IT’S CRUISE DAY!!!
No surprise, I was awake early. I’d slept reasonably well by my standards the night before, but that body clock combined with excitement and I was awake for good by 6:00. Eventually I got up and got dressed and then enjoyed the view of the palm trees while Nick got dressed.
Once we both were dressed, we discovered his parents had already escaped the room, so we headed down to breakfast fully expecting to find them there. We were surprised when we didn’t. Breakfast was…adequate, and, as an added bonus, this hotel had POG JUICE!!
After we ate, we headed back up to the room, where we found Kim and John sitting at the table in the kitchen having a second breakfast of muffins and fruit. We think they must have gotten in the elevator up about the same time as we got in an elevator down to breakfast. John was singing the praises of the hotel, which I was glad to see. It’s a lot easier to book unknown hotels when it’s just Nick and me traveling, then when I’m booking for a group of us.
We packed, organized, and Disney tagged bags. Then Nick took a nap and Kim, John and I headed down to the outdoor sitting area by the pool. We sat out here for well over an hour. Honestly, the outdoor area here was nicer than what I generally expect from this level of chain hotel. We were pleased. We chatted about this trip and upcoming trips and enjoyed the sunshine. We also marveled at how well sound proofed the room was, because out here we definitely knew we were close to an airport, but in the room we really didn’t hear planes. So, if you’re looking for a decent chain place at a more affordable price near the Fort Lauderdale Airport, the Residence Inn Fort Lauderdale Airport Cruiseport is your place.
Around 10:30 we headed back to the room. I woke Nick up and we all did the final checks, before heading down to the lobby at 11 to check out. This was quick, and then I fired up Lyft, which sort of worked, and just a few minutes later, our Lyft XL, a Honda Odyssey was pulling in to take us to the port.
It was an uneventful drive around the airport over to the port. There was definitely some traffic at the security checkpoint, where, surprisingly, they only checked the driver’s ID, but we pulled up to the Disney terminal around 11:30. Our PAT wasn’t until 11:45, so I wondered if they’d hold us somewhere, but by the time we had handed luggage over to the porters, marveled at the size of the ship, and wound our way through the drop off area over to the first PAT checkpoint, they it was almost 11:40, so they let us right through.
From here, we encountered a couple different lines, but all moved pretty efficiently, and before we knew it we were waiting for boarding group 9 to be called. IT’S HAPPENING! WE’RE CRUISING THE DREAM!
Boarding group 9 was called probably less than 10 minutes after we cleared security, so our wait was pretty short. The line for pictures moved nearly constantly, and pretty soon we had taken our boarding pictures and were on our way through the Mickey ears!
After an escalator ride, we encountered our longest line of the morning, but honestly, it kept moving constantly, so pretty soon we were zigzagging and selfie-ing our way onto the ship!!
And then it was time for the big moment! The cast members got our name right and we were welcomed aboard the Disney Dream!! WOOHOO!
Now what? Lunch time! We made our way to Animators Palate, where we were seated quickly. Felipe was our server for lunch and he was great. I think we all got a drink of the day (the Bahama Mama), I got an empanada and the pasta (and the welcome aboard sundae). I’m sure Kim got an empanada too. I think Nick got gumbo and the steak. John might have gotten a salad. Anyway…we enjoyed our lunch a lot, took our time, and started to figure out the schedule of events for the week and got connected with the app.
By the time we were done with lunch, our rooms were available, so we made our way up to deck 8 and into our rooms. Nick and I were in 8662, a navigator veranda room. His parents were in 8646, a veranda room down the hall. Nick and I settled in, put things kind of away, and I put magnets on the door.
Then we headed down the hall, where his parents had actually just made it into their room. Somehow the keys on their door fish weren’t theirs, so they’d had to pay a visit to guest services. But, they now had the right keys, and everything was accurate in their room (the beer mug and bottled water they’d ordered before the cruise were there, and so was their Silver Castaway Club gift).
Once Kim and John were ready, we set off to explore the ship. We started at the top-ish of the ship and worked our way down. This basically means we explored the top couple decks of the ship, and then made our way back to our rooms to get ready for the muster drill.
Nick and I worked our way down to station P, in the Evolution Lounge. We were early but surprisingly we were some of the last there. That’s different. Muster was, well, muster. We got through it and then we were directed out a side door that dumped us out somewhere on deck 4 in that stretch that feels kind of illegal, because you’re just going by anchors and crew only doors, but is actually public space. From here, we worked our way slowly up the stairs to deck 11, and then on up to deck 12 for Sail Away. Kim met us as the party got started.
Now’s probably a good time for me to talk about the stairs. I had walking pneumonia in the fall, just like half of the eastern side of the US. I fell into the trap where I was really sick for a few days and then got better enough, but then things sort of stalled and eventually backslid, but not horribly. So I didn’t go to the doctor right away. By that I mean I waited about a month to go to the doctor. Once on antibiotics, I seemingly improved rapidly, although stamina was a problem for quite awhile. So I thought all was good. But the stairs on the ship gave me a run for my money and definitely suggested that maybe there’s still some lingering impact. I know I’m really out of shape, but I struggled with stairs to a degree that I never have, and never would have expected, so Nick and I both suspect that this fall had more of an impact than I had realized. I found myself having to use the “plague boxes” if I was going up more than 3 or 4 flights most of the time, and I’d plan my routes around the ship to give myself a break from stairs, without having to use elevators as much. I’ve got some work to do…once I get rid of the respiratory crud I brought home from this cruise.
Anyway, back to the party! We actually started to get underway before the party started. The party was cute, the horns blew, and then we headed for the side of the ship to watch sail away. The weather was great and we marveled at the various ships leaving port with us, as well as how short this ship channel is compared to, say, Miami.
Eventually we headed back to our rooms to get ready for the evening. After brushing wind blown hair and such, Nick and I headed down to the atrium for our first round of nightly pictures.
Then we met up with his parents outside the Walt Disney Theater for the Golden Mickeys. This was the first time any of us had seen this show. I thought it started kinda slow, but then it moved into the really well done category. We all ended up enjoying it a lot.
After the show, we wandered a bit and listened to music in the atrium. The music was outstanding.
Then we headed down to deck 2 for dinner in Enchanted Garden. Tonight was the Let the Magic Begin menu. We were seated at table 102, and met our main server Ekkaphon immediately. He was awesome. We also eventually met our assistant server Edison and our head server Andre. Andre was nice enough. Edison and Ekkaphon had the most unique serving dynamic of any serving team we have had…and it worked SO WELL. Seriously…our best serving team to date. There was no “his task, my task” going on here. They both covered all the tasks, and they both were fun.
Dinner was good, although I think this ended up being my least favorite menu of the weak. We all had key lime margaritas which were fantastic. I had the chicken appetizer, which was a phyllo dough thing, the chilled mango and papaya soup, and the halibut. I was too full for dessert. No surprise to any of us, Kim absolutely loved the decor of this dining room.
After dinner, Nick headed to his birthday gift: The World of Old Fashioned and I headed back to the room, where I found our first bed runner creation of the trip.
I spent some time on the balcony and watching the bridge report channel, before crawling into bed. Nick got back to the room around 11, feeling no pain and excited to report that I’d definitely gotten my money’s worth on that $100 beverage seminar, since one of the (4?) old fashioneds that he had had during the tasting had been made with Blantons. He was very impressed with this tasting, and the bartender. We both then crashed hard.
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