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The day we have been waiting for for over 2 years has FINALLY come, and for some reason it doesn’t really seem.....real!!! Sure, we packed up all our stuff, got out the directions to the port, got out $$ for the Toll roads...but were we ACTUALLY going to get on the Disney Wonder????

We woke up and packed up our stuff, stopped to get gas (remember when Disney Gas was really expensive??? It was actually cheaper than some spots in Orlando!!) We were on our way around 10am, onto Osceola Parkway to 417N to 528. I had stopped at the Cruise Desk at CBR the day before to get directions to the port. There were clouds and some sprinkles along the way to the port. What happened to my SUNSHINE??? No worries...we were going on the Disney Cruise!!! Brandon was my navigator, and he did a pretty fine job of it! We made it there with NO problems! We got there just after 11:15am.

I’ve heard it before, but until you actually experience it...you just don’t know!!! WOW...coming over that bridge and seeing how BIG and BEAUTIFUL the Disney Wonder is....well it just takes your breathe away!!! Brandon had the camera out and was trying to snap some pictures as I was driving.

There was security guy out front before the actual turn in to tell me what I needed to have out. It was like an assembly line...very efficient. I showed my ID, gave my name and he checked me off the list. He told me that starting that day...we could park in the lot RIGHT NEXT TO THE SHIP. Since the Magic is sailing to California...they don’t need as many parking spaces...so it was pretty neat to park and just walk a few feet into the Port!!!

We pulled up to the luggage drop off, and a porter came out to get our bags. She reminded us to check our bags to make sure we had our ID, and Birth Certificates and anything else we may need before our bags are gone. We checked our carry on and we had everything we needed. We parked the truck and just looked up at the Wonder in....wonder!!!

We went into the front of the Port, had our bags put through security, and rode the escalator up to the main check in area.

We got right in line to check in, with only 2 people in front of us. And they had a bunch of Cast Members working checking people in. Check in was a breeze, we had all our paperwork filled out ahead of time! We made a stop in the restrooms and then when we walked out Captain Mickey was out taking pictures! We stood in a short line and had our pictures taken with Mickey!

 Then we went to get in line....it was pretty long at this point, but I’ve been told it goes pretty fast so we aren’t upset! Then I noticed the Kids Clubs check in area....I ask the women behind me if she minded if we stepped out of line and kept my bag there...and she was fine with that. Well as soon as we get in line...they start boarding !! I didn’t want her to keep our spot and move the bag...so I sent Brandon to get the bag. As it turned out I should have left it....they were in the same spot when we finished getting his pager! LOL We asked if he could be in the 10-12 year olds since he was one month shy of his 10th birthday. I think he would have been fine in either group, really. But they came over and said that was fine!

We go to get in line...and now it is ALL THE WAY back to the escalators! Holy Cow! But the lines really did move FAST!!! We showed our ID’s and Key to the World cards at one section, then they scanned our KTTW cards, and then we got in line for our Welcome Aboard Pictures!! Then we were on our way onto the WONDER!!! They announce your family name as you are walking in....and it was so amazing to hear them announce our name!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW....walking onto the ship at Deck 3 was amazing! Beautiful!!! We stopped to get a DDD(double dog dare...my "disney friends" had a list of DDD's for Brandon and I to do during this trip!) picture of Brandon near the staircase...he didn’t point...but that’s ok!

 I went straight to guest services to put cash down on our account. It was my goal to not have to use a credit card on this trip....ummmm....yeah right!! Then we were off to Beach Blanket Buffet for lunch. We got some food and sat down to eat. Sorry T, didn’t get the shrimp!! I’m picky about my seafood!!! I took a picture of Brandon eating...and a women at the next table offered to take a pic of both of us. She was with a BIG group who all had Disney Characters on the back of their shirts(Dopey, Grumpy, Ariel, Jasmine, etc) I think this must have been the same group we saw around the Magic Kingdom the day before.

**After looking at this picture, I noticed our "new" friends in the back ground. YippySkippy and her husband and son are in line right next to Brandon. We wouldn't actually meet them until a few hours later for a DisMeet!

I went to the Spa to confirm my appointments I made online, and to find out about the 1/2 body massage. The staff members must have all been in bad moods, they were all complaining to each other about stuff, and kept ignoring us. I was really put off by the lady scheduling things, so i decided to just forget about scheduling the massage. We walked around deck 10 and took another DDD picture of Brandon doing the “Kind of the World” pose.

We found the basketball area and Brandon played a bit while I called a few people to tell them that we made it!!!

 It was only 1:15 at the time, so we stopped and I got a BahamaMama drink! Yummy!!! It was the first time I’ve tried it...even though it is my email name! LOL Now it was 1:30 pm and our stateroom was ready.

We went off in search of our room, and found it with no problems. We were pretty much smack dab in the middle of the ship!! Already 3 of the 4 bags were in front of our room! That was QUICK!

We walked in and after the initial shock of how small the room is compared to a standard room....we got used to it and fell in love with our room, and our Verandah!!! The stuff I ordered ahead of time was in the room...except our decorations were not there! They had sent a different bon voyage gift instead of what I ordered. Two days later I had a message from guest services telling me the reason...that they ran out of the supplies. No biggie, just really wanted the decorations to use in the scrapbooking stuff. The cake was there, along with something I ordered to pamper myself!

                                     Brandon on our Verandah!!!

Brandon found the TV in working order as I unpacked our bags. After about 30 minutes our last bag showed up and I unpacked that one. I really DIDN’T need or use all the clothes we brought...but you just never know! We made/received a few more calls, and then it was 3pm...time to meet up with a few people from a Disney Cruise Forum. I have to admit I was a bit nervous because we didn’t really chat that much before the cruise!

We met at the Promenade Lounge, and two families were already there. I heard a “There’s Heather!!!” and found my new friends!! I had NO idea who I was looking for...but they had been reading my Website all the time to get cruise info and just to hear the music, so they knew what I looked like. They said they really enjoyed my web page and checked it all the time! LOL We talked for about 30 minutes and the kids played. Brandon met up with the only other boy in the group, Patrick and his father. They played games while we talked.

It was almost time to get ready for the Life Boat Drill, so we took a group picture of the kids and headed back to our stateroom to get our LOVELY ORANGE life vests on! Woo Hoo!! We took another DDD picture with our vests on!!

 The actual drill only took about 10 minutes, as we walked up a CM asked our stateroom #, and then “joined” Brandon and I into another family! They went over what to do in case of an emergency...put on some WARM clothes, grab our fashionable Life Vests and calmly make our way to our Muenster Station (J). We would then get in the boats as they were being lowered blah blah blah. We even had a whistle on our vests, not the cool kind like Rose on Titanic...but at least we had one...just incase.

We had to wear our vest until we got back to our rooms, and we had to take the stairs both ways. Going down was no problem...but going UP with vests on and hundreds of people was kind of funny!

We got back to our room, stepped out onto our verandah and called a few more friends/family. We also noticed that IF NASA had not postponed the Shuttle Launch, we would have had a PERFECT view from our room!!! It was about time for the deck party now, so off we go to deck 9, Goofy Pool. They showed us how they covered the Goofy Pool so everyone could get out there and dance! Brandon wasn’t having ANY of this dancin’ stuff, so off to Deck 10 to get a better view of things.

A little bit latter Brandon noticed Yippy Skippy and her family down on deck 9 dancing. So now it was OK to go down and dance! LOL We made our way over to them and then we were all dancing to the music of Junction 21!

After a bit, the characters all came out! I tried to get some good pictures of them, but I AM SHORT, and there were other people in front of me. I did get a few good shots, though.

Anyways, they played the most loved Ship Horn ever....the “When you wish upon a star” horn blast!! Yippy Skippy and I just hugged and jumped up and down like little kids...do you know how long we had waited to hear that sound in person?? (OK, so that is my AIM tune for when my Buddies sign onto AOL..so I hear it all the time...but it is SOOO different when you hear it ON THE SHIP!)

We decided to head up to deck 10 so we could watch us go out to Sea. 

 We found we were on the wrong side, so we scooted over to the other side of the ship. We didn’t leave right at 5pm, more like 5:15pm, but it was SOOO AWESOME when we finally started moving!! We passed some restaurants where there were people outside waving Mickey Hands!! I thought that was so cool!!!!!

We waved and waved and waved some more to all the people along the way, in boats, in restaurants, and then at Jetty Park.

There were SOOO many cars just parked off to the side watching the ships go out to sea! My mom called and said she didn’t see us going by on the Web Cam yet, and Teresa also called me around that time!!! (She had been calling me with countdowns all week...she is a trip, I tell ya!!!!) We really needed to get back to our room to get ready for dinner at 6pm, but I didn’t want to leave until I knew we had passed the Web Cam and really got to wave to everyone! My mom called back and said she saw us....YEAH! So we rushed down to our room to get ready and headed off to Tritons for our first dinner. We had the TAPP rotation...AKA Triton, Animators Palette, Parrot Cay, Parrot Cay.

On our way to dinner, we ran into Goofy near the stairs..he was nice enough to take a picture with me and Brandon when he found out he was our Favorite!!!
                                 

Now, Tritons is the dressiest of the three restaurants, but tonight was NOT the night to dress up. So we went ahead and wore our “Boarding Clothes” to dinner. Most everyone else did too, so I didn’t feel so bad. As we were being shown to our table, all my fears of being placed with a big family and being the outcasts came rushing back to me. I saw a table with two empty chairs on the end, and that is right where we stopped! As it turns out though, our table Mates were GREAT! They welcomed us and included us right into their conversations. There was Grandma and Grandpa, their granddaughter Lisa, her husband Ed, and their two kids, Marshall (6) and Ayla (8). They live in Titusville, and he works at NASA. We met our wait staff, Head Server Gabby, Sever Nelson, and Assistant Server Stacey from Jamaica.

If you didn’t eat ALL of everything they brought out to you, they were worried that you didn’t like it. Um....NO I’m just saving room for everything else!! I got the shrimp Medley, Salad, Grilled Stead with veggies and a baked potato. We had taken seasickness meds earlier, but took another part of the pill at dinner since the ship was really moving. I think that was a wrong decision. By desert time Bran wasn’t feeling good and running to the bathroom. Even though I had ordered the desert, I went ahead and left so we could go back to the room. The room was turned down for the evening, we had a rabbit as our towel animal, along with the daily Navigator for the next day.

I called to get the couch turned down for Brandon to sleep on and put in my order for Ice for our room. I ordered it for AM and Turndown service, we have to always have lots of ice in our room!!! It was SO simple to turn the couch into a bed, that after that night Brandon always did it before we went to dinner! Ha!

By now Brandon was feeling better...so off to the shops I go!! I went to Shutters first, the photo shop. I found 3 pictures already and bought them, along with the picture package so I’d save some money! I head to the shops, and started not feeling so great. After running to the bathroom(almost went in the men's room, but a lady standing there helped me out!LOL) I went back to shopping, and then headed back to the room.

We missed the first show tonight, Hercules...but oh well...I’m not going to stress about it. Brandon did catch part of it on TV while I was shopping. I got back to the room, showered and spent some time on the verandah. I wrote in my journal while out there, this would become a nightly thing. It was SO peaceful out there, hearing the waves, the ocean breeze...PERFECT!! Brandon even came out and wrote in his journal with me (this would be the only night he did this! )

Only bad thing about the verandah, were the smokers next door. I KNEW that would be my luck! For the most part, the smoke never came right to me...it was blown the other way by the wind, but just the smell of smoke really gets to me!