Day 3, Wednesday 4/27/16 Part 2
We entered the main part of the terminal. I think “wow” came out of both of us. I know mine was related to the sheer quantity of check in counters. Nick’s was probably related to the amount of queue rope snaking through the room.
As we got closer to the entrance to the line, his first question was “so when do we get to use the platinum line?”. Really? A convert and we haven’t even gotten on the ship?
We got in line, which basically only stopped moving long enough for us to fill out the health form. As we made it into the final stretch of the line, we were handed our very first Navigator! Woohoo! I was really happy to see that it outlined the times for all of the movies and shows over the course of the cruise. We both wanted to see Jungle Book on the ship, and we weren’t against seeing Zootopia again either, so it was nice to be able to have the timing of those in mind, in advance. We poured through the Navigator as we made the final approach to the counter.
Check in was fairly quick, and pretty soon we were standing around waiting for our boarding number (group 6) to be called. The family of the day was announced about 11:45, and our group was called shortly after noon. They really moved the process right along.
Once our group was called, we navigated our way through the people, and headed up the escalator!
We stopped for the boarding picture. The only vacations where Nick and I are able to consistently get pictures of the two of us together, without taking selfies, are Disney vacations. I had prebought the picture CD, and had every intention of getting a bunch of pictures. So we’ll start early. Even Nick didn’t protest stopping for this picture!
We boarded on deck four and were ushered inside, where the CMs were lined up asking for family names. I gave the girl our two last names, and was glad she verified before saying them. Although it would be fitting with the amount we eat, we didn’t need to be introduced as the “Burger and Sullivan families”.
After being applauded, I oohed and ahhed over the atrium for a minute or two, and then we figured out how to get to Parrot Cay, and made our way down to deck 3 for lunch. I had read that Parrot Cay is way less chaotic than Beach Blanket, and I really prefer less chaotic. Nick does too.
We found Parrot Cay and were seated pretty quickly. Henry (the French pronunciation) came over, and started talking directly to Nick. HELLO, I’m over here. I got a little nervous about how this was all going to go. Nick, having seen this just an hour ago with the porter, made sure to point to me as soon as Henry asked for drink orders, as in “ladies first”. Henry took that subtle hint well, and from then on interacted with me too.
Drinks ordered, we made our way to the buffet. We both got some strange combination of foods that only makes sense on a buffet, and made our way back to the table. All of the food was very good, but the real standout was a chilled creamy coconut pineapple soup. It was a lot like eating a melted pineapple float...with coconut added in. WIN!
Lunch eaten, it was time for dessert. No complaints in that department either!
From Parrot Cay, we wandered around deck 3, through the route 66 and retail area, through the atrium, and then made our way gradually to the top deck of the ship. I’ll let the pictures do the talking. Despite all the pictures we had seen, we both were really impressed with the condition and style of the ship. Just beautiful.
When 1:30 rolled around, we made our way to deck 7, where we waited just a few minutes for them to open the hallways to the staterooms. While waiting, we heard a little girl asking her mom when they would get pirate coins. Her mom told her “on a different day”. Nick looked at me and said “Wait what?”. Just wait and see honey…
We found our stateroom, number 7634, at the back of the ship. We took a few minutes to take pictures before the luggage arrived and we started making a mess of the place.
After picture taking, and watching the chaos on the ground below us, I decided to use getting some drinks of the day as an excuse to do some more exploring. Have I ever mentioned I don’t sit still well? Nick stayed put, playing video games on his cell phone before we lost cell service.
I went to the bar by the adult pool to buy drinks. By now the pool decks were hopping, but I could totally see why they called this area “Quiet Cove”. So much more peaceful than the rest of the pool areas. I got the Captain’s Mai Tai for both of us, and brought them back to our room, to enjoy on our balcony, nearly running into our stateroom host on the way. He had either already introduced himself to everyone around, or he had seen me emerge earlier, because he knew exactly which room I was in. He introduced himself as Sentana, and after a few pleasantries were exchanged, I headed for the room, where Nick and I toasted to this next part of vacation.
After enjoying our Mai Tais and watching giant pallets of panko and rice being loaded onto the ship (Boy does that put things in perspective!), we killed a bit more time with trips to the soda station, and finding a good spot to stick some of our stuff. My suitcase arrived quickly, but Nick’s was taking its sweet time. During one of the times we emerged into the hallway, Sentana asked us if we were waiting for anymore luggage. I was pretty impressed since it was only about 3 that he was already inquiring about that. He promised to bring it to the room as soon as he saw it.
Shortly before the muster drill was scheduled to start, we joined the masses heading down to our station, S, which turned out to be in Animator’s Palette. We were pleased with how organized it was, and how quickly we were processed through their system, and seated to wait for the listening part of the drill.
The people we were seated with quickly struck up conversation, and the time passed quickly, with a couple from California quickly adopting us as their “cruise kids”. They were on the ship to see their daughter, who is one of the character performers.
I had been a bit nervous about the volume of the alarms used for the drill, as I had a lot of issues with noise as a kid, and even today, startle and notice the stomach doing flip flops when a PLANNED fire alarm goes off at work. The volume wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating, and there were enough distractions at the table that all was fine.
The drill wrapped up eventually, and we joined the masses going upwards. We took the stairs, as we had been doing all day, because the elevators just looked like a miserable headache. Nick headed for the room when we reached deck 7 and I continued up to deck 10 for the sail away party, sucking wind by the time I got there. Hopefully all these stairs will get me into shape?
I had wondered about the weather for the sail away party, since it’s Miami and it’s nearly May, but I was pleasantly surprised. The sea breeze that had been present continued, so the temperature was perfect for standing up on deck. I found a spot on deck 10 with a great view, where I was only shoulder to shoulder with a few people, instead of half the ship, to watch the party, which was a lot of fun.
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