Dreaming of Magic 10/18/08; Part III
The “Adventures Away Party“ broke up, and we returned to our stateroom for a break before dinner. We had the 6:00pm dinner time. We, of course went straight to the veranda and watched as the ship maneuvered down the channel towards the ocean. We were on the starboard side of the ship so we saw the park and beach at the point where the channel meets the ocean. We were taken with how most of the fishing and pleasure boats were waving to us as we left. We were joining in and waving back, of course. I had the camcorder out and was taking video almost exclusively and never thought to pick up the still camera except for the one shot at the end of the last update. I had the camcorder on most of the way to the point. As we approached the park, DW commented on all the people gathered on the shore, it was like they were there just to see us off, and we waved and called out “bye” to them and some of them waved and called out to us.
Now, here is a disappointingly, funny aside. I LOVE Passporter. I fell in love with it when I first found it a couple of months before our WDW trip in 2005. I joined this forum back then and made 1 or 2 posts. Then everything was forgotten till we started to dream about this cruise. Well, I knew we had to get the updated Passporters, and I had to get on these boards and find out everything I could about DCL! I started posting and reading as many TRs as I could, especially the ones about the DCL Western Caribbean cruises, but many others, too. I learned a LOT!! And, without really meaning to, I began to feel a closeness, almost a friendship forming (in my mind, anyway) with many of you that really extends to all who would call themselves “Passporters”. OK, this is nothing new, I know. Friendships are happening all the time from internet forums like this…. I met my wife on the internet for goodness sake! I know, I know, but I had to explain that mushy stuff, so you can fully appreciate this part of the story. I have been following Amy’s (iamgrumpy) TRs for several months. She and her Mom moved to Florida and Amy has been meeting up with Passporters on vacation and in the area in informal meets while she gets adjusted to her new life. A few weeks ago, I was telling DW that Amy and her Mom had gone to Port Canaveral to see the Disney Ship leaving. Some of the Passporters were on the ship that day and they went down to see them off. So, as we get closer to the park, Brenda comments on how impressed she is with all the people saying “goodbye” to the Disney Ship! She said, “wouldn’t it be funny if Amy was over there saying goodbye to us?” I said that I wasn’t that big of a presence here on the boards and I didn’t think she would be there with us in mind, anyway. I have dubbed this THE highlight of my trip, when I came home and got on the boards and found out that Amy and her Mother had gone to the Port that day to see the Magic and Kenny set sail. At, probably, about the same time Brenda made her comment about Amy watching us, Amy’s Mom was telling her “they can’t hear you all the way out there!” Actually, we did hear people calling out to us! I should have arranged a meet before the cruise. That meant a lot to me, and just goes to show what a great group Passporters are, and what a great person Amy is! I grabbed one of her pictures (with her permission, of course) to show you our veranda.
Soon we had left the channel and were in the open sea. I took a picture of the shower bathroom.
The split baths are a great feature! I was afraid the water system wouldn’t be very good, but, boy, was I wrong! The water pressure and temperature is very good! We put up our door decorations
It was time to get ready for dinner at 6pm. Tonight we had Parrot Cay. We were led to table #55 where we met our tablemates, a couple from Annapolis, Maryland, and a couple from Knoxville, Tennessee. They were about our age. I introduced us and then we met our head server, Godwin, from India, and Marko, from Serbia. Our drink orders were taken. The conversation was slow to start, but by the time we finished the first course, we were getting along fine. It was very noisy and hard to hear everyone around the table, but we managed to have a pleasant dinner. Both of the other couples had cruised Disney before, the folks from Annapolis, many times. They told us that they don’t usually come to dinner except the first and last nights of the cruise. We never saw them again after that first night. The couple from Knoxville, Keith and Marilyn (of whom you will hear a lot more about), were at dinner every night except formal night. So, we missed them two nights, our Palo night (Wed) and formal night (Mon). By the end of the cruise we were lifelong friends promising to stay in touch and exchanging email addresses.
We were not hungry! We had just eaten the buffet about three hours before and were just not hungry at all. But, I decided torture was the best cure for the “not hungrys” and ordered fruit salad and beef tenderloin. DW was more practical (did I mention she’s from New England?) and just had the onion soup and fruit salad. I had dessert, some kind of crème brule, I don’t remember now. It was all good.
After dinner we found Mickey’s Mates and Treasure Ketch, the two stores onboard and shopped a bit till showtime.
Our showtime was 8:30pm, so we made our way to the Walt Disney Theater a little before that and found seats in the back. We didn’t want to go too far down because Brenda has a hard time climbing stairs these days. (We asked the ushers after the first night and they took us down to deck 3 and through one of the lounges to the first rows on the left.) The show tonight was “All Aboard! Let The Magic Begin!” We loved the show! It started with a little skit of a family going on a cruise, and then had sneak peeks of the hypnotist, Ricky Kalmon and the musical comedy of John Charles. The “Disney Magic Performers” are very good and we enjoyed their shows all week!
After the show, we went back to our stateroom. Tonight’s towel animal was a swan.
Brenda was hungry by now, so she wanted to order room service…. but she didn’t want to eat alone! So…. Being the good husband that I am, I picked up the phone and ordered a cheeseburger and fries for her and a hot dog and fries for me with a pot of coffee for us. We had brought a bottle of Carolan’s Irish Cream (like Bailey’s only cheaper, but as good or better!) onboard. When the food arrived, we took it out on the veranda. We relaxed out there till about 12:30am, and then finally went to bed.
We were so overwhelmed by the whole day! We were confused a lot. I’m glad you can make your reservations online, now. I don’t even want to imagine what it must have been like to have to run around for Palo, excursion, spa, and kids’ club reservations when you first got on board! Every time we stopped to get our bearings, it seemed like we had to get ready to go somewhere else! This is not a bad thing. We had a very magical first day! We were exhausted, and I was “stuffed to the gills!” I think we were the happiest couple on the ocean that day…. The happiest in stateroom #6600, anyway!
