travel hotel cruise – Bless Your Heart

This morning we woke up and checked out of the hotel, then went to breakfast at our favorite local breakfast spot – the Southern Charm Cafe. Our port arrival time was 12:45 PM (UGH- don’t get me started!!! The Disney Cruise Line website was NOT working for our online check in & I gave up after 2.5 hours so we ended up with a late Port Arrival Time), so we had a bit of time to kill.

Our first glimpse of the Wish!

We got to the terminal and breezed through security.

Everyone that works for DCL is so nice! We only had to wait 20 minutes inside the terminal before we were able to board. I came prepared with my purple Minnie ears!

CSP doesn’t commit to a theme like I do! Ha!

Then it was time to board!!! They announced our name and gave me a Wishing Wand! We took a quick seat to get our bearings and decide where we wanted to go first.

We decided to go to the Keg & Compass for a quick drink and some air conditioning. It’s the Nordic themed sports bar onboard.

After we’d cooled down a bit we went to the Luna lounge for our muster drill. LOVE LOVE LOVE the new way to do muster drills!!! You scan a sign with your phone, watch a video (anywhere- you don’t have to stand there) and BOOM you’re finished! No more being squished up against all of humanity in the hot Florida sun on the deck for 30 minutes! Praise be!!!

By now our room was ready so we went to check it out!

We stayed in room 6562- a verandah room.

Because we’ve sailed with Disney before, we were greeted with gifts in our stateroom. We received this travel wallet….

…and this tote bag!

Disney lets you bring alcohol onboard so CSP unpacked his beer and got it chilling in the fridge.

By now our luggage had arrived (SO FAST!!!) so we went ahead and unpacked. We made a few FaceTime calls to home. Then we went up to Deck 11 for drinks and sail away!

You can see the terminal workers waving with their giant °O° hands!

My MIL watched the Wish sail away and took some screenshots of the ship.

We had to stop by Guest Services to rent an extension cord (you can’t bring your own as they are a fire hazard). On the way back to our room we stopped by Keg & Compass to get CSP a refillable beer mug (you get discounted beer this way).

We got back to the room where we met our room steward Ed (SO NICE!!!). Then CSP plugged in the extension cord and POP! the tv and lights went out!!! Ooooopsie!!! I called Guest Services who sent an electrician to our room. He was there in a flash and got us all fixed up! Apparently the cord was faulty. Then it was time to get ready for dinner.

On the way to dinner we stopped by Mickey’s Mainsail gift shop but it was a MADHOUSE!!!

Dinner tonight was in Worlds of Marvel. We sat at table 510.

The show is a recorded program with Ant Man and the Wasp. It was really cute!

The thing on the table lit up in all different colors and Ant Man would prompt you to press the button to “shrink” items. The show was cute but our food was cold, the menu wasn’t anything to write home about, and it was SO LOUD in there we couldn’t carry on a conversation with each other. Not our favorite dining room.

The salt and pepper shakers (seen above at the bottom of the frame) were cute though!

After dinner we stopped back by Mickey’s Mainsail to buy a magnet. We always get a Disney Cruise Line magnet with the year on it as our souvenir. But they didn’t have any with the year on them! Booo!!!

It was a long day and we were beat so we went back to the room and went to bed!

Tomorrow: Nassau!!!

We woke up at the Art of Animation resort in Walt Disney World. We showered and dressed and packed up. We had chosen express checkout so we were able to just get in the car and leave. Hopped on the highway bound for Port Canaveral. We parked and went through security then on to check in. We had the Port Arrival time of 12:30-1:00 PM. We arrived closer to 1pm but were able to walk right on up to an attendant. No waiting! We were on the ship within 15 minutes of parking! Love that Disney efficiency! When you check in you’re issued a Key to the World card. You use this card to get into your stateroom, get on and off the ship at ports of call, pay for adult drinks and souvenirs. It also has your muster station location on it as well as your dining rotation, table number and dinner time, sail dates and ship name.

We went to Carioca’s for their buffet lunch. Less people go to the sit down restaurant vs. the buffet up on deck. We enjoyed a nice lunch then went to Guest Services to borrow an extension cord for my CPAP machine. Turns out though we didn’t need it. There was a 2 port outlet right next to the bed. Of course we didn’t know that at the time so we borrowed the cord. Then it was time for our meet up! Our cruise group from Facebook met up at O’Gill’s Pub. It was great to finally put real faces to names that we’ve been chatting with for a year! One of our members ordered bracelets for us. After the meet up it was time for the dreaded Muster Drill. It IS mandatory though, so don’t try to skip it or they can throw you off the ship! At the muster drill I noticed CSP was still wearing his MagicBand (which are not used on the ships). I asked why and he said it “Made him look important.”

When the muster drill was finished we went to O’Gill’s so CSP could get his refillable beer mug. I got a coconut mojito on the recommendation of my friend Christina. OMG! SOOO good. My new favorite!!!

We were heading back to our room when we saw a bunch of characters – Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Chip and Dale all squished into an elevator to take them up to the sail away party. So funny seeing them all squished in there like that. Unfortunately all I had on my camera wise was my phone and I couldn’t get a clear shot.

We went back to our room to watch us set sail. There were 4 other ships sailing away at the same time! Click on all pics to enlarge by the way.

I grabbed my big camera and my refillable cup and we went up on deck to get a good seat for the Super Bowl. They had just lined up the lounge chairs by the pool so I was able to snag us fantastic seats while CSP went to get me a drink from the drink station. Hence the refillable cup. The cups they provide at the drink station are basically large shot glasses so I brought my big refillable Starbucks cold cup with lid.

The sun went down and the wind really picked up. Like hair whipping all around windy. Luckily the pool crew came around with soft, fleece blankets for us! How nice! I wrapped up in one and was all set to watch the game!

I’m not the biggest sports fan but I do enjoy watching the Super Bowl and there’s something to be said about watching the game on a GIANT screen like this! We always root for the underdogs so we were rooting for Seattle. Well come close to halftime CSP was convinced that New England was going to win so he decided he wanted to go to dinner in the dining room instead of stay and watch the 2nd half. I was really ok with that as I was wind whipped and frozen! We popped by the room really quickly so I could run a brush through my hair and our room steward Edwin was in the hall. He introduced himself. He’s from Honduras. Super nice man.

Down to Carioca’s for dinner.

On Disney ships you eat in a different restaurant each night with a different menu. But your service team travels with you from restaurant to restaurant. Speaking of service teams…our server was Bianca from South America! She was our assistant server on the Magic in 2012! Our assistant server was Widi from Indonesia. He was fantastic! LOVE Widi!

Don’t worry if you’re a vegetarian or Gluten Free. There are tons of options for you!

For my appetizer I got the empeñada (which was awesome!).

CSP ordered the tuna and avocado tower and the shrimp ceviche.For my entree I chose the Lobster, Salmon, & Shrimp skewer.

It was on a bed of quinoa. Very yummy. CSP got the swordfish for his entree. Dessert was Coconut Tres Leches cake for me: While CSP chose the ice cream sundae:

After dinner we went back to our room and got me all unpacked. CSP didn’t want to unpack yet which drove me insane. I say unpack right away and get those suitcases under the bed so you’ll have more room! We came back to a fun towel animal each night. Here’s our first!