Over the Hill and Sailing Away March 2017 Day 6 Disney Dream Cruise Day 1

[closeder]

We were up with the alarm this morning at 8.15 and ready to leave the room at 9.30. We went down to Marketplace to get a final breakfast using up the one table service(calculated one of our meals incorrectly and paid for Katie instead if using a credit) and the 5 snack credits we had left for cinnamon rolls and four bottles of water for the road. The dining plan worked well for us again this year but we definitely were happy to spend the snack credits in water where needed and coffee etc as I would rather do this than be left with loads at the end. Murray was chuffed when he spotted one of the CM with a pin he had been looking for and quickly ran back to the room to get his lanyard which luckily I hadn't packed and was in my travel bag. After breakfast we had the car packed and we were ready to go at 10.30am.

Thumbs up for our last breakfast at Beach Club.

The questions in the trivia this morning were easier than the last few days, we got all but the earnings question right.

So my photos skills here aren't too good here but to convey we were pretty much screaming with delight when we saw the ship on our drive up to port, it took just over an hour to get here, the road was very straight forward.

We arrived about 11.45 and the first things we did was drop our two suitcases that weren't carry on at the curb with porters. We then went to self parking $64 for the three nights and we parked on level 4, this is a photo of the boat from the parking garage. We took a lift down to level 3 and there was not a soul in front at security so took no time at all to go straight through and then enter the terminal where we were invited straight up to a check in desk.

Our first look at the terminal, didn't get much chance to take photos as we were right through to the ship so quickly.

There was a meet and greet with Minnie but everyone was desperate to get on the boat so we didn't queue.

So we were welcomed into the boat and announced by our name to a big round of applause, mostly by the crew who must have very sore hands at the end of this day. We definitely got the wow factor right away, the atrium is amazing. Lots of people milling about and crew there to guide you. I must admit to having no plan here, we thought we would just wander the boat until our room was ready but a crew member approached and asked if we would like to have lunch and the answer from the family was yes so we were directed to Enchanted Garden.

Such a beautiful restaurant, I was totally overwhelmed at this point and not managed photos were taken. Did manage some food photos though, Katie had chicken nuggets, I had Asaparagus soup then Chicken Caesar salad, Derek had salmon to start then roast beef as did Murray.

After lunch we went do a look at the kids
Clubs, Oceaneers club/lab first where the kids were registered first with their bands then had a nosy around. It looked fab and the kids were really excited. Of course Murray was a bit more reserved as he was hoping he might also like the Edge. We agreed to self checkout for them.

The CM were all very welcoming, we met some from England and Ireland and then a girl from Scotland(Shetland to be exact) We could already feel movement in the ship at this point but we were all coping.

We were quite proud of ourselves finding the club, it was on the same level as our room and we were watching out for that 2.30 time when we could enter our rooms. We decided to go looking for Vibe, we got a bit confused and thought this was the other club for Murray's age group. This was also supposed to be on deck 5 at the same level as our room according to the map but I think you should enter on another deck. Safe to say we realised at this point just how hard it is to navigate the ship at times and ended up entering by a disabled access door! The club looked amazing but it was now that we realised that Edge is the club for Murray. He was a bit gutted as it looked terrific, they have heir own pool too!

Outside pool at Vibe.

It was now time for us to go to our room. Again we realised just how difficult it can be to find your way. I had tried to read a bit about getting round the ship but starboard/portside/aft/forward was just completely confusing me, I thought it would be easier when we actually saw it for ourselves but believe me it took some time and quite frankly you only get the hang of it on the day you are leaving! I think it becomes even more frustrating when you realise if you only took a left instead of a right you would have been there in two seconds instead of 10 minutes. We got there eventually but you had to go along a corridor for a bit then cross over past some stairs then along another corridor, we just kept going along the corridor as we were on the wrong side. We were only four doors along the next corridor and we had arrived. It was actually a fabulous room position for us. We were only one floor above the balcony entrance to the Theatre, and very central, also close to the kids club for Katie.

So a bit of room photo overload now.

Love this cushion, cost $189 in the shop though so didn't buy one.

Plenty storage, in fact I felt I had more drawers and hanging space than the Beach Club. I didn't seem to take any photos of the bathrooms but they were also a great space with plenty of shelves and storage.

And finally what I was looking forward to discovering the most, the balcony! We had an extended one, a category 4e and it was amazing.

I just loved it, and the balcony made all the difference to our feeling of space obviously although really the room was more than adequate for our needs and space requirement.

The kids got about the business of hanging our fish extender, a very humble homemade effort compared to some we saw, I took some pictures later of the door we delivered to.

The finished effort.

We then went to find the Edge kids club suitable for Murray's age group. After visiting Oceaneers and Vibe this is quite small in comparison however it had Xbox one so Murray was very happy.

There was also table football, big screens and various activities planned so Murray thought he would be pretty happy coming here.

We carried on with our wander round, I think we popped into Cabanas after visiting the Edge, what a wonderful choice of food, everything you could possibly think of on offer. Somehow I managed not to take any photos here but we had ourselves a few snacks, I especially loved the prawns.

Anthem of the Seas was docked not far from us.

Pink champagne bar, unfortunately never made it back here.

Bar 687, did make it back here!

The pool area was heaving at this point, plenty people making the most of the facilities. Frozen was showing on the funnel screen.

Just look at that pool, bodies squished in everywhere.

At this point we were near Muster time so we went back to the room to discover our area to report to. It was D which was in the Walt Disney Theatre, just two decks directly below our room so we managed to find it no problem. This was a painless affair, the crew were so professional, fun but absolutely on the ball about making sure everyone was paying attention to the safety info, I was really impressed.

A few more photos round the boat afterwards.

A nice family kindly took our photo on the lovely atrium staircase, we returned the favour of course.

Loved the back wall of guest services showing the Disney castles around the world I think.

Actually I'm just wondering why the ship looks deserted but I think we took these photos on the way to muster, don't worry we arrived at our station in plenty of time!

We went back to our room after muster to watch the sail away from our room at first. The kids were desperate to go to the kids clubs so Katie quickly got changed so the plan would be that she could go straight to the show then dinner from the club. Murray opted to get changed between the show and dinner.

We waved to everyone from our balcony, it was a lovely moment. Then we headed up to the top decks to watch the Sail away party. We had missed the main characters but it was fun to watch the dancing.

It was pretty busy.

Then we went to the bar for a cocktail of the day for me and a beer for Derek where he started with his refillable glass. You pay a bit extra for the glass initially then get larger refills I think. When you are finished with the glass you hand it back for a card and then hand the card back over when you are ready again to use it. Then at the end of the cruise you keep the glass.

Looks like we discovered the ice cream machine too, so the kid had their sail away treat too.

We were heading out into open sea, it was very exciting. We sat for a while up on some seating right above currents bar at the front of the ship.

At this point we could keep the kids with us no longer. They both wanted to go to their clubs. We were a bit concerned about just letting Murray go off without being assured he knew how to get back to the room so we made him take us to the club then take us to the room and then back to the Edge after we dropped Katie at her club. We needn't have worried, both kids seemed to get the layout better than us. Both of them had their phones with them and had downloaded the cruise app. It was fantastic for us as we were able to message them both back and forth, they loved all the Disney emojis and would send us regular updates about what they were getting up to.

Safe to say after the kids deserted us we were at a loose end, after a bit of unpacking and sitting out on the balcony it was soon time for the Golden Mickeys show. Both kids were having such a good time at the clubs they declined to come out to watch. I didn't think it was fair to force them but they did miss out on a spectacular show and thankfully they did see the other two. It was a shame though as they did absolutely love the other two.

We chose to sit on the balcony and I really liked sitting here, we sat here all three nights. You are not allowed to take photos but I sneaked one before it started, the theatre is lovely. What a show they put on, they were definitely a highlight of the whole trip.

After the show we messaged Murray to come back to the room to get ready for dinner with us. I have to say that the boat was really moving at this point, you could feel it most in the corridors and in the room although both Derek and I had also felt it quite a bit during the show. Derek had taken an anti sickness tablet not long after we boarded boa he wasn't feeling queasy but definitely very conscious of being dizzy. Once the boys were ready they went to collect Katie from the kids club, I had given them two room numbers to start visiting with our magnet exchange for after they picked her up. I was still waiting for them at 8.15 in the room and was beginning to think they had got lost. Turned out it took a long long time to check Katie out and eventually Derek had texted her to tell her to self check out as the line was so long.

So we hot footed it to Animators Palate, the first dining room on our rotation. I was conscious that we should have people at our table and didn't want to be late for them, well later than we already were.

We were shown to our table, number 117 and it turns out we had a table to ourselves. I guess our planned table mates had asked for separate dining. We were happy with this although we had decided not to request separate dining as quite enjoy meeting new people, it actually worked out well for us in the end.

We were sitting next to a screen. I had warned everyone in advance that Crush might pay us a visit but we had quite a small screen so we thought he might not turn up.

There were some nice menu choices, and we had no trouble making some nice selections.

Our servers were really nice, our head server Louis had quite an abrupt manner but in the nicest possible way if that makes sense. For example he told me off for trying to cut up Katie's meal because he said that he would do it.

It was a lovely vibrant restaurant with plenty going on, Crush had spoken to a few tables around us and we were all enjoying the experience.

Our meal was lovely although I'm having a hard time remembering what we all had and the food pics are sparse. I had the black truffle pasta then the steak, Murray had the lamb, Derek had Serrano ham then Tuna and Katie had the breast of chicken. I was the only one to have dessert, a cookie and cream sundae.

We were really chuffed to have a visit from Crush, he asked our names, calling out to "the dudette in the pink shell" etc and asking where we were from. He told us how he says hello "Duuuude". If I remember right then asked how we say hello in Scottish, we replied, just Hello, he then went to the next screen and said to the table there in his best Scottish accent "you say Hello in Scottish like this, say hello to them". It was all great fun and the kids loved it.

Dory also made an appearance. Throughout the meal Murray was really starting to flag, it looked like the ship movement was starting to get to him and he was looking quite pale. After dinner Katie was keen to go back to the kids club but Murray antes to go back to the room. We all headed back initially.

Our beds had been turned down and the. Ink beds had been made up. We had a towel thing on the bed, maybe a seal?

Katie and I decided to go and give out some of our fish extender gifts, when we returned to the room we had already received several items in our pouches. We also met our room hostess who said we needed a bigger fish extender.

Handing out the gifts was actually a great way of starting to get our bearings properly. We soon realised that one side has fish and the other side has sea horses outside the doors, also one side of numbers are for instance on deck 5 start 55 or 56 and on the other side start 50 or 51

The doors were all decorated, it was lovely to see.

We deliver to deck 5, 6 and 7 and visited 5 doors altogether.

Murray was almost sleeping by the time we returned to the room, Katie was soon in her jammies and ready for bed too.

We filled out the form for ordering some breakfast room service and left it outside the door before calling it a night. We were not planning on getting off the boat in the morning so ordered for 9am and didn't set an alarm.

Derek must have taken this photo from our room at some point, I'll leave it as the last photo from this mammoth report day.

Tomorrow arrival at Nassau, enjoying the boat and Pirate adventures.

[Loopylooloo]

How exciting! Ship looks very nice, always a little corwded and disoriented first day, but you will soon settle in, your cabin is beautiful especially the balcony! Lovely.

Funny to think you have been sailing while we are here in Orlando!

You just let the staff take care of you, its just part of cruising, relax and enjoy x

[app]

New Photo Added by closeder - 7 Apr 17 4:38 AM.

[Mental Minnie]

Looks amazing. Love the balcony. Enjoy the wonderful experience. Looking forward to day2.

[clubhouse]

What a lovely day, I'd been looking forward to reading this. The ship looks fabulous and your room spacious. Hope Murray felt better in the morning.

Can't wait for the next instalment.

[Jake71]

It looks absolutely fantastic, from the room to the food to the entertainment, just fantastic. I love your door decorations, although I've never heard of fish extenders I don't think, sounds like fun though. Looking forward to reading more.

[mick]

A brilliant first day of your cruise

Joan

[LuvPluto]

What a great day. The ship looks amazing 😀
Not sure i'd have fancied the pool though, a bit too many people for me!

[closeder]

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

How exciting! Ship looks very nice, always a little corwded and disoriented first day, but you will soon settle in, your cabin is beautiful especially the balcony! Lovely.

Funny to think you have been sailing while we are here in Orlando!

You just let the staff take care of you, its just part of cruising, relax and enjoy x

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Thank you, we got the hang of things eventually

Originally Posted by Mental Minnie

Looks amazing. Love the balcony. Enjoy the wonderful experience. Looking forward to day2.

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Thank you

Originally Posted by clubhouse

What a lovely day, I'd been looking forward to reading this. The ship looks fabulous and your room spacious. Hope Murray felt better in the morning.

Can't wait for the next instalment.

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Aw it was a great day x

Originally Posted by Jake71

It looks absolutely fantastic, from the room to the food to the entertainment, just fantastic. I love your door decorations, although I've never heard of fish extenders I don't think, sounds like fun though. Looking forward to reading more.

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It really was fantastic, I'm missing it now.

Originally Posted by mick

A brilliant first day of your cruise

Joan

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Thanks for reading along and your comments Joan

Originally Posted by LuvPluto

What a great day. The ship looks amazing 😀
Not sure i'd have fancied the pool though, a bit too many people for me!

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Yes the pool looked overwhelming!

[WileyCoyote]

Wow, it just looks so amazing, loving your photos.