Two Years of Waiting----& It's FINALLY Here!!

I kind of wish this picture (taken with my phone) that I took when we woke up this morning had turned out better (and those darn sky scrapers weren't blocking our view LOL)....but this is, indeed, what we woke up to: an amazing sunrise in a nearly perfect sky over a beautiful, calm, blue, glassy sea-----a PERFECT day to board the Disney Magic (for those who don't already know, that is the name of the ship we'll be spending the next 24 nights on)!!

It's about 8am here in Barcelona.  We've been awake for about 45 minutes getting ready for the beginning of the most exciting phase of our vacation. Our things are all packed and ready to go.  Our suitcases are all lined up next to the hotel room door waiting to be picked up----they look like Disney park-goers waiting in line for Splash Mountain!! LOL












It's so wonderful to see our bags sitting there with that familiar green luggage tag on the handle......
.....the tag that can only mean that it's almost time to get on a Disney ship!!!


 Our carry-on bag is already packed, too, (& it's LIGHT for a change, I might add!) with just the essentials----paperwork, sunscreen, bathing suits, and medications.....plus other important items we know we want as soon as we board the ship:  our door magnets (gotta start to decorate that door the second we get on the ship! LOL), the lanyards & name badges we have for approximately 30 of our fellow cruisers who are also sailing on both cruises back-to-back with us (those of you who are not joining us until the TransAtlantic portion of the trip on the 18th will have to wait to get yours---although I'm certain if you keep up with this blog over the next 10 days, you'll get at least a sneak peek at the lanyards since we will be wearing them in many of our pictures! LOL) and our fish extender to be hung the second we get to our room, as well!!

Note:  I don't know if I've talked about this on this blog yet, but a "fish extender" is something thought up by a fellow Disney Cruise friend of ours named Deb a few years ago----outside every cabin door there is a metal fish-shaped clip that DCL uses to hold "mail" and documents and things throughout the cruise----a "fish extender" does exactly what it sounds like....it extends your fish!  It's basically a hanging organizer in which your fellow DIS friends can leave little gifts for you throughout the cruise.  I like to think of it as a Christmas stocking for Disney cruising!!  It's another fun tradition to socialize with your fellow cruiser.  Here is a pic our new fish extender which I made for this cruise and which features our two favorite characters: Tigger & Roo!! (Never one to do anything halfway----our fish extender also features a bulletin board and magnetic wipe board & marker LOL)

OK...so now it's 8:30am here in Barcelona.  They should be picking up our luggage any minute and then we can grab breakfast and our shuttle picks us up to take us to the ship at 11:15.  The bad thing?  I already know the next 3 hours is going to rag on like 3 days!!! LOL  (Now here's just hoping that the 24 days that follow that don't fly by like 24 minutes!!! *wink*

"See" you all on the ship!!