mylael
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 20, 2014
Hello! My name's Molly. I recently completed my first Disney cruise -- okay, my first cruise ever -- and it was quite an adventure! I did the Magic's 11-night Westbound Transatlantic from Barcelona to Miami, with stops in Madeira and Castaway Cay. I traveled solo. I took about 800 photos, but don't worry, you won't have to look at all of them....
Pre-Cruise Stuff
I did a quick self-guided tour of Europe before the cruise... 2 nights in southern Germany, 2 nights in Bern, Switzerland, 2 nights in Milan, Italy, 1 night in Venice, Italy, and 3 nights in Barcelona. By the time September 19th rolled around, I was definitely ready to get on the ship and be able to be in one place (well, sort of) for 11 nights... be able to unpack, not have to worry about buses or trains or planes for a while, etc. Relaxation? Food? Mickey Mouse? YES PLEASE.
Day 1 - Saturday, September 19th
For the first time since booking the cruise 16 months before, I had a nightmare that I missed the boat. Ack! But I woke up in plenty of time... early, actually. I had to go shoe-shopping in Barcelona, as I had nothing but sneakers with me (and I was planning to do the Palo brunch). Once that task was complete, I checked out of my hotel and got a taxi to the port.
My port arrival time was 12:30. I got there a few minutes early, so I waited till my time, then got in line. First I had to show my passport and hand over one of my 2 bags. Then there was a security checkpoint. Once in the terminal, I stood in a long line to check in. It took about half an hour to get to the front of that line. I got my Key To The World card and they took my picture and everything. Then I got a ticket with a boarding number on it. My number had already come up, so I got to go through the door towards the boat. From there, another line! All in all, it took an hour between the time I arrived at the port and the time I actually stepped into the atrium. I guess an hour isn't that bad, but when you're so excited, ugh!
I had lunch at Cabanas and I was delighted with it. I knew that it would be a buffet, but I didn't realize how big it would be! I immediately pounced upon my favorite foods -- macaroni & cheese, french fries, mashed potatoes. (So healthful.) Later, I got a snack from Daisy's... and some sodas... annnnd 2 ice cream cones. Oh, those ice cream machines are dangerous!
My room was ready by 1:30. I was in 2512, 2nd floor, starboard, forward. I loved having a porthole. Maybe next time I'll do a veranda, though.
I spent my first few hours on the boat getting acquainted with the layout and doing laundry (I had been traveling for over a week by that point). Another passenger saw me wandering the halls looking slightly bewildered, and said he had a helpful hint to give me... that on the carpets, there were stars with 5 points, and the top point always faced toward the front of the ship. That was helpful indeed. The laundry turned out to be a bit challenging. The detergent dispenser on Deck 2 wouldn't give detergent, but I didn't know if I was just doing something wrong, so it turned out that I swiped my KTTW card 6 times and those all went through, but... no detergent. A crewmember passed by and I told him what had happened. He brought me 2 boxes of detergent. Later, I went up to Guest Services, and they were very nice about taking off the 4 extra $1 charges. When my laundry finished being washed, I had to take it back to the room and hang it up to dry, because 2 of the dryers were out of order and the other 2 were being used.
A lot of things seemed to be going wrong on that first day around the ship. I saw several maintenance people running around fixing things, even painting things. The ice cream machines weren't working at first. And I had understood (or maybe just assumed) that we'd be sailing around 4pm, or just after the lifeboat drill (I was in group A, which met in the Walt Disney Theater.) But by 6pm we hadn't moved an inch. In fact, a lot of the luggage was still sitting outside of the ship.
At 6:15 I went to the first show in the WD Theater. the show that night was "All Aboard - Let The Magic Begin!". As a Beauty & The Beast fan, I'm thrilled by anything BATB related, and that show includes a short rendition of Be Our Guest. While we were in the theater, the ship set sail -- I could feel the slight vibrations from my seat. On our way at last!
After the show, I went out on the decks to take photos of the ship leaving Barcelona....
Soon it was dinner time! My dining rotation was: Carioca's, Lumiere's, and Animator's Palate. Our head server was Agus, our server was Gede, and our assistant server was Victor. I was seated at Table 50, with other solo travelers -- Josh, Joanna, Gail, Bill, Gareth, and Chris.
I didn't keep track of what I ate every night, nor did I take photos every time. I did note that on this night I had the vegetarian risotto, and it was delicious.
After dinner I went to the gift shops again, and this time I bought a few pins. I'm not an avid pin-trader, but I do enjoy collecting pins of my favorite characters/movies. We were told that a 2015 TransAtlantic pin would become available for sale the evening we departed from Madeira.
By 10:41 pm, we had traveled 77 nautical miles (so said the stateroom TV info channel). I was trying to guess when we'd reach the Strait Of Gibraltar. I figured we'd reach it by the next morning, but I was about 12 hours off (we reached it the following evening.)
First day of the cruise? Good. 11 more to go!
One of the castmembers (Brian? I think) was there, and he was urging people to come to the TV and play Star Wars Angry Birds. No one else stepped up, so I thought, why not? So I played some Angry Birds!
