The Incredibles back on the Magic 1/24/09 Western,"keeping it real" UPDATED 2/24!!

[praisehisname]

Hi Linda! I remember reading your first trip report, and I'm so excited that you're doing another one!

Denise

 

[Chernabog66]

Sweet Jesus, that was funny. I've never had anything like that happen, but then I've got three girls, which have horror stories of their own when you're the only male in the house. I feel you on the Bonine. I subsisted on a steady diet of Dramamine the whole cruise. Can't wait to read more.

 

[ibela]

I just finished New Moon and have to wait patiently until NEXT WEEK to get the last 2 from my friend. Hopefully you'll have a few more posts between now and then, great start!

 

[mormadsmom]

 

[OurOhana]

I'm still giggling over poor Kevin's predicament. I can't wait to read more.

 

[lindaso]

Sat. 1/24…1st ones here!!

I don’t sleep well in hotel rooms. I never have and my night at the Country Inn and Suites is no different. I toss and turn until I get up at 5 am for an in-the-dark bathroom excursion. On my way back, I take a quick peek out the window and see a ship docked. I think it’s the Magic but I can’t be sure as it’s dark and there aren’t any lights on the ship.

I lie in bed for another hour and then give up and take a shower. Kevin wakes up shortly after that so I put the TV on low for him. Another peek out the window and now there’s a huge Carnival ship with lights looping along the top deck. Whatever ship I saw an hour ago is now blocked by this monstrosity.

Steph and Tom wake up and dress in the clothes we pulled out last night. Steph looks out the window and points out the Magic in the background behind the Carnival ship. So it was the Magic that I saw in the dark! Here’s the view from our room, regular and zoomed in on my camera:

We pack up the toothbrushes and everything we’ve used so far so that they’re ready to be checked at the port. We make our way down to breakfast. We grab the last open table that will seat more than four and dig in. There are eggs, bacon, fruit, and bagels and such. I get Kevin set up with a bagel and some cereal. Tommy is interested in a waffle so I head over to the waffle station and read the directions. I have only made hotel waffles once before and there must have been some kind of lemon extract in the batter b/c they were awful. I’m hoping these are better. I carefully follow the directions step-by-step. I pour, close, turn over and wait for the beep. The beep seems like it’s taking a long time and I start to worry. It will be embarrassing to burn a waffle in front of all these people. Luckily the thing beeps and I open up to a perfect waffle…I did it!! That was fun!! I make one more for me (which tastes great, no lemon flavor at all).

As I’m waiting and looking around for other things to have, a woman approaches me and asks, “are you Linda?” It startles me a little. You’d think my brain would register the fact that this is embarkation day and I’ve posted on the meet thread and perhaps someone would recognize my family. Nope. I’d make a terrible famous person. I meet disneykat and we chat while my waffle cooks. It never takes long to meet DIS families.

We finish breakfast and head back to the room. It’s too early to leave for the port but there’s nothing left to do. We take some pictures:

I break out the computer and do the facebook thing again. Chuck checks his email for work until 9:40 when I can’t take it any more. We get everything and everyone in the car and head to the port. Screams come from the back seat when we drive over the bridge. Isn’t it funny how everyone just loves that first view of the ship?

We drive up to traffic man standing in the middle of the road. Traffic man informs us that we are too early to enter the terminal area. He directs us to the right, into the parking lot where he says he’ll let us know when it’s time to enter. We drive in, tell the guy standing there what traffic man said, and drive to a parking spot right by the fence so we can watch to see when traffic man lets people in.

We sit and wait. We notice there are still a lot of people who just got off the ship waiting for transportation. This is surprising because here’s the time as we sit in the car:

With absolutely nothing else to do except listen to three kids ask, “when can we go in?” I snap another picture.

Finally we see that the traffic man lets a car drive in. Chuck starts the car at the same moment that traffic man puts his fingers in his mouth and whistles at us. I know he’s whistling at us because he waves his arms and points to us too! Our first wonderful Disney pampering moment!

We thank traffic man and drive across the street. We tell umbrella lady our name and she finds our reservation. Isn’t it always comforting when they find your name on their master list? Like you really do belong there!

We drive up to the luggage area and hop out of the car. A nice porter man greets us with a big smile and says we’re the first passengers of the day…woohoo! He starts to ask us if we’ve sailed before but he stops himself and says “oh yeah, I can see you’ve sailed before” as he looks at our suitcases. I ask him how can he tell. He points out two tiny identical white marks on our black suitcase and says their equipment used to leave these marks until they were replaced last year. Interesting.

Chuck hops back in the car to return it to Budget while the kids and I walk to the entrance. We go through security and up the escalator, except for Tommy who decides to race us up the stairs. Escalators are old hat by now apparently. I am not handed a boarding card at the top like last time so I make my way over to the Castaway Club line. A CM there hands me Boarding card #2…woohoo!

There’s no line so I go immediately to an open counter to check in. I give in all my paperwork as the CM looks at our passports. He comments that we have to sign them. Oops. He asks if the kids know how to write their name in script. I tell him Kevin doesn’t so he tells me to sign his name and my name. Stephanie signs hers very carefully but Tommy doesn’t want to sign his until he gets to practice his m’s. He tends to miss the last hump on the m and he's never actually tried to write "Thomas" in script. I tell him we’ll practice on the ship (yeah, that never happened!).

We get our Key to the World Cards and our Castaway Club lanyards. He informs me that the cards will only unlock the door for the room the family member is registered in. It shouldn’t be a problem b/c we plan to keep the inside door between the rooms open at all times.

After we’re done checking in, I wait for them to open up the “upgrade” counter. We’re curious to see how much it costs to upgrade to a veranda room. The CM tells me it’s $500 per room and they don’t have any connecting verandas. It was $500 a few weeks ago when Jo at Small World Travel checked for me…not any cheaper at the port. I ask if there are any Cat. 6’s with an 11 across the hall and she tells me that every inside stateroom on the ship is filled. Wow. OK, we’ll stick with what we’ve got.

Once done there, we head over to the kids club line. We get called to a CM without waiting and I get my pager. She tells me which club each kid will be in and confirms that Tommy has sign-out privileges. I ask about moving him up into Ocean Quest and she says they probably won’t let him since he just turned 9 in December. She calls Kevin over and I hold my breath while she asks for his arm. He actually holds out his arm and lets her put the bracelet on him!! I’m standing there stunned, with my mouth open. I tell him how proud I am of him, how last time he wouldn’t even put it on and the CM gives me this look that says, “shut up Mom and don’t press your luck.” But I know it’s OK, he already let her do it.

Chuck meets up with us then and tells me how many DIS people he met on the shuttle. We head over to the model and he introduces me to Cyndi’s husband. Steph also finds Deanna, her email buddy, on the other side of the model. The two of them talk like they’ve known each other for years.

Here’s one of cool dude with his new shades:

We head outside to check out the ship up close. Here’s the entrance:

When we come back inside, we find out that Marie, et al. have arrived at the terminal. Chuck is sitting with their kids while the moms go wait on a line that is much longer at 11:15 than it was at 10:00. The kids are happy to meet up:

At this point I finally meet Cyndi after seeing only her husband for the last hour. Kevin is with me and as I’m talking, he’s complaining that he’s SOOO THIRSTY! Bad mommy moment…I made sure he had enough for breakfast but didn’t foresee the need to pack a drink. I tell him we’ll go searching for a water fountain but Cyndi hands me a water bottle for him! Thank you!!! This will not be the last time Cyndi saved me from myself this trip! After we chat some more, I head over to Marie who is now at the counter checking in. I check her KTTW card to make sure she has the same dining rotation and table number, which she does. Marie and Kristin head over to the “upgrade” line to see how much it is for Marie to change from her “cave” room. As I’m waiting with them, I hear the announcement for boarding card #2. Huh? Already? I had no idea they had started boarding.

I leave them, head over to Chuck who has slung all our carry-ons over his shoulder. We leave their kids with Florence (Kristin’s mom) and head over to the mouse ears. It’s complete chaos and Steph winds up in front of us by a number of people. I yell for her to wait but she doesn’t hear nor realize we’re not right behind her. I’m keeping an eye on her when a CM asks if we’ve gotten our pictures taken? Huh? He directs us out of the line to the side where cameras are set up like a mini-DMV for ID photos. Ugh, I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this. But it only takes a minute and we’re on our way through the tunnel. [Now that I think about it, we never did see these photos anywhere. They weren’t on the computer when we got off and on at ports. I wonder what they do with them?]

I know we have to get to Rockin’ Bar D and change our Palo reservation but I just can’t walk past the embarkation photo. It’s not physically possible to skip this photo opportunity. We wait a short while for our turn and dump our stuff off to the side. We take one with all of us and then one with just the kids. I don’t like this shot at all but I still bought it! How can you not??

We arrive at the entrance and the CM there asks our name. I say it very clearly and they announce our arrival with 2 lines of CM’s cheering for us. Yeah for us!!!! Chuck is completely distracted by the number of lanyards in the lobby and asks the kids if they want to pin trade. Helloooo…Rockin’ Bar D, remember??

We leave pin trading for another time as I head around the corner. I’m unsure of myself that I’m heading in the right direction b/c no one else is around us. We see RBD right away and I walk in to a completely empty room. There are 3-4 CM’s but no passengers. I hesitate thinking maybe I’m not in the right place. I turn to the first CM sitting at the table and say “Palo?” and she points to a table across the room.

I tell the CM there that I think I have Palo brunch for Sunday and dinner Tuesday but I’m not positive b/c I didn’t write it down. She finds my reservation and I had remembered it correctly. I ask if I can move brunch to Thursday and she clicks a few keys and hands me 2 cards as a reservations reminder. Woohoo!!

I walk out of RBD and there still aren’t any other passengers there. It’s odd actually. For all you TourGuideMike people out there, we are definitely ZAGGING today!!

We take the midship elevators (Steph’s favorite) up to deck 9 for Topsiders. We take a quick look at the buffet offerings just to make sure and we don’t see them. See what? Chicken fingers of course. Chuck doesn’t even bother getting a tray and heads outside towards Pluto's. The server there informs Chuck that he is the first to arrive and my boys eat the very first chicken fingers served on the Jan. 24th sailing:

I heap my plate with shrimp and fill a soup bowl with cocktail sauce. I’m not messing around, this is vacation! We stuff ourselves sufficiently and the kids and I head to the bathroom to change into bathing suits (them, not me). When we come back in to Topsiders to get Chuck, we see Marie, et al. and the place is packed. We are ZAGGING and we are outahere!

We head over to the Mickey pool and the kids jump right in. It’s a bit cold but they don’t seem to care. Tommy has his eye on the slide but it’s not open yet. He’s still watching when the lifeguard removes the rope at the bottom. He jumps out of the pool and runs over to the stairs. The lifeguard opens the door and up he goes. I scramble in my bag for my camera and hurry my way over to the bottom of the slide. Made it in time!!

Steph had followed behind Tommy and the lifeguard measures her at the top! Lucky for her…she is one inch under the maximum height and is allowed to go down. We try to get Kevin to go with them but he doesn’t want to. We try to convince him that it won’t be this empty the entire rest of the week but he doesn’t want to. Ugh, I know he’ll like it, I wish he would just let himself try it and have fun!!

The kids stay in the pool until 1:35 and then we head to the rooms. It’s nice knowing exactly where we are going…home to “our” rooms! We unlock the door, walk in and an amazing thing happens. Chuck and I both voice our feelings the exact same way…the room feels so much bigger on first view than it did the last time. Last time we were struck by how tiny and confining the room felt. Today it seems perfectly normal…spacious in fact. Funny that.

We also see the beautiful beach bags on the beds along with a wrapped DCL 8x10 picture frame from Small World Vacations. Yeah, gifts. We get 2 Castaway Cay bags that will come in handy this summer on the beach!

Six of our seven bags have already arrived and I start unpacking and organizing right away. Unfortunately the missing bag has my over-the-door-shoe-holder and all of the door magnets. Steph is dying to get the magnets on the door. I admit, I am too! But there’s nothing we can do about it except be patient.

Time flies by unpacking and soon it’s time for the DIS meet. We go to the Promenade Lounge and meet a few other families. Kevin keeps asking why we’re here talking to these people. It’s rude and embarrassing and I try to explain it to him. Finally I just tell him that these people are going to leave him gifts all week so he better be nice.

This is the moment where Cyndi saves me again. You see, there were so many things I forgot to print out and pack…one of them being the fish extender list. I have the room numbers on the bags but not organized in any way. So Cyndi shows up to the meet with deck plans and directions on the best way to deliver the FE stuff. When I say directions I mean, “use aft elevators to deck 8, turn right out of the elevator, make a left down the hall to room ____.” It is truly an incredible piece of work. And she has copies for everyone!!

The meet winds down so everyone can make it to the safety drill on time. Our missing bag is in the hallway waiting for us. We find our life preservers in the closet but we don’t have any child sizes. I remember posting the question as to what weight 32 kg. is in lbs. Of course I can’t remember the number. I just remember that Steph and Tommy need adult sizes and Kevin was going to be close. Well, since there aren’t any child ones here, it will be an adult size.

I get mine on and help Steph with hers. Chuck has the boys in the other room and I don’t hear any crying. I peek around the corner because I just can’t believe it. Tommy poses for a picture and here I have my proof…Kevin actually gets the life preserver on without complaining!!

And a smile? Is this my child??

And a mother/daughter one:

We head out the door to Animator’s Palate. Again it’s comforting to know exactly where we have to go and where it’s located. They mark us off on the list and sit us at a table and we wait. We listen to the announcements and listen to Kevin ask when we can leave. After trying to keep him from touching all the dishes under the tablecloth, they let us leave.

Up next…Let’s get this party started!!! Bonine, good good Bonine.

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I am really enjoying your trip report - couldn't help laughing out loud at your reporting on the predicament with Kevin and the bathing suit although I'm sure it wasn't at all funny at the time -bless him!. Really looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Sophie_2003]

Hey Linda, entertaining as usual! You put usall to shame. Bravo Kevin for keeping the wristband on! DD had to take hers off the minute after we left the club each time, but for some reason wore her last one home and kept it on for a week!!!

 

[ErieCruiser08]

Awesome trip report! Its making me even more anxious to book our next cruise--hopefully a family cruise. And we will definitely participate in the F/E exchange again! It was so much fun!

 

[princess kates mum]

What a great trip report linda!!
I am enjoying reading it so much.
Katelyn loves the pics!!

 

[texfinn]

What a FUN Trip Report! I too laughed out loud at poor Kevin's predicament with the bathing suit. Poor thing -- not something you would expect. I have a DD(7) who is also in first grade coming with us on our first Disney cruise so anxious to keep reading and see how it all goes for Kevin!

Twilight series -- it is truly like a drug. I read the entire 4 book series over 2 weeks. The laundry didn't get done, I didn't cook and pretty much laid in bed reading. Poor DH thought I was sick!

Thanks for sharing!!!

 

[anewmac]

Loving that you all are back! Cant wait to read more!

Also love the new embark photo. Ours only had the date of our sale. WIsh it had the ports.. they finaly got smart!

 

[mackeyapp]

Great Report! Going on our first 7 day Western in June and can't get enough of these fabulous trip reports. Keep it coming!

 

[Chernabog66]

Loving this report Linda, well done. BTW, the pics you took before boarding are for the internal computer system on the ship. Any time you try to buy something on board and they swipe your KTTW card, your picture comes up on the monitor in front of the CM. If the picture doesn't match the person with the card, a closet door opens up beneath you and the Disney cops cuff you & read you Miranda.

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

Really enjoying your report!

I am still laughing about your sons "problem"!!

 

[cyndik1111]

Kevin has really made strides over this last year...."your little boy is growing up! "

 

[TiszBear]

I found your trip report yesturday and I am really enjoying.

 

[lindaso]

To all who have responded...thanks for reading so far. I appreciate it!! I hope the rest of the report isn't a letdown. The bathing suit thing really was the best story of the trip . I'm glad I was able to write about it but I imagine Kevin won't be too happy in a few years when he comprehends!

 

[LisaSp]

I remember enjying your last report and this one is starting out just as funny. I know we use the expression LOL all the time but that bathing suit story really did make me laugh out loud! I look forward to the rest...

 

[lindaso]

Sat. 1/24, cont…sailing sailing over the ocean blue…

So we get dismissed from Animator’s Palate and I rip the life preserver from around my neck. Chuck leans down and tells me we’re supposed to keep it on until we get back to the room. We are?? I didn’t hear that announcement but I look around at the other passengers and everyone is still wearing their lovely orange accessory.

Well, I have plans and they don’t include going back to the room. We get out into the hallway and I help 3 kids disengage from the orange. We pile them into Chuck’s arms and start climbing the stairs. The plan is to stake out a spot near the railing on deck 10 so we can watch the sailaway party and then switch to the other side to watch as we move along the channel. We get up to Deck 10 and there are already quite a few people along the railings. We pick the best available spot and wait a few minutes for Chuck who meets us after dumping the life preservers back in the room.

I call Marie’s cell to make sure they’re meeting us. She says they’re leaving their rooms and they’re on their way. It starts to get more crowded and it’s feeling like when you’re waiting for a parade at WDW to start. A tall guy gets so close to Kevin that Kevin leaves the railing to come stand by me. Then the guy takes his spot. Grrrr! There’s also a chair next to me, situated sideways, and I have my knee on it. I’m thinking it will come in handy for Florence or one of the kids.

A boy comes and climbs over the side of the chair and sits. I turn away and remove my knee. I’m not going to make a big deal out of it. Marie & Co. arrive shortly after that and Chuck and I move back from the railing so the 4 kids can squeeze in next to our kids. The boy gets up from the chair to go to his mom who is behind us. Kaitlyn climbs on the chair so she can see better. The boy’s mom starts to give me ‘tude about stealing her son’s chair and hogging the railing. You’re kidding right? I take a deep breath and remind myself I’m on vacation and I’m not here to fight with people! I point out to her that I got up here early to get this spot. It sours my mood for a moment but I try not to let it ruin my fun. This is exactly why we never watch parades on Main Street!!

The point is moot in the end as Kristin is too nervous with Kaitlyn standing on the chair. She’s afraid she’s going to fall over the deck or something. So Kaitlyn reluctantly gets down and sits by her grandma. The characters come out and everyone is having fun. Here’s our view of the sailaway party and the spot we had to “fight” for:

And here’s Kevin when the noise gets to be too much for him:

Here’s Steph and Marissa twirling their streamer thingys:

And Tommy, the only member of the family without sunglasses:

They count down to sailaway and I fumble with the dial on my camera. I want to record the ship’s horn but my fingers can’t find the proper setting and the horn goes off without me. I wanted to add the 7 notes video to my trip report! [So you need to imagine the ships horn sound in your head….right now……………….……..OK, keep reading.]

The ship starts to move and all eyes turn to stare at Chuck. He rolls his eyes. His face isn’t green yet!! We make our way over to the outside railing to watch the sights. No one is standing outside of the Disney terminal. Aren’t they supposed to be waving with Mickey hands or something?

It’s fun watching the sights of Port Canaveral. This is something we didn’t do on our last trip (which could have helped contribute to Chuck’s puke party). We spot the Country Inn & Suites and the Residence Inn:

We move along and finally see some Mickey love:

Chuck says it’s helping to watch the ship make its way through the channel. We see the open seas up ahead along with the accompanying waves. The kids want ice cream so I go down the stairs with them and get ice cream cups for all of us. We all enjoy our ice cream back on deck 10, including Chuck who looks fine so far. Bonine…good, good Bonine!!

Marie wants to take the kids to check out the clubs so we split up with Chuck and Marie taking the little ones to the club and me taking the older ones to Ocean Quest. I want to go down to Ocean Quest and talk to the counselors about moving Tommy up. I know deep down they’re going to say no but I have to ask. He’s 9 but he’s a mature 9 and he’s so big for his age. He towers over Christina. I just feel bad that he’s the odd man out. It’s Steph, Marissa and Christina in Ocean Quest and Kevin, Nicholas and Kailtyn in Oceaneer’s Club.

I talk to the counselor at Ocean Quest who is the same guy who worked OQ in 2006 when it wasn’t an official kids’ club. We had stopped by one day to check it out and he must have been lonely because he wouldn’t stop talking and it was difficult to break away from him. He’s just as talkative today and tells me over and over why Tommy is not allowed to stay in Ocean Quest. I understand, I was just hoping they’d make an exception. I know he’ll be fine in the Lab by himself and if he really doesn’t want to go, then he doesn’t go. Tommy is easy to deal with and he keeps himself entertained.

I leave the girls in OQ. Steph is happy because Deanna’s here. Tommy and I head to deck 5 and we walk into the Lab. Tommy didn’t particularly like the Club two years ago when he was almost 7. He thought the club was too babyish. I tell him that he’ll like the Lab better b/c there’s stuff for older kids. We walk around together checking out which games are on which computers. I ask him if he wants to play anything and he says “not really.” I show him where they make flubber and the volcanos and he says he wants to check the schedule to see what things he might like. OK, fair enough.

We leave the lab and head across to the Club. Chuck and Marie are sitting and chatting in front of the slide. The slide that Nicholas is going up and down on. The slide that Kevin won’t go on. Oh come on!! It’s a slide for pete’s sake. I ask Kevin why he doesn’t want to go on the slide. He says he just doesn’t want to. Why oh why doesn’t he just do things like normal kids? Nicholas yells for Tommy and Tommy goes on the slide. We all know that Kevin will like the slide once he tries it so Marie tries to convince Kevin to go on the slide. First she offers him 50 cents. He catches on quick and asks for a dollar. I wonder how far this will go!

You see, Marie is the master of the bribe. A few years ago, she got Steph a Webkinz for pitching in a Little League championship game. She got right up in Steph’s face with her best “win one for the Gipper” speech and Steph ran out on the field and struck out the last batter to win the game. With that in mind, I keep quiet and let her do her work. She stays firm at a dollar. Tommy and Nicholas offer to go with him. Kaitlyn comes over and joins the boys on the slide. Kristin offers to go on the slide with Kevin. She tells him a few times that she would do it for a dollar. Finally, he climbs up the rope, hesitates slightly at the slide and comes down. Hallelujah!!!! Of course he likes it and goes up and down about 10 more times. I don’t recall if anyone said “told you so” but we all thought it!

It’s getting close to 6:00 and we need to get the girls and get to the 6:15 All Aboard show. We walk down to deck 2 and see the girls in Ocean Quest. They’re all at the table playing the stacking cups game. It’s our 3, Deanna and two other girls (one I find out later is Steph’s email friend Katelyn…she hadn’t introduced us yet and I didn’t know what she looked like). They all look like they’re having a great time, laughing and screeching.

We walk out of the club and immediately Christina says, “that was boring, I hate that club.” Huh?? I look at her and say, “you looked like you were having a good time to me.” She reiterates how boring it was. I whisper to Steph, “did you like it?” And she nods her head and says it was fun. Whew!! I tell Christina she has to give it a chance. Marie tells her the same thing.

We make our way up to the Walt Disney Theatre and find seats for all 14 of us. Their guys (Chris & Keith) never make it so we have 2 extra seats and move over a bit. Everyone really likes Mike Super and Michael Harrision. Mike Super is the magician and his act is very short because he’s performing by himself tomorrow night. Michael Harrison is the ventriloquist and he’s the funniest thing my boys have ever seen. It’s pure elementary school humor, the same level as “spell icup.”

Michael Harrison calls this 9 year-old boy up on stage. His name is Patrick and Patrick is going to be the dummy for the act. Michael Harrison puts a big mask on Patrick's face and puts his hand behind Patrick’s back to make the mask’s mouth move. Well, Michael Harrison starts asking Patrick if he likes “giiiiirlieeees” and the answering “dummy” says “yeaaahhh”. Now Patrick is moving his arms trying to make it look like he doesn’t like girls but Michael Harrison keeps saying “I like giiiiiirlieeees” over and over while poor Patrick is flailing his arms. Then Michael Harrison starts in with how he likes kissing the giiiiirlieeees and poor Patrick throws his arms up in the air. My boys can’t breathe, they’re laughing so hard. What a joy to see them enjoy a show so much!! The show ends and for the whole walk back to the room we hear “it’s goooood” and “I like giiiiirlieeees.” The All Aboard show gets 10 thumbs up!

We head back to the room and are greeted by our first towel animal. There’s only one animal in the kid’s room and one piece of chocolate for each of us. Last time we got two animals and enough chocolate for an army. But oh well, we’ll suffer!! Chuck pops another Bonine into his mouth just as a precaution. So far so good!!

We change into pants for dinner and make our way to Lumiere’s by 8:15. The restaurant is not open yet so we head to Shutters to find our embarkation photo. We go up and down the rows and rows of photos but we can’t find our family. We’ll have to come back.

We go back to Lumiere’s, use our trusty sanitizing hand wipes and someone shows us to our table. The rest of the crew is already here. The way everyone is seated, it looks like Chuck and I are supposed to sit next to Marie and Kristin’s kids…not even next to our own kids. I hesitate for a few seconds and Marie tells two of her kids to move over. Chuck and I settle in at the adult side of the table.

We meet Plamen from Bulgaria and Savio from India who turn out to be the best servers on the face of the earth!! Plamen tells us he will get the kids’ food first while we look over the menu. I take a quick peek at the menu and mention to Steph and Tom that they might want to order the beef tenderloin. I want them to try as many things from the adult menu as possible this trip. There is more to life than chicken fingers and grilled cheese, especially when I don’t have to pay for it if they don’t like it!!

We confuse Plamen a bit with this information. He is unsure he can serve their food with the rest of the kids. I tell him it’s OK, I want them to try new food and they can wait if they have to. The kids’ food comes out very quickly and just a few short minutes later, the tenderloin for my two is set in front of them. Savio comes in from behind and quickly cuts their steak for them. YES!!!! WE HAVE REAL SERVERS!!!! Last time, our servers couldn’t even get us drinks, no less cut meat.

I whisper to Chuck asking why we haven’t even ordered yet and the kids are already eating. I’m starving and I’m worried that the kids are going to get bored while we eat. He shrugs. Then Plamen comes over and sets down 3 different appetizers on the table for us to sample…the ratatouille, the escargot and the shrimp medley. Savio busies himself with adding ketchup to plates down at the kids’ end. YES!!!! WE HAVE REAL SERVERS!!!! I stop worrying and enjoy my appetizer samples.

Here are my two enjoying their adult food. Neither of them bothered to ask what that mound of green stuff is.

Plamen takes our order shortly after. Chuck and I both order the beef tenderloin and I order the shrimp medley appetizer and the bouillabaisse soup. There’s joking going on at the table over the escargot. They try to get Christina to try it but she won’t. I tell her they taste like salty clams and Tommy offers to try it. He gets up to come around the table and Marissa yells that they’re snails but Tommy doesn’t care. He actually tries one knowing it’s a snail!!

He doesn’t like it…too salty!!

The rest of the meal is very good. I enjoy the soup and the steak very much. Plamen does the same thing with the desserts, bringing out a sample of everything for us to try before we order. YES!!! WE HAVE REAL SERVERS!!!!! We eat dessert and roll out of there at 10:15…a 2 hour meal!!

Steph is planning to go to Ocean Quest and asks Marissa and Christina if they want to go too. They are both tired and want to go to bed. I’m glad Steph still wants to go without them. I ask Tommy if he wants to go to the Lab but he’s tired too.

We say goodnight to Marie and crew and head back towards the rooms. I walk Steph to Ocean Quest where they’re having ice breaker games. She sees her friends and waves goodbye. We get the boys in bed and get ready for bed ourselves. I curl up with Breaking Dawn after so many hours of being away from it. Chuck takes another Bonine and is snoring before I know it. I’m trying not to harp on it in front of him but I’m soooo happy he hasn’t puked!! The seas are much calmer this time but so is he. He’s much more relaxed and I think that has a lot to do with it. Well, that and the Bonine!!

I feel myself falling asleep and not comprehending the words I’m reading. I drag myself upright and walk down the hall to Ocean Quest. I walk in like the zombie I am and collect my 11 year old who looks like she can go all night. She says goodbye to her friends and we call it a night. A very successful first day on board the Magic!!

Up Next…Mommy meltdown, Key West butts!