The Most Magical Cruise on Earth, Day 1

Day 1:

Saturday, January 26, 2013: Embarkation Day

The hardest part of this morning was getting out of the house. Somehow we couldn’t even think of leaving without having the house clean as well. And then we decided to make a Spec’s Liquor run on the way out. Disney is apparently the only cruise line that will allow you to bring alcohol on board, which is totally cool.

Parking and taking a shuttle in Galveston was a piece of cake (EZ Cruise Parking) and even the whole security/passport/check in thing was a piece of cake. We may have timed it right – we chose the 12:30-1:00 boarding time, but we basically walked right on. 

As you enter the ship you give your name and then your family is literally announced as you walk into the main atrium. Even though you know everyone else is getting the same treatment you somehow feel special. Parrot Cay (pronounced KEY!) had a buffet lunch and it was a great way to start the trip. Each day the buffet theme changes, so one day it was Italian, another steak. They really have some fabulous food. We got settled into our stateroom, #7858, and unpacked. We have a verandah which is really, really nice. It’s private and luckily we’re on the side away from the prevailing wind so it’s quite toasty and protected. There have been complaints that there isn’t enough space or storage room in the rooms, but we found places for all our junk. There are two tight little rooms instead of one bigger bathroom. There’s one with a shower/tub (which is larger than I expected) and a sink and another with the toilet and a sink. They both have plenty of shelves. We have a couch that converts into a bottom bunk and a bed that drops from the ceiling for the top bunk, and what seems to be a queen-sized bed. There’s a flat screen TV on a reciprocating arm, a fridge, desk, safe and other things. The verandah has two chairs and I’m sitting in one with my feet on the rails writing this now.

It didn’t take long to get our junk set up and off we went to explore the ship. There are 11 floors, although the first is, I think, almost all crew and the 11^th is only a club for teens called Vibe. We explored the girls’ camps, Edge & Explorers Lab, got them set up with their wrist bands and then did one of the other cool things, gave them sign in and sign out privileges for themselves. The can come and go as they please. And that’s what they’ve been doing. 

We have set dinner times (ours is 5:45) and particular restaurants each evening. That way the same wait staff follows us and can better cater to our likes. We have Alex from Honduras and Josh from the Philippines. The first night we went to Lumiere. It’s supposed to be the fanciest restaurant and since we had received information from Disney saying we didn’t have a formal night we dressed up most for this one (of course later I found a paper in our room that specified which nights were formal vs. cruise casual vs. themed). The girls were stunning in their silver dresses and got lots of complements. For dinner I had shrimp cocktail, French onion soup and duck breast with an ice cream sundae for dessert. After dinner Brad felt sick so he went back to the room. The girls both went to their clubs and I watched the movie Chimpanzee (very cute) in the theater. The girls had a great time.