I was extremely blessed to be able to go on a two-week vacation with my family to see some amazing sights. The trip was planned months and months in advance. In the week leading up to the vacation, I packed and it finally felt real. I'd actually be able to add some stamps on my passport. I would actually get tan. However, nothing could prepare me for the adventure I was about to embark on.
From Orlando to Port Canaveral, we boarded the Disney Dream by noon. Now if you've never been on a cruise, I would highly suggest going. This was my first and I cannot wait to do it all over again. During that first day of boarding, I was so overwhelmed with everything there was to do. Now I had grown up with seeing the commercial for the Disney Cruise on Disney Channel. Between episodes of Hannah Montana and The Suite Life of Zach and Cody, these fantastic bits of airtime made the cruise ship look like a dream. The only problem was that I'm no longer considered a kid to them. So I was honestly a little bummed when I boarded the boat because I thought I was going to realize my dream of getting to build a Flubber.
I was in store for a treat that I learned about on the second night. Not only did the cruise have activities for kids and adults 21+ there was a special group on the boat just for 18-20 year-olds. This was honestly so nice about it. We were old enough to get into the adult lounges and could enjoy the adults stumbling around after having one too many drinks. Most of the people in this group were doing the same thing I was, going on their senior trip. It was so cool to get to meet new people that are your age while you're on vacation. The cruise had amazing opportunities for my age, but you could also bet that I was the only 18-year-old in line to see Chip and Dale. But hey, that's better than what most people my are are doing. Even off the ship, there was beach volleyball and I got to go parasailing. At the end of the five days, I had made friends from all over the country and couldn't believe I had walked on the ship being bummed about Flubber.
After we left the boat at 9:00 a.m., we went straight to Magic Kingdom. As a kid, all you want to do in the parks is cram every character and every experience in the shortest amount of time. Now that I'm older, I realized that I enjoy the parks more if I just slow down and take the time to really experience what's going on around me. One new thing I picked up this year is pin trading. I had pins as a kid, but my competitive side came out this year as I tried to collect the pins in my sets. After two days in Magic Kingdom, we moved on to Hollywood Studios. The highlight of this day was that I got to see Audrey Hepburn's handprints (this is the only place you can find them!) I could barely contain my excitement. I never even knew about the handprints here and I was star struck.
I really got to appreciate everything this trip compared to the other times I'd made this journey. I don't know if that came with age or how much time I spent sitting while my feet hurt, but I truly was blessed to be able to go on Thisbe adventure with the people closest to me. They say that Disney is the place where's dreams come true. And I can testify that the magic doesn't stop after you grow up, regardless of what Peter Pan says.
