Ok where were we?? Oh yeah I had just eaten enough shrimp to start turning into one.
In fact I went back for more. I wasn't such a big fan of the crab claws but the shrimp was GREAT!! In Japan shrimp is expensive....why I don't know considering Japan is nothing more than a big island.
Back on track: The others in our group wanted to see their rooms and drop off the bags. I wanted to see these new magical portholes so off we all went to deck 7. Maki's room's porthole had a view of where the ship had been and Hidemi's had a view of where the ship was going. So if you stood in the hall with both doors open you could see the front and the back of the Dream. I thought it was really cool. Oh I skipped a part....at first one of the rooms windows wasn't working. Then I found the button on the wall beside the bed to turn it on. We stayed a few minutes looking for characters, but one never came. I meant to get back over there and look again at some point during the cruise, but never really did. This would be something else tha I had meant to do, but just forgot. I also didn't get any pictures of their room. I will say that I was glad to be in my room after looking at the size difference. Having said that though....if it meant I could take another cruise sooner I would stay in an inside room.
Kiyomi and I left and we all set a time to meet for the Sail Away party. At this time the party was still scheduled for poolside outdoors on Deck 11. I told the group to meet on Deck 12 as I felt the view would be better.
What to do now? We had some time before the lifeboat drill. Our meeting was in the Walt Disney theater. Our friends were also in the Walt Disney theater, but they were in the balcony area.
Anyhow.....we needed to drop by the room and check on something. Hidemi and Maki had both recieved a card with a time for Palos brunch. Neither of them actually had reservations, but I did and I didn't remember seeing a card with my reservation information. Of course me being me I went into panic.
Well to make a long story short the card was on the desk. I felt relief, but then I knew I needed to go and double check the others situation to make sure they didn't get charged. I also wanted to double check and make sure everyone had gotten all of their on board credit. Off to guest services we went.
Just as we were leaving the room we got the bad news....
Due to inclement weather the Sailing Away Party would be moving to the lobby atrium.
These were words I did not want to hear as I had built up the sailing away party and hearing the horn blowing to everyone. Oh well I couldn't control everything I suppose.
Down at guest services I got verything checked and straightened out. No problem with Palos....No problem with OBC. Then we saw a princess in the lobby. Or Kiyomi had spotted her while I was at the desk. Now Kiyomi went and talked with her, because there was no line or other people and she was just standing by the Christmas tree. Kiyomi told her all about our friend Hidemi and how much she loved princesses. After I finished I heard all about their conversation. so I quickly called Hidemi's room on the phone near the guest service desk and told Hidemi that a princess was in the lobby and no one was waiting...Lucky chance!!
Then I went over to meet this princess. She was fantastic and right in character. At first she thought that I was the friend that my wife was speaking of and was surprised when I said that Kiyomi was my wife. She then went on talking about her prince. Then we posed for some pictures.
Here I present* Tiana ...a true southern princess
Well after our Royal meeting we started to see crew members walking around preparing for the Lifeboat drill. So off we went to our drill area. What I thought was cool was to get to our area they were directing us down stairs that were usually used for crew only. Though that area is drab and all white, it was still cool to see a little behind the scenes. the life boat drill was nothing special except my wife being told to turn off the video camera...politely...everything went off without a hitch. They told us to report here if the ship was in distress. I was thinking...nope...haven't you seen Titanic? The water comes in from the lower decks....I'm personally headed to the upper decks not going down. ...or heading for the nearest lifeboat.
Actually I pay close attention to safety briefings...both on ships and on planes...it's just me.
Ok it was over....now let the fun begin. We went to the atrium for the Sail Away party. We looked and looked for the others....Oh no...I forgot that they may have not caught the announcement about the change, but can't they see the rain outside??? Oh no what do I do????
I never saw the magnets Drew was working on for you...I like them...lets hope he actually gets around to making some for us too! I'm just gald we got another update. 
I just want to hear more!
