Howdy everyone,
Mutt, My SIL bought some liquor and he flew home today. All of it had to be in his checked luggage. So we wrapped it with bubble wrap and lots of clothing in hopes it wont get broken. You know how luggage is handled in the airport!! Nice and gentle.
One bottle got broken at the port in his suitcase and all the clothes now smell like rum, so DD had to start laundry right away when we got home.
DCL sent a letter to all staterooms with requirements for the airport for their guests and basically everything liquid has to be checked.
Ok I will do this report as brief as I can and in 2 or 3 posts because there is so much to say and I still have a lot to do. Plus you wont be bored for too long at a time. I will post a detailed report on the cruise reports thread later in the week, if you are interested.
Ok, we headed out for the port about 8:00 a.m. relieved that Chris had went away. But of course the GK's didnt know we were going on a cruise. They believed we were headed for Cocoa beach.
DH told them, lets see if we can pull in and take some pictures of the ship while we are going by. Of course they asked for our ID and asked if we were all going on the Magic and DH said yes. My GD whispered to her mom, grandpa is going to get in trouble, he just lied to that man so we can take some pictures of the ship. She didnt catch on. She is 15 and GS is 12. We pulled up and got out to unload the luggage and Ana still looking perplexed asked " What are we doing?" Andy just stared at us. So I told her, Well, I dont know about you, but I'm going on a cruise!!! Then I got out of the truck.
It finally started to,sink in what was going on. They were all happy and talking about it, asking who all knew about this and for how long. Then Ana declared i dont have any clothes to wear !!!! I just brought shorts, tank tops and a bathing suit!!! But her mom said yes you do, I packed for you in my suitcase, even a formal and semi formal. They were amazed how we kept it from them.
Greg told them it was a 4 day cruise to Nassau as we entered the terminal and they were all excited about 4 days. A few minutes later they figured out it was a 7 day to the caribbean. They both agreed not to believe us anymore about anything again!!! ( in a good way)
As we sat in the terminal we met many dis board members. They found us so easy because my daughter had purple hair!!! It was great fun, plus they all asked the kids if they were surpirsed. The GK's thought the entire ship knew they were coming, accept them.
We had boarding pass #3 so got on right away and headed up to Topsiders for a quick lunch and a stroll around deck, before going to our room.
We had a great verandah this time. Our luggage arrived about 2:30 so I was all unpacked before going to the 3:00 dis meet in the Promenade lounge.
We met lots of great people whom we saw all around the ship during the week and even had a couple of families near us at dinner. It really added so much fun to our trip to see all these people over the week and visit to see how they liked the cruise so far.
We got out late dining changed on board to early. Lumieres the first night. We checked in and they said NO, you are suppose to be at Animators Palate. we said OK, but the head diningroom manager called and told us Lumieres at 5:30. Anyway someone escorted us down to AP, where they looked up our change and said NO you are in Lumieres tonight. So they called back to Lumieres and talked to the man who sent us there and he agreed that we should be there, so they escorted us back to Lumieres and had us stand in the main walkway there til they figured out where to put us. People were already about done with their main course when we were seated.
Our waiters did catch us up quickly and with many appologies throughout the night. We thought it was kinda funny, didnt upset us at all. Then the next day they told us to go to Lumieres again at 5:45 for dinner and that would be our permanent table. They told us the people who changed to late decided to stay in early the first night and it threw everything off because we were suppose to be taking their place.
So they seated us and here came other people who had been assigned to that table. They quickly switched table numbers with them and seated them behind us, which is where we should of been. Guess they fgured we didnt need to be moved again, but it was their fault seating us at the wrong table. We thought it was all funny and a new experience to start off an awesome cruise!!!!
Now I will back up some to the sail away party. They had a new band called The Breakers. 2 of the members had been with the Charles marshal band, the others we didnt recognise, but they were very good. It was a good lively crowd which made it even better. They did do a couple of things differently than before, which was fine, but when they did the count down to sail away, it was only 10 to 5:00 and they didnt shoot off the streamers as they have done on all our other cruises. I was kind of disappointed in that because I always take a piece of the streamers to put in the album I make for each cruise. Overall it was agreat party with nice weather. We did pull out a little late but i was on deck 10 waving my Mickey hands at everyone along the channel.
Another first for us this trip, besides having a daughter with purple hair, was our room host. We could understand everyword he said and we could pronounce his name, Clifford. For those of you who have sailed before you know what I am talking about. Plus he didnt do any towel animals, he made them with our blanket. They were awesome and much harder to make them with one blanket as opposed to 2 or 3 towels that some use. I will post pictures later.
after dinner we were off to the welcome aboard show which was very good. It featured Mike Super and John Charles. John actually used to work at MK in the Diamond Horseshoe revue as a singing cowboy. We recognised him. We did talk with him later and we were right. He was very good!!!!
Then we stopped by shutters to buy our boarding picture. We walked around deck and through some halls looking for door signs, only saw a couple, but most disers wernt on our floor.
Then we went to bed around 11 because we were pooped from a long day that started about 5:00 a.m.
All of our family was out until 2 or 3 a.m. They have a lot more energy than this old lady does!!!
One thing I forgot to mention was upon arriving in our room we had a nice gift basket that our DD had ordered for us!! Shirley did an awesome job. We were in shock, though t it must of been in the wrong room, but it was for us.
The return gits were nice too. when you check in they give you a lanyard for each person with 2 pins, then in your room is a nice beach bag with a variety of things that came in handy during the cruise. Wont list them so you can be surprised. If you really want to know just PM me and I will tell you the details.
The other days wont be quite as detailed, so not as long of a report, I thnk, so enough for now. day 2 later.
Kathy
Today I went for swim goggles, came out with goggles (on clearance), a new chain link and leather belt (but it was on clearance!) and sneakers (but they were marked down!!). And if I wouldn't have controlled myself, there would have been about 10 more belts, loads of eye shadow, a few bags (really, really cute red leather-like satchel for one!), and a dress that would've been perfect for semi-formal night that would've come home with me, too!
I'm glad you had a good time, which we all knew you would. I told everyone that you were thinking about us....and laughing 
We are looking forward to hearing about your trip with the grandkids....have a great evening.
Katie,
Goodmorning fellow cruisin dancin nana heads: Wow thats a mouthfull. 
Hey I'll come and help clean....however, I can't guarentee how much work will get accomplished with all that drinking...!!!! 
art of Entertaining series, watched make crab cakes as an appetizer with samples afterwards.
about "our" cruise. I think that this is a very facinating topic. 
Well at least I have my sister who also likes to talk about this subject to talk too. Then this way we just drive everyone else nuts and we are happy in our own little "cruise world". 
. He was very moved by the experience he slept almost the whole time 
