After the excitement of the safety drill (and it was riveting), it was time for the sailing away party. As this we a new ship (to us), we wanted to attend and see what was up. I think I heard when they first launched the ship they had two of these...but apparently decided that wasn't necessary when no one showed up. I've condensed it into 2 minutes of video...which includes the ships horn...no, not as cool as the horn battle you can find on
youtube...but still pretty cool. And Captain Tom is at the helm of the Dream! It's like being at home since we sailed with him 3 times. I think. Something like that.
http://youtu.be/LH7wyAiDpZ0
Anyway, the sailing away party was pretty much the same as the Magic and Wonder...not a huge amount of excitement in my opinion. But I'm not the one to talk because those staged events aren't my cup of tea. Maybe I'm British? no idea what I mean by that comment.
See the video camera in my hand. I'm a dork.
We are on the edge of our seats...er the railing.
You can see the haircuts better in these two pictures...don't know what I'm talking about? you clearly did not read the rest of the TR. You may not proceed until you go back and read. Now we all have to wait. Come on...go do it.
Really.
Stop it, you can't continue...and now everyone else is getting annoyed!
Done?
Really?
That was fast. OK, here is the other pic...
Nick
The deck did get crowded...so I guess some people *do* enjoy this.
We had some time to kill before dinner, so we decided to check out the Lab. Our kids have never taken to the kids clubs...sure they would go for one event or another...but they never spent any significant time there. Back when they used to do the graduation thing with the free t-shirt, I was always disappointed that they never were in the photos. Well of course they weren't...they were never there! Not sure why it never struck a cord, except that typically we had other friends with us...so it was more fun for them to hang out with them vs. being in the clubs. But we knew there were all kinds of new cool things...so we headed that direction.
Connor actually did seem interested, he particularly like the ship simulator where you sail the ship. The kids had tried this on one of the other ships...so it was possible he might go in. Yeah right. But more on that later in the report. It did lead us to some very good pictures....
Here is the ship simulator!
Andy's room is really cool, if you have a younger kid...I can imagine them having a blast here.
A big slinky
Who doesn't want to hang out with Mike?
Just a random picture to keep you on edge.
Time for dinner! We had to go change and for the first time ever in our cruise history we allowed the kids to wear shorts. Yes...we have become "those people". But alas we only had one carry on each, how much could you carry?
We stopped and got a picture with Captain Donald. Or is it Admiral?
Then while walking to dinner (Our first day was in The Royal Palace), we saw a giant mouse Or maybe a rat! No not the one you are thinking of...
I kept calling him ratatouille...but apparently that's the movie he was in...not his name. I'm sure others can tell you his name...but as I never saw this one....
Time for The Royal Palace
Our server was Leslie from India and our assistant server was Simon from the UK. Leslie was very efficient...but not at all talkative. Simon was on the downhill slide at the end of his contract and I don't think really cared anymore. It wasn't that he did a bad job or anything, but he certainly was not over the top.
I think I've mentioned before that server teams can make a vacation...they can't take away from it...but they can definitely make it. This team was somewhere in the middle. By the last night Leslie warmed up and we ended up having some good conversations (I'll share those as we go along), and then sort of nailed it on the head. Leslie transferred from the Magic...and on the Magic they always had 7 nights to get to know you. I think the servers that work the 7 night cruise ease into the conversations, etc. I'll bet if you had a server from the Wonder you would hit it off right away because they are used to connecting quickly to you because they only have 3 or 4 nights. Hopefully Leslie gets better at this because he really was nice once we got to know him...but at the beginning he was efficient...but not fun. Know what I mean?
No idea why I took this picture. or even if I took this picture. Creepy, isn't it? after previewing I realized it was because of the cup.
Here is Connor...that's John just a bit further away. It worked out well, Connor and John sat next to each other and Nick and Ellie did too. Going into the cruise Nick was not excited about having to spend time with Ellie (she is one grade behind Nick and they were in the carpool together every day). He had it in his head that she would annoy him. But not long after we started he realized she's a very cool person and they hung out a lot which was great. I'd say by the end they were good friends which was fun to watch.
After dinner the kids went and changed into their swimsuits, heading up onto deck to hit the aquaduck (I'm pretty sure Nick sent the aquaduck record), and DW and I went to deliver Fish Extender gifts. This was where we realized that the ship was incredibly long...and big. Before that we hadn't really felt that it was that much bigger. Now we know!
We went up to get the kids as Connor and John were headed for the lab while the rest of us were going to the show to see Ron Pearson perform in the Walt Disney Theater. This guy was hilarious...and about 2 minutes into the show we got a page that Connor wanted to get out of the lab. No way jose...not missing this! How bad a father am I??? We finished out the show...I haven't laughed that hard in a while and we definitely would catch the adult show.
We finally stopped ignoring Connor and headed over to pick him up. Nick and Ellie headed up to the Edge to check it out as tonight they would pick the events that would go on the rest of the week.
When we got to the lab they were miserable. Apparently the bulk of the kids in there were really young...and they didn't want to ever go back..to the point that they wanted their bracelets cut off...so we did that. Oh well, another cruise without the lab!
We were going to go do a family game show (Family Fusion), but when we were up on deck the line for the aquaduck was really short...so swimsuits were the story instead. At night it's really fun to go through the Aquaduck...it's all lit up and very fun. We all got on it once..but shortly thereafter it got crowded again. The kids then had learned a lesson...go immediately after dinner and you can ride it many times...this because the norm for the week.
We hit the hot tub for a while, and DW went to deliver the last FE gifts to those who had not had their FE up yet (what's up with that? you must put your FE up as soon as you get in your room! Come on!)
Back to the room...
Our bed with a swan
The kids beds were up...they of course had to take turns as to who would get to be on the top bunk.
We hit the hay around 11pm...For tomorrow was
Castaway Cay...time to try out the new family beach and the new water slides...I was excited about that!
That's it for today...let me know if you have any questions...or if you hurt yourself too badly when your forehead hit the keyboard...
Next up: Chapter 10: Castaway Cay day #1!
The bar bill attributable to the trunk was minimal, at best.
ha! She did end up finding one and curled up with her book for a while. Unfortunately it was by the trash...yum. 
