Page 4 Our Stateroom - Day 1
Our Stateroom - Day 1
As we dragged all of our carry on bags over to the stateroom. We found our room, 5020. 5020 is located at the front (forward) of the boat, it is also a secret porthole room (SPH).
For those who do not know what a SPH room is, it is a slightly obstructed porthole room. You pay for an inside stateroom, but you get a porthole. If anyone is interested in learning about them, you can get all kinds of info, on www.castawayclub.com.
Back to my description of the room. We got in the room and we loved it. It was slightly small. I know that DCL has larger rooms compared to other cruise lines, but I thought it was on the small size. I am not sure if we would have enough room if we ever did the 7 day cruise on the Magic. Well, first of all we’d have to ditch the 4 carry-on’s, but I said that already. Here are some pics of the room:
If you can see from the picture, the porthole is very slightly obstructed. I thought I made out like a bandit by getting a SPH room. There are only 6 SPH’s on the Wonder and the Magic. We used Small World as our TA and they were wonderful, found us a SPH room and everything.
After we settled in a little, our suitcases had arrived, one by one. We would unpack, open the door and another one would be there. There was also a Navigator which tells you everything that is going on during your cruise. Here is day 1:
Next, I had the girls put together our fish extender (FE) gifts. You are probably wondering what the heck as FE gift is? Outside your door is a fish, people on the DIS put a pocket pouch that extends on fish. I made our FE out of leftover fabric from our pirate costumes. Here is ours:
Exchange groups on the DIS agree to give one another small gifts. It is usually small goodie bag gifts, like items from Oriental Trading.
For the adult FE gifts, I found a picture of the Wonder on the Internet and I played with the software on my MacBook. I typed, “Disney Wonder” April 26-20, 2009. I had those printed and put them in picture frames. I also gave the adults Lindt chocolates and I put everything inside a goodie bag.
For the children FE gifts, I gave them glow sticks, pool floats, and a couple chocolates. Everything was put in pirate goodie bags.
We wanted to find a store to buy the kids a landyard to put the kids KTW inside so they do not lose them. We noticed that all Castaway members had them and they looked kind of nice. Just as we walked out the door of our stateroom, our stateroom attendant was standing right there. Her name was Mandy and she was WONDERful. We asked her if she could fill our cooler with ice when she had a minute. She says, I’ll do that right now for you. We also asked where the store was, but she informed us that they do not open until 6:00pm. So, we decided to explore a little before the safety drill. Unfortunately, not a lot was going on because everyone was still settling in. Here are some pictures during our exploration on the ship:
When it was time for the safety drill. We downed on our lovely life vests and headed toward our muster station on deck 4. Here are the girls:
They line you up on the deck, tallest in the back, shortest in the front. We waited for more and more stragglers, they called off room numbers of the no-shows and started the drill. The kids started getting antsy during the drill, Elise asks her favorite question, “How many more minutes?” Another Mom says, “Yeah, I’d like to know that answer too.” We watched the Carnival depart and we were wondering when we would be doing the same. They finally released us, we dropped the life vests off in the room and bolted onto Deck 9 for the sail away party.
We had a nice table on deck 9. I grabbed some french fries and drinks. The sail away party was a blast! Everyone was dancing and having a great time. More pics:
I would have to say that the sail away party is a must see! We all enjoyed it!
After the sail away party we went to the room to shower and get ready for the 6:00 show. While showering I could feel the ship rocking. I got a little nervous about motion sickness, but I did not feel sick. We were dressed and ready to go before 6:00 so, we decided to drop off our FE gifts. The kids loved this. I think they felt like secret Santa’s or something. Here are some pics along the way:
When we were done being Santa, we went to the Golden Mickey’s. I thought the Golden Mickey’s were only ok. It was good, but I did not think it was great. The Golden Mickey’s lasted about an hour and we still had an hour to kill before dinner (we booked the late dinner seating), so we let the kids check out the clubs for awhile.
Elise was registered for the Oceaneer Club and Ashley was in the Oceaneer Lab. The Club is for 3-7 year old and the Lab is for 8-12 year olds and quite honestly the Club was very babyish for Elise. I wondered how she would be. When all of a sudden, one of the Lab CM’s approached Elise and told her that she could move up to the Lab. She would have to have her parents approve it. Naturally, Elise came looking for us, I went over to the CM and signed her up. The CM was very nice, he was from England and he had a cute British accent. He was telling us that his “Mum” just got off the ship. She loved it. He said, she was worried about motion sickness so she bought the bracelet in the gift shop and she felt like it helped. He says he misses her when he is out at sea.
As far as the Lab is concerned, you have the option of signing the kids in and out or allowing them to sign themselves in and out. We gave Ashley permission to sign in and out as she pleased, but Elise we wanted to keep more of an eye on her because she is only 7. Now if I were to do it all over again, I would allow Elise to sign herself in and out. She was always with Ashley plus the pager is quite helpful. The pager will let you know each and every time each child signs in and out. She could not go that far. There you have it, another tip!
Dining... our dining rotation was TAAP, which stands for Triton’s, Animator’s Palette, Animator’s Palette, Parrot Cay. At 8:15 (our dining time), we went to Triton’s. Our table number was 65 so, one of the servers brought us to our table. Our table was seated for 8 people.
Now, I have read that sometimes they seat you with another family, sometimes you have a table with just your family. We obviously were with another family and I was prepared for that. Well, just as soon as we got to the table, Elise was not feeling so well and had to use the facilities. Guess who the restroom escort always is? You guessed it, me! I bring her to the restroom and as soon as we get back our table-mates were already seated at the table. I looked toward them to say hello and introduce myself and they had their seat turned with their backs toward us. I said to Steve, “What is up with that?” Steve told me that they were shocked when they found out they were seated with us. During dinner, I kept looking toward them and they never even made one form of eye contact with us. We are not that bad, are we? We all showered after all.
It was time to order dinner. Our servers were Brenton and Timea. If you do not know this, the servers follow you with your dining rotation, so you always have the same wait staff. Brenton was our head-server, and he was fabulous. He worked hard, he made excellent recommendations, and he was very personable. Timea was the assistant server, and I have to admit, she was not that good. She was however, sweet as pie. Maybe she was still earning her ears or something because she still had a long way to go.
I do remember the Dad of our table-mates was quite upset with Timea. He yelled at her because she put lemon in his iced tea. He yelled, “NO LEMON” as he stuck his fork inside the glass and then flung the lemon on the table. Not sure exactly what happened. I am not sure if he specified no lemon to begin with or not, but I thought he was being a little rude. He could have just asked for a fresh glass of iced tea without lemon if it was that big of a deal. If I were Timea, I would have offered a fresh glass without lemon, but like I said, she was not very good.
As soon as we got to Triton’s, Elise started looking a little pale and complaining that she did not feel very good. It was now time to order our meal. I know I got the tomato soup and shrimp for appetizer. Ashley wanted to share it with me. Brenton tells me, there are only 3 shrimp? I said, “that’s ok, I don’t think Ashley is going to like it anyway.” Boy, was I wrong because Ashley seems to take on a whole new love for Shrimp during our cruise. She ate two and I only ate one.
The servers brought out the kids food first. Elise ordered Pizza. She ate one slice and started to go down hill with her illness. I am quite confident it was the motion of the ship. Brenton, recommended that I take her back to the room and he would bring my meal to me. I took his advice because the last thing I needed was my child to toss her cookies right there in the dining room.
Back at the room, I changed Elise into her PJ’s and tucked her in. I turned the TV on and that Chrissa American Girl Movie was on so Elise wanted to watch it even though we have seen it like 6 thousand times. Soon, Brenton brought me my meal which was some lobster and pasta dish. The lobster was only so so. I live in New England and there is nothing like fresh Maine lobster, so I did not find this lobster dish terribly tasty. Ashley ordered the same dish and Steve said she ate every ounce of lobster on the plate. A little while later Steve and Ashley were at the door with my dessert. Brenton put together a sample of everything. Everything was wonderful.
Steve told me that Ashley ordered a sundae and he ordered the creme brulee. Steve let her try it and Ashley loved it so much, she ordered her own. One of the great benefits of cruising, you order whatever you want and there is no extra cost.
The girls were pretty beat at that point. I told Steve I would stay with them and he could explore the ship. He walked around and took a few pics:
I am not sure he enjoyed being alone because he came back. He turned the TV off. We feel asleep dreaming of our day at Atlantis. I slept like a baby. There is no describing the rocking of the ship.
Up next..... Nassau, Bahamas
