Before I jump to Embarkation Day, I just wanted to share our trip to the Ice Castles yesterday. The Ice Castles have been in Minnesota for the last few years, the last couple of years, they've been at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. We had a great time, the formations are beautiful, and we had a lot of fun going down the ice slide! A little collage from our visit
If you're lucky enough to have one of these by you (I know that they're in different cities), I recommend checking them out. But back to our regular report!
Day 3: Embarkation Day
Today was finally the day we've been waiting for; this was another trip we booked on opening day, and we finally made it to Embarkation Day. I always have to take a photo of the final countdown
I love to see which characters show up! We got ready and headed down to breakfast, I had the exact same breakfast as the day before, so no photo. The restaurant was a lot busier on this morning; there was a line out the door! We were behind another group from our cruise, 2 friends that traveled together, we had talked with them the night before, they asked us if we wanted to dine with them to help get seated quicker, we said of course and had a nice breakfast with them. After we finished eating, we were headed back up to our room when we noticed that the lobby was insanely packed with people. They were all dressed in Disney gear, our first impression was that they were going on our cruise, but as we were filling our water bottle, we talked with one of them and it turns out, they were on the cruise that just disembarked, they were staying at the hotel post-cruise, but there weren't any rooms available for them yet, so they were just hanging out and waiting.
We still had like 3 hours until our bus would pick us up, so we headed back up to the room just to relax before our adventure started. When we got back to our room, our bags were still there, this was a little surprising because bag pick up was supposed to be at 9 and it was now 10. At 10:30, there was a knock on our door, I thought it was someone coming to pick up the bags, but it was one of housekeeping managers asking if we were vacating the room soon. I let him know that we requested and were granted a late check out of 1:00 and that we wouldn't be leaving the room until about 12:30. He checked a little list he had and apologized for disturbing us, I asked about our bags because they still hadn't been picked up yet. I was told not to worry, that there were 384 rooms occupied by people embarking the Magic and it was just taking longer to get everyone's bags. Our bags were finally picked up around noon, because of this, I was grateful for our late checkout, I would've felt nervous leaving all of our stuff behind if we had to leave our room at 11.
Finally, it was time to get on our shuttle, there was a long line of people waiting, we spent the time chatting with our breakfast buddies (spoiler, this was the last time we saw them, we didn't see them again for the rest of the cruise) before boarding the bus and headed to port. The bus ride was only a few minutes and before we knew it, we were seeing the Magic!
There wasn't a really good place at port to take a good photo of the ship, this view from our bus was the best we could get at the time. We headed inside, went through security and got in line to get checked in, we didn't have to go to a desk like previous cruises, they checked us in while we were in line. It seemed a little clunky, but we finally got through, at this point, it was open boarding, so we were able to get directly on the ship. The main difference about sailing out of San Juan was that you got on the ship via deck 1, while there were still cast members announcing your arrival, it didn't have the same effect as when you enter via deck 3 and you wander through the atrium as your name is announced.
It was about 1:15 when we got onboard, our room was on deck 2, we debated hanging around a few minutes to drop our stuff off at our room but decided to go to lunch first. This is where DH and I have a major difference about cruising, DH likes to eat in the dining room (on the Magic, it was Rapunzel's Royal Table) and I prefer to eat at Cabanas or Marceline Market. He doesn't ask for a lot, so I agreed to go to Rapunzel's for lunch. There weren't any solo tables available, so we were seated at an 8 top with 3 other couples, nobody really talked, so it was kind of awkward. We ordered our food and first up were our appetizers
I went with the Beef Empanada, I really like this, the chimichurri sauce isn't too spicy and brings a good flavor to the empanada.
DH went with the mixed green salad with balsamic dressing. I was a little surprised with his choice. DH is normally a die-hard Thousand Island guy, if he can't have that dressing, he won't eat a salad. He said it was okay, that it was just a salad.
Next up for me was the Leek and Potato soup, I really enjoy this soup, which is odd because I normally don't like any type of potato soup, but this soup is really good, I always have to get this soup!
DH got the Seafood and Chicken Gumbo; he always enjoys this as well.
We both went with the Sliced Roasted Beef Sirloin, we both really enjoy this meal, but neither of us are big fans of the sides, the potato is always dry, and the green beans are just meh. We passed on dessert because we just wanted to get going. And this is why I'm not a big fan of Embarkation Day lunch, it just takes too long, also the menu hasn't changed in a long time, it's always the same thing. I'm advocating for Marceline Market on our next cruise, I'm too impatient
After lunch, we headed to our room, we were in room 2511, a standard inside stateroom. I've mentioned this in previous reports, but we like the inside staterooms, DH swears he gets the best sleep because the room is pitch black. We're never in our room except to sleep and shower and the money we save helps pays for the excursions we want to do. We've had verandahs on previous cruises, and we never use them.
Nothing fancy but works well for us! No luggage yet so we couldn't unpack, we did a quick tour of the room and then headed out to explore. We went up to the pool decks, it had started raining, but thankfully, we were enough under cover to still walk around. We went to the bar and grabbed our first drink of the day
This was the Captain's Curse, it had Bacardi, gin, cranberry juice, and Sprite. We both enjoyed it, I'm not a huge fan of gin, but if it's in a mixed drink, I don't mind it. I will say, I really like the edible straws, I always looked forward to seeing what flavor I would get. We continued exploring the ship, but now it was really raining! It would come and go, but when it started, it would pour. It was then time for the muster drill, thankfully, our muster station was inside the Walt Disney Theater. The drill was pretty painless and then we were released to go to the Sail a Wave party.
To be continued...
