Sailing Day! I thought we were booked on the 10:00 shuttle from the hotel to the Port, so we got out early for breakfast at the hotel. The buffet is $8.95 for adults and $3.xx for children and was pretty good. Of course we didn't want to have much because we knew we were heading for 7-days of Disney chef dining, starting with lunch! We got to the lobby around 9:15 to wait for our shuttle, and some new friends from online saw us in the lobby so we chatted for a while passing the time and getting better acquainted. Small world that it is, Gary and the woman knew some of the same people when they both worked in the Orlando area several years ago. I checked with the shuttle guy and saw that we were scheduled for the 10:30 shuttle (I had originally pre-arranged for the 10:00, and when I asked at check-in was told it was 10:00 ~ but after we got home, I found an email I had sent asking to change us to the 10:30 I had just forgotten that). We opted to just wait around the lobby anyway, and as it turned out, another family didn't show up, so we took their spot on the 10:00 shuttle after all. It was a rainy, icky morning, but not chilly (thankfully).
Port Arrival: This was so easy. The shuttle dropped us and our luggage right off at the first security check point. The Port people took our tagged luggage, and we headed on into the Terminal area, pausing for a photo of the Magic! 2nd security checkpoint was much like at the airport, and we were given our boarding group assignment (#2). Up the escalator where we had our documents pre-checked for completion, and then only one person from each party is sent to the registration line. There is plenty to explore in the terminal while waiting. The registration line has three sections - one for
Castaway Club members (returning guests), one for international passengers, and one for the rest of us. The signs said that registration started at 11:00 so I figured I had a wait ahead of me, but as it turned out, they opened the registration at 10:45. I was about 20th in line and was through with my registration by 11:00.
Post-Registration: At check-in, they give you a map of the ship and an activity list for right after boarding. This is nice because it gives you something to do while waiting for your boarding time. We also were able to pick up our pager for the kids for the Youth Activities, although there was a bit of a glitch as it was so early that they hadn't "turned the voyage" in the computers which meant they hadn't uploaded our passenger list into their computer system for the trip. We met another family from the DISBoards and then hung out until they started boarding.
Boarding: We boarded around 11:45 a.m., a little earlier than I had expected, but we were so excited to be getting every one of those valuable
Disney Cruise minutes
It was so exciting to walk through the Mickey shaped entry! We went through, had our welcome aboard photos taken, and then wow! We walked (glided!) across the gangway and suddenly we were being announced as we entered the Atrium!
We went straight to Guest Services to get the boys charging privileges removed from their KTTW cards, and while there, we signed up for the Galley Tour on Thursday afternoon and picked up a Navigator. Then we took the elevator up to Deck 5 to find where the Oceaneers Lab was (not yet open) and then on up to Topsiders where we were going to meet some of our new friends. We walked out on Deck 9 and it was a little wet so I was watching where I was stepping more than looking around trying to get my bearings. As it turned out, we missed the main entry door for Topsiders so we found the door down by the desserts The CMs greeted us and pointed us to the front of the buffet line, so we went through the line and then found a place to sit. At this point, there werent many people in at all. I will say that I had expected Topsiders to be mostly outdoor seating so I was surprised at how much indoor seating there really was. We had just gotten situated when our friends came in and there was plenty of room for them to sit with us, so we enjoyed our lunch and getting to know each other. The kids and wives studied the Navigators to get an idea of what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. It still wasnt time to go to the Stateroom, so we wandered back to the Lab.
Oceaneer's Lab: The Lab was open for the afternoon for registration, wrist bands, pager distribution, and family-time, so we spent some time there with the boys to check things out. They have computers, GameCube, board games, movies, arts and crafts, K-Nex, and tons of scheduled activities including making flubber and butter. Zachary enjoyed the Lab more than Nathan did, but they both spent quite a bit of time there. Nathan, at 9 1/2, was less interested in the organized activities than Zachary was, so we tended to check him in for the free-time unless there were specific structured events he wanted to do (like the Hidden Mickeys search). The counselors are wonderful and energetic and we felt comfortable leaving the children in their care. The boys could page us to pick them up if they wanted to leave as we didn't give them check-out privileges, although in hind-sight it would've been better for us if we had done that with Nathan. We didn't get to check out Ocean Quest which is where the 10-12's go, but from what I heard from the 11 y.o. who ate with us, I think Nathan would like it better. Zachary was in his element at the Lab. But Im getting ahead of myself
The Cabin: You can't get to your stateroom until 1:30, but we knew about the Secret Stairwell from Topsiders to Deck 8 (where we were staying), so after lunch we went down that way and found our cabin door on our way to the Lab. Can I tell you how excited we were about seeing our cabin when it was time to go in? I took a deep breath and hesitated as I slipped my KTTW card into the door - this was the moment we'd been waiting for! We were in a Cat. 4, cabin 8058. We had a split bathroom, meaning that there were really two half-baths... one with a (super-sonic) toilet and sink and the other with a sink and bath/shower. We had a queen bed and a sofa that converted to a single bed, a drop-down bunk bed, and our cabin also had a Murphy bed which we didn't need / use. We also had a verandah which was nice to have to sit out on. DH used it the most of all of us, but I watched a few beautiful sunrises from it, and especially enjoyed sipping hot chocolate at night while highlighting the next day's Navigator to know what I wanted to do the next day. We had booked through a group booking, so we had a Welcome Aboard gift waiting for us which was a keepsake box that was perfect for stashing our Navigators and other memorabilia in throughout the week.
The Pool: The Mickey Pool on the first afternoon was hardly used, so Gary took the boys swimming while I did some other things. It was an overcast day and a bit chilly. They went swimming a couple of other days, including most of the afternoon on Tuesday. The Goofy Pool was pretty busy throughout the days and there was nearly always someone in the adult pool area. Gary and I never did go swimming or even in the hot tub. The kids liked the Mickey slide, and Zachary thought it was very cool when he got to dance on the Goofy Pool during the Sail Away party (they cover the pool with a wooden floor).
Meeting Friends: While Gary took the boys swimming on the first day, I went to the DISBoards meet scheduled for 3 p.m. in the Promenade Lounge. The Promenade Lounge is an excellent place for a meet because it's not busy at all and is an open space to congregate. I don't know how many families made it to the meet but it was nice to have faces to go with names for people I've been posting with for several months - and it was nice to have familiar faces throughout the ship for the rest of the week.
