CHAPTER 2: More pre-planning. Will this vacation ever start?
When we last left off, I was a zombie reading through my PassPorter. As the months went by, I became more antsy and demanded that there must be more DCL information out there (as if the PassPorter wasnt enough? Sheesh!).
iM SO GLAD TO HEAR IM not the only one obessed. I cant wait to read more!
'Oh and i knw how you feel about people asking you when your going to have kids. We have 2 boys and people keep asking when we are going to try for a girl.. UM were not.. so stop asking people LOL
Mike and I woke up at our hotel and made our way to the non-continental continental breakfast. We had to fuel up for our journey to the ship! The food was great and I said, “This is the last meal we’ll have to pay for until Saturday!”. That’s a great feeling . After breakfast we changed into our matching outfits – the baby blue sundress and polo from disneyshopping.com. I bought them in January when they were $12.99! I later saw them priced down to $9.99! I wonder if they have gone up in price now that summer is coming? Mike’s shirt felt a bit scratchy, but my polo dress was cotton and fit perfectly. Phew! The hotel shuttle just happened to be waiting outside and we were off to the airport to catch the DCL bus! Our shuttle driver managed to load our bags, drive to the airport, get stuck in a entry gate, reverse, then drive through another gate, unpack our luggage and wish us well – all while on his cell phone! [/COLOR]
It was exciting seeing all of the old and new buses lined up. By old, I mean the vintage design and by new I mean the new porthole design. The Magical Express buses were there too, but ya gotta admit the DCL buses put them to shame! We walked inside and found the Disney “area” which had no line. The folks there were nice and checked our luggage. At least I think they did. Do they? I don’t remember. I was in such a blur that I would have easily walked off without my luggage – I was so excited to be there! They ran our boarding information through their computers but apparently one of the computers had a glitch. The last thing a DIS’er wants to hear is “They’re not in the system?”. The lady next to her figured it out, and we were good to go. I looked over and noticed a good 200 people or so in a queue line. “Oh crap, this is going to take forever”. They directed us to Line #10. Apparently there were numerous lines that all looked like one. And they were all going onto different buses and theme parks. Phew! Our line moved quickly and as soon as we got up to the front, the nice lady hooked the rope and said, “Sorry, you’ll be on the next bus”. The couple in front of us was bummed, and without skipping a beat Mike said, “But hey, we get to pick any seat we want!” That cheered them up. And cheered me up. Because any DISer knows that you have to be on the left side to see the smokestacks first! I was kinda bummed that all the new porthole-designed buses left, and heaven forbid we were actually going to have to ride in one of the original ones. But the first wave of pixie dust sprinkled down, and in came a brand stinkin’ new DCL bus with the round windows! Woohoo! We marched right onto it.
[The above photo was taken by another member and posted on the boards.] Let me tell you, they are beautiful! No, I didn’t smell the “new car smell” you all were smelling. But the seats were great and reclined, they had footrests, the flatscreen monitors were cool and the fact that it had a restroom was pretty neato as well. As soon as everyone was on board and the luggage was loaded, we were on our way! Mike broke in the new camcorder by filming all of this.
What was REALLY awesome is that the video shown to you in the bus is “timed” with the ride, so that it starts as you pull away and ends 45 minutes later as you see the Magic. I thought that was very clever. The ride to the port is pretty uninteresting. It’s literally a straight shot through the everglades (or whatever that area is called, I just like the word everlgades!) The bus driver tried to get us to look out the right window to see a crocodile head in the water, but I must have missed it. I filled out my Bahamas customs form which took the first 15 minutes of the ride. Honestly, the bus ride FLIES by and you are there before you know it. Just as we rolled over the second bridge, the driver announced that the smokestacks would be visible 6 miles into the horizon. Everyone in the bus started talking and pointing. Finally I saw them! The moment had come! I didn’t get the single tear down my cheek like I was imagining, but I was reeeeeeeally excited! I captured it all on film. Ah, the memories.
As we drew closer to the port, the driver started giving numerous tidbits, like where to eat and to look for dolphins, don’t use your cell phone after leaving port, to look for NASA, etc. It’s almost as if he had visited these boards!
We pulled into the beautiful terminal. I really is as amazing as the photos show. It made the Carnival terminal look pretty bland (although the local artwork on the side was nice!). After getting off the bus, we proceeded into the bottom part of the terminal where the line is forked into two to have your carry-on’s checked through the x-rays. It was cold in there! After that, it was up the escalator and into the beautiful blue terminal! The pictures did it justice. It felt like I had been there a hundred times before. The first thing you run into are round tables that have the Bahamas forms on them (yes, the same one I had on the bus). Apparently I filled them out horribly wrong! [IMHO: Just wait until you get to the terminal to fill it out. The bottom half of it can be confusing and it’s just safer to ask a Cast Member.] Mike walked around and filmed Mickey and the huge model of the ship. When I was done, we took our first of many photos!
Mike then got in the line on the left side of the terminal. I was actually surprised by how slow it moved for having about 25 agent windows open! It took about 20-30 minutes to finally get to the window, but we weren’t upset, this was our Disney Cruise vacation! [After going on RCCL and being shoved into a cavernous bland warehouse-type building in Seattle, this was amazing]. The check-in lady was adorable. She asked if we had been sick in the last 72 hours, to which we replied, “No way! We’ve been washing our hands all the time and using sanitation gel all month!” I think she was glad to hear this, as it saved her the next 3 minute speech. She also noticed my PassPorter on the counter with all my paperwork. She admitted that she too had the PassPorter when she sailed on the Magic and used it so many times she said it looked “so worn out as if I had it for 20 years!”. I thought that was cool! Viva la PassPorter! I forgot to mention that somehow, although I am shocked to admit it, beyond all of my months of uber over-planning, I had forgotton a certain printout from the website check-in that listed both of our names under one KTTW account. I did have a paper that Mike signed, but a Cast Member had to get me a little index card from the tables that we had to re-fill out. I was so embarrassed! How dare I not have the correct paperwork all that time! Anyway, we finally got our KTTW cards (Do they all have Donald? Or was that just our category?) and tried to take one last glimpse around the terminal. It was 1:50pm by now and there were no boarding passes (our fault for being too late, I know) and there was no line to get on the ship. We headed over to the large Mickey-eared enterance where we would take our silly-but-fun embarkation photo!
CHAPTER FOUR: I can't believe we're actually here!
After the photo, Mike got the camcorder all fired up because our big announcement was next! Like clockwork, we walked over the gangway and onto the ship where the nice lady asked our last name and where we were from. We said Hanley, from Los Angeles. and she proceeded to announce, All the way from Los Angeles, its the Hanley Family! As predicted, five people applauded and an officer of sorts (or at least an overly-cheery guy in an officer-looking uniform) instantly attached himself to us as we walked down the atrium and guided us to Topsiders for breakfast. I know, I know, youre supposed to go to Parrot Cay, but it closed at 2pm and at the moment it was 2pm. I also remember tripping on the carpet in the atrium. This would be one of MANY times I would trip on the boat. Weird, eh? The atrium was a teeny bit smaller than I pictured, but I think everything is when you see it in real life (including celebrities!). This would later come about as other things on the boat were smaller.
Wait for it .wait for it!
We found the elevators and headed up to our room, 7612, a Category 5 on Deck 7. It was a little bit smaller than I had imagined, but nonetheless beautiful! [IMHO: The rooms make up in classiness what other cruise lines have in square footage.] We had the Peter Pan lyrics above our bed and other nice décor to look at. Our verandah was great too. We love verandas! After dropping off our bags, we proceeded to Topsiders for lunch. I had a jumbled mix of salad, some sort of beef, mashed potatoes and fruit. It was good. I mean, its a buffet, its not going to be excellent. But I thought it was all really good. They have great desserts. I got a cheesecake. [I found that through the cruise, the cheesecakes had an interesting texture, almost frothy instead of sharp and creamy.] It was pretty toasty and humid outside but the wind helped. Pieces of my salad were flying off, and I was wondering how windy it would be up here while sailing!
After eating, we explored our room some more and I read diligently through the introduction navigator. We then took a quick tour of the ship. And by quick, I mean maybe a deck or two, because that baby is huge! We were docked next to the S.S. Booze N Gamble:
(Disclaimer: This reference to the above referenced cruise line was invented by SleepyDog and shall not be flamed against myself in any way shape or form.) Anyway! Things looked pretty humdrum over there, while our ship was rockin with the party starting up top! Soon enough, it was time for the muster drill!
I checked out the back of our stateroom door to see where we were. All it showed was a green blob and the word S. Wait a minute, I think we might actually be in a restaurant! And yes, we were one of the lucky few that had our Muster Drill in Animator's Palate! Score!! No hot sun and humidity for us, no sir! They do a very good job of getting you in and out as quickly as possible. As soon as I found our station, I was greeted by my first DIS member, FloridaGram! Hi!! She was calling out to me and I was looking at her like a deer in headlights. How did she know who I was? What I looked like? Sure I had a door sign up for a whopping 10 minutes by then, but it didnt have photos of me on there. The lady was a psychic! It was exciting to finally meet DIS people. Its funny how the DIS is mostly made up of wives, and the husbands grudgingly roll their eyes. At least the husbands had the same My wife is on there chatting with your wife every night conversation to share! After hearding us like cattle with their megaphones and a few quick speeches, the drill was over. Having your room number on your life vests really makes it easy for them. They pretty much just check you off on their clipboards. The whole process takes about 15 minutes. Our cruise director was Rachel, whose voice would almost put me to sleep on a daily basis (and I mean that in a compliment form, not sarcastic!). If I could just pay that woman to read any random novel to me every night it would be great.
After the drill was the infamos Sail-Away party! I made Mike wear his itchy lime green lei and met up with FloridaGram in the halls as her family made their way up to Deck 10. Its kinda crazy getting almost the entire boat crowded into one area on two decks. The scary part is, Ive watched the sailaway party dance so many times on YouTube that I fear I almost knew all the steps! They did the same hands in the air, hips in a circle and marching steps that I had been studying for weeks! Mike had scampered off somehow to get a fruity drink. I was happy he did, because nothing made the party more fun that by being on a deck of folks in lime green wearing silly lei's and drinking slushy drinks! I had the camcorder revved up and all too soon the countdown started! The cast members were in place with their confetti shooters and I grabbed a good spot on the port side of deck ten. With the straw in my mouth and the camcorder in full swing, I counted down in the loudest, happiest voice I could shout. Five! Four! Three! Two! One! And then IT played. The awesome, incredible, magnificent, magical, bring-a-tear-to-your-eye horn. It was amazing! I was soooooooo in heaven at that point. And on que, the band started up with Celebration as the characters filed off the stage one by one. [IMHO: Has anybody noticed this or is it just me: Is the band from Germany? Sweeden? Russia? They sound interesting when they sing, and I was giggling at their versions of our American songs. It was cute.]
We hung out at the party for a few more minutes waiting for the boat to pull away. It was approximately 10 minutes after 5pm when the starboard thrusters pushed us away from the dock. I made sure to grab a good railing spot so that I could film the cast members wave to us with their gloves as we sailed away!
They really are troopers, the cast members. I mean, 4 times a week they stand out there for a good 15 minutes or so and wave .and wave ..and wave. Gotta love em. We headed out to the open sea and waved goodbye to all the folks fishing on land. Apparently there were a lot of little boats in the channel in front of us. The Magic sounded 5 short blasts. Im assuming it was some sort of Get the $(#*%& out of the way! signal. They still didnt move. We were drawing closer to them. She sounded her horn again. Suddenly, the harbor patrol boat zoomed by us and must have read them some sort of riot act because they all parted! We sailed smoothly into the open sea, which would be a sight we would have to get used to for the next 2 days!
We had the late seating at 8:30pm for the rotation of Lumieres/Animators/Parrot Cay. [IMIHO: This was the time we normally eat at home after work, but while in vacation-mode, it was WAY too late! We found ourselves getting hungry after the lunch options closed at 2pm. The rotation was alright, and I learned that when adults travel solo they always put them in this rotation. It was weird to be in a fancy French restaurant on Pirate night, and to be in Animator's on formal night which is the most simple of the restaurants.] This was our first time sitting with a group at dinner. On Princess and Royal Caribbean we asked to be seated alone. Dont get us wrong, we like other humans, but I guess we eat too fast to sit and socialize. On this cruise, I decided, What the hey, lets try it. We were seated at a table of eight of all adults. We learned that it was an anniversary table! An older couple from Britain had celebrated their 25th anniversary last year on the Magic and loved it so much they came back this year. Another couple from Ohio was celebrating their 20th anniversary, and there was a third couple that had just gotten married at WDW the day before and this was to be their honeymoon. Mike and I were celebrating our 2nd anniversary early. The two older couples got along because they both had an interest in European sports. The honeymooner couple missed this nights dinner. We didnt know why, but when our server announced that it was their honeymoon, we all started oohing and giggling. Turns out they were at Palo!
Our server was Annie-Marie from South Africa. She was an adorable very bubbly blonde-haired woman. Our assistant server was Bulehmani who was also from South Africa. I ordered the simple fare that night which was chicken. It was honestly one of the best breasts of chicken Ive had in a long time! Or maybe I was just really excited to be there. [IMHO: The meals take a loooooong time. I was getting antsy, and I can't even imagine how kids sit through it!] The dinners are four courses and take 1 ½ to 2 hours. Honestly! You think to yourself, Oh sure, it took 2 hours for THEM, but when I go on my cruise, Ill just eat fast and well just zip on outta there . No, no folks. Its a process. A show. An event. You're locked in. Unless you get seasick I would guess.
Our server was amazing. She honestly could talk to us about everything on the menu, what it was made of, what she recommended, and what the specials were. Im sure after living on a ship for four years and reciting it every week youd get it down, but still, I was amazed. They give you bread first. Clean your tablecloth. Then give you your appetizer. Then clean your table. Then give you your soup/salad. Then clean your table again. Finally the main course comes out! You are pretty starving by then. The dinners are fancy (or at least in my book they were). Fancy = small portions, so dont fret about eating 4 small meals. I had the crème brulee that night which was great. It really tasted better than I imagined on land. Or maybe, again, I was just happy to be there!
After dinner Mike and I strolled along Deck 4. I made an effort to sit in the padded lounge chairs as I had read that they were amazing. Sure enough, we loved them. Mike has a fascination and hobby with ships. Hes a Titanic freak/expert and we have a den in our house devoted to Titanic and all things nautical, right down to the red an green port & starboard lamps. Mike was truly impressed by how elegant the ship was. He really appreciated them putting the padded deck chairs out there just like the classic liners. They were a bit tinier than I had imagined, but still great to lay out on, especially at night with the warm air. Mike noted that this was the most beautiful and cleanest ship hed ever been on. [The crew literally cleans the ship, day and night. They will be out there polishing, welding, painting or sanding something .all day. Its insane.]. We proceeded back to our stateroom and dressed down. We were able to take showers and finally relax! [IMHO: The dual-bathroom idea is brilliant. I mean, we couldve survived nicely with one, but I can see how families can really benefit from them. The shub reminded me of SleepyDog and Ashman.] This was my first time washing my hair with the new H20 products as well. [IMHO: Dont hate me, but I didnt like the smell of the green shampoo. It was a weird combination of lime, seaweed and mint. Very interesting. The conditioner was nice, and the body butter was nice.] We watched a little tv and found our first towel animal, a lobster! (I swore it was frog, oh well.)
The bed was very comfortable! And, oh my gosh! The pillows! They were to die for! Call me crazy but I somehow LOVED the pillows. I wish I couldve swiped my KTTW card and bought them right then and there. They were a perfect combination of down and firmness. I later found two more in the cabinets, so we had a total of five! Also that night, we hung up all of our clothes instantly. [IMHO: I should have packed my Downey Wrinkle Release. I also packed plastic hangers and never ended up needing them, DCL provided enough!] Aside from the closet, there was more than adequate space in the drawers and cabinets all over the room. The steamer trunk held our foldable clothes, and the drawers across from the bathroom/mirror held our socks and pajamas. I remembered reading on here that the closet had a Velcro strip, and sure enough, there it was. I also learned from the DIS to pack a pop-up portable laundry bag. I did, and here it is. Best tip ever! It worked great!
Im pretty sure Mike and I fell asleep fast, because I dont remember much. We kept saying to ourselves, I cant believe were actually here. throughout the day. It really is surreal. You plan and obsess and stare at photos for so long that its such a blur to really be there. Try your best to take it all in!
I'm really enjoying your trip report. This will be my second DCL cruise with my DBF and we do not have children. I love reading other adults trippies sans children.
I love your enthusiasm about his cruise and your embarkation photo is awesome!
Keep it coming!
Btw, everytime I read your husbands name Mike and how he works at the Disney Channel, I sing in my head "Mike's Super Short Show!"
Joining for the fun. We were on the 4/1/06 Magic Eastern and I wrote daily reports but did not link them.
AND FYI DH and I married out of college and planned to have two kiddos 5 or so years later. (He said we'd only have boys ) You did notice my "name"?
WE HAD 4 when I was 29, 31, 35 & 38!! Just last night a bumped into a co-worker I have not known long or well and she asked my about my "grand-daughter" (my youngest was with me, she has just turned 7!).
If your computer has lately asked you to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7, I would do it. It comes with a new "ClearType" feature where it makes fonts on the internet easier to read. I tried it and it really works. I can scan through these pages with less strain on my eyes. It's neat.
Yep, Im thinking right about now that I should have brought a notepad with me to jot down what the heck we did this day. [IMHO: Trip Reporters, bring notepads!]. I believe Mike and I woke up at a decent hour (our body clocks were still on California/Pacific time). We headed down to Lumieres for breakfast. At least, I think it was Lumieres. Darnit I shouldve brought a notepad! Anyway, well just assume it was Lumieres because I remember the service being horrendously slow. Dont get me wrong, it wasnt their fault. Well, maybe it was. Im not sure. I just remember that I couldve gone up to Topsiders, gotten breakfast, eaten it, gotten seconds, then headed back to our room by the time it took us just to get our order taken at the sit-down version of breakfast. Anyhoo, it did take awhile, but we finally had a new server stop by and hand out menus. It was the fanciest little menu for such a simple meal which I thought was cute. I ordered the basic type of breakfast eggs, bacon, sausage and a muffin. The eggs were frothy and displayed in some sort of ice cream scooped ball, the bacon was great and the sausages were really plump and very good. Its not their fault, but scrambled eggs on our last three cruises have been nasty. Dont get me wrong, I still eat them, Im not a picky person. I just dont think they do eggs normally on cruise ships.
Honest to goodness, I dont remember exactly what we did this day, but let me just say that Disney provides a ridiculous amounts of activities to do! On prior cruises, it was a toss-up between the Cigar Club and Needlepoint seriously! On our Alaska cruise, I swear they had Will Making. Disney did a fabulous job of providing activities for all ages that were laid out pretty well in the Navigator. [Tip: Yes, you will need highlighters. I didnt pack one because I thought oh, we dont have kids, we wont need it . but by golly we sure did!] Mike and I must have walked around the ship and explored. I remember walking on the jogging track on Deck 4. When you got to the bow section, it went inside and you could see all the rigging! Mike thought it was nifty and took this photo:
Oh wait a minute, I have all the Navigators here in front of me. A-ha! This may remind me of what we did. Ill be right back <insert cheesy elevator music here> Ohhhhhhh thats right. We played Bingo. Mike and I played Bingo on our last cruise and had a pretty good time. Its clean, wholesome fun if you dont mind dropping $70 a day. . We decided to try it out and bought two of the $35 pack of cards which was good for six games. It is here that we would meet PIKEY. I put his name in all caps so that I could get your attention, ha! [IMHO: Okay, heres my take on Pikey: Yes, I can understand why you all love him because hes a super-energized OCD hyper little English boy. But yes, I can also understand why a small number of you thought he was cocky and annoying. Honestly, I saw both sides of him. Hes great for the cruise line and generally does a great job of stirring up energy.] He was obsessed with bringing back the whooping arm-movement cheer. I had no idea he was that young and that bouncy. I thought he was supposed to be some sort of hunky director that all the DIS women swooned over. [Well get to my hunky section in just a few days ] Bingo was alright. The first 10 times of saying Come on Pickles! got pretty annoying, but it was nice to see that the kiddos liked it. The cards were the same type we used on previous cruise lines. Theyre alright, but you have to physically un-punch them and re-set them game after game. The last few games I played, my numbers were so bent and mangled that I couldnt tell what was popped out and what was bent in. Its hard to explain, but when you cruise youll see! We didnt win at Bingo but its fun to play it just once. Unfortunately, I missed the final Jackpot Bingo which everyone said to play or at least attend.
Mike and I also checked out the two gift stores, Treasure Ketch and Mickeys Mates.
They were both very cute, although I was bummed that they didnt have a good selection of young womens clothing. They had a few glitzy shirts and some polo shirts, but nothing young and trendy. Perhaps it was just the time we sailed because Ive seen photos from other sources that showed neat tank tops inside. I knew that I would eventually build a scrapbook when I got home, so I bought one of the 2007 scrapbook kits. When I went across the hall to Mickeys Mates, I found that they had FIVE different kinds of scrapbooking kits! Apparently I bought the blue one; but there was also a red one, a vintage/Hawaiian-themed Castaway Cay version, and some more. I ended up also buying the vintage-looking Castaway Cay pack because I love that particular look. The gift shops are very cute and worth taking a stroll through. [IMHO: Do NOT go to the gift store at the times that shows in the theater are letting out. Holy moly it is a madhouse. The best time to go is late at night.] Im assuming at this point Mike and I got lunch. Im not sure where it was, but Im positive that it was yummy!
Tonight was formal night, and I was quite surprised that they chose it to be this early in the cruise. I forgot to mention that the day we boarded, I got two of Mikes shirts out to be sent to be dry cleaned but didnt know if I had to call someplace or just leave them in the room. I ended up filling out the little dry cleaning form and ran off somewhere. When we got back to our cabin, the shirts disappeared. Apparently, our room steward saw them and turned them in for us. Yay! Mike and I dressed up and got ready for the pre-dinner show of The Golden Mickeys. The red carpet paparazzi was a nice touch!
Let me tell you that the shows on the ship are FANTASTIC and not to be missed. They honestly are Broadway quality and I would gladly pay a hefty fee to see them. Ive seen pricey froofy events around Los Angeles that didnt hold a candle to how great these were. Dont expect La Boheme or anything, but do remember that these performances go on twice a night on a moving ship! The costumes are great, pyrotechnics and wirework are wonderful and the ability to change sets backstage and under the ground is very impressive. And yes, as many DISers state, I did have a tear in my eye as they relived Walt Disneys achievements in this particular show. The man rocks.
After the show, we had some time to take formal pictures. We ended up not buying them because my hair was crazy and Mike was choking in his stuffy formal shirt. Dinner was in Animators Palate.
It was kinda weird being all dressed up in such an informal looking restaurant! [IMHO: Okay, heres my take on the whole Formal Night dressing up debacle: I saw a small handful of men in tuxs, quite a few in slacks with jackets, most with slacks a shirt and a nice tie, and honest-to-goodness some in Hawaiian shirts. So dont fret about what to pack because its truly a mixed bag.] Mike hates wearing a sport coat and I thought it would bulk up our luggage space and might have been too hot for him to wear so I never packed it. He was worried about being underdressed, but once we walked through the restaurant and saw some kids in t-shirts, we were at ease!
So, when I obsessed and watched my Travel Channel DCL DVDs endlessly, I got the feeling that when you dined in Animators Palate, that the colors changed gradually as the music was cued to your dinner. Apparently not so. [Spoiler Alert!] I guess only one framed picture turns into instant color as the song is played overhead, then it goes off, and another picture somewhere else in the restaurant goes on. You continue eating your dinner, which is fabulous and drool-worthy by the way, and they eventually all start to turn on and the bigscreen TVs change what character is on them as well. Its kind of sad, because our tablemates were more obsessed with watching the room carefully like maniacs than conversing with each other! Finally, youre done with dinner, and youre like, Wheres the wall color?. It is then that the servers disappear and change their vests (or are they reversible?) Theres some fake lightning and a quick 5-minute video on the screens of Disney characters evil and good before the rainbow effect starts. The servers then come out in a clapping parade (note to self: Disney loves clapping-parade dinners) with their new vests on and Sorcerer Mickey appears from some random galley door which brings excitement. It is now that the walls turn on into full color. Its a little weird, but it does the job. I dont quite know where the millions of dollars went in that restaurant, but I had a fun time and enjoyed it.
After you are stuffed to the gills, the servers believe that this is the best time to surprise you with your wedding/anniversary/birthday celebration cake.
They came out with the little square white thing right after we had our desserts! Our server took a piece of the cake and bopped me on the nose with the frosting on purpose. Har har. Our cruise fell a few weeks after our birthdays and a few weeks before our 2nd anniversary, so I just picked a random occasion when I filled out the paperwork a year prior.
Mike was counting down the seconds until he could get out of his formal clothes, so we rushed back to our room and put on the comfy cruise wear. We walked around the deck, which at 10pm was still nice an humid/warm outside. The view of the huge red smokestack with low clouds rolling by was such an awesome sight. They looked like the clouds in the POTC ride at Disneyland! Let me also say that I thought the idea of the ArielVision screen is brilliant. What could be more fun than swimming and watching a movie, or laying out in the warm night air on a lounger watching a movie? It was too cool for words!
I assume we went back to our room, watched a little television and hit the hay. Our first full day was a success!
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. After breakfast we changed into our matching outfits – the baby blue sundress and polo from disneyshopping.com. I bought them in January when they were $12.99! I later saw them priced down to $9.99! I wonder if they have gone up in price now that summer is coming? Mike’s shirt felt a bit scratchy, but my polo dress was cotton and fit perfectly. Phew! The hotel shuttle just happened to be waiting outside and we were off to the airport to catch the 
The lady next to her figured it out, and we were good to go. I looked over and noticed a good 200 people or so in a queue line. “Oh crap, this is going to take forever”. They directed us to Line #10. Apparently there were numerous lines that all looked like one. And they were all going onto different buses and theme parks. Phew! Our line moved quickly and as soon as we got up to the front, the nice lady hooked the rope and said, “Sorry, you’ll be on the next bus”. The couple in front of us was bummed, and without skipping a beat Mike said, “But hey, we get to pick any seat we want!” That cheered them up. And cheered me up. Because any DISer knows that you have to be on the left side to see the smokestacks first! 
I was kinda bummed that all the new porthole-designed buses left, and heaven forbid we were actually going to have to ride in one of the original ones. But the first wave of pixie dust sprinkled down, and in came a brand stinkin’ new DCL bus with the round windows! Woohoo! We marched right onto it. 
I didn’t get the single tear down my cheek like I was imagining, but I was reeeeeeeally excited! I captured it all on film. Ah, the memories.
I forgot to mention that somehow, although I am shocked to admit it, beyond all of my months of uber over-planning, I had forgotton a certain printout from the website check-in that listed both of our names under one KTTW account. I did have a paper that Mike signed, but a Cast Member had to get me a little index card from the tables that we had to re-fill out. I was so embarrassed! How dare I not have the correct paperwork all that time! 
Anyway, we finally got our KTTW cards (Do they all have Donald? Or was that just our category?) and tried to take one last glimpse around the terminal. It was 1:50pm by now and there were no boarding passes (our fault for being too late, I know) and there was no line to get on the ship. We headed over to the large Mickey-eared enterance where we would take our silly-but-fun embarkation photo! 
She was calling out to me and I was looking at her like a deer in headlights. How did she know who I was? What I looked like? Sure I had a door sign up for a whopping 10 minutes by then, but it didnt have photos of me on there. The lady was a psychic! It was exciting to finally meet DIS people. Its funny how the DIS is mostly made up of wives, and the husbands grudgingly roll their eyes. At least the husbands had the same 
We kept saying to ourselves, I cant believe were actually here. throughout the day. It really is surreal. You plan and obsess and stare at photos for so long that its such a blur to really be there. Try your best to take it all in! 
) You did notice my "name"?
Mike and I played Bingo on our last cruise and had a pretty good time. Its clean, wholesome fun if you dont mind dropping $70 a day. 
. We decided to try it out and bought two of the $35 pack of cards which was good for six games. It is here that we would meet PIKEY. I put his name in all caps so that I could get your attention, ha! 
Yay! Mike and I dressed up and got ready for the pre-dinner show of The Golden Mickeys. The red carpet paparazzi was a nice touch!
