I was able to get some photos off of the computer before it went to its final resting spot! So lets get started with day 3 Magic check in day! The day before, wed arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 10:30 am, figuring wed be to the port around 11 am. Eilee put on her Barcelona soccer Messi jersey for the occasion that we bought the day before. We slept in and wed gotten Dunkin Donuts again the night before to eat for breakfast
but wed eaten them all before morning so we had to go out to grab a little something. Luckily there was a Starbucks about ½ block from our hotel! I know, I know Starbucks of all things! So I grabbed some euros out of an ATM while Diane and Eilee went to Starbucks. Our driver came right on time and it took about 10 minutes to get to the port and we were there by about 10:45. He dropped us off right at the terminal. On the way there we saw some families walking over that big bridge with their luggage and we were glad we didnt decide to do that! I figured wed be too early but when we got there, we saw this big line and we went to stand in it.
They must have started letting people into the terminal by about 11 because we didnt wait very long and the line moved fairly quickly. This is a shot of the check in area. There was a line for
Castaway Club members and a line for first timers and neither line had a wait at all.
There was also a desk where you could register your kids for clubs and an area just for concierge people. Here is the activities registration.
When we got into the main terminal and it was pretty empty.
We found a seat right up near the gate and then I made my daughter get in line with me to get a picture with Mickey. They told us that Mickey would soon be gone but Minnie would be coming out and we got our picture with her. I realized I forgot my camera so I dont have a shot of that. We soon hooked up with a family that we met on the DIS kikids. We each had 13 year old girls who would become inseparable during the cruise!
We were boarding number 5.
And in no time they were calling our number! I looked at the clock and it was 12 pm on the nose when we were walking in. We got our family photo and proceeded onto the ship. It was so exciting!
I totally forgot about them announcing families as we came in so we didnt think of anything clever. But afterwards we agreed that we would have said the Aaron Rodgers family (were from Wisconsin so were big Packers fans!).
And I just have to say that I love the Magic. I loved the Dream its state of the art, but the Magic is more my size and it just says classic Disney. I know theyre making updates too it soon but I hope it retains its classic feel.
We couldnt get into our cabin until 1:30 so we decided to go right away to try to get a Palo brunch reservation for the following day which was a sea day. I have a photo of the sign up area that Ill add in here later! We were only about third in line and we got a reservation for 10 am on Sunday.
We then went to check out The Edge for my daughter. Ill say up front that my daughter LOVED The Edge and the kids she met there. On the first day she met a group of wonderful kids that she hung out with for the entire cruise and she had amazing things to say about her counselors as well. Every single day, Eilee told me how much fun she was having. It made this mom feel very good.
We then went to have a bite to eat at the Topsiders buffet. The food was good and I think I tried a bit of everything! Eilee grabbed a wave phone and immediately sent a text to kikids (Cindys) daughter to see if she wanted to hang out and then I dont know if I saw her for the rest of the day until dinner! My sister and I tried to find the walking tour of the ship at 2 pm and we went to the area listed on the Navigator and no one was there. So we walked around on our own. Soon it was time for the Sail Away party its called something new now and I cant remember what it is! But it was very cute.
And here is just a random shot of the Princess photo op from that day. Its so darn cute!
I had one rule on the ship for Eilee (well, other than to be respectful of the ship and other passengers) and that was that she has dinner with us every night. So we met our table mates and they were fanastic! We loved them! It was a mom, dad and 13 year old daughter from Hawaii. They were so fun to talk to and we enjoyed having dinner with them. After dinner we went to the show which was a little sampler of all the shows and entertainment wed be seeing during the cruise. Im pretty sure we hung out in the room after that, got unpacked and were lazy. All in all, a very fun filled day!
Up next day 4 of our trip, a sea day. And PS I do have more photos from this day but they did not upload. I'll work on that soon!