Do You Believe In Magic?

When last I left you, the Schneider Family was reunited in the Miami cruise terminal waiting to board the Disney Magic.  

Miami was a new port for us, and it's a lot different from Port Canaveral. I'll tell you more about that later. The process was the same, though. Our first stop was to officially check in to the cruise. This is just like checking in to a hotel. They needed to see our passports and Rob's military id to verify our discount. Then they took a family photo which they used to identify us whenever we boarded the ship, and also for facial recognition when the ship's photographers took our picture.

We also got a little card with our boarding group number on it. I think we were 15. They do this so everyone isn't standing in line all at once to board the ship. I think Disney's way of doing this is unique in the cruise industry, so allow me a minute to give you some details.

A cruise must be paid in full 75 days prior to sailing, 150 days for suites and concierge guests. At that point, you do online check in and upload your passport information, credit card information and can start booking Port Adventures (shore excursions, but Disney has to be different about everything). You also select a Port Arrival Time, or PAT. This is the time Disney wants you to arrive at the port to get on the ship. Again, it is to prevent everyone swamping the terminal at once.

We had a PAT of 11:30, however, we arrived at 10am. In their system, Disney had already assigned us to boarding group 15, which would board the ship at about 11:30. The time that we got the card telling us we were in group 15 was 10:45. So we would have about 45 minutes to wait.

While we were waiting, I took the kids and got their kids club bands. At this point we met Charlotte, a wonderful cast member from England who got down on their level and asked them all the questions to check them in. She was awesome, treated them like adults and they loved her. She also gave them their wrist bands (like a Magic Band if you've been to the parks recently).

After the kids club check in, it was 11 am and boarding was about to begin. This starts with a little ceremony where they welcome the Family of the Day. I'm not sure how the family is chosen, but they got to be the first people on the ship and they stood there for a little ceremony and then we all watched them go up the escalator.

In Miami, there is a long hallway above the room where you wait. The hallway has glass walls, so you can see the water on one side and the waiting room below. We all waved at the Family of the Day while they walked down this hall and got on the ship. Anne thought that was amazing and said she couldn't wait to wave to everyone.

They started calling groups, starting with 1 (concierge and suite guests). Pretty soon they called 11-14, so we were next! We went to the bottom of the escalator to wait and we were the first people from our group to go up!

Look at those big kids!

Our shy Anne loved waving at everyone.

The Magic has a Goofy Aft.

Like his father, Ryan loves to watch them load the ship.

The atrium of the Magic.

Soon we heard those magical words, 'Welcome aboard the Schneider Family!"  It was 11:25, take that, PAT.   And we were all hungry so we went up to the buffet where Anne and Ryan ate about a million peel and eat shrimp, lobster claws and chocolate chip cookies.  

Up next, we checked out the Oceaneer Club and Lab.  The Disney ship's kids clubs are divided into a Club, where there is more free play type stuff, and the Lab, where they do classes and guided projects.

Space Age hand washing machine.

Daisy Duck was walking around welcoming everyone. We had a nice chat about wearing high heels.

We weren't in the Club more than 10 minutes when we heard that the rooms were ready. We were carrying around two backpacks, my big purse and a small roller bag full of wine, milk and a case of water so we were ready to head to the room and drop our stuff! I was also excited to get to the room because I had ordered a surprise for Rob. To say thank you for the vacation, I had arranged for a bottle of Prosecco, a box of chocolate, and two Disney Cruise Line robes to be waiting for us in our room. It was such a nice way to start the vacation. Plus the robes made great souvenirs and remind us of our cruise every time we wear them.

What a way to start off a vacation!

I think by now it was about 1:30, so some downtime was in order. Plus, our luggage had been delivered before we arrived at the room. I felt the need to build our nest and get those bags out of the way! Rob and the kids tried to enjoy the balcony, but they were still actively loading the ship and it was very noisy with beeping fork lifts and metal containers slamming. So Anne and Ryan made due with some classic Mickey cartoons while Rob enjoyed the Prosecco. Soon, it was time for the mustard drill, um, I mean the muster drill. This is Ryan's favorite part and this time it was pretty painless.

​Since there is no photography allowed, I don't have pictures. Instead, enjoy this lovely photo of the carpet in the hallway outside our stateroom.

Isn't that so cool?  No?  Ok, let me explain.  The flags around the ship's wheel spell Disney Magic in the NATO flag alphabet.  And see the map in the center of the wheel?  The four ships represent the locations where each of you Disney ships had their inaugural voyages.  Now do you think it's cool?  I just love the Disney level of details.  

But enough of my Disney nerd-ism, let's go to the Sail Away Party!

Here's a little DCL tip from me to you. If you ever go on a cruise, head upstairs for the sail away party. Most people go out on the pool deck, which they cover with a dance floor. If you get there early, go upstairs one deck and you can get a spot front and center. Much better, in my opinion, for the kids to get a good view.

Ready for the show!

A family ready to party!

After the party we had time to change and then were off to dinner.  Once again, this cruise was booked late and we were waitlisted for main dining.  We were notified about 3 days before we sailed that we were switched to main.  Woohoo!  

Before I go into our first dinner, let me refresh your memory about how dinner works on DCL.  Everyone has an assigned dining time Main (5:45pm) or Late (8pm).  If you have main dining, you go to dinner and then see the show.  If you have late, you see the show and then go to dinner.  Each ship has 3 main dining rooms and you rotate to a different restaurant each night.  For cruises longer than 3 nights you repeat some of the restaurants, but they have a different menu the second time.  So each dinner is different.  Also, your serving team rotates with you.  This means you have the same server and assistant server each night.  They really do get to know you and what you like.  

Our first dinner was Lumiere's, which is Beauty and the Beast themed and serves a French menu.  Do I need to tell you this one is my favorite?

The main chandelier features the Beast's enchanted rose.

One difference in this cruise that I wasn't expecting, they sat us with another family at dinner.  I knew this was a possibility, but it wasn't on my radar.  Anyway, when we approached our table we saw a mom and son already sitting at a six top table.  I will be honest, I wasn't excited about this.  I'm a pretty shy person and in my mind, our quiet family dinners were about to become forced conversation and awkwardness.

What I forgot, was that kids are not like grown ups.  The little boy at our table was Grant (who you will not see, out of respect for his privacy) and he was also 4.  He and Ryan became friends quickly and they had a blast each night.  Grant's mom, Sarah, was newly divorced and I enjoyed chatting with her.  I need to remember that moms can always find stuff in common to talk about!

Now, on to the food.

My appetizers, escargot and duck confit.  My dessert, Grand Marnier soufflé.  

A girl and her Mickey bar.

The first day was long day and we were exhausted.  I just love coming back to the stateroom after dinner. While you are eating, your stateroom host cleans your room, turns down your bed, pulls down the bunk bed and leaves you a towel animal.  Oh, and chocolates.  I was very excited to see that DCL had changed the chocolates to Ghirardelli.  Yum!

I saved those chocolates each night and now I have a bowl of them in the kitchen for when I need a vacation fix.

Those are the sparkler things from the sail away party. Very useful for sibling harassment.

So that's the end of Day One.  We are all safely on board and sailing to the Caribbean!