Day 2-Halloween!

The next morning (Halloween!) I woke up refreshed and ready to go at 8:45. Jack… not so much.



He slept in while I showered and unpacked the rest of our stuff.
For the entire month of October, the Great Pumpkin had been visiting Jack each night to give him a small treat. Most of them were things he would need for the trip. It appears the Great Pumpkin managed to find Jack for one last Halloween gift! He got a couple pairs of socks (he LOVES character socks) some fall Kleenex and a light up pirate thingie (for lack of a better description).



We also got another Fish extender gift this morning! Jack was so excited every time we got something!



That bag came in exceptionally handy when it was time to deliver my own gifts!
Finally we were headed to breakfast at the Beach Blanket Buffet at 9:45. It was a bit windy, and not as warm as I had thought it would be, but a very pleasant breakfast anyways.




That was the best French Toast I have ever had. I ate it whenever possible. Seriously delicious.
After breakfast I dropped Jack at the Oceaneer’s Club for the first time. When you get there, they give the kids a squirt of hand soap and send them to wash their hands. Jack always asked me to go with him, so I did, and then we did our goodbye ritual of me asking him how many kisses he wanted and him telling me to have a good day. Then I was free!
I have to say it was a strange feeling. I am so used to having him with me unless I am working! He goes to preschool 4 days a week, and one of those days is also a day I’m off. I get the same feeling then sometimes, but usually I have a million errands to run. Today I had nowhere to be for a while. So I did what felt normal… and ended up here!



I know it’s blurry, so I will just tell you… It’s the Future Cruise booking desk!! Yup, that’s right I’m not even very far into my second day and I am ready to rebook. Well, to be honest we had already decided in my family that we wanted to try the Dream in 2013, and then shortly before we sailed, the Dream 2013 itineraries were published. I had heard how good deals could be when booking on board and we were pretty sure we would do it. Then right before the trip my mom started to get cold feet about spending $ on a 2013 cruise before they even have their 2012 cruise paid off. So when I got on the ship I checked out the deals and called to let them know. Once I told her how good it was, she agreed we should do it! For us it was 10% discount, reduced deposit (10% of the fare) and a $100 OBC. We booked 2 Verandah Category 6B (I think) staterooms for 10/20/2013. We paid a deposit of $137 for each stateroom! I know that if you have done more DCL cruises or are booking a longer cruise, the OBC goes up. Even so I was pleased with our deal!
When I was done with the booking excitement, I headed back to the cabin to decorate for Halloween. My very good friend Hope had sent us some cool decorations for this purpose. I left them up the entire cruise, and Jack thought they were awesome!






We also got a few more FE gifts:






Then I got to work on my own FE gifts! I got a good chunk of them put together and delivered and then headed to Guest Services. I needed to put my gift cards on my account and also drop off our items for signatures! I had ordered Jack a pillowcase and myself a tote bag from the same person who made our Fish Extender. Then you take them to Guest Services and leave them (I took fabric markers with mine) and they have all the characters sign them and they deliver them the last night of your cruise.
Jack’s room is pirate themed so I thought having a Pirate Mickey pillowcase would be appropriate:




Once I was done with that I delivered some more FE’s and then it was time for Champagne Girls!

Champagne Girls is an event that was organized by one of the people in our FE group. Basically, all the ladies come wearing a tiara and a pink boa and bring champagne. We got super lucky as the lovely woman (Val) who organized this event upgraded her room to the Roy Disney Suite!!!! It was so exciting to see this room up close and she let us poke around and satisfy our curiosity! I didn’t take any pictures but it was amazing!!!! Also, as a person who doesn’t drink champagne usually, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it! Not to mention Val kept filling our glasses up. I will say I had a killer headache later on…
After my lovely afternoon of champagne sipping I headed to visit a fellow travel agent from my agency. It was nice to finally meet someone I “work” with! Plus she told me all kinds of useful information about cruising with Disney, which was awesome since I was new to the whole experience.
I finally had to break away to pick up Jack to get him dressed for Trick or Treating. I picked him up from the club around 4:45 and we went to get him into his costume. I had him wear his pirate costume since I had to bring it for Pirate night anyways. We also checked out our latest FE gifts!



At 5 pm we headed to the ToT Trail that was mapped out for us with an instruction sheet our steward left in our room.




The trail led us up the decks and ended by the Goofy pool. I think there was a show or something but Jack wasn’t interested so we went back to our room to change. I didn’t want him to mess up his pirate costume since he had to wear it again!

Naturally there were MORE FE gifts when we got back!


We went to go catch Mickey in his Halloween gear:

Then we went back to our room and found… MORE FE STUFF!

Then it was time for dinner! We were in Triton’s this night. I will say Triton’s was so convenient since there were always Character Meet and Greets either right before or after dinner right outside the doors!
Dinner was delicious as usual…
Jack’s

The one and only time Jack got something other than a Mickey Bar:

French Onion Soup:

Steak on top of mashed potatoes with bacon wrapped green beans

Dessert Trio- The thing on the right was not yummy…

Teody made the kids origami out of their menus!

The pumpkin display in the front of Triton’s

After dinner we got pictures with Minnie! Jack even let me join him in this photo!

We went back to the room and discovered a towel ghost!
/
We went outside and my headache was gone so I got a Drink of the Day which was a Witches Brew. It was quite tasty!

Gnomeo and Juliet was playing in the Buena Vista theater and I though Jack would like it so we went. It was the 3D version. After about 10 minutes he was over it and wanted to leave so we went back to the room and watched cartoons and ordered oatmeal raised and chocolate chip cookies and milk. They were yummy and HUGE! The girl said it would be 30 minutes or less and I think we waited maybe 10 minutes. I tipped the guy $2. I don’t remember what time we went to bed, but I know it wasn’t too late.

(Also, there was no show tonight, they were showing Real Steel instead, which I knew wouldn’t be something Jack would be interested in)

The rest of Day 1!

Ok, when I left off a while back, it was our turn to get on board! So first you show your boading pass and Key to the World cards to a cast member. At this point they decided they didn't like Jack's picture so they redid it. Then we went through the doors to the tunnel thing. I guess it would be called the gangway? I don't know. Regardless, you stop first to get your welcome aboard photo taken. Some people just bypassed this, but I was hoping it would be a good shot. It wasn't. So then we continue on the gangway and I am getting more and more excited! I took some quick pictures of the side of the ship to illustrate the differences in the size of portholes for future reference.


So once you approach the entrance of the ship, there are crew members there who ask your family name. Then they announce you as you walk across the lobby and everyone claps. How awesome is that???? So the lobby is on the third deck midship. They funnel you through the lobby and guest services in on the right. I didn't have any reason to stop so we followed the traffic, which leads you to the aft part of the third deck where Parrot Cay is located. The lunch options were Parrot Cay or Beach Blanket Buffet on 9. We decided to eat out in the California sunshine so we hopped on an elevator to deck 9. There were cast members there handing out sanitizing wipes before you entered the buffet. We picked a line and were handed trays and silverware. I was pleasnatly surprised to see that they have different trays for kids, they are the kind most of us had in school with lots of different sections. This came in handy because soemtimes Jack can be picky about his food touching, and sometimes he wants things that definitely do NOT go together. Plus he made it his mission to get something in each section! The lunch buffet was relatively impressive and there were plenty of yummy options. Once we were ready to head outside a CM appeared out of nowhere to help me out with our trays! I was so happy because balance is not my strong suit... We made it outside and found a nice table to sit at and soak in the atmoshpere.

Jack had Mac and Cheese, chicken and 2 types of bread along with pink lemonade




I also had 2 types of bread (he gets his love of carbs from me obviously), a tomato and mozzarella mini sandwich, chicken and gherkin salad with what appears to be Sprite. I am not sure what was wrong with me, I don't ever drink Sprite. Oh well.



As we were eating I noticed one of my favorite people on ships, the man with a tray full of drinks!! Now let me clarify from the beginning, I am not a heavy drinker. I do however enjoy "boat drinks" which to me are drinks, usually fruity in nature, that are served in excess on cruise ships. It's really one of my favorite part of cruises because how often am I going to go to a bar and order a Bahama Mama? Never. But on a boat, it's the natural thing to do. So the wonderful man with the drinks notices my excitement and came over. He informed me that the Drink of the Day was in fact a Bahama Mama. I asked the most important question of "How much?" to which he replied that the first drink is $7.50 but I keep the cup and then every drink of the day for the REST OF THE CRUISE would be $4.50. (All prices are before the 15% automatic gratuity and tax). This was a fantastic offer, too good to be true, and one that I would most certainly be taking advantage of!



Now I was really on vacation.

Soon we finished lunch. Jack said he wanted ice cream for dessert, but we couldn't find it so he ended up with a plate of desserts instead:


Once we finished dessert it was still way too early to get into our room. We went to check out the Oceaneer's Club next and Jack was excited about the slide. He played for a few minutes.








We explored a bit, took a tour of the spa where I got to see the beautiful Rainforest Room where I planned on spending some time later on. Then we wandered inside and ran into our first princess!



We hadn't purchased our autograph book yet because the stores have to stay closed until we are out of port, so no autograph.



Then we continued walking around the ship aimlessly. We found the ice cream, and I found another man with Bahama Mama's. I signed the reciept and was pleased to discover the drinks are only $4.89 after all extra fees!

We went to sit in the buffet so Jack could eat his ice cream, and I took note of this brochure for my parents and future clients, as I am not a wine drinker.









As I finished taking pictures, an annoucement was made that rooms were ready!!!

Jack and I hurried to the elevator outside of the Beach Blanket Buffet and zipped down to deck 2! It turned out our room was pretty conveniently located not too far from the aft elevators. Soon we were standing in front of our home for the next 7 days!!



I immediately started taking pictures before we could mess anything up! From the entrance, on the right were the bathrooms, left were the closets.

View from entrance:


Toilet bathroom:



Bath products in the bathtub bathroom:


Bathtub/Shower




They had combined the beds into one. I asked Jack if he wanted his own bed and he said he just wanted to share with me, which was fine, it was plenty big!


Cabinet at the end of the bed:


Couch (which converts to a bed):


Desk area:


Info guide, week at a glance navigator, dining tickets:


Inside desk drawers (naturally all this came home with us )


Wave phones:


Dining schedule:

Convenient bench and drawers:


Inside smaller closet:


Bigger closet, plenty of hangers:
 

After our 3 pm meet and greet, we headed back to the room to drop off our tshirts and see if our luggage made it yet. It hadn't so we headed to our Muster Drill. This is the first drill I've ever been to where our muster station wasn't outside on a deck. Ours was R I believe and it was in Animators Palate! We sat there for a couple minutes then headed back to our room briefly before heading up to the Sailaway party! Once we got up there, I saw a guy selling Bon Voyage drinks, which were a Pina Colada and Strawberry Daqueri mixed! Naturally I had to try it! I can already see the heads shaking now, "She's on her third drink in 4 hours???" Yes, yes I was. This was the only day that was like that though, and I was ambushed at the elevator by these guys!

So as I said, we had gone back to our room after teh drill. That was a mistake because by the time we got there it was so packed we had to head up to deck 10 and I had to put Jack on my shoulders so he could see.




Christian, our cruise director:





I took a video of the show on my phone, but it is too large to email, so I have to find a way to get it onto a computer...

We didn't sail away right away, there was some sort of delay, so we headed back to our cabin to unpack before dinner. When we came back up we were moving!

Bye Bye LA!



Our first dinner was at Parrot Cay. We were early seating (5:45 pm) and I had been worried about whether or not this was the right choice. The late seating was just so late. It turned out well, the early seating was perfect for us and our schedules!

I was also very worried about my table mates. I ahd no idea who they would be, and I was supposed to be eating dinner with them for the next seven nights!!! When we got to our table (78) there was another mom and her daughter but the other two seats were empty. We introduced ourselves, the mom was Cassandra and her daughter was Sophia (who was 8). Our servers came and introduced themselves, Teody from the Phillippines and Anthony from France. They were both very nice. There was some confusion at the table because they had the kids cups all ready with water, and they had names on them. Sophia's was obvious, but then there was a John and a Jack... Well Jack's actual name is John... and when the other people came we realized the mistake. We had sat at the one that said Jack, but the other boy's name was Jack! Once the confusion was sorted out, it was smooth sailing! The other Jack is almost exactly a year older than my Jack, 4 1/2. His mom's name is Shayna (not sure if I am spelling that right...) Everyone was pretty quiet at first, it had been a long day for most of us. Jack had fruit for his appetizer and pizza for dinner. Every kids entree came with fries. Every. Single. One.


We also got our very first ketchup Mickey!


I do not remember what I had for my appetizer. This is the only picture I forgot to take!! And it was really more an issue of not wanting my table mates to think I was a complete freak. I figured I would need to ease into it. I didn manage to get a picture of my entree, steak, twice baked potato and corn. I apologize, I had already started eating...


This meal concerned me because my steak was overdone, my potato was dry, and I don't like corn. I worried for nothing, every other meal I had was AMAZING!

For dessert Jack got the first (of many) Mickey bar!


I learned my lesson this night and ordered it without sprinkles the rest of the trip, because I was finding sprinkles for hours after dinner.

I had a delicious banana french toast cake. Not sure what it was actually called...


We left dinner, and I felt pleased that my table mates were people I wouldn't mind eating with for the week!

After dinner we went back to the room briefly and found that we had already received some gifts in our Fish Extender. *A Fish Extender is something you hang off of the fish that is on the wall outside your room. Then throughout the cruise, people will leave little gifts in it, adn you will take gifts to other people. Usually a group of people decide on this in advance through cruise line roll calls/meet and greet type things, which is what our group did. We ended up with 25 cabins in our exchange.*






Next we headed up to the Walt Disney Theater for the show of the night, who's name escapes me. Maybe the All Aboard show? Anyways we still had plenty of time to kill so we went into the shops right outside and I almost cried tears of joy!

See, I canceled a trip to WDW for this cruise, and the only part I was sad about was missing out on all the Halloween stuff for sale. It never occurred to me that they would have Parks merchandise onthe ship!! They not only had it, it was on sale!!! I was giddy with excitement. I managed to keep my cool though and only bought two items.

It's a lantern/flashlight thing


Placemat:


We also picked up Jack's autograph book. Then we headed into the theater. We got relatively good seats and the show started!

*I never took pictures during the shows because my camera just isn't good enough without a flash*

Jack was tired, but we enjoyed it and it was nice to finally be there!

After the show we headed back to the cabin and saw our first towel animal:
(your guess is as good as mine)


Jack enjoyed his first of many turndown chocolates and then we passed out from sheer exhaustion!