A magical time on board the magic: Embarkation Day!

[bambikate]

Embarkation Day!
Friday 24 September 2021
Breakfast at Premier Inn, Embarkation, Oceaneers Club, Lumieres, Tangled the Musical

After an OK-ish sleep we woke around 7am and chucked some clothes on for breakfast in the restaurant. The restaurant in the daytime was like a different place, bright, cheerful and full of people. We were led to the back of the restaurant by the buffet which was much nicer than where we had sat the night before.









The buffet was actually really good and a full selection, all help yourself, which felt really good after a lack of buffets during covid. As I was loading up my plate with hash browns I looked over at Izzy looking a bit worried peering into the rotating toaster. “The croissant isn’t coming out?!” She says to me. I gave her the disappointed mum stare and told her she shouldn’t have put it in there then pointed at the a4 sign directly above it saying “please only put bread in the toaster, if you would like your croissant heated up, please ask a member of staff”

I looked around to find a member of staff to tell them about the mishap but as I did a blackened croissant made its way out of the toaster and a member of staff very politely grabbed it, told Izzy it wasn’t supposed to go in there and offered to heat her another one up. Crisis averted!





Breakfast was really good and feeling full we headed back to our room to re-pack and chill for a while.

We had run out of time at home for me to cut Andy’s hair so I brought the hair trimmers, scissors and a dustpan and brush with us and I gave him a haircut in the hotel room - a first for us!

We did a quick COVID test in our room to ease the anxiety of having to take one at the port later and thankfully they were all negative.



After packing our bags, getting ready and taking a few selfies in our Minnie ears we were pretty bored and decided to head towards Tilbury to see if there was anything we could do there to pass the time.

I know strictly we could’ve driven up on the morning and saved the hanging around but we were worried there may have been an accident or the M25 protesters causing havoc again so opted to stay up the night before.













Off we go!



We left to go to Tilbury at about 10am. Our Port arrival time was 12:15 - 12:30pm and we wondered if we could park our car at the car park and walk around the town for a while but as we got there the car parking attendant said we couldn’t park until 12pm. I asked him if there was a supermarket nearby and he said to go to the local ASDA and gave directions, he also warned us not to go into Tilbury town proper “unless you have a shotgun”… okay noted!



We drove about 4/5 minutes to ASDA and Andy and Immy stayed in the car with the luggage whilst Izzy and I went for a mooch around ASDA.

The intention was to pick up water, canned drinks and some sweets / snacks (I know there is a ton of food etc onboard but I had seen some vlogs that suggested bottled water as the free refill is on deck 9 to save trekking back and forth all the time) also crisps / sweets / chocolate were paid extras so we got some of these (and then never ended up eating them but never mind we brought them home again so not wasted!)

We also spontaneously bought some Disney themed water bottles and a coffee cup.



Rumours of potential fuel shortages were just starting that day and there was a small queue to get into the petrol station, we were down to just under a quarter of a tank and would need to fill it up again if we wanted to get home after the cruise. We decided we would like to queue now whilst we had time rather than after the cruise when we will just want to get home so joined the queue and about 5 minutes later we had a full tank.

After a bit more loitering in the carpark chatting and a bit of Tik tokking it was almost 12pm and time for us to park our car ready for our 12:15pm PAT. They were only letting people in the car park if your PAT was within 15 minutes, we arrived 2 mins before that and she asked us to pull over to the right in the car park until exactly 12 so the people with earlier PATS could join the bag drop line. Anyone turning up with later PATs were being turned away.

True to her word when the time came she gestured us over to join the queue for bag drop. There were two lines and someone asking if we already had luggage labels or if we needed them. We didn’t get sent any so asked for labels. They asked for our cabin number and wrote this on the labels then gave them to us and we pulled to the side, took out our cases and attached them then handed them to a steward and drove to the other end of the car park and parked up!




The ship looked beautiful and I’d forgotten how big they are up close. We left the car with our hand luggage (backpacks full of wine and facemarks essentially… oh and swimming stuff of course )

We then joined the queue for checking in. I have to say they did a great job and the process was very smooth and the line moved quickly. They did a check of your reservation number and photos etc and your Prenetics account for the vaccine and negative PCR test info then sent you to a little bay inside the marquee for the lateral flow tests.



You got given packs and she then matched these up with QR code screenshots I took from our Prenetics account and then we did the swabs ourselves and put them in the packs and gave them to her on a tray. We were told the results would be up to 45 minutes and were asked to go through to the waiting area.

We sat and played some games on our phones and had a drink whilst we waited.



Side note: we bought these Disneystore masks in the sale and they only had large left which were massive! They were OK for Andy because they could cover his beard but they kept falling off my face so I had to switch to different ones during the cruise.

After 23 minutes and lots of email refreshing our results were in one by one. You had to open each email and then click on a link to see if it was negative or positive. We had already taken LFTs in the hotel which were all negative so I wasn’t worried (for once!) And sure enough they all came back NEGATIVE! We did a little cheer and excitedly walked up to the cast member at the other end of the room.

She asked for our reservation number and saw that we had our negative tests confirmed and passed us to her colleague who then gave us a bright green “cleared to board” wristband each. Eeeeeeek! We made our way down the end of the carpark, crossed the road and headed into the terminal building.











We did some more checking in where the girls were given their magic bands for kids club. These were charged at $12.95 each to our onboard account - I think we could have taken these back for a refund before we left but we didn’t bother in the end.





We then walked through to the security area, bag scanners and metal detectors and then through to the boarding area. When we got there they were calling groups 1-5. We were group 6.



We waited for about 5 minutes then they called our group! This was it - we were finally about to board! We joined the short queue and showed our Port Arrival Form QR code again to a new cast member and she scanned it and told us to have a great time.





We walked up the ramp and to the next CM who guided us through the tunnel where we met with the CMs on board who asked our surname and introduced us! Everyone cheered and clapped and we were shown to a little circle on the floor to stand on whilst the other parties arrived and we were treated to Captain Mickey and Minnie performing “come on everybody put your ears on!” It was just so amazing to be there - I don’t think it had quite sunk in at this point!





Everyone then was asked to go through to Fathoms to set up their apps. We had already downloaded ours before but I stayed to link up the parent / child accounts on Izzy and Immy’s phones and joined the wifi then we moved on. The CMs were really friendly and ready to help if anyone had any issues.

The only other boring thing that had to be done before it was relaxation / fun time was find our assembly point. The app told you what to do and where to go . Ours was assembly point E and all we had to do was go to the relevant level, and scan the sign and that checked us in for the whole family! I was pleased how easy this was compared to when we had to do it on the Disney Dream in 2016 - it was total chaos and very crowded. Hopefully this type of safety check in can stay post covid.





We were advised that the mandatory safety briefing would be announced later and that kids could stay in kids club when it was announced so there would be no mass gathering to listen to it, which was great.

We decided to get some food and headed straight up to deck 9 to grab some lunch - we chose pizza and some diet coke and “US sprite” it definitely does taste a bit different to UK sprite and made me feel even more in holiday mode. Just to give you an indication of how long it took from arriving at the car park, dropping bags, covid tests, checking in, security, boarding etc. we were sat eating lunch at 1:36pm. We thought this was pretty good all things considered!









We also got some soft serve ice cream - we had a mixture of chocolate, vanilla and chocolate vanilla swirl between us. It was really good and I thought the chocolate tasted like angel delight

After lunch the girls got changed into their swimwear and then hit the pools and aqua lab and then the twist and spout slide around 10 times. The pools were really quiet and I’m so glad we learnt from our previous Disney cruise and packed swimwear in our hand luggage so we could crack straight on with the fun.






We found a deck chair and watched the girls playing in the aqua lab and ride the slide, the only thing that could make this better? Cocktails.

Andy went up to frozone treats to order some cocktails and just as he was queuing a CM came and asked if we wanted cocktails - I had no idea they did at seat service… at least we know for next time

Andy came back a few minutes later with a Pina 'colava' for me and captains Mai Tai for him. The menus were all on the app (but not prices…) These two drinks ended up costing $23 plus tax plus tip and this was a good indication of the cost of things for the next few days… yikes.








The drinks were lovely though. I was particularly jealous of Andy’s mai tai - it was super strong and very tasty. I felt so so happy to be sipping a Disney cocktail in the sun watching our girls have the best time. It was totally surreal after being away from any form of Disney magic for so long.

[bambikate]

We were advised that our rooms would be ready from 3pm. Just after 3 we decided to go and check out our rooms so the girls grabbed some towels and we walked down to the 6th floor. Our room was really close to the midship elevators which was really handy, particularly for kids club which was one level down.

As we got to our room we saw that one of our two cases was outside. We opened the envelope with our KTTW cards in them and took in our luggage.

Our room was gorgeous, we had previously stayed in at porthole room in 2016 on the Dream so this was our first stay in a verandah room and it didn’t disappoint.















Before we left we decorated our door with the magnets I'd made for our 2016 cruise whilst doing this We met our lovely stateroom host Maricris then got changed and did a bit of unpacking.



We browsed the navigator app to see what other things were on board and selected a few things we definitely wanted to do. We had the first The girls had their first kids club booking at 4:05 for an hour and a half which would almost take them up to our dinner reservation time of 6pm so they got ready into their dinner clothes first.

They wanted to do a bit of Disney bounding and decided on Lumiere and Belle as we were dining at Lumiere’s that night.

After a smooth drop off we headed out to deck 9 for a wander around the ship.



We also ventured into the adults only area of the ship to check it out





We initially struggled to find anywhere to sit in this area, the bar area was full and the barman saw us and said go and grab a lounger and we will come to you but all the loungers were taken or had people’s stuff on them. I started feeling a bit anxious and said to leave it so we walked up the steps to deck 10 to chill out for a while then Andy spotted some loungers that became available and swooped down to grab them. After a few minutes the barman came over and took our drinks orders. We both chose the cocktail of the day which was gorgeous but I totally didn’t make note of what it actually was… it was a good price compared to the regular cocktails though.



After some lounging about in the sun, relaxing and listening to the mandatory safety briefing it was time to get changed and ready for dinner. I went with a yellow dress and rose gold Minnie ears. Andy wore a smart shirt and chinos.



We then went to collect the girls. They couldn’t wait to tell us all about everything they did at the club, which included making crafts and playing games and showed us the colour your own pillowcases they were given and asked when they could go back again.

When we collected the girls the mum before me collected her child “Minnie*” *name changed to protect the identities…. and Minnie told her mum she hated it and burst out crying.

The mum comforted her and said that she didn’t have to go again. When the girls came out they said it was all amazing apart from this girl who kept hitting and punching all the kids named… Minnie! The cast members kept gently telling her off and when she made another child cry warned her “if you hit or punch someone again I’m going to have to call your parents to ask them to come and collect you!” Which luckily made her stop but my guess is she didn't like being told off hence her saying she didn’t like it to her mum afterwards. Luckily, she didn’t return to any of the girls’ other sessions so there was no more hitting.

We had initially booked one session a day but the girls were keen to go back again the same day so I booked one for after the theatre that night.

We made our way down to Lumiere’s and passed all the princesses posing on the stairs.



Our dining rotation was LAR - Lumiere’s, Animators Palate then Rapunzel's and our table number was table 1! Easy to remember, at least.

Our server was Marko from Montenegro and the assistant server was Adi from Indonesia. They were both lovely and we got chatting and realised that they had both been on the Dream when we were in 2016 but we had not met.

To start, Marko brought out some bread and some olive oil, capers, garlic and tapenade.





We scanned the QR codes and browsed the menus. Andy and I chose a cocktail each - imperial illusion and Double Crowned, which we shared. Followed by a bottle of Tuscan wine. The girls had diet cokes.



Table 1!











To start, we both had the duck confit, with craisins and walnuts, which I really enjoyed. The girls chose to just have the bread to start and save room for the main and dessert.



The girls are pretty adventurous eaters and weren’t keen on anything on the kids menu. Marko said they can order whatever they want including the chateaubriand. The girls were sold on this and asked for it with green beans and chips! They asked for it medium rare and it came out perfectly cooked and as soft as butter. It was really great.



Andy and I had to choose this too as it sounded incredible - ours came with green beans and crushed new potatoes and béarnaise sauce. It was absolutely gorgeous - the best meal we have had on a cruise ship by far.



Marko also said “I’ll bring you the lamb to try too!” And served us this stunning rack of lamb with potato dauphinoise - it was almost as good as the chateaubriand.



For dessert there was only one thing on the girls’ minds - Mickey premium bars! The girls loved them and they brought back lots of lovely memories. On the earlier cruises you used to be able to order these to room service but unfortunately on our cruise they weren’t available



I chose the tarte tatin with ice cream and Andy chose the chocolate opera cake. Both were lovely.





During dessert Adi entertained the kids with a couple of riddles / puzzles using the crayons and then made them an origami each with their menus, which the girls loved.





After a lovely dinner we had a bit of time spare before the showing of Tangled the musical so we went for a stroll around the ship.

Loved this artwork



The fresh air outside was lovely





After our stroll we wanted to look in the shops. The queues were crazy but slightly less so for Mickey’s Mainsail so we joined that one first. It moved fairly quickly in the end (only 2/3 mins) (probably because most people had a look around, saw that there was hardly anything there and left!)



I know there were issues beyond Disney’s control regarding restocking the items for the gift shops and perhaps they underestimated how starved of Disney gift shopping the brits were but the souvenir selection on board was so poor and really disappointing.

No spirit jerseys, no mugs, no pins, no magnets, no soft toys, all the light up glow cubes in the restaurants were sold out including the Pascal one at Rapunzel’s and the novelty Remy straws in Animator’s were also all gone. It was such as shame as I really wanted to get something to commemorate the trip.

For the stuff that was left it worked out very expensive as it was all in dollars then convert to GBP then add 20% UK VAT. We had a little mooch around and Andy bought a t shirt that said “Yeah buoy!” With Scuttle on it and Izzy bought a stitch face mask. These were our only two souvenirs the entire trip.

Cute dresses





When we finished the queue for White Caps had disappeared so we jumped in there but there wasn’t really anything exciting.



We nipped back to our room to drop-off the t shirt and our room had been turned down for bedtime. We had this awesome towel animal in the shape of a penguin and some dove chocolates



Bunk beds made



Izzy’s mask

[bambikate]

We absolutely loved having a verandah



We headed back down to the Walt Disney theatre to take our seats about 15/20 minutes before the show. Because of COVID there was no eating and drinking in the theatre and masks had to be on even when sat down for the entire performance. Luckily the show wasn’t too long so it wasn’t horrendous but a little annoying as we were only as close to others as we were in the restaurant earlier that night with no masks.

We managed to get seats right in the middle and had a great view. The show was very good and the cruise director who introduced it first was also really funny. Mother Gothel had the best voice by far.





After the show we went back to The Oceaneer’s Club to drop off the girls. We had some unexpected alone time so thought we would check out Keys bar. The vibe in there was so relaxed - it felt like a New York jazz club. Andy had a glass of pinot and I had a Moji-Do which I think was a play on words of mojito but I’m not sure what exactly those words were!

The live piano was so relaxing and he played a mix of Disney music and non-Disney music, which was perfect.









After the bar we went for a walk up to deck 9 and 10 to see what it was like outside and took some pictures.







We collected the kids about 10 minutes earlier than their planned finish time and they said “why did you come early - we were having so much fun!” The girls again told us all about the fun activities and lovely cast members at the club and I booked in another couple of sessions for them for the cruise.

We had promised the girls they could have late night pizza before bed so we went up to Pinocchios and got a few slices and some drink to take back to the room.



It was really good but the levels of cheese were a bit crazy!



We watched some cartoons and planned the next day and then got ready for bed.



I know everyone says it but honestly the DCL beds are super comfy and we slept like logs excited for our first day at sea the next day!

[CarsonMac]

Which cruise were you on? We were on the 24th Sept, think we remember seeing your decorated door lol 😁

[Florida1972]

Great day, thanks for posting and looking forward to reading more 🙂

[bambikate]

Originally Posted by CarsonMac

Which cruise were you on? We were on the 24th Sept, think we remember seeing your decorated door lol 😁

See more...

Ahh yeah we were on the same one!

[bambikate]

Originally Posted by Florida1972

Great day, thanks for posting and looking forward to reading more 🙂

See more...

Thank you!