Today was an early morning- I got up at 6:00 to get ready and then start packing me and the kids. Matt was up at 7 and everyone was ready and packed by 8:00. We headed down to get breakfast and then at 9:00 we were on the road back to LAX.
We took a slight detour to get Starbucks and I successfully navigated Matt out of our hotel past Ball Road and Disney Way (Sarah will know how troublesome this intersection is!) and onto harbor to the Starbucks down the road all with no maps or phone use! For me this is a big deal. I can get lost in a parking lot- no joke! After fueling up with caffeine we headed out of Anaheim and onto the freeway and P immediately got car sick again. She fell asleep though which helped and didn’t wake up until we were getting gas by the airport. We returned our car and hopped on the shuttle to LAX within about 10 minutes time and we walked over to the Disney Cruise kiosk set up by Delta baggage claim. We checked in and were told our bus would be on the way. At this time Matt realized that he still had the rental car keys. Within the next few minutes our bus came, Matt tried to call the rental car place, and then flagged down the shuttle for them and they took the keys (yay!) and we boarded our bus. We were on our way to San Pedro port!
About a half an hour later our ship came into view and all the little kids on the bus got excited. We got into the port, went through the return cruiser line within about 10-15 minutes and then went through security , which is very similar to security in a courthouse. We then were given a boarding number (25) and they had just started boarding numbers 1-3. Matt and I figured we would be waiting a really long time, but they started calling numbers every1-2 minutes so it went by really fast. Before we knew it, we were boarding the boat!
The very first thing after announcing our name when we walked in was instruction to go up to the buffet on deck 9 for lunch. We brought our carry ons (a backpack with wine, and a bag of bottled water plus paperwork and P’s doll) and headed up to snag a table. This was prob the most crowded I have ever seen a cruise. When staterooms aren’t open, activities aren’t going on and everyone is hungry- it makes for very long buffet lines. Esp considering we took shifts (I took P while Matt/Aidan guarded the table then we switched). The food was really good though, and we braved the wind outside (though it was really sunny).
When we got done eating it was 2:03, and we headed down to see our staterooms. We had booked two connecting rooms- 1 room for Matt and I, and one for the kids. We propped the doors open between them which made the two rooms more like one big suite. Considering each stateroom is about 184 sq ft we needed all the room we could for two adults and two big kids. We also now had 4 half bathrooms which would make getting ready in the mornings a breeze and such a time saver. Each room has a queen bed that can be converted into twin beds which made it so the kids didn’t have to share a bed either which made them happy.
After getting settled in we explored the ship a bit and before we knew it, it was time for our first dinner in the main dining rooms. There are three dining rooms- Animators Palate, Parrot Cay and Tritons. You rotate through them (and repeat for longer cruises) and your two servers (one for drinks, one for food) rotate with you so you always have the same staff. It makes getting to know your likes/dislikes/allergies, etc really handy. Tonight we were in Animators Palate- a restaurant that starts in black and white (the walls, pictures, etc) and slowly changes to color over the course of the hour and a half (yes dinners are that long!). The kids really loved this restaurant our last cruise so they were happy to start our rotation there.
There was no main broadway type show tonight- just some juggling/comedy act that we skipped. I got the kids their kids clubs wristbands and I checked Aidan into the club and showed Piper around hers for awhile. She wanted to go in the hot tub up on the pool deck but she was really tired (it was after 8:00 at this point) so I brought her back to the room and gave her a bath and got her tucked into bed. We got Aidan out of the club and brought him back to wind down a bit as well. Both kids are in bed watching tv and I am totally exhausted. We didn’t do much today but it was draining. Hopefully tomorrow will be more relaxing! We are starting the day with a character breakfast and we hope to do a tasting of some sort too.
PHOTOS FROM TODAY # 1-3 are at:
That stupid intersection! Glad you & Matt had better luck with it than we did. Although you and I did do better with it the second time we were there - give me one more trip and I'll have it down :)
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