I'm on a boat!

The day finally came for our first cruise! We had had a great time at Disney World and visiting my brother - but I was VERY excited about the cruise. Originally I had priced other cruise lines as Disney Cruise Lines is notorious for being VERY pricey(like double Carnial/Royal Carribean). In the end I found that for September (hurricane season) the price was pretty comparable no matter who you went with - so of course - we went with the mouse. With Keith being in school September was really our only option - so we had to take the chance on a hurricane. We lucked out - the weather was AMAZING. In fact it didn't rain *a drop* until we were getting off the boat. We didn't even get any of the afternoon showers that Florida is known for while we were at WDW!

We stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge the night before our cruise - so we had an early wakeup. My brother was going to drop us off and then head back to Orlando. The cruise terminal is about an hour away from Disney World and I wanted to get there early! I had read that updgrades could be done at the terminal for much cheaper than ahead of time - but it was first come first served. The terminal opened around 10 - so I planned to arrive at about 9:45.

There's our boat!!!


We pulled up to the drop-off zone and unloaded our luggage. Luckily they have porters - so I didn't see our luggage again until it was delivered to our room later in the afternoon! I brought a lot of stuff - I was happy not to have to deal with it! We got in line to go through security and soon we were on our way to check in. I was surprised - security was as tight on the boat as the airport! We quickly got checked in and then headed to the supervisors desk to check about an upgrade! We were already in a Category 4 room, with a balcony - so our only upgrade would be to a suite. They had plenty available - but I wasn't willing to pay the $$$ they wanted - so we happily stayed with the room we had. I guess getting up so early wasn't really necessary.....

Once we got checked in we had PLENTY (several hours) to look around the terminal before we could board the ship. It isn't a very big space, so they have character visits and Disney movies playing to keep the kids (and adults) from getting TOO restless.

One advantage of our early arrival was that we had an early boarding number! We were in Group 2 which is right after the concierge guests. I think we boarded about noon - but I hadn't paid attention to a clock in days - so I can't be sure! Once we were on the ship we were off to lunch. Our room wouldn't be ready until about 1:30 so we had some time to kill. Again - Disney is a master of getting the maximum amount of $$$ - those ships do not sit at ALL. A cruise had just ended that morning - so they were cleaning rooms and getting everything back in order.

Lunch was pretty standard buffet fair - with a lot of seafood mixed in. After lunch I wanted to tour the spa - so we headed there. Honestly - I wasn't impressed - the spa itself was nice, but they spent the whole tour pressuring us into booking with them! After escaping that it was about 1:30 so time to see our room (or cabin - I guess that is what it is on a ship).

We were a little apprehensive as we had heard all kinds of stories about how cramped and tiny cruise ship cabins are. We were pleasantly surprised - LOTS of room! Now if we had filled it to capacity (5 people) I doubt I would have felt the same way - but for 2 us it was plenty!






I got right to work decorating our door. We had signed up for a gift exchange with people from a boards online - so that is what the red "Cruising with Mickey" is - pockets to put gifts in! It was a very cool exchange. The point wasn't to spend a lot of money - but to get to know other people and where they came from! Not only were the decorations cool to look at - but we also never walked past our door! I also loved hearing the kids walk past and yell "MICKEY"

Soon after we had made it to our room was time for the mandatory life-boat drill. They take this very seriously and they will HUNT you down if you don't show up! I had read online that this was the case so we grabbed our life jackets and headed to our station - we didn't want them looking for us!



There certainly was ALWAYS something going on - and right after the life boat drill came the sail away party. At this point we were still docked - but would be leaving very soon! We did watch 2 other ships leave a few mintues before we did - which was pretty neat. They were headed in the same general direction so we could see their lights for most of the night!




As we were pulling away the Disney employees at the terminal donned some Mickey gloves and waved us off!




I didn't take anymore pictures that first day - but after the party we headed for the evening show and then dinner. We had "late" dinner so we ate around 8:15 each evening.

Up next - waking up in the Bahamas!