DAY 1 - May 14th, 2011 - Port Canaveral (Part 1)
After getting very little sleep (I mean, come on! A cruise for 14-nights?! I shouldnt have expected to get any sleep at all with all the excitement!), we awoke around 7:00 to start getting ready. Mom had arranged for Tiffany Towncar to come pick us up and transport us to the Port. Id rather be in control of getting there, but clearly we couldnt drive ourselves! We had to depend on someone else and we needed someone with a big vehicle...so we had to use a taxi company. Since we would have about 8 suitcases and a few bags, my mom reserved a van. They called her the day before asking how much luggage we would have and if a luxury SUV would be suitable. After she told them, it was clear we needed a van (and why we reserved one if the first place, haha).
They were supposed to pick us up at 9:00, and I saw the vehicle outside at about 8:50 (though it said Orlando Happy Transportation which I found interesting). Not too bad! We loaded up the van and we were on our way. Very. Slowly. This van was, well, older, and we literally chugged along. Were we ever going to get to the port?! Now, I know we would get there in plenty of time, but like I said earlier...I like to be in control of my transportation there because we always arrive around the same time. They way we were going, I thought I would take us about 2 hours to get there, opposed to the just over an hour it normally takes.
Were driving along ever-so-slowly and ever-so-jerky and then I notice the windshield! Its filthy! All to soon I realize that the dirtiness is actually love bugs getting squashed while driving (the windshield was perfectly clean before the journey). By the time we got to the port at about 10:15 (phew...miraculously, thats about time we normally get there!), the car was filthy! Whats up with these love bugs right now?!
We get our luggage out of the car, pay the driver, and pay the porter for handling all the luggage.
We proceed through the gate to get into the terminal quite swiftly and without issue. Then we enter the terminal and have the same swift process through security. Up the escalator we go and encounter a fairly deserted terminal! Sweet! Up to the health questionaire desk we go to fill out the form. Shortly after, we get in line to check in (receive boarding number 7 and a Navigator) and within 5 minutes were at the desk. Passports swiped, health form and online check in form turned in, no picture taken (they still had ours on file from our previous cruise(s)), KTTW card and lanyards received, and we were on our way! We grab some seats without any problems and wait for mom and dad. They come over and say they received boarding number 5! Looks like well be using their boarding number!
So once we were situated, I got up and walked around the terminal to take some pictures:
After taking some photos, it was back to sit and play the waiting game. My how the suspense builds during this time! I know that if we were to arrive at the terminal later that we could check in and then potentially proceed right onto the ship. For some reason, the waiting around plays such an integral part in our cruise experience. We use the time we are waiting to figure out our dining rotation and how that correlates to any other reservations/activities we have in mind. Using Navigators posted from the previous eastbound transatlantic cruise, I tried to book Palo dinner on a night where it should be the rotational dinner menu (since weve experienced those menu NUMEROUS times before). According to the information on our KTTW card, our Palo dinner was scheduled on a night that we would be dining in Animators Palate. We also noticed we were eating in this restaurant the least (and its our favorite), so I would be sure to go try and get our Palo changed when we got on the ship.
We perused the Navigator as we were waiting and getting more and more excited by the minute. I had hoped that we wouldve received the Cruise at a Glance sheet at check in (that has been given out on past transatlantic cruises) so that we could figure out the menus and entertainment offering each night, but we didnt.
As we were twiddling our thumbs, we heard an announcement being made at about 11:50. The announcement said that due to the massive amounts of lovebugs we were not going to be able to utilize outdoor areas/activities/entertainment on the ship until after we had sailed away from port (this includes not opening your verandah door). WHAT?! What about the sail away party? What about walking around the open deck with the drink of the day in hand? Only time would tell what was going to happen...
At about 11:52 they announced the family of the day and just over 5 minutes later, boarding (finally) started! At approximately 12:10 our boarding number (a.k.a my parents boarding number) was called, so we proceeded to the large Mickey head! Its TIME! After months and months of planning, we would be boarding the glorious Disney Magic for our 14-night cruise. FOURTEEN NIGHTS!
Upon walking through Mickeys head, we had our KTTW cards swiped for the first of many times and then proceeded to get our embarkation photo taken. And then, it was time to walk onto the ship. Now, my love for
DCL started in March 2007 when I went on my first
Disney cruise. Coincidentally it was on the Disney Magic and I had not been on that ship ever since. In fact, of the four of us, Im the only one to ever sail on the Disney Magic. So, as you can guess, this was a pretty big deal not just to me, but for everyone else as well. I had, without a doubt, one of the best weeks of my life on my first Disney cruise on the Disney Magic. I couldnt wait to reminisce and show my family around!
We approached the point where we enter the ship and I just couldnt believe it. They announced our name and we stepped onto our floating home away from home for the next two weeks! We were all grinning ear to ear. How can you not?! A member of the cruise staff then talked our head off, but we already had a plan in mind. We were going to try and eat in Parrot Cay so that we could perhaps locate our table for dinner. (I had made a request that we sit at a table just for the four of us and I wanted to see if it was going to be honored). Before making a bee line to the restaurant, I stopped to take a picture of the ice sculpture by Guest Services.
We then made the left from the atrium and travel past the Promenade Lounge to Parrot Cay. After we sanitized our hands, we walked up to the podium to be seated. As a server was taking us to our table, we unfortunately noticed that the table numbers were not on the tables. Bummer. Guess Ill inquire about that when I inquire about Palo! We take a seat and then go right up to the buffet!
Still grinning ear to ear at this point, we fill up our plates with scrumptious food and head back to the table. We devour whats on our plate, some of us grab a second, and then before long were eating dessert. Wanting to resolve some of the dining questions I had, I left the group to go to Rockin Bar D to make my inquiry.
Since knowing the what menus were going to be served when was necessary, I proceeded to the main dining table first. I told the fine gentleman what information I was seeking, and he told me what nights would be the rotational menus. From that, I decided to try and switch Palo to the night of the Parrot Cay rotational menu (one day later than I initially booked Palo). I then inquired about the day of our character breakfast (just to make sure it didnt conflict with Palo brunch). It didnt, so that was good. Lastly, I asked if my request for a table for 4 was honored. He said we were sitting at an 8-top, but it was reserved just for the four of us. Thats fine! More room to spread out and place all our food we would be ordering!
Next, I walked over to the Palo table. Without any issue whatsoever, I got the reservation for dinner switched! Easy cheesy. Time to meet back up with my family.
We wandered around the interior of the ship and then we noticed just why they asked that we didnt open doors to the outside:
Note that I didnt go outside to take the first two pictures. The third picture is right outside Animators Palate! Lets not have a lovebug infestation on the cruise ship! How awful would that be?!
Before long we found ourselves waiting in the deck 6 aft elevator lobby waiting for the hallways to our rooms to be opened. At about 1:30 on the dot, we were allowed to proceed!
Down the starboard side of deck 6 aft we went! We reserved two inside staterooms next to each other and were REALLY hoping for an upgrade, but alas it didnt happen for either of us. Someone has to stay put in the inside staterooms though, right? Guess it was going to be us! We werent going to let it ruin our cruise experience (though my father was quite apprehensive about being stuck in a closet with no window for 14 nights).
I knew family friends were surprising my parents with some goodies, so James and I made sure to watch them open their door and see their reactions and take pictures! All the Bon Voyage decorations were up (along with the cake that comes with that package) and our friends also ordered a cheese plate for them as well.
Then, James and I went over to our stateroom to check it out. Our bathroom for the next 2 weeks:
And our
Castaway Club goodies:
We decided to stick around, relax, and wait for our luggage so that we could unpack and avoid as many wrinkled clothes as possible! Our goal was to not have to do laundry while on the ship. We also went through all the information that was in the room. The time of dinner was very confusing. In some places it said 8:15, in others it said 8:30. Which will it be? I also double checked to make sure the character breakfast didnt conflict with Palo brunch, and it didnt. We also perused the Cruise at a Glance sheet and the Transatlantic Destination Guide to see what all was coming our way.
At about 2:15, the first piece of luggage arrived, with the next piece arriving at about 2:50. Upon seeing how all our dress shirts looked, Mom offered to send them out to be pressed, and thats what we did! By 3:35, our final piece of luggage arrived. We unpacked, them placed the empty suitcases underneath the bed to get them out of the way.
The lifeboat drill was next and off we marched to Animators Palate without life vests in tow (such a wonderful thing). At approximately 4:15 an announcement was made saying the Sail Away Party was indeed not going to be occurring today. They did say it would be postponed to tomorrow after our day at
Castaway Cay and it would be a celebration of leaving the Bahamas and heading across the Atlantic to Europe! While I was INCREDIBLY bummed about no Sail Away Party today, I think they made a VERY wise decision to have it the next day! In the meantime, they would have characters out in the lobby to remedy the fact there would be no party up on deck today.
Not wanting to be part of the chaos in the lobby, we decided to take the cheese plate down to Promenade Lounge. While enjoying all the scrumptious cheeses, we played Phase 10 (a game James and I brought). Now, it must be said at this point that we played this game a lot throughout the cruise. A LOT. We also got our first drink of the day of the cruise!
Cheese plate:
Another thing we enjoyed doing daily on this cruise was looking at and taking a picture of the dinner menu during the day, so that we had an idea of what we wanted at dinner! (I typically took the picture of the menu at the back entrance to Lumieres since it was so close to the Promenade Lounge and we spent most of our time there.)
As we were playing Phase 10, we noticed we started sailing away at 5:43. Here we go! At about 6:00 we made our way through the lobby and to the gift shops. Of course, I had to take a picture of the statue on the way!
Wanting to play around with my camera a little bit, I took some photos in the gift shops:
In Treasure Ketch, we inquired about the Don Ducky Williams sketch sessions (as we saw on the Cruise at a Glance sheet in our stateroom he would be on this cruise). I believe they were $40 or $45 a session, and we decided to not sign up at this time. It was also at this point that we saw ALL the special merchandise! And by all, I mean barely a handful of items. A sweatshirt, an adult t-shirt, a childs t-shirt, a postcard, a magnet, and that was about it. There were TONS more Mediterranean specific merchandise options unfortunately. James and I got sweatshirts and a magnet while Mom got a t-shirt and a postcard.
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