Cast:

Me - 35 - #1disneyfan
DH - 41 - had his birthday this trip
DD - 12 - turning into a very nervous traveler!

Plans:

5 Nights Poly
4 Nights Disney Wonder


Day 7 - Breakfast with family and off to the Cruise!

So today was a day of huge mixed emotions. My DD and I were really sad to be leaving my DN behind, but we were excited to be going on our first cruise. For a bit of background, my sister and BIL live in Texas since that is where my BIL is stationed. My DN, Ethan, has been living with my mom for the past year. Well just this past month he moved out to Texas to be with his parents. And since my sister and I have a very strained relationship, we don't get to speak to him on a daily basis on the phone anymore. I am hoping to go out to visit sometime next spring with my mom. We'll see! Anyway I have to move on as I am getting choked up writing about this.

ANYWAY! We met my family at Captain Hooks for breakfast. We didn't want to do a big sitdown breakfast because we wanted to have some time together prior to leaving. So after breakfast we strolled along the beach and Ethan and our DD laid in the hammocks together. We got such cute pics of them both! After walking around for a little while, we were saying our emotional goodbyes, to which my DD was hysterically crying. It was very tough to say goodbye. So we reluctantly boarded the bus. I have to say that I honestly would have rather stayed in Disney 5 more days with him.

Luckily we had a little over an hour drive to the port, so this allowed DD and I time to gather our emotions and get ourselves in cruise mode. Well once DD saw that huge ship in the distance, tears turned into excitement! Our transition from the bus to the boat was incredibly smooth. We walked in and were surprised by the family announcements. We felt so honored! So with our daybag in hand, we were off to the buffet lunch. We ate at Beach Blanket Buffet and enjoyed the views of NASA in the distance. Once our bellies were happy we were off to find our room, 6582. The room was great! We were sitting in port, facing the road. So after much tugging at the door, we finally were able to step out onto the verandah and watch the luggage being loaded onto the ship. We also saw a Manatee swimming near the ship. That was really cool since we have never seen one outside of captivity.

We explored the ship a bit and then headed up to Deck 9 to get ready for the Sail Away party and to wave to everyone on shore as we...well sailed away! That was a great party! We all had special drinks and our little streamers to wave. It was a lot of fun and a great pick-me-up after our emotional morning.

It was very neat to watch the other ships leave ahead of us and watch them sailing in the distance. We had a Royal Caribbean and a Carnival Cruise in front of us. In fact we saw the Carnival boat in port at the Bahamas with us and at the return port, but not the Royal.

Once we were sailing we headed to the Golden Mickeys. This would be our only show, as DD couldn't stand the motion in the theater. After the show we headed back to our rooms to unpack and for dinner. Our first night was at Parrot Cay. We were seated with a very nice family from Cape May, NJ, not too far from our hometown. We however did not make it through dinner as DD, again, could not handle the motion. So DD and I left DH and went out for a walk, watched a little Disney Channel on the HUGE TV on deck 9, and enjoyed just sitting on the verandah. I would never do another cruise without one. We used that quite often! We later ordered room service so she could have something to eat. This would prove to be a nightly occurrence.

We were exhausted and hit the bed around midnight.

Up Next...Day 2 on the ship and a great day in Castaway Cay.