I had purposely scheduled our transportation through Disney for this leg for 2 reasons. The first and most important was since we were flying in day of, I wanted to do everything I could to make sure Disney would get us on that boat, even if we were running late. The second was I love the Magical Express at Disney World, so I though this might be more magical than a Super Shuttle. As it turns out, it's not all that magical. It's pretty efficient, you head for baggage claim and right at the bottom of the escalator is a little desk with Disney reps waiting to check people in. They then take you to bag claim where you grab your bags and give them to a porter. I decided to send Jack's backpack with them as well, since we had the extra luggage tags (DCL sent two per person) and I didn' t want to have to haul all the stuff around the ship until our room was ready. Then they take you to the passenger pick up area where you wait for the bus. The lady kept apologizing to me for the bus not being there yet, but we were early so I wasn't concerned at all. I used the time to check in with my parents and check voicemails.
The bus was there by 10:30, maybe even earlier. We were the only ones at that terminal to get on. It was just a plain bus, no Disney at all, which was slightly disappointing, but not surprising. We went to the next terminal where a lot more people got on, and then we were on our way to the port!
The ride took about 30 minutes. We passed many familiar sights (I lived in California for six years) and eventually pulled up to the cruise terminal!!
They have several signs out front asking that you don't take pictures in the building, so I didn't. Basically you go in, show your passports, take the escalator up and there is a CM waiting to have you fill out a health form. From there you walk over to the check in desk, they take your picture, verfiy credit card info and make your Key to the World cards. On your card it has your table # and dining rotation as well. Mine said PTTAPTA, which was slightly confusing, but once I deciphered it, looked promising. P= Parrot Cay, T= Triton's and A= Animator's Palate. I ended up being really pleased with our rotation.
While we were at the desk I asked about Port Upgrades. She said there were plenty still available. A port upgrade is when you pay to upgrade your room category. When you do it at the port, the cost is usually 50% of the difference in price of the rooms. I was considering trying for an Ocean View at least, but then I decided to stick with my super cheap room, and save the $$ for other fun things. It is a great deal though.
Once we were all done checking in we went through security just like at an airport. We were given a boarding group number (6). I was hosting a Meet and Greet on the ship, and was told to mention it so they wouldn't make me ait till our scheduled 2 pm check in. I told the lady handing out the cards and she looked at me like I had 3 heads. Turns out they aren't big on the check in time system. After we were through a CM said it would be a good idea to go ahead and go to the Kids Club registration to get Jack all set up for the Oceaneer's Club so we wouldn't have to do it on board. We waited in line for about 5 minutes and then got Jack his security bracelet, which we were told would cost us $50 if we failed to turn it in at the end of the cruise. This was way more more sophisticated than the one we had n Carnival. This one had a big plastic sensor thing (hence the $50 charge). They also left it pretty loose, so throughout the cruise Jack would take it off when we weren't going to the club.
Once we were done registering we had our first character experience! They had Goofy set up near the kids registration so we got in line for that. We didn't have our autograph book yet, but I figured we would just get him to sign later.
While we were in line a guy asked about my lanyard (from my travel agency). I explained it was for my travel agency and he asked if I liked using a travel agent so I told him I actually was a travel agent, and he asked a couple more questions about whether or not it was beneficial to use a TA or not. We chatted for a minute but it was Jack's turn for Goofy so we had to hurry away.
After Goofy we went to find seats to wait for them to start boarding. At this point no one had boarded yet, so I was even happier with my decision to fly in same day. We didn't have to worry about missing anything! I think we probably waited about 30 minutes before they started! Then they started calling numbers and we waited maybe another 15 minutes. Then it was our turn!!!
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