I KNOW what I did next! I called Barb! LOL
After that, my phone rang with a few more friends. I'm amazed that they kept track of the time, since they are on the East coast.
Sat down to look through the Nav to see what we wanted to do that night. Our bags had not arrived yet, but my parents' had. Lucky Mom was all unpacked before the sail-away.
The opening night show was the comedy of Gary DeLena and the magic of Freddy Fusion. I decided to unpack, rather than go to the show. Anyway, I got ahead of myself.
As we were donning our life jackets, another friend called. Hard to hold a cell phone up with all that padding. Since it was cool in CA, the drill wasn't too bad.
We went back upstairs and got ready to head to the sail away party.
Grabbed a table in one of the little rotunda areas right by the Goofy pool and had a couple of Konk Coolers. I was really swinging when the music started. I have most of the party on video. I didn't try to hold the camera up the whole time, I set it on the rail of the area we were at, mostly just to have the music.
Once the ship started to pull out.....a little later than the stated time of 5:30, because the embarkation process was so slow.....we went up on Deck 10 to take pics and wave at the CM's in port. I asked, and these people were not
DCL employees, in spite of the Disney uniform. They worked for the port authority in L.A.
Went down and unpacked. I got to take my time about it, which was good....I had the toiletries divided between all of our luggage, so it took a while to set up each bathroom. Tid bit: there are NINE telephones in the Roy. And 4 Tv's. One of the TV's was in the master bathroom. I turned it on once, just to say I did it. Jay & Jared spend a lot of time on sea days watching movies on the tv, and at night...I never do. I'm the one walking around picking up the discarded dirty clothing and such, so the room steward doesn't think we are pigs.
OH! I forgot something weird. I walked out of our room, when I had taken pics and was looking for the family. There was a man on the phone in the elevator lobby, YELLING at Guest Services. He had a maintenance worker with him. The poor employee looked like he wanted to die. The guy was yelling that his balcony was filthy, the room was dirty, he couldn't find his room steward, and that he had been told his bags would be in his room FIRST THING, but they weren't and he said he had medication in them that he needed. My first thought was "Why would you pack your meds in your checked luggage?".....but then I heard him yelling that he was in room 8030....correct room number....but he kept saying he was in the ROY! I stood there trying to decide what, if anything, I could/should do. I finally went over and told the CM that this man was NOT in the Roy, that we were...and asked him to please tell the man that he was in the WALT. I didn't want anyone to think that was us being so rude. I even went to Guest Services later, to make sure they knew it wasn't us. They did. This guy had sailed with them before. How embarrassing. I saw him quite a few times after that, and he was very rude no matter what the situation. And they had 2 families sharing the room and the cost.
Anyway, I digress......
After I finished the unpacking, I walked around the ship a little. It was really empty. Most people were either at dinner or at the show.
I went to Treasure Ketch and made my first purchase....special charms they have with each of the port names on one side and
Disney Cruise Line on the other. This saved me time in the ports, as I always buy a charm from each stop we make! Plus, it's great, because they have DCL on them.
We had casual dinner at Parrot Cay, so I didn't need to prepare myself much. I stopped at the Limited Edition pin cart. They only have it set up in the evenings between 7:30 and 8:30. I was surprised that each time I went by, there was never a crowd or a line. Must not have been a bunch of collectors onboard. I went ahead right then and got the Magic to Mexico pin and the Artist's & Captain's Choice pins. They allowed two pins of each limited edition per stateroom, per day. More generous than at Christmas.
That first night in Parrot Cay didn't have any special theming....I can let you know what was offered on the menu tomorrow...the menus are in my bedroom, and Jay's asleep in there. I can see waking him up. saying "I'm just getting the menus so that I can tell everyone what we ate!"
We had late seating, and didn't finish most nights until 10 pm or after. After dinner the first night, we went to Rockin' Bar D to watch Match Your Mate. My parents were chosen as the longest-married couple, and they were hysterical. Way too much info for me to hear!! Needless to say, from then on, half the staff and half the passengers knew them by name. They won. They were given a bottle of champagne, but they don't drink, so they traded with the 2nd place couple, who got some cool souvenir mugs. The sliver-metal kind that keep your coffee hot...and they said "Game Show Winner" or something like that on them. The younger couple was tickled pink with the champagne, and carried it to their room, ice bucket and all!
After that, we said our good-nights, and I went up and lounged on the verandah until I got drowsy. That's one thing that I really, really miss. The sound of the waves.
It was chilly....and even more bumpy than when we cross the Gulf Stream leaving Florida. For the first time ever, even I felt a little queasy. Or was that the drinks I'd had?? But Jay & I both love when the ship is rocking, and we get rocked to sleep.
We had to move our clocks and watched FORWARD one hour this night. Lost an hour. CM's weren't delighted with that!
The kids had wandered the ship, but hadn't yet worked up the courage to go to the Stack "alone". They were spoiled by having so many friends on the Christmas cruise that we had met before, through pre-cruise DIS meets.
So for at least the first night, the kids were in bed about the same time we were...midnight or so.
Another couple random things. I had asked concierge if we could do the Galley Tour. They said that they weren't doing it because of the higher risk of germs. I still think that they did the handwashing (before you are allowed to enter each dining room, too!) more because it was Mexico than anything else. We never ran into, or overheard anyone who said they were ill.
And, we asked about a Bridge Tour. We were allowed to do the tour that everyone can do...on the catwalk above the bridge....but we were told that we couldn't go on the actual bridge. I know some people who had gotten to do that with Capt Thord, but Capt Tom is a little more strict, I think.
Take the opportunity to do the Bridge Tour, though, if you haven't. They will be removing the catwalk during drydock this fall. So it will be your only chance.
That's it for DAY ONE. I promise it gets more exciting......
Good night!
!
