids could ride on it when they were tired. And bonus, while bulkier than an umbrella stroller, it was still small enough to fold up and put away in our closet. We bought a Peg Perego stroller after seeing Dave's sister Kari's when they came to visit us and it has been awesome.
7) We were forced to get a Verandah to have enough room to fit us all, but now we are spoiled. We would pay extra for it in the future. It gave us more room, extra space to separate kids (or adults if needed) and fabulous views. Once we even saw dolphins swimming along the ship, so cool.

If you ask our pocketbook if we would go on a cruise again, the answer would be no, or at least not for a long time. If you ask us if we would go on a cruise again without consulting our pocketbook, we would say YES, when can we leave?