Originally Posted By Kala Crew members: pirate wench wannabe: Kala (44) Pirate wannabe and not the computer kind: DH Brian (34) No kids, we ARE the kids! Day 2 - The DCL terminal opens at 10:00 am no sooner, no later. The phone rings, ME:“H-H-Hello?†Oper: “this is your 7 am wake up call. ME: “H-H-Hello?â€...ZZzZZZzzzZZZZZZzzzzzzz DH: “Was that our wake up call? Get up its cruise day!! Bounds out of bed into the shower. ME: “H-H-hello?†oooohhhhhZzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzz |-o DH: “Get up, Get up it’s time to get on the ship! Come on, get in the Shower, get dressed†ME: swatting at the air, “The terminal doesn’t open until 10 am no sooner, no later I read it on the DIS board. DH: Well get up I’ll drop you off, take the rental car back to the budget office down the road then take the shuttle back to the terminal like we did the first time we went. ME: Weren’t you listening the terminal doesn’t open until 10 am, no sooner, no later. It’s different from last time. DH: It will be open, that way we can get a low ticket number and be the First to board!†I get up mumbling, 10 am no sooner, no later…. By 8:30 am we are on the A1A to port Canaveral ME: “Can we stop at Dunkin’ Donuts?†DH: “NO we’ll be late.†ME: “I could go for a chocolate donut and some milk or tea. DH: “NO we’ll eat lots on the ship†ME: grumble, grumble 10 min later we enter the road way to the port, DH enters the driveway to the terminal. DH: “Get out your ID they will check it here, hmmm it looks different from last time. Do you have your ID out yet? Wow look at all the people at the drop off I’m glad we got an early start.“ ME: grumble, grumble Guard: “The DCL terminal doesn’t open until 10 am we can’t let you through yet you have about 1 ½ hrs to go. See you then, I’ll help you turn around, wait a sec while I hold traffic so you can turn around. Bye-bye now. “ DH: “Are all these people waiting to get in the terminal? Can my wife wait here while I return the car?†Guard: “These are returning passengers that are going back home and no your wife cannot wait, we’ve changed the procedure. DH: “okay, thank you.†ME: “10 am no sooner, no later. I read it on the DIS board.†DH: “grumble, grumble†We drive to the budget office to return the car and sit and wait until 10 am the shuttle drivers will not take you until 10 am because the guards won’t let them through. So we sat and waited, talked with other cruisers as they waited with us. DH decides to walk around, then comes back and gets the camera. “Did you see any alligators?†He said “No but I found a sign that says Alligator in the canal!†Close enough. It will look good in the scrapbook. I’m happy. DH knows I’ve forgiven him for getting me up too early and not stopping at Dunkin’ Donuts. Heck it’s cruise day 1 how can I stay mad? The Shuttle appears, the driver jumps out and says who needs a ride to the DCL terminal! YAY!! I think I screamed, “Me, me, me, me!†I think. Once we got to the terminal there are porters, who don’t work for Disney, that will take your bags for a fee. We’ve used them both times with no problems. They are always friendly and very informative. With our bags taken care of and our ID’s checked to make sure we are on the list at the first check point we head to the terminal. There is a security check before you go up the escalators to the check in counter. The first counter you get to is where they check all your documentation to make sure it is filled out and filled out correctly this helps make the check in go smoothly. We get number 4, wow not many people are here how did we get a 4? The person that handed it to us said it is about 5 min. behind 3 and will go quickly. Really I don’t care as long as I get on the ship. This is new from last time. They call your number and you get to board. We go to the Castaway club member’s line because this is our 2nd cruise with Disney we are Castaway club members, everyone gets this after the first cruise. We got a lanyard with 2 pins one to keep and one to trade at check in. SCORE! We got our Key To The World cards, (KTTW), These cards allow you to charge to your room, you need it when you disembark and embark at ports. The I exist card as one person put it. We were set! DH and I were giddy silly at this point, smiling at everything! Little boy kicks seat, so cute, *smile*, little girl spills sippy cup on me while arguing with her sister, such princesses, *smile*. We watch as Sailor Minnie and Goofy pose for pics, *smile*, “Do you mind moving to the other couch so my family can sit togetherâ€, “OH of course notâ€, *smile*. Then they start to announce the boarding numbers, Everyone crowds the big yellow Mickey ears entrance. “Now boarding number 4, 1 – 4†“Excuse meâ€, *smile* “Excuse meâ€, *smile* “They are boarding #4 do you have #4?!†“Why yes, yes we have. Excuse me.†*smile* We enter the gang plank to the ship pass the welcome aboard banners *sigh* We’re here!! We pose for a welcome aboard picture. We walk up to the entrance of the atrium and I hear “Excuse me can I have your last name, oh and you are returning, welcome back!†It’s Pikey! He was here in 2003 I remember that accent! I LOVE Pikey! Is Karen here too?! Before I could ask, the moment we’ve waited 3 years for has arrived, Pikey in his Australian accent announces over the loud speaker: “Welcome back the Dickinson family!†Cast members are lined up on each side of the atrium clapping And welcoming us home. We feel like celebrities. I do my best celebrity red carpet walk and almost fall, stupid cane. Right away we go to the Rocking bar D to make reservations for brunch and high tea at Palo’s that we couldn’t get online. Brunch on Sun. High tea on Mon. yay! By now I’m thinking I need a drink of the day. We look on our daily navigator an activities list you will receive each night in your room for the next day. We see promotional, okay, whatever. As long as it has alcohol. It’s 11:30 am hmmmm maybe we should have lunch first so people on board won’t talk about, “that couple†We go to Parrot Cay for lunch oh I hope they still have the chilled mango soup, I hope, I hope. Yes they do! I drink down several bowls. I don’t know why they bother with bowls a glass would be so much better. The soup is like a mango smoothie, YUM! After lunch we strolled deck 4. I love this deck with those comfy deck chairs that were calling to me. “Kaaaaalllllaaaa come, take a siesta on my padded cushions, let the lull of the waves relax all the stress and tension from you.†It is too much to resist. My knees buckle as I squat into a sitting position above the chair. I hear, “Hey the staterooms are open!†I stand straight up, saying, “later luscious chair of comfort†As I walked away, fast, I swear I heard, “I’ll be waiting for you, I know you cannot resist this, my comfort, forever!†For this cruise we chose the aft end of the ship I wanted to see if I could feel the motion more at this end than the mid ship room we were in the first cruise. No difference. Very little movement even after one night being along the out skirts of the tropical storm Florence. We had a navigator’s veranda. It is a partially closed veranda and reviewed as not so windy. There are 2 bench seats on each side of the veranda very little wind and nice. Our room was glorious we had a gift on our bed for being castaway cay club members, a canvas bag filled with a journal book 2 cups with straws for the drink station yay!, some sun screen, a couple of mesh beach bags, hand wipes, and one of those plastic bracelets, nice! We loved our room 7124! Our luggage hadn’t arrived so we took pictures and explored the secret deck down the hall from us. We used this deck several times and it was almost always empty! It was like having your own private deck! BONUS! The alarm sounded for the mandatory safety drill back to the room to don our boxy orange life vests and we reported to animator’s palette to our meeting place. Nice and air conditioned. Last time we were outside and it was hot! I found out that the aft rooms usually go indoors for their drill. The drill lasts only 10 min. if that! When we got to our room we met our housekeeper, Corine, she was the best and spoiled us rotten the whole cruise! We took off our life vests and headed upstairs to deck 10 for the sail away party! On deck 10 DH ordered us the drinks of the day, strawberry daiquiri/pina colada or something like that, “Would you like an extra shot of vodka?†“Why sure!†glug, glug. We stand along the railing and watch the kids and their families on deck 9 jumping around dancing with the entertainment crew. Mickey, Minnie, Chip n Dale, and goofy joined in and the party had officially started! The music really adds to the excitement you just want to move! Another drink of the day here! Before long we heard the 7 notes of the magic horn “when you wish upon a star†and we were truly on our way. I started crying, as always. “Another drink of the day†I slur to DH. We get the, “that couple’ looks from people around us and I haven’t even started to hula yet. Amateurs. By this time I need to sit. The chairs on Deck 10 are not as comfy as deck 4 but I don’t care I just need to sit. DH wants to walk to the front of the boat. Okay, I need to sit. Before to long I hear someone say, “Drink of the day?†Don’t mind if I do. DH comes back there are 5 plastic hurricane glasses around me. DH: “Geez!†ME: “They aren’t all mine, for goodness sakes, people left them and I want to take them home, free souvies Come on help me get them to the room!†DH: “You are nuts!†ME: “Thank you.†He picks up the glasses. We return to the room take a quick showers to freshen up for dinner. by the time we were ready to go for drinks our suitcases had arrived. (Tip: Take along a change of clothes for dinner just in case your suitcases arrive later. Especially if you have early seating. We had late seating 8:30 pm noted on your kttw our was s3, s=second 3= 3rd rotation.) We lugged them inside then went to the promenade lounge to have another drink, we are on vacation after all, and wait for the welcome aboard show to begin for late seating show time is 6:15 pm for shows and I believe 8:30pm for early seating. Another great production we are on cloud 9. We head off to Lumiere’s for dinner, our dining rotation is LAPLAPL this too is found on the back of the KTTW card. L=Lumiere’s, the more elegant of the three restaurants, A=Animator’s Palette a fun restaurant, P= Parrot Cay a lively restaurant with a tropical motif, we love them all. We try to be on time for dinner because we have tablemates and it would be rude to make them wait. Since it is just the two of us dining DCL will pair you up with tablemates, DH and I always wonder if we will get the non-speaking family, the “Yell a lotsâ€, the tweener who didn’t want to come on a “Disney†cruise, the “Entertain usâ€, family. Oh the horror stories we had heard from other cruisers. On our first cruise our tablemates was a great family from Wales. They were a lot of fun and very interesting. So we were a little nervous as we were being seated we wondered who and if we would get along. Disney comes through again we sat with a wonderful mother/daughter duo from Oregon. Neighbors, cool! They had the best relationship. We looked forward to having dinner with them each night we usually were the last ones to leave the restaurant. Thank you DCL! Dinner was absolutely wonderful, a 4 course meal each night and they change the silverware each time, very fancy schmancy. We love it! We ordered the lush package, I mean the wine pkg. 7 bottles of wine that you one choose each night from their list. Our tablemates didn’t drink so we polished off a bottle a night. *hic* and it was gooood! Full and tired we go back to our stateroom to sleep. We get a call from guest services, “We need to do some work on your veranda on this cruise so we would like to upgrade you to a full veranda a few doors down.†We happy dance all over the room. There is a knock on the door and housekeeping has sent up 3 young men to move our things! They move it to the new room and unpack for us. I am so loving this. I’m thinking this calls for a celebration. Up to Sessions bar we go for a nice night cap, or two. We’ll sleep good tonight. Day 3 - Palo’s brunch food glorious foood.
Originally Posted By Kala Photos from day 2 <a href="http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=4060060&a=32311612&vt=vp" target="_blank">http://albums.photo.epson.com/ j/AlbumIndex?u=4060060&a=32311612&vt=vp</a>
Originally Posted By Lisann22 LOL - great reports Kala. I'm pretty sure I'd have been right there with ya on the "drink of the day."
Originally Posted By MickeyMark Great reports so far, Kala! Awesome pictures. Keep 'em coming. 44 days until we are there. You are helping us feel as if we are there already. MM
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb OH the jealousy! I swear my complection is getting greener the more I read of your reports.
Originally Posted By TiggerPooh1973 Great report Kala....you are making me feel bad for not having written mine yet! And I was right there with ya all 10 days of our cruise with the Drink of the Day!
Originally Posted By MsLindanne Great report Kala!! I feel like I am there all over again!! Wow!!! We've just taken one Disney cruise but cruise #2 is coming up in May, 2007, so now I am really excited!!!!! Can't wait to go look at your pictures!!!! º0º
Originally Posted By Kala Thanks for reading all! Mickey Mark and MsLindanne I'm excited for your trips too remember to come back and do a trip report! jnemo I hope you do take a dcl cruise. It is truly magical! There is that rumor about a ship coming to the west coast. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Lisann22 I thought of you every day, truly I did. Tiggerpooh, Cheers! I so wish I could have done a 10 day, lucky duck! I'm working on the rest of the report. The pics are so slow at uploading though. Stay tuned.
Originally Posted By quincytoo Great trip reporting here Kala I am so enjoying this Lisa If you imagine really hard I swear you can see the back of your head in Photo 20..
