Day 2 ~ Thursday, September 15, 2011 (Continued)
Without fail, the FIRST thing I was doing once on board was ditching the wedding dress. I dropped it off at guest services the second I got on board.
So we were anxious to see our room, but we couldn't get in yet so we went to the buffet for lunch and ran into my dad & stepmom and "Vegas Uncles".
After lunch we went to explore the ship and finally our room was available.
We then ran off to the dismeet, met a couple peeps (as everyone got distracted by the Dream, not too many showed).
Soon enough it was time for our legal ceremony. We got a card/letter at embarkation, and our room saying to meet Tom at 3 pm at Guest Services. We get there at 3 pm (with the 'rents in tow) and the cast members at Guest Services looked at my like I was crazy when I asked for Tom. He wasn't there....
About 10 minutes late he showed, very apologetic, but I guess a meeting with a different bride ran late.
The legal ceremony was short and sweet, except Brent keep taking this huge breathe/gasp before he spoke.
We had a quick meeting with Tom after the legal wedding to go over details for Saturday. At this meeting started the next problem of the day (which I'll come back to). Shanda had told us all of our guests couldn't sit together at dinner, instead we would be split into different tables. I told her thats fine but these 6 people would have to sit together and not with other guests (as they were two sides of a divorced family). When we got on board I noticed every guest had the same Table number for dinner. I asked Tom about it and he said it couldn't be correct, but it would be by dinner.
So we got through muster drill (sooooo exciting they don't make you carry the lifejackets anymore). And went to the sail away party. But on the way I met a fellow disbride in the elevator.
And Then Comes Dinner....
Dinner was in the Royal Palace restaurant. We get there and the table isn't set for 19 people. Lots of confusion ensues, my stepmom gets upset and leaves dinner before we begin. I start crying.
The dining room staff was very nice but really confused also. They moved a table for us and we were able to all sit together (and my stepmom came back). Talking to the staff at dinner, Tom had called them and said that the 6 people mentioned above could NOT sit at the table with other guests, so the dining room staff and moved and table as asked by Tom.
LOTS of miscommunication.
The dining room staff moved the table back so we all could eat together. The food itself was lovely.
Also at dinner I found out about invitations. All of our guests were meant to get invitations at their room when they got on board. My grandparents invite was sent to my dad and stepmom's room (with their room number on it). Not good as they are my mom's parents and he got paranoid they were going to be in his cabin. Note: Their invite was also sent to their room. One of my "Vegas Uncles" (and vegas aunt's) invite was put on the wrong room altogether. It was put on the wrong side of the ship. So port instead of starboard. They found it because they went to the wrong side when first searching for their room.
After Dinner....
I go back to our cabin for seasick stuff before the show. On our door is a letter, so I open it and its for "Jessica and Michael's Wedding" on
Castaway Cay, Saturday September 17, 2011. I am NOT HAPPY and storm out to Guest Services.
I get there and try to explain what happened. And just start crying and crying. Eventually when I get words out at Guest Services I try to explain it but somewhere along the lines the words "DO I LOOK LIKE A JESSICA?!?" come pouring out of my mouth. Between everything that day, I just lost it. Chalk it up to nerves, but in my mind if Disney couldn't get my name correct there was NO WAY they could get my wedding correct.
Laura just happened to be there to book her excursion for Friday, figured out what was happening and went to tell my mom what had happened. She came up to Guest Services they had called Tom so we were waiting on him. He came by was very apologetic, and my mom sent me to the show. She expressed her frustrations to him and he brought her a new letter.
I went to the bathroom outside the theater, and found my saving grace, Gillian. Gillian was the restroom attendant and the loveliest cast member I met. She was soooo nice to me, asked me what was wrong, so the whole story comes pouring out. She gave me a hug, told me she's seen the weddings and they are beautiful and assured me everything would be okay.
I went to the show, and remembered why I love Disney. The show put me in a great mood. It was the Golden Mickey's, which I had saw a version of at Hong Kong
Disneyland.
After the show, we went back to the room and found champagne (great, but I don't drink it) and my dress back. The dress had a ticket on it which said $50 bucks. So I called Tom. He sent the champagne up as an apology (nice gesture) and assured me the $50 would not be charged to us, they just have to "charge" it to us at first for accounting purposes, but its removed before anything is actually charged to us. That's fine, but he or Shanda really should have warned us.
Brent and I decided to go shopping. Fun. And then to the Aqua Duck. We called my mom and the three of us went about 11:30 that night. It was a BLAST! Everyone should ride. Brent and I spent some time in the Mickey adults only pool after the Duck and went to bed around midnight.
All and all the day was emotional.