Disney Day 7: Pirate Cruise, Le Cellier and Illuminations

Our last day at Disney was a little bittersweet since we (meaning Dave and I) knew that Pop was at Hillcrest in an unresponsive state while we were at the most magical place on Earth. It also found us incredibly sleepy as we'd stayed out until almost 2am the night before!

But Miss Taylor had a pirate cruise scheduled to leave the Grand Floridian (Dave's next hotel of choice, remember?) at 9:30am. We managed to get dressed and on the bus to the Magic Kingdom in time to catch the boat to the departure hotel. We got Tay checked in and left our cell phone number because I was a wee bit leery of leaving my child at a theme park and headed inside for some breakfast.

They decked the kiddos out in black life jackets, gave them all tattoos and tied their hair up in bandanas. They really looked the part.

Don't ya think?






Argh - shiver me timbers! 

The staff talked in pirate, which was awesome for Miss Thang. She made a friend immediately and was more than ready to set sail without us. They sailed around to each of the hotels with docks located on the Seven Seas Lagoon. At Fort Wilderness, they had lunch and at each stop they had to search for a piece of the treasure map.

Apparently Tay found two, including the one with the actual 'X' on it. Later she confessed that her friend had helped her a bit as she'd done this activity during a previous trip. Either way she had a great time and was very proud of herself.

Dave and I chilled out in the lobby (which was absolutely gorgeous, by the way, and had some to-die-for flower arrangements but I was so worn out I didn't take pictures of them) while she was gone. We checked on Pop - no change - and chatted with my grandmother in Louisiana as we were overnighting as her house the next evening. Tay was staying with her for a week as well...

Then it was time for the adventure to end and here they came - treasure (in an actual chest) in tow...



Each kiddo got their own tiny treasure chest and bag filled with giant baubles, beads and gems. She had an absolute blast and I highly recommend this activity for little ones...

Afterward, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom with the sole purpose of purchasing souvenirs. It started raining hard so we dipped into our trusty poncho stash again. We picked up coffee mugs for Nana, Boppy, Maw Maw, Paw Paw and Libby. Tay and I got matching vintage Mickey t-shirts and Tay got a stuffed Stitch.

At this point she'd pretty much exhausted her souvenir fund :-)

Then we went back to the hotel for a little R&R. I think someone was a wee bit tired...
Then we headed over to Epcot for our final dinner reservation at Le Cellier. We had been anticipating this one for months as well. We got there early because Tay wanted to do the Kim Possible Adventure and, oh, am I glad she did!

We stopped right inside the park and she was able to print out a departure ticket for doing a mission with Kim. (Those of you without kids this age may not have been inducted into Kim's world yet but she does missions and gets clues from her trusty sidekick via cell phone. We watch it a lot at our house.) We headed over to the World Showcase and picked up her cell phone and set off for an adventure in England.

This was the coolest thing for tweens, in my opinion, in the entire Disney experience. Many of the dolls in the windows actually talked and gave us clues once the cell phone activated them. We also got a clue from one of the storekeepers and one of the windows even filled with water drowning the bad guy.

She was in heaven! And I didn't get any pictures because we were engrossed in this activity with her. When it was over, she wanted to do another one in Japan. Dave wasn't up to it so he went to have a few cocktails in Canada. We completed another mission that was totally different but just as much fun and then turned in our trusty cell phone.

When we'd been in the World Showcase early in the week, Tay had received a mask and charm from England and The Land. Each different country had its own so we set off to collect them all at this point. Also an incredibly fun activity. In Japan, they wrote her name in Japanese and the same happened in China. Everywhere in between brought its own unique charm. An awesome keepsake!

Once we were done, we headed back over to Canada for dinner. They said they were running late so Tay and I checked out the O Canada! show, which was shown in circlevision. It's exactly what it sounds like and was very neat.

Then it was time for dinner. Check out the gardens around the restaurant.

This is actually Le Cellier...

And the inside of Le Cellier...
The food was phenomenal! We all had steak...

Tay and I had chocolate moose. Literally.

While Dave stuck with his trusty Celebration Cake.

Then Dave headed back to the hotel while Tay and I stayed for the fireworks show, Illuminations. While not as mind-blowing as the one over at Magic Kingdom, it was still fun and had a giant Earth that floated into the middle of the lake.

A perfect way to end the evening.

The only hiccup occurred when we got back to the hotel. For days, Tay had been asking to have her hair done with string (they wrap a small section with lots of string and it apparently stays that way for a long time) but the booth by the pool hadn't been open any time we were there - and we were there A LOT!

Anyway, when we got back the girl was actually open and Tay got all excited. Until the lady told her she was closing for the night. My child started crying in front of this woman and she didn't care. At all. So I took my crying child back to the room, gave her a bath and tucked her in.

And prayed that would not be her lasting impression of the Disney World vacation we'd planned for most of the year.

Thankfully, it wasn't.

Next up: Journey Home from Disney