Day One - Sunday, September 7, 2003

-- See the Photo Gallery for Day One --

Trip report by Glenn:

We arrived at the DCL terminal in Port Canaveral, FL around 11:30 a.m. We dropped off our luggage curbside at the terminal, then went across the street to park. We walked back to the terminal and went through the metal detectors and up the escalators to the main terminal. Our paperwork was filled out, but apparently the documents that we received from Disney were a bit out of date, so we had to fill out a couple of new forms. This just took a few minutes, and we were on our way to the check-in desk. We received our "Keys to the World" and were on our way. It was going to be a short wait before we could board, so we walked around and looked at the scale model in the middle of the terminal.

The Disney cast members started boarding everyone at noon, so we got in line and were on the ship within about 10 minutes. When we entered the lobby, the cast member asked us our name, and then she announced our name to the ship and the CMs welcomed us by applauding. It was a nice touch. Once on the ship, we were herded to the Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch. Tammy ate an Italian sub and I had pasta. It was OK. We ate out on deck 9, and when we were finished, we started exploring the ship. The first stop was deck 10 (the top deck) to get an overview. Then we stopped in the ESPN SkyBox at 1 p.m. We didn't stay though because we wanted to keep exploring.

Our room wasn't going to be ready until 1:30 p.m., so we stopped by the Vista Spa and took a tour. It looked pretty interesting, and they explained all the different offerings they have. This included a tour of the exercise area, which overlooks the ship's bridge. When we were finished with the tour, it was 1:30 so we went to see if our room was ready.

Our room number was 1036, and it was on deck 1 forward, port side. It was a pretty nice room, a lot bigger than we expected it to be. And we had portholes! Not just one, but two! :-)

We relaxed in the room for a bit, then we headed out to walk around the ship a bit more until 3 p.m. when we could finally try to make our reservations to Palo. Amazingly, we got a reservation for 7 p.m. that night, so we were excited.

It was getting close to the time for the safety drill, so we went back to our room until it was time for the alarm to sound. We donned our life vests and went to our designated area (Area B, which was in the Walt Disney Theater). Once the drill was over, we put the vests back in our room, and then headed up to deck 10 for the Sail-Away Celebration at 4:30 at Goofy's pool. We stood next to the stairs and were next to Mickey, Pluto and Chip before they went down the stairs to join the party on the stage. Is it sad that I was star-struck by seeing Mickey?

We headed out of the port at 5 p.m. when the ship's horn played "When You Wish Upon a Star." We thought that was the COOLEST thing, because it is the song we danced to at our wedding.

After we were well on our way, we went back to the room to get cleaned-up and dressed for dinner at Palo.

We walked into the restaurant at 7 p.m. and were seated at a table for two next to the window and directly in the middle of the ship, so we had a wonderful view of the sunset. Our server was Melinda and she was wonderful. She was from Australia, and she was very friendly. Tammy had warm shrimp salad as appetizer, filet mignon for her entree, a glass of Moscato wine, and tiramisu for dessert. I had minestrone soup for an appetizer, filet mignon for the entree and cappuccino cheesecake for dessert. Everything was delicious, and was by far the best meal we had the entire vacation.

After dinner, we went back to the room and changed into casual clothes, and then headed out to the shops onboard. We didn't buy anything, just looked around to see what they had. We bought some chips and Cokes to take back to the room.

We got back to the room and relaxed for a while. We snacked on the chips and drinks and watched TV. Tammy watched "Down With Love" which started at 11 p.m. and I went to sleep.

All in all, it was a full first day, and we didn't even board the ship until noon! We couldn't wait to see what adventures the rest of the trip would hold...

On to Day Two...