Day One- Saturday- 9/8/07
Embarkation Day at Port Canaveral
All Aboard: 3:45pm
Port Departure: 5pm
Evening Attire: Cruise Casual
Animator’s Palate: Show Dinner
Parrot Cay: Island Dinner
Lumiere’s: French Dinner
Drink of the Day: Bay Breeze
It’s Sail Away Day!!!!!!!!!! We woke up and got dressed. Jay packed the van and tied our luggage down to the roof. We were transporting quite a few people so we needed all the space we could get! My best friend, David got dropped off at the house where we were staying and we added his luggage to the mix. Next, we swung by the hotel and got Dee, Heather and Cady, who were all decked out in our
DCL Die Hards team t-shirts that I had made for everyone. One more stop before the port. We had to pick up my mother in law, Beth, who was flying in from Boston and landing at 9:15am. Once we had everyone,
[/IMG]we made that exciting trip down 528! We all were getting so excited as we started passing more and more signs for Port Canaveral! (By the way, I don’t think I mentioned, this was my 7th
Disney cruise and my husband’s 6th. This exact same group of us (plus Donnica, who sadly, could not join us this time….sniff.) had sailed on this exact same cruise 2 years earlier when Jay and I got married!!!) SO, we knew exactly what hill would allow us our first glimpse of the Magic and WOW, were we happy to see it!!!!
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Once we made it to the terminal, we checked our luggage and while my husband went to return the rental van and take the free shuttle back to the port, the rest of us went inside to get checked in! Inside the terminal (at 10:45am) there were already tons of people in line to check in, as well as in line for the character meet and greets. This cruise was sold out and had TONS of little kids on it! So we got in the
Castaway Club members line, which moved quickly and got checked in. We each got our Castaway gift of lanyards and pins, as well as our Goofy Key to the World Cards, Embarkation Information and something new to us, a “boarding pass” which had the number 10 on it. It seemed that DCL was now utilizing a number system to allow guests to board instead of having people just stand in line. This way, guests can sit comfortably, use the restroom, take pictures with the characters or wait for other members of their party to arrive, all without loosing their place in line. (Think of it as a boarding FastPass!) While we waited, we met up with the final members of our party, Christina and Christine (Stina and HannaCanna, to you, DISers) and Christine’s parents. We waited and chatted and talked about how excited we were.
[/IMG]We were all so happy because we had gotten exactly the dining rotation that we had requested (APLAPLA, 8pm)! As for cabins, we had all booked Cat. 12 GTYs, except for Christine’s parents, who had booked at Cat. 10. Jay and I were psyched because though our upgrade was small (Cat. 11), we had ended up in one of those sideways cabins on Deck 6, 6015, specifically. Beth, Heather and Cady would be on Deck 5 in a Cat. 11 (5631) and Dee and David were right next door to them (5629). We had stayed in that same area on the last cruise, so we knew those were great cabins! Christina and Christine were in 2009, which was also right near the forward elevators, so we had easy access to one another, too. Right around noontime, I think, they started calling numbers to board and pretty soon……they called number 10!!! Yee-haaa!!!
We got in line and went through those awesome yellow mouse-ear portholes,
[/IMG]swiped our cards and….beep, beep…we were officially ON A CRUISE!!!!!!! We all stopped for the obligatory group boarding photo in front of a pirate map backdrop and then got ready to be announced. The crew member who was standing by the door loved our t-shirts so much that she announced us as “The DCL Die Hards!!!!”
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As soon as we boarded, everyone headed up to Deck 9 to hit Topsiders for lunch, while Christina and I made a b-line for Rockin’ Bar D to get our Palo ressies straightened out. Rockin’ Bar D was, luckily, still pretty empty so we didn’t have long to wait. I was SOOOOO excited to see our dear friend, Sasha, sitting at the table! He remembered exactly who we were and was thrilled to have us back. He and Corina quickly took our info as to what meals we were looking for and told us they would call that night and let us know what was available.
With that, Christina and I went up to meet up with our party, grabbed lunch and ordered our first celebratory drinks, Miami Vices! That was when we met up with a crew member who we quickly took in as a family member, Giovanna from Peru. She was a server for the deck bars and she was a sweetheart! We would spend the rest of the cruise bumping into her, chatting with her and enjoying her service and company! During lunch, Beth went down to Guest Services to get tickets for her, Cady and Heather to attend tea with Alice, and Heather went to the Oceaneers Club to register Cady. Even though Cady wasn’t quite 3 yet, she was completely potty trained and self sufficient, so the club was happy to take her. Jay, David, Dee and myself went to find our other crew friend, Nyoman.
[/IMG] He had gotten a promotion from bartender to Beverage Manager and we quickly found him at Signals. “J&J!!!”, he exclaimed, which was his nickname for us on our wedding cruise! I was so amazed that he remembered not only who we were, but our NAMES! We chatted for a bit and then headed down to see our cabins, which were now ready.
After a small key mishap, which Guest Services cleared up, we got into our sideways cabin, which was very cool and seemed to have more open space than the regular cabins. We liked it a lot! The Castaway Club gifts in the room were very cool. It was a beach bag that included net bags for the beach, DCL bracelets, a funnel toy, a magnet, a notebook, hand sanitizing wipes, and a couple of DCL flags.
Next we went up to the Vista Spa for a quick tour of the new suites (gorgeous!!!!) and to get a list of the specials. Unlike previous cruises, where they would post daily specials in the Navigator, they now had one list of specials that was good for any day that we were in port. It included some massages, spa tasters and mani-pedi treatments, all at reduced rates.
At this point, it was getting close to boat drill time so we went back to the cabins again to unpack our luggage and get our life jackets. Our drill station was on Deck 4, standing out in the blazing sun, practically on top of one another, but it was all over with quickly.
[/IMG]Plus, the new life jackets are less cumbersome than the older ones were. Side note, I also enjoyed that then television in the staterooms was showing a demonstration of what would happen at the safety drill as we were getting ready to go up. This time DCL did a great job coordinating what was showing on the DCL channels to what was going on onboard the ship, but more about that later.
After the drill, it’s the BEST time…..deck party time!
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[/IMG]A couple small notes about the deck party….the Ariel View screen does add a lot in that they project everything happening on the stage on it so that no matter where you stand, you can see the action, HOWEVER, I feel like they now rely on it too much for entertainment.
[/IMG]For example, the deck party involved video clips of the crew welcoming us and of maps of our route, etc, but LESS music and less dancing. The DJ did break out some of the deck party classics like DJ Otiz “Hey, Baby (Ooo-Ahh) but I was disappointed to not here the A Teen’s “Upside Down”. Maybe we just missed it, though. Anyway, the characters did come down and dance with the cruise staff, but there was no live band, no Main Stage Dancers and far shorter of an amount of time spent on the deck party in general. It seemed like it wrapped up immediately after the countdown and the horn blow. Anyway….we still got to see Rachel, the best cruise director on the seas and the party was still a blast.
[/IMG]We enjoyed dancing on Deck 9, and then heading up to Dec 10 to watch us pass the end of Cocoa Beach and head into open sea.
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By 5:45 it was time to go to the cabin and get dressed and showered for dinner. That night was the All Aboard: Let The Magic Begin show, featuring Randy Cabral (juggler) and Taylor Mason (ventriloquist). Jay and I decided to skip the show and took a stroll along Deck 4, admiring the gorgeous sunset
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[/IMG]We also walked through the gift shops and saw the stuff that was on clearance form the Mediterranean cruises. Mostly Trans-Atlantic DCL merchandise and some small items from the countries that were visited. (Pasta and glass jewelry from Italy, cologne from France, and decorative items from Spain.)
After the show, we met up with the rest of the group and went down to the Promenade Lounge to check out The Wave, music duo and then to Shutters to see our boarding photo.
Dinner was at Animator’s Palate for us with casual dress. We sat at one table (#41), just our group, since there were 11 of us all together. We met our server, Emmanuel, who we remembered from 2 years earlier when he was serving in Palo, our assistant server, Putu and our head server, Jeff.
[/IMG]The menu was the Animator’s Palate show menu. I had the Butternut Squash Soup and the Maple Glazed Salmon. Both were fabulous! My husband had the Bacon Wrapped Filet Mignon, which he said was great and Dee basically fell in love with the Cannelloni. For dessert I had Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie, which is a wonderful new addition to the menu!
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After dinner we did what would become our own after dinner ritual. We went back to the cabin and changed and then went to Rockin’ Bar D. We were right in time MagicQuest, the little drunken scavenger hunt for adults only, followed by Match Your Mate, the game show which never fails to humiliate the hell out of three unsuspecting couples. Another side comment, is it just me or do you also find yourself hiding at Rockin’ Bar D? Trying to blend into the walls, hoping and praying that Trent or any other member of the cruise staff does NOT pick you to embarrass yourself in any number of assorted ways. Karaoke? No thanks. Dress up as a Go-Go and lip sync on stage? No thanks, again. It’s SO not my thing! Anyway…..back to the story. Our first night at Rockin’Bar D is where we met Englebert,
[/IMG]our server/friend who was always excited to have us join him and who saved a table for us almost every night. He was the best of the best. SO, we watched Match Your Mate and laughed at the poor souls involved and then danced for a bit while DJ Dan played our requests. Since, as always, Rockin’ Bar D was virtually empty by midnight, we had the place, and Dan’s play list, to ourselves. When I was done with the Rockin’ Bar D scene, I went up on deck to get some air, some soda and to catch the very end of Mary Poppins playing on the Ariel View. That is one thing the Ariel View is awesome for…..movies under the stars with a sea breeze blowing your hair???? Perfection!!!
I headed back down to the cabin where I was happy to find a message from Corina in Palo saying that they could take me and Jay, David and Dee and Christine and Christina for brunch the next morning. Wa-hoo! With my Navigator for tomorrow in hand, and mints and a towel animal made by Rosa on my pillow, I was beyond happy to have the Magic rock me to sleep.
, my husband, Jay -31-, my sister in-law, Dee -18-, my sister in-law, Heather -29- and her (almost) 3 year old, Cady, flew from Boston to Orlando. We landed in Orlando around midnight, picked up our rental car from Budget and went to Denny’s on I-Drive for some late night dinner. Then we dropped the girls off at their hotel (Courtyard on I-Drive) and headed over to a friend’s house right in the Dr. Phillip’s area, where my husband and I were staying. 
can you list what the back of everyone's shirt says? They look hilarious!
Those are so cute!
