Embarkation Day! We arrived at the cruise terminal about 10AM after having breakfast at the Poly with Lilo and Stitch. My DH went to return the rental car. I went ahead and got in line to check in and was given check in group #3.
It took awhile to check in not because the long lines but because the car rental location took forever! Richard was finally on his way back and we had our KTTW cards in hand! I then set up shop to hand out lanyards for our group.
About 11:45 AM we started to board. We had met up with our group of friends and were moving towards the entrance. We had a plan we wanted to rent a cabana. Our plan was to skip the picture and head straight towards the excursion desk as we were advised to do.
Through the doorway we went
.down the corridor and onto the ship! We were announced and on we went. Richard headed to the excursion desk and I headed to Guest Services as I had a question about a special Ducky Williams session for my DD Tori. Her favorite character is Stitch and he was going to be doing special sessions with individuals and draw their favorite character.
After waiting in line at GS I noticed that Richard was still standing at the excursion desk they werent open. So I asked at GS about the cabanas and found out you rent them there.
We managed to get cabana #10 and we were very excited. Everything was going well until it came time to add our friends to the cabana. Because they were not there, we were going to have to come back and add them later but no problem at all..it was ours!
We were then told that we were incorrect there were no private sessions with Ducky Williams and only group sessions but that he would get back to me if it was different.
We then headed for lunch and found out all space was taken and they had a waiting list. So we sat in the Promenade Lounge and waited. We were called in and sat down for lunch. This is usually my favorite part you realize you are here! What is done is done and its time to enjoy! Unfortunately, the food was not all that exciting this time around it was okay though they had my absolute favorite strawberry soup. Which I love! I was also fortunate enough to meet one of my fellow cruisers from the Dis and enjoyed a great conversation until it was time to go to our cabin.
At 1:40 we went to find our cabin it is a basic CAT 5 cabin verandah, steamer trunk sofa, bed, etc. We found one of our suitcases waiting for us and began to unpack. Usually the suitcases come a little closer together but our 5 suitcases took a little over 4 hours to get to us so unpacking took a bit. I could kick myself I checked the bag that had the over the door holder in it. And of course the bag that came first had all of the toiletries!
At 3 PM we had a Dismeet and off I went to hand out lanyards and meet some fellow cruisers. I also picked up a certificate that I had ordered to commemorate the traveling through the Canal.
We then had the drill and returned to our cabin to wait for sail away. We tried to go up on deck but it was very cold and so we decided to watch from our verandah. We are so glad that we did we had an awesome view of
The Dream! As we sailed away, we passed right by the Dream and from our verandah we were even with her. But I digress first
sailing away from the dock.
We were late sailing away
they were still loading when we were supposed to be sailing! We finally got underway about 40 minutes late. I was very disappointed with the lack of fanfare with the Wonders first Panama Canal cruise plus the fact that she was leaving! We only had the CM waving at us as we sailed away. Very few people were watching us leave but we were excited! We yelled goodbye and waved!
The Dream was waiting for us and as we came upon her it was getting dark. She was lit up and beautiful! The decks were packed with CMs and it looked like guests in some of the rooms. As we came upon her I hoped for a horn battle and all of a sudden we heard it! She sounded her horn back (what a different 11 years makes in sound systems!) I captured it on video and we loved every moment of it. The Dream had streamers and everyone yelling. What a send off.
We sailed out to sea and started our adventure. We finally had finished unpacking and my DD wanted to play Mickey Mania. She wanted to be a contestant. Now..my DD is on the shy side and I cannot believe she would actually get up there but we did!! We won with 850 points Nick said the highest he had ever seen was 900 points so we almost broke a record!
Next was dinner. Our first restaurant was AP and we headed off. For our appetizer I had Chicken Bastille. It was a ground seasoned chicken in filo dough. I also had a salad and for my entrée, I had a sirloin steak. Dessert was apple tar-tarin. Everything was good.
We had one little problem, my DD was exhausted on our 1 day at WDW we did all 4 parks in one day and hit our favorite rides. So after dinner
off to bed and to wait for
Castaway Cay the next morning!
So off I sent....I gave them the option to refund my money or preferably retry - they chose to refund my money after I sent everything back. So I sent it back. I was so excited..there were two problems..they said to order 3 colors..so I chose Mickey Mouse colors..unfortunately, when the candy came (it was pre-package is 5-piece packages) some were all black and some were all yellow - the color scheme made no sense! Anyways... it went back..I was credited back my money.
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