Saturday May 10th, 2008 ~ continued ~
Our number is called and we can proceed through the Ears to begin the trip of a lifetime.
~ note ~ trying to hear what number they were announcing in the terminal was pretty difficult. The announcements rent terribly loud to begin with but then to try and hear over top of a zillion excited vacationers about to embark made it much worse ~
The Key to the World cards swiped, hands wiped and CHEESE! Smile for the embarkation photo. As we walk over the gangplank to the ship I am thinking of what I want to have them announce.
Her Royal Highness, Queen V
Queen of all the Land, V (I used to make my sister call me queen of all the land when we were kids)
Eh, I just stuck with the Family Name to be fair to everyone.
As they announced us, that is when I truly felt the vacation had arrived. All the months of planning and waiting were finally happening and I was overjoyed. We were greeted with a lovely ice sculpture of the Magic.
Our group headed to Parrot Cay for the lunch buffet.
see contrary to what you may have heard, we were not running to the buffet!
I am a bit spoiled, I like that they bring your drinks to you, if I could only get them to run to the buffet, it would be perfect. We lined up at the door and there was some mumblings that they were full but our group of 13 got in fine and we actually sat at our table which would be our dinner table as well. This was of course after going through a complete sanitation procedure. Thus beginning my babys love of the rob your hands of any moisture hand wipes.
Without thinking, I grabbed the girls and took them to the buffet to get them some food. I got back to the table and everyone was placing drink orders Bad Manners on the first day V?
What can I say?
The kids buffet had corn dogs, mac and cheese and spaghetti what are they thinking with SPAGHETTI? Hello
DCL are you trying to drum up laundry business? I got the girls settled with shrimp and bread and butter for Haley and a corn dog for Samantha
.now launches Haleys obsession with butter packets.
When it was my turn to hit the buffet I whipped through and had quite a smorgasbord on my plate. They had various salads, antipasto, fruit, pita sandwiches with cucumber salad, sliced flank steak, peel and eat shrimp, various rolls and bread as well as a CM mixing fresh Caesar salad with your choice of parmesan, croutons and bacon bits. I got the works and it was delish! Sorry I think this was the only time I didnt take pictures of the food. Desserts were well DCL desserts. I am not really a sweets gal, give me a glass of wine and a slice of cheesecake and I am in Chippendale heaven.
This would not happen often on our journey.
I was like a bee in the bonnet waiting to get to the room, so we finished up well for my family the girls finished up and we left Charming to munch his way around the buffet yet again. He had his card and he could meet us in the cabin. This was right around 1:30 pm.
The girls and I quickly headed down a deck to deck 2 to see our new home.
Yes, the cards worked and wow
.I was pleasantly surprised at the room this being our first time in an inside cabin. There were
Castaway Club gifts, gift baskets from Shirley, gifts from friends (THANK YOU) and also the Panama Map and pin order form. I did not see any notes/cards re the OBC, which kind of worried me for a spell.
The girls wanted to tear into all the gifts, but I wanted Charming there to see them open the sand pails so we waited and waited and waited surely the buffet must be closed by now.
I am having Palo flashbacks
..what is he doing?
Finally I hear the door click and poor Charming he didnt know our room number and it isnt on the cards he had been up and down the wrong side and luckily I had the magnets on the door already or he would have had no clue what cabin!
CLUNK!
BAM!
Luggage started arriving so we stayed in the cabin until the safety drill. Charming snoozed a bit and the girls watched TV while I got down to business. In between unpacking I finally had a chance to scour the papers the CM had given me in the terminal. I was too busy people watching before.
The movies for week one were:
Enchanted
Dan in Real Life
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Ratatouille
Toy Story 2
The Incredibles
The Heartbreak Kid
The Mexican
College Road Trip
Step Up 2
Finding Nemo
Mask of Zorro
The welcome aboard paper was quite informative:
Staterooms ready at 1:30 pm
Luggage delivered until 6:30 pm
Flounders open house 12:30-3:15 pm
Club and Lab open for Registration 12:30-3:15 pm and yes, they were open to drop off children the first night
Ocean Quest open house 12:30-3:15 pm
The Stack open house 12:30-3:15 pm
Soon it was time for the drill and out come the life vests. What a fiasco! We had three adult and one child vest so Haley was the lucky one with no vest on. Of course the elevators are out of commission during the drill so this was workout number one!
Up to station K we trouped and heres where the problems start. I am a bad mother; both the girls have seen Titanic. In Haleys mind, we were actually getting into the boats, and all she kept saying was no, I dont want to do this; I dont want to get into a boat. She cried the entire time. And we had NO BINKY must have lost it at Saratoga Springs.
I now have no clue what to do in case the ship goes down. Hopefully Charming could hear over the cries. My apologies out to everyone including the dogs of Port Canaveral I am sure they could hear the shrieks too! It was terrible and there was nothing I could do, it wasnt like we could leave or anything. I guess I could have tossed her overboard, but aside from the screams
she is too cute and loveable for that.
Now back down to the cabin to toss the life vests back into their hiding spots. We decided to go on up, grab a drink and boogie down at the sail away, excuse me Adventures Away at the Goofy Pool.
Starting off right!
Red shimmering streamers were given out as we walked through the doors to the Goofy Pool. We couldnt find our group so we went up to deck 11 right where the characters come out!
Hung out for a bit and then ran back to the cabin to get ready for dinner!