I am "working" from home today so I figure the project can wait a little. Anyhow, here is installment #3...
We regret to inform you, but due to the threat of Hurricane Ernesto approaching the Western Caribbean, The captain has determined that it would be in everyones best interest to follow the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. Your safety is our priority concern.
Excuse me whilst I pick up my jaw from the ground. Remember, I had been go-go-go all week. What hurricane?? Now what? I hand the nicely typed letter over to LOP and watch. Oh, I see the wheels turning. Reality is setting in. She realizes all of the hours on the phone with the engineers and mathematicians and time on the websites WERE FOR NOTHING. Key West gone. We do not need all those coupons you have been lugging around. No pirate museum Mr. KIA. Grand Cayman, not happening. No stingray city. Cozumel, I dont think so. Forget the submarine. Calm down, there is not much we can do about it. We are on vacation; well make the best of it.
I take Mr. KIA over to the big model of the ship whilst LOP checks in, finishes the remaining paperwork and checks in with the Kids Club to get our leash umm I mean pager. We check out the real ship through the windows and then go out onto the deck to watch some of the action going on around the ship. We go back inside, we go back outside, we go back inside
You get the idea. I want to change Mr. KIAs name to Mr. Ants in the Pants. But he is excited, I am excited and I have no idea where LOP is. Somewhere in the terminal. I get Mr. KIA settled down with some crayons and various Disney type coloring paper over by the big windows. I manage to grab a seat on that big giant vinyl couch and plop all of the bags I have been carrying next to me. LOP sees us and comes over to tell me there are some things in that little gift shop she wants to get and asks me if I want anything. Well maybe one of those lanyards I say so I can put my KTTW card in it. She goes back to the shop and Mr. KIA jumps up from the table and runs after her. Now the terminal has filled up and LOP does not realize Mr. KIA is coming after her. So, I run after him and bring him back. When I get back to my place on the big vinyl couch, there is this creepy looking guy sitting right next to our bags. And nobody is on the couch for ten feet. Whats up with this?
I utilize my excellent non-verbal communication skills to communicate my displeasure with CLG sitting right next to my bags. He must have gotten the message as he slid over about 15. So I did the only thing I could do. I proceeded to squeeze myself into the 15 space to sit next to my bags and keep my eye on Mr. KIA over there coloring. CLG slides down a little more to give me some room but there is still another 8 whole feet he can go to. Maybe he never learned about personal space like normal people. I will try to give him the benefit of the doubt.
LOP comes back and wonders who my new friend is. She informs me that we need some pictures of the terminal. So we pick up the bags and start walking around. Looking at the model again, going outside to look at the ship again, looking at the dock workers load the carts of luggage. Every time I turn around there is CLG about ten or 12 feet this way or that. I go to the rest room and guess who walks in? I get out of the rest room and there are some characters so we get in the first of many character lines for the week to get Mr. KIAs picture. I never realized this until after we get home, but in one of my pictures, there he is, CLG just standing there. It was just weird. I do not know the statistics of people traveling alone, but he was not with anyone. No family, no friends, nobody. The really bizarre thing was once we got on the ship, I never saw him again. Where did he go? Is he just a guy that likes to hang out in cruise terminals to check out other peoples carryon baggage? I could probably post the photo to see if anyone recognizes him but I do not want to offend anyone. What if he is reading my trip report?
Anyhow, groups start lining up. Number 1 is called. Number 2 is called. Finally, finally, finally number 3 is called. We are on our way down the gangplank or whatever you call. We stop for our first of many Disney photos, the embarkation photo. No. I tell the photographer, We are not related to that other family with the matching outfits. We get closer. I can see inside. Our name is asked. And we cross the threshold to the applause and cheers of three
DCL employees while our family name is announced. So cool. This is awesome. Let me take it all in.
Nope. LOP says we have to go and go now. The excursion line is LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. So many people need to change their arrangements because of the change in itinerary. So off to Rockin D to see if we can get some Palo reservations. No problem
we booked for Thursday night, a sea night. We even were able to book a brunch for Sunday late morning. I had read so much about Palos that I really wanted to try it. Now I would get to try it twice. Over to guest services to see if we could maybe get a room upgrade because we booked so late. Maybe get changed to the early dinner because we booked so late. Maybe get the room decorated for Mr. KIAs birthday because we booked so late. No, well get back to you and maybe. So nothing accomplished. Excursion line is still LOOOOOOONG so lets go eat.
We took the expressavator up to deck 9 to check out the food. We arrive at the entrance to Topsiders. Wow, I am amazed at the variety of ways you can clean you hands. Of course Mr. KIA must try all of them. This is the same kid who plays outside in the dirt for a day and has no problem popping a chicken nugget into his mouth with those filthy mitts. When in Rome
After our sterilization process we enter Topsiders.
Let the feasting begin. It was not bad
but it was not Oh wow I could eat this forever either. I tried a little of this and a little of that including a cold mango and melon soup. That was pretty good. I had never experienced a cold soup before. We had a nice table in the back corner port side. We could see the other side of the Port Canaveral and we could watch some of the action going on around the ship. It was just a nice, mellow lunch. I think we were all so over tired and so over stressed and so over excited that it just all finally caught up with us.
Mr. KIA advises he must now use the bathroom. Off we go in search of one. How convenient, there is one right outside the entrance. He enters the stall and I hang out over by the sink. Then, from inside the stall, there is this tremendous WHOOSH. The air pressure in the room drops by like 20 mm of Hg. What the
Mr. KIA are you still in there? My question is answered as Mr. KIA come busting out of the stall with eyes as big as dinner plates. Dad, what is up with that toilet? Now remember, none of had ever been on a cruise and had experienced cruise plumbing. So off we both go back into the stall to experiment. WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH, WHOOSH. How cool is this. I swear Mr. KIA to secrecy about the Super Suck-O-Matic Cruise toilet. This is something that we think Mom should experience without the benefit of our descriptive comments. We go back to the table to collect our things and LOP who appears to be drifting off to slumber land right there at the table.
It is about 1:30 so we decide to catch the expressavator down to check out our room. The expressavtor doors open up to deposit us on deck 2 and the whole lobby area is filled with anxious cruisers waiting to get to their rooms. Finally one of the room attendants releases the nylon cruiser hold back strips and we are off. The hounds are released. It is mayhem as people mad dash about down the hallways finding their rooms. This is probably the funniest thing for the employees to watch as everyone runs to their rooms. Yeah like you got to beat everyone else to your room cause they could get there first. It is your room
who else is going to get to go there?
We find our room. Open the door and check it out. LOP enters the bathroom and closes the door. Wait for it. I tell Mr. KIA. WHOOSH and AHHHHHHHH!!!
The cost of a
Disney Cruise
an arm and a leg.
Super Suck-O-Matic Cruise toilet surprising your wife
priceless.
For everything else
there is the Disney Visa Card.
OK
LOP is calmed down. Mr. KIA and I have finally stopped laughing. Lets lay down here for a few minutes and relax, then we will go explore the ship
(Hum the beginning bars to yourself of When you Wish Upon a Star MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE? IT IS NOW TIME TO DON YOUR LIFE VESTS AND MAKE YOUR WAY TO YOUR AREA FOR THE REQUIRED EMERGENCY DRILL. What is that??? We had all crashed and crashed hard. We quickly find the requisite life jackets and don them. If any of you remember, we were one of the families that arrived later than others to deck 4 with pillow marked, drool drying faces.
The drill was OK. The safety officers just kept cramming us closer and closer together. And it was very hot and humid in my opinion. Closer please, closer please. So now I have a hot sweaty, pillow marked, drool drying face. It would have been way cooler if we all had to practice getting in a lifeboat. Anyone can stand on the deck with a life jacket during an emergency. How many people know how to get in the lifeboat? I saw Titanic. Maybe if they practiced Kate and Leonardo would have lived happily ever after. Oh, and my other thing. Whistles should be removed from life jackets for the emergency drill. State room attendants could reapply them later in the evenings when everyone goes to dinner and the show.
We head back to the room to wash up a little and experiment with the Super Suck-O-Matic some more and get ready for the sail away party. Then it starts to rain. And rain hard. It is Florida it rains all the time. But why o why is raining when it time for us to have a sail away party. The announcement is made
the party is in the lobby. So we go there. I cant really tell you how good it was because I could not see anything. We end up on 5 and I hold Mr. KIA over a wall up there so he can see down into the lobby to look. Any place we moved to, we just could not get a good view. I see some bubbles floating down from somewhere up above. I look at my loving wife and say, "Sure would be nice if we had some bubbles to blow." If looks could kill, I would not be writing this trip report. So we just gave up and went out on deck 4 on the starboard side. We are still tied up and there is still a small gang plank out. I thought we were leaving. All of a sudden this
Disney Cruise Line bus comes screaming into the terminal lot. A few minutes later, two people are running out the back of the terminal and cross the rickety gang plank and enter the ship on deck 1 forward. How sad they did not get the experience of crossing into the grandeur of the lobby and having your name announced. But I guess that is the price you pay for being late. We watched the dock workers cast off the lines and remove the gang plank with a fork lift. In all honesty, this suited Mr. KIA just fine. He could watch fork lifts all day.
We are moving. We are moving. Finally the ship is moving. We cruise slowly through the port area, passing small boats coming in. Everyone is waving to us and we are waiving back. There is a small police escort boat riding along side of us which excites Mr. KIA even more. Aside from construction equipment and fork lifts, police and fire equipment run a close second on the list of really cool things for Mr. KIA. We pass this rickety old barge and find out it is a casino. Who goes on this thing? Do you need to wear your life jacket the entire time you are on it pulling the slot machines? And finally, we are officially out to sea. And then it hits me. We are not going to see land for two days. Now I am not one to panic and I have always liked boats and the ocean, but we are not going to see land for two days. Two days we are not going to see land.
We head in to do a little exploration. We check out the Kids Club so Mr. KIA can get a feel for it. We get back to the stateroom and the luggage starts arriving. Luckily we get all the bags relatively quickly so we unpack and store the bags under the bed. That is a great tip by the way that we read on the boards. We, being new to cruising, would have left the bags all over the room for the week. I put the door signs I made up on the door to the stateroom (also another tip from the boards. But I am a little dissapointed. I did not see may other door signs while walking around the ship. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. The only good thing about lots of people
not doing it was that I could find my room pretty easy especially evenings of libations or pretty much every night). And we got ready for the evening festivities.
Next up: Dinner the first night and Day One at Sea