Vacation Report #2--Embarkation and Atlantis

Saturday, September 9, 2006
Today is embarkation day. We woke up bright and early almost without alarm clocks. After getting ready, I went out to the parking lot of our hotel and tried to catch a glimpse of our ship, but it was blocked by the larger ship, Carnival Glory. Oh well, I would be seeing it soon enough. We soon had all of our luggage closed up, and tagged. We then headed down to breakfast in the hotel lobby. There were clearly a lot of cruise ship passengers in the lobby. A lot of people had on Disney cruise shirts or had luggage with Carnival tags on them. After breakfast, we grabbed a luggage cart and loaded our luggage into our cars. In a few minutes, we caught our first glimpse of our home for the next 7 days, the Disney Magic. There was more traffic then usuall around the port as people were lined up to watch the Space Shuttle Atlantis lift off. I was hoping to see it as I have always wanted to see a shuttle go up.

Dad and I dropped off the women and the kids to check in and went to return our cars. About 10 minutes later we were back to the port. Mom and Elaine had already checked in and gave us our Key to the World cards. Soon the time was approaching for Atlantis to lift off. There was a buzz in the terminal as the cast members wanted to see the lift off as well. Soon someone yelled, "there she goes!" I soon made my way over to the large windows, and snapped this picture.

The excitement of the launch past, but the excitement of getting ready to board was just beginning. At about 11:45, we saw the doors open and the concierge guests board. We had boarding card 4, so when group 4 was called, we went over to the Mickey ears porthole, our Key to the World cards were swiped, pictures was taken and we walked the gangplank onto the ship.

After a quick lunch, we walked around the ship. OUr rooms would not be ready until 1:30, so we got to know the ship. Soon the kids wanted to go swimming in the Mickey pool. We had their suits in their carry on bags, so in a couple of minutes they were in the water.

At 3:30, we went to our cabins, donned our life vests for the mandatory muster drill. That went smoothly, but it was hot! AFter the drill we proceeded to deck 9 for the Sail Away Party. Soon Mickey and the gang were out on deck, the horn blasted and we moved up the channel to the Ocean.

5:30 came and that meant dinner time! Cruise food is great! We met, Danted our server, Clloverly our Assistant, and Aleksandra our head server. All of them were great from the start, and got better as the week progressed. I enjoyed my Filet Mingnon that night. Very tasty! Elaine even ordred it and enjoyed it. Jay had his usual staple of chicken tenders, french fries and soda.

Following dinner, we went to the Welcome Aboard show. It was our first glimps of the great shows on ship.

All in all it was a great start to a great vacation. Tomorrow, Key West.