Tiddly Carvings?! - A Baltic Cruise: Day 1 Embarkation

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Film & TV schedule for first week


I must have been more excited about this trip than I thought because I was awake at 3:00 a,m, and couldn’t get back to sleep again so at 4:00 I gave up and started watching some of the programmes that had built up on my Sky box.

I got up at 7:30 and by 8:20 we had finished our packing and were on the road where all of the traffic lights between our house and the M20 turned to red just as we approached them. Once we reached the M20 we raced through the Kent countryside and arrived in Dover just before 10:00. I dropped Dad off with the cases at the terminal reception while I went off to park the car. It turned out that the car park we were assigned to was the furthest from the terminal so I had quite a walk back.

Check-in hadn’t long been open so by 10:20 we were checked in and assigned dining rotation: Parrot Cay, Lumieres and Animators Pallette, which I was pleased about because it meant we would be in Lumieres for formal night. We then sat to wait for boarding to begin and while we were waiting Mickey came out for photos

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I also met up with MJGirl who saw our shirts and came over to introduce herself, and later with Gydell who also came over to introduce herself.

We were in boarding group 2 and so we were on board by just after 12:00

and were welcomed by these guys.

We went up to Topsiders for a buffet lunch and then went for a wander round taking photos on the way

As we were looking at the pictures outside Shutters another lady asked me if she recognised me from a photo and I said that she might recognise me from the DIS. She said that was probably it and introduced herself as Julie, although I didn’t think to ask what her DIS name was.

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By 1:20 I decided to see if the room was ready so we made our way to deck 6 where we found that the deck was indeed open and made our way to our cabin.

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We relaxed for a while and when the cases came about an hour later I put our magnets and fish extender up

I then spent a while putting my fish extender gifts for our floor together and Dad and I went for a wander to see if there were many other fish extenders up yet. There were only a couple so I decided to dish the gifts out between the sail away party and the first evening show. We then went back to the cabin and waited for the lifeboat drill to begin at 4:00.

Just before 4:00 we put our lifejackets on and made our way down to our assembly station on deck 4 for the lifeboat drill, which didn't take long and once it had finished we took our lifejackets back to the cabin and then went up to deck 10 to stake out a spot for the sailaway party.

As the party began we were given streamers which commemorated the fact that this was the first ever Northern European Capitals Cruise.

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I got a lot of people asking me where they could get a shirt like mine – unfortunately I had to tell them that it was a one-off.

Once the party ended we went over to the other side of the ship where we saw that quite a few people had gathered to see us off.

Just after 5:10 the ships' horn played "When You Wish Upon A Star" again and we were off.

The shops opened at 5:30 so we went downstairs and had a look around and then sat down at Preludes bar next to the Walt Disney Theatre where we had a zombie cocktail each (light rum, dark rum, Grand Marnier, pineapple juice, orange juice and lime juice) before making our way in to the theatre for the 6:30 evening show, which was mainly an introduction to the cruise and a preview of two of the acts - Jay Lamont (a musical/impressionist act) and Jimmy Tamley ( a ventriloquist).

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After the show we bought some Baltic logo merchandise and a replica of the ship.

We went back to the cabin to drop our purchases off and pick up our dinner tickets and then went down to the Promenade Lounge where I had a Coke and Dad had a banana margarita.

As we sat drinking one of the crew announced that although they had been hoping to show the England v. USA match the ship had lost all it's satellite service and so the Captain had altered the ships course by 5% and, once out of the busy shipping lanes would alter it by a further 20% to try and get the signal back.

At 8:30 we went in to Parrot Cay for dinner where we met our server Adrian, assistant server Richard and table mates Partow and Michael from Calgary and Mattias from Germany, who was a journalist travelling with us as far as Warnemunde where he was getting off and his colleague would be getting on to review the rest of the trip. They were all very nice and, after a slow start, the conversation flowed freely for the rest of the night.

For an appetiser I had smoked salmon and Dad had proscuitto, I followed up with a white bean salad while Dad had lettuce and palm heart, then for main course I had chicken and mango salad and Dad had a Yachtsman Steakhouse steak. For dessert I had creme brulee and Dad had banana split.

After dessert the head server and our servers brought out a birthday cake and sang happy birthday to me, which I thanked them for but pointed out that they were 11 days too early! It seems that there must have been some mistake on their notes.

We then went back up to the cabin where we we put our watches forward an hour and were in bed by 10:35 UK time/11:35 ship's time.

Day 2

 

[natalielongstaff]

omg !! great start to the trip David

 

[jackieleanne]

Brilliant I love it, great photos of the ship I really want to try one of the cruises.

Bless them getting the dates wrong and bringing you a cake early.

 

[Chilly]

Can't wait to read and see all about your cruise.

 

[fav_is_tink]

Great start, will look forward to the rest your photos are fab

 

[jjk]

great start, i cant wait to read the rest

 

[Pegasus928]

Great start David, and loads of fantastic pics.

Looking forward to reading more

 

[florida sun]

Great start David, really looking forward to reading more

 

[TotallyAngelic]

I have been waiting for this trippie
Hope you both had an amazing time. Great start. Funny to see the Disney Magic in the UK Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[disney_princess_85]

Great start David!

How exciting that you were on the first ever Baltic cruise.

 

[mandymouse]

Great start David, and fantastic photos too

The only thing is .. how was Mickey Mouse with you on the Disney Magic, when he was with me on Castaway Cay .. weird ehh ?

I look forward to your next installment

 

[wickesy]

The only thing is .. how was Mickey Mouse with you on the Disney Magic, when he was with me on Castaway Cay .. weird ehh ?

I think he must be like Father Christmas.

 

[suzycute]

This is a great start - and am off to read some more!

 

[Disney_Sarah]

Wow great report x

 

[irongirlof12]

i've een waiting for your trip roport- your stateroom looks fab. It must have been like sailing with friends as so many people recognised you from the dis, great door decorations.