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I got back on Sunday from a very memorable week long land and sea trip at WDW and cruise.

First off, the weather was VERY cooperative. I anticipated high humidity and maybe a day or two of light rain. We got neither.

Kidani Village at AKV (Animal Kingdom Villas) was really cool. We were on the fourth level above the savanna, and were able to capture sights of ostriches, zebras, a lone giraffe (was really hoping for a tower), and some other animals of which I can't remember the name.

The wife and daughter were happily surprised about the birthday gifts I bought for them, which included personal messages from our family and friends (a free perk offered by Disney Floral and Gifts).

We arrived late Monday evening, so we didn't get a chance to really explore the area. Room service and off to bed to start the vacation.

Tuesday was a day at Hollywood Studios, beginning with a Character Meet & Greet breakfast at Hollywood & Vine starring Sofia the First, Jake, Doc McStuffins, and Handy Manny. Ashley (my daughter) had her autograph book ready, and I was armed with my camera.

Kylo Ren rocked at the Star Wars Launch Bay. I wanted to ask him why he (insert movie spoiler here), but he cut me of with some cryptic phrases.

Thanks to timmae's suggestion we stuck around to catch the Star Wars Fireworks show. I'm so glad we did. It was probably the best fireworks show Disney has put together, including that at Disneyland at California.

Wednesday: Animal Kingdom Theme Park. The Kilimanjaro Safari was awesome. I sure wished they had told us we were supposed to wait for next truck. We had followed the family in front of us into their truck and tightly sqeezed ourselves into the row. It made for an uncomfortable ride. The animal sightings were really cool though. We didn't really do much else that day, even though we had Fastpasses for a couple more attractions. Lunch and it was back to AKV for the POOL! Dinner at Sanaa at Kidani Village was nothing short of amazing. I highly recommend it.

We had a little free time after dinner to take a short trip to Disney Springs. I wished we had more time to walk around, but we did need to pack our luggage and prepare for the cruise the next day. We covered only a small fraction of Disney Springs.

Thursday was Cruise Day! DCL (Disney Cruise Line) took our luggage at 8am for delivery to the boat. And they picked us up from a meeting place at our resort for transportation. After a smooth check-in at the port and we were on the boat. As I ordered previously, our stateroom was decorated with birthday flair and treats. And our luggage came shortly after.

Thursday happened to be my wife's and daughter's birthdays, so we scheduled a princess makeover for the little one. Oh boy, the attention she received. She revelled in it.

There was so much to do on the boat that I can't really get to everything, but here are some highlights.

Disney Magic is exclusively showing the Tangled: The Musical live show. A must see!
Zootopia movie was released that weekend, so they played it on the boat (in 3D even!)
Pirate Night on outer deck, including fireworks show.

Our only port-o'-call was at Castaway Cay. I ran the 5K fun run. Water was very cold. Food was delicious. Nothing much else to say, except that it was a really nice relaxing day off the boat.

Overall, the service was top-notch. We felt like Kings/Queens/Princesses on board.

Three nights on land, and three nights at sea is probably the right amount of time for a vacation like this. Though I think a 4 or 5 night cruise and a 2nd port-o'-call would be good if you were only taking the cruise. There were parts of the boat I only learned about on the last day.

Oh, I forgot to mention, some time during our stay at WDW, I got a personal phone call from our DVC member rep, leaving me a "Welcome Home" message.