Amazing Cruise Adenture Day 1: ALL ABOARD!!!

 (Note:  Sorry this post is late....it is now Thursday morning here on the ship but last night as I was trying to upload all the images in this....after 1am...blogspot actually went down on me and I ended up being up until after 2am fighting with it and using up my internet minutes and couldn't get it to work...so had to get up early and hope it was fixed this morning...which it was....I hope you all appreciate my dedication to my loyal readers!! LOL)

Well we're aboard the ship and Day 1 is coming to a close.  Our main image here is our door mini-magnet for the day.  If you recall my previous post about door magnets, you'll remember that we created one large main magnet that surrounds our stateroom number door-sign and creates a "frame" for a separate mini-magnet for each day of the cruise.  From this point forward, the main image for each blog will be the magnet-o-the day....so you'll have to imagine that magnet within the larger one on our door and then also imagine all 24 of them getting scattered along the lower portion of our door as the cruise proceeds, as well!

Anyhow....today was a very eventful day...lots to do but a great day! (And it's late now and I probably should go to bed....but just for all you loyal readers I am staying up to post a blog....thank heavens tomorrow is a sea day and we can sleep in a little bit! *wink*).  So on today's agenda was to get to the ship, board the ship, meet the Adventures by Disney guides, do the safety drill, hand out lanyards to our fellow back-to-back cruisers (there are about 30 of us who ordered lanyards....and then at least a dozen more we met who are B2B but who opted out of lanyards), and then also have dinner and enjoy ourselves, as well!!

This is a picture of Jason in the beautiful lobby of our hotel waiting for the bus to arrive and pick us up to take us to the boat.  Once we got to the lobby there was quite a group gathered.  I'd say there were about 20 or so folks who all stayed at our hotel last night and were on the bus this morning and we were all ready to jump on that bus and get to the ship.  We got to chat with a bunch of other great cruisers on the ride over, many of whom are also B2B cruisers, ironically.   Of course, for those of us who are avid fans of cruising with Disney, we know there is nothing quite like that feeling when you turn the corner and get your first glimpse of the ship out of your car/bus window.  It literally puts me on the verge of tears I get so excited!!!  Here are some pics we took from the bus when we first turned the corner and then as we got closer:

Once we got into the port, the fact that we did the hotel check-in ended up being AMAZING....because all we had to do was put our carry-on bag through the metal detectors and then we took one picture with Minnie Mouse (which was taken by ship photographers and we won't get a copy of that on CD until after the cruise ends) and then we got to get right on the ship!!  We've never ever boarded without any wait in the port at all before....it was kind of cool!!  Here are some pics we took while actually boarding the ship:

Me---visibly giddy (& goofy-looking) boarding the ship.

Me & Jason just as we are about to cross the gangway onto the ship (taken by a nice couple standing behind us in line)

Once aboard the ship we had lunch and we met one our Adventure Guides (but I'll talk more about that in a bit) and we walked around and tried to find as many people to give lanyards to as possible.  We ended up finding almost everyone we had lanyards for on this cruise....which I was kind of pleased with because on the later TransAtlantic cruise when we have 270 lanyards to hand out, we set a time and place to do that.....for this one, I had only 30 so I played it way more loosey goosey and just went to people's rooms, bumped into them around the ship...and some people even saw and recognized us and ran over to get theirs!  All of this happened before we could actually get into our cabin.  Once they let us into our cabin we had to get to the serious business:  hanging fish extender and putting up door magnets!! LOL

Door---BEFORE magnets & fish extender (Doesn't it look sad & lonely?!)

Door--AFTER magnet(s) & fish extender (Now tell me that isn't worlds better?!? LOL)

I know our "AFTER" picture isn't that dramatic a change...but we decided not to make too many more magnets early on because we want to fill up the bottom with the 24 daily magnets.  The three magnets you see at the top of our door will be recognizable to people who have cruised with us before:   the one on the left is a "my" magnet and has my name and is decorated with Tiggers (my fave character) and the one on the right is "Jason's" magnet and has his pic and name and a bunch of Roos (his favorite character) and the middle picture is a picture of us together from a previous cruise with tinkerbell inside a frame that says "Disney Fairies".....well...because we're disney fairies (*wink wink*), of course! LOL

So then it was time for the safety drill.  I always take a picture of Jason in his life vest----because he hates it....so here it is LOL

Is this life vest flattering on ANYONE?!  Thank heavens we only have to wear it for 15 minutes! (Knock on wood!! LOL)

 ....and then it was time for the Sail Away party.  All the cruisers gather up on Deck 9 by the pool for song and dance and confetti and to meet the cruise staff.  It's very upbeat and fun and always a favorite moment for me....it's when the cruise feels like it's actually starting.  It's also when they first play the ship's signature horn---which for people who haven't cruised with Disney before is the opening notes from "When You Wish Upon a Star."  Any avid Disney cruiser who can hear that and not get goosebumps (if not actually tear up like me----geez, I'm gay! LOL) must have a heart of stone!   Here are some pics of Sail Away Party:

Jason at the deck party---with cruise staff dancing in background on the stage and big overhead screen.

Disney Characters at the Sail Away Celebration (as seen on big screen) just as the horn blows and confetti explodes.

Right after that we went to our first meeting for Adventures by Disney.  Now, we had met one of our guides earlier in the afternoon on the ship.  Her name is Robyn----and apparently our reputations precede us (always a bit intimidating) because even though we were the first couple to walk into the room where she was waiting for folks, she said "you must be Erik and Jason"----now I'm sure it's partly because we're the only couple of two men doing the Adventures package together...but apparently there was  ANOTHER couple on her last cruise who had told her all about having seen me posting online (at the blog of another online friend named "sayhello" who did this same vacation earlier this summer) about how excited we were to do the Adventures by Disney package and so she knew we were coming!  (By the way....sayhello....Robyn and Tina "say hello" LOL)  Anyhow, Robyn is FAAABULOUS! She is so upbeat and fun.  We talked to her forever.  If our experience on this trip is in any reflected/predicted by her personality....I think we're in for a real treat!!   We didn't meet our other guide, Tina, until we were actually at the meeting on the ship later in the afternoon....but she is equally wonderful and we were really happy to spend time with both of them and to meet all the other people doing the package, as well, who we'll be spending the next 10 days exploring the Med with!  At the meeting they served us a very nice & fancy little buffet.  Here's a pic of it----it was lots of seafood, which I don't eat, but the best part was the beautiful ice sculpture of the eiffel tower (which was ironic since our package takes us nowhere near Paris...but I guess it's easier to sculpt than the Colliseum! LOL):

I won't post in great detail everything they went over with us....but it was mainly an introduction of everyone in the room and then a quick run down of how things work.  (We tried to get a good picture of at least our guides, but none of them turned out so we will have to corner them tomorrow to get one!) We're in a really nice group of folks.  Mostly all adults....lots of experienced cruisers....several back to back cruisers....people from all over...lots of DVC folks.  We're really psyched for the adventure!   One of the perks of doing Adventures by Disney is that you get little gifts (pictured below).  When you first check in everyone gets an Adventures by Disney backpack and then when you arrive at your room they have left you a case of bottled water (which you otherwise would have to buy) and some MORE gifts....like the collapsible Adventures by Disney duffle bag and the pair of binoculars in an Adventures by Disney carrying case.  At the meeting they also told us that for each phase of our adventure we will get a new limited edition Disney pin so they gave us a little pin pouch and our first pin today, too!

Those weren't the only goodies we received today though.....it was like Christmas at our stateroom!! LOL  Because we're "Gold Castaway Club Members" (meaning we've cruised with DCL more than five times before) there was a special gift in our stateroom...another bag, two really nice metal souvenir water bottles, two rice krispy treats in the shape of flip flops and a DCL keychain...PLUS a new zipping leather wallet/credit card holder, set of DCL postcards and luggage strap.  Then, because we're Disney Vacation Club (DVC) members...we got ANOTHER gift:  a really nice wooden jewelry box and a set of DVC lanyards (which we won't use since our own custom lanyards are way cooler....but it's the thought that counts, right? LOL).  Here are pics of all our booty (hey, we're at sea, right? we can use pirate lingo here! LOL) for the day:

Our Castaway Club Booty

Castaway Club Gifts---Round 2

DVC Member gifts

I couldn't close this post, which I need to do soon so I can get to bed----Jason is literally sitting in bed saying "are you ever gonna finish and come to bed?!" LOL-----without mentioning dinner and our fabulous table-mates.  I know we're only into night one, but we can already tell that our dinner plans have worked out great.  Usually when we cruise, we are with some of our dearest Disney friends and sit with them (you all know who you are-----Hadley & family, Chris & Rob, Sandi & family) but sadly none of them are on this cruise (and most are not on the next cruise, either (*frown*).  So that left us wondering what we would do for meals....since being assigned to eat with random strangers has not worked out very well for us in the past.  So we started looking for acquaintances from the DISBoards who were also doing both cruises and might be interested in sitting together for this 24 night adventure----and we luckily had 4 volunteers!   We are "Table 8" and our tablemates-----Johanna, Kimberly, Michelle & Jim----are all super cool and friendly (and I'm supposed to give a shout out to Kimberly's mother who, apparently, is reading these blogs! LOL).   Dinner also worked out well because, as usual, our travel agent Doris has pulled through again.  We had several special requests for dining on this trip.....we wanted to have the same server team (I'll "introduce" you to them and a bit more about our dinner-mates in a later blog...this one is getting long enough) for the whole trip AND we wanted to be in the same dining rotation as all the Adventures by Disney folks (who normally get assigned to eat together, but because we're doing the B2B we wanted to make our own dinner plans).  Well....Doris came through and we DID get the same servers for the whole trip AND we're at the tables NEXT TO the Adventures by Disney folks...so we get the best of all worlds!!  THANK YOU DORIS!!! :)

Today's towel animal, wearing Jason's sunglasses.

OK...so it's time to really close this blog...and I'll do it with two images.  On Disney ships (and many other cruise lines, I hear, too) there is a tradition that when you come to your stateroom after dinner for the night, your stateroom host has made you a "towel animal" in your room as a cute decoration.  (And our stateroom hostess, Vangie, rocks, too!  She is already our favorite hostess we have EVER had because she's already gone out of her way to help us out and show us some Disney Magic!!)  So I'll post a picture of each day's towel animal......AND....you'll remember that another of my and Jason's personal traditions is what we wear to dinner----our Disney themed outfits.  So we'll post pics of that every night, too.  (Unfortunately, tonight, we were so wrapped up in dinner conversation we forgot to have any pictures taken of us WEARING our ties...but I'm posting a picture of the ties themselves here so you get the idea! LOL)

Ties  from our first night's dinner.

OK boys and girls.....that's all for tonight....time for bed....tomorrow a day at sea!