Disney Cruise...IT'S FINALLY HERE!! DAY 1

At some point I must have drifted back off to sleep because the phone rings and it is our wake up call. We of course have a back up wake up call in 15 minutes but there is no need the little hotel room is bursting with excitment. On our way home the night before from Sea World we stopped at a gas station and bought breakfast because who wants to waste time ordering breakfast when a big ship with large black ears awaits you. So we ate cereal and gathered up all the luggage and put our special Disney tags on and set them outside the door. A Disney "guy" as Laney called it would come pick up all our bags and they would go directly to our stateroom on the ship. We headed downstairs to check in. I of course was EXTREMELY anal about our paperwork. I had a copy of everyones birth certificate and our military id's and Paul had a copy of everyones birth certificate with our driver's licenses (wanted to have backups because everyone knows if one is going to be lost it will be moms and there I would be waving goodbye to my family from the terminal....No way not happening!!) I think I only made him check it about 15 times. But Paul was a trooper and never complained and would just check again. There was no way Mickey was leaving without Team Marien (and especially MOM...this was her drewam vacation too)! We checked in and headed to our bus. The kids were beyond excited and Delaney had already made a friend and they sat together on the bus :) It was about a 50 minute ride to the port and we go over a bridge and all the sudden there it is the "Disney Magic"! Everyone on the bus starts cheering. It was awesome! We went inside the terminal and we made it through check in (WHEW!!) and then it was time to wait. We got there about 10:30 and check in super quick (Disney knows what they are doing) and boarding was going to begin at 11:45. They had lots of tv's and cartoons running so the kids didn't mind and there was a big model of our ship. A friend came out to visit and Delaney got her very first picture! Then it was time! They began boarding by group number. It was going to be a full ship (3,000)...Even in November! We were group six and the kids were so excited to get on the ship not to mention we were all hungry. That cereal didn't really do the trick. Did they just say six...Drew yells from the tv area..."Come on mom it's our turn...Let's move it!" We made it! I never thought this day would come. We are on the ship and they herd everyone to two of the restaurants for lunch! It was of course an awesome buffet but the best part had to be seeing Jared's eyes. Food as far as you could see and 15 desserts to chose from. It was an eleven year old's "happy place!" We ate overlooking the water then headed out to check out the ship. They let us know that our rooms would be ready by 1:30 so we checked the ship out and here are a few of the pictures.This is the very top deck "10"...The whole ship was beautiful to say the least. Here are some picutres of the main lobby. The whole ship was decorated for Christmas! These are pictures of the rights side with the tree and staircase and the left with the staircase where the characters would visit all day long...
Here is a picture of the view...If you squint your eyes you can see the NASA launch pad (that was pretty cool....more pictures of the ship to come in the next posts...it would overwhelm you with awesomeness if I did it all at once :) )

We checked out the whole ship and made reservations for a couples massage and dinner in the adult exclusive "Palo" the ships five star restaurant. Then it was time to go to the staterooms. Yes, that was plural we had two...Kids were already heading up to the pool and we were of course one of those families. Here is our two staterooms (we had adjoining room which was awesome! The kids had their room and we had ours. Just a little info on the staterooms...First of all they were HUGE...For those of you who know cruise ships these are so big! The couch turns into a bottom bunk bed and if you look straight above the couch you will see a white metal outlined. That is the top bunk and each night while you are out they would set up the kids room with the bunk beds!! It was so great!
Here is the other side of the view. They had a ton of drawers and closet space and they had 20 or so hangers...so much better than the normal 2 you get. On the left of this picture you have a shower with a sink and then another seperate bathroom and of course the fruit plate which was a constant in our room for snacks...Yum!! Our luggage was due in the room by 4:30 so enough time to get ready for the night of fun ahead.
The pool was calling our name as was the 24 hour ice cream! There were 3 pools up top...The Mickey Pool was only 2 feet deep and for all kids....then there was the goofy pool (Drew's favorite) it had two jacuzzis, the rectangular pool and then a huge TV screen...then there was the adult only pool (one of my many happy places) but we will get to that later.

So now it is the time for the favorite part of the day. The safety brief and lifejackets! Drew did not want a picture of them looking like little bobble heads but it was not an option because I am mom and I am in charge...then he said "DO NOT put it on the blog"...again sorry buddy but I am in charge :0)

It was finally time for the ship to leave and the "Adventures Away" deck party...All I can say is Disney knows how to throw a party and everyone with in a five mile radius knew it. What you will see below is the goofy pool with a deck on it and all the people surrounding it! It was 45 minutes long and we danced and had so much fun. The movie clips are short and give you a little taste of the fun...so pause the music player and have a listen because it really brings "Disney" to life!!

Goodbye Florida...Hello Carribean!

Then we headed to our first big evening show which was the "All Aboard...Let the Magic Begin!" show. It was awesome and I didn't bring my camera...Sorry...But the evening shows were amazing in a huge theater. After the show we went to dinner. We had the second seating at 8:00. Our server was Beethoven from the Phillippines and his assistant was Walter from Chile...Jared loved that he could order anything he wanted and we didn't bat an eye. So Drew got shrimp and Jared got a huge steak and baked potato. Laney liked the kids menu and had mac and cheese (homemade of course) They were great and lots of fun...you will hear more each day as the kids love the experience of excellence (It could cost them more than college to feed them the foods they now "love"!) After dinner we went back to the room and the kids found towel animals and just LOVED them!! They looked forward to turn down everynight because what was better than towel animals, a clean room, and chocolate every night!


The kids were then begging to go to their clubs...Delaney was in the Oceaneers Club (5-7) and Drew was in the Oceaneers Club (8-10) and Jared was in Ocean Quest...now lets get one thing straight...we NEVER saw Jared! We gave him the freedom to go in and out of his club and hang out wherever he wanted on the ship (which was mostly at the food, his club room, and the basketball court...by the end of the trip he had a posse of 5 other kids and every once and a while we would get a glimpse of what we thought was our son pass us by...DON'T get us wrong we were not complaining :)...The first night they got to just hang out in their clubs and they would be in different spaces all over the ship...The first night Delaney was in the clubhouse which is what it says a huge room with Peter Pan's treehouse, more games and computers than you could ever imagine, and giant screen for movies. There were a ton of counselors and there was always crafts and games going on...Drew was in the Oceaneers lab which had a huge cooking/kitchen area another giant screen for movies, even more computers than Delaney's and every piece of technology you could imagine...We had pagers and the kids could page us any time they needed us...Didn't hear much out of them because there was too much fun going on! :) I will tell you about Jared's room in another post...I will let the kids describe their rooms

I know what your thinking...if your kids all went in the clubs at 9:30 what did you do?!? Oh I am so glad you asked!! They had a street (more like a hallway) called Beat Street and that is where the grown ups played while the kids were away. They had tons of adult things to do such as a piano bar, sports bar, and our personal favorite...where we spent every evening after dinner... Rockin' Bar D


This picture is of the band Soul Drive....To say they were awesome doesn't do them justice...They were so fun! They would play and then there was an activity. The first night was my favorite by far!! First we got couples together into groups...We were team 5 and there were four couples in our group (I think there were 13 groups total)...and we played a game called "Magic Quest." Basically a group scavenger hunt. It started out simple...first group to bring up their pager for their kids...First group to get a picture of DJ Mike...First person to bring up a Disney Cruise Line pen (he called us theives :) Then they took it up a notch and it got funny....The first group to have a woman wearing a man's socks and shoes....Two women from your group dirty dancing, best team wins...The first man to bring up a bra (this one was funny one of the ladies in our group just tore her bra off and handed it to Paul and he ran like the wind and beat out to other teams and was jumping up and down with a bra in his hand)...then it went to the first guy to come up here wearing a ladies shoes, bra, and purse then they had to do the catwalk...FUNNY!!! It was such a blast and our team WON!! So we got Disney Cruise Line hats that say WINNER on the front:) Then we played Match your Mate (just like the newlywed game). We had newlyweds, a crazy couple, and the couple in the room married the longest. It was so funny as you can imagaine and the players were so honest and the guys totally got in trouble!! We had a great time and enjoyed the other couples and from then on we all met in there at night and basically took the same seats. After a little more dancing and music it was time to pick up the kids and get some sleep because tomorrow was our first SEA DAY!!


To be continued...xoxoxo