Part 2: Disney World! :Pirate Room at Caribbean Beach

As I mentioned in my first post, we stayed at Disney in the Resort, the Caribbean Beach.  There they have Standard Rooms as well as Pirate Rooms.  We opted for the Pirate Room in hopes that it would keep the kiddos occupied while we were.  Although it wasn't considered a suite, it was a nice upgrade from a standard room for not a lot of money.  We opted for a Pirate theme because Emma loves Ariel the Mermaid and Cal likes pirates so we thought it would be a good compromise. And it was.  There was so much girly stuff Cal had to endure that it was nice he got this.  And Emma likes to pretend she was on Eric's ship :)  And she likes to play pirates too!  Those two are just precious!!!

When we first got there, I ran ahead of the kids and Nick to "find the room" but secretly I was running like a mad woman to get to the room first so I could throw their personalized Mouse Ears on their bed as a surprise!  Above they had just discovered them and they really did think that the hotel had made them and left them for them.  It was so cute! I tried to do a lot of little things that didn't cost a lot of money to personalize the trip for them!  My secret wish is that they will go to Disney one day with their families and realize that all of that fun stuff that showed up was actually their old mom working behind the scenes to surprise them :)  

Anyway, check out their pirate bed!  How fun, right?  About two weeks before we left I was researching our room since my OCDness dictates apparently that I try to find out how  many hangers are in the room and how many washcloths there are, etc, etc.  Yes I am crazy.  Anywho, I was researching and found a kajillion blogs that explained that the pirate beds have specially made prison-like mattresses that are the most ungodly uncomfortable things ever.  Ever.  Like can't get out of bed because your back is in so much pain uncomfortable.  I was kind of freaked after that.  I kept calling Nick, debating if we should try to change rooms or if we even could so late in the game.  In the end we decided that we would just stick with the pirate rooms because the kids would love it.  In the end I am glad that we did.  Yes the beds were uncomfortable but we were so exhausted by the end of the day that it didn't really matter. And they weren't that uncomfortable...it was bearable. Which leads me to my next tip:

*Try not to let the research get the best of you.  I am a researcher and I know a ton of moms who are too so I know I am not the only one.  Don't let a lot of nit-picky people's opinions steal the joy of your vacation.   Remember that a lot of people nag things to death and so take everything with a grain of salt.  Also remember that this is the happiest place on earth so they aren't going to try to kill  you with the mattresses (I don't think, ha!) 

Here's Kazoo trying on her ears. She's checking her ears out in the mirror?  Isn't she just a doll?   Isn't she cute?  

Here's a good view of our room.  Everything is pirate-ish.  And I can't find pictures of it but our room came with a fridge that was hidden in a keg and our dresser looked like a stack of cargo...super cute!  The carpet even looked like planks of wood to give it that authentic pirate feel :)

 Here's Captain Calvin setting sail on our bed.  How cute is this little mate?  I so love that we were able to give them this trip and all of these memories.

 This was carved on the wall of our shower.  It was neat and everything is Pirate themed.  Seriously, everything!

 I will say that this was probably about the only thing with our room I didn't like.  This skull was on a large curtain that separated the sink area from the bedroom.  When the vanity lights were on the skull appeared to "glow".  The kids were freaked out by it and especially as they were trying to fall asleep with that looming over them in the room.  With the curtain opened it wasn't an issue so it really wasn't a big deal.  And what was behind that you might ask??

Ta-da!  Behind Curtain Number 1...

In the door to the right was the bathroom of the toilet and shower but the sinks were outside.  This is what was behind the creepy, scary skill.  Behind Nick in this photo was a closet area with a safe, closet rod, and long shelf.  It was a really, really nice set up.  With the curtain you could dress behind it away from the kiddos, I could get ready at the sink without waking everyone and someone else could be taking a shower or going potty.  Loved the layout!  I also loved that the closet was right there and there was tile in that area because I could hang wet suits, put my makeup on the shelf over the clothes; it was just plain convenient.

So there's a little tiny tour of our room.  Hope that helps answer some questions regarding the Pirate Rooms if you are considering them for your trip! Please let me know if you have any questions...I'd love to try to help :)