Mic & Family - August 2007

Who: Anderson family, Mic & Jeff, Sean (12) and Sarah (9)
When: August 2007
Trip: Cocoa Beach and Kennedy Space Center, 5 nights at Disney, followed by a 7 night Magic for Less group cruise out of Miami, and then 3 nights of free dining at Disney.

DAY 9:
Today's report: Freedom of the Seas Day 1

We woke up on our own this morning and went down for breakfast in the hotel. (Holiday Inn Port of Miami) We ordered from the menu as I just couldn't take any more buffet mass scrambled eggs. I got the breakfast burrito and it was good. The manager came over and asked my kids if they wanted some hot chocolate (yep in the 90's outside and they said yes!). It was really creamy and chocolaty, worth the heat.

We headed back to our room to get our bags and then down to the lobby to meet up with Jill. A small lobby was overrun with people going on the cruise, with all the expected cruise baggage, yikes ! We got checked out and hopped a taxi/van that had room for all our luggage and the 5 of us, no problem mon. The taxi fare to the port was only 8.10 plus a tip.

We unloaded and handed our already tagged bags right over to the porter with another tip of course, but handling all that cruise luggage, the poor man more than deserved it. J It was about 11am and the sign near the door said boarding did not start until 2pm. (we knew that was the official word but had heard unofficially they usually allowed people to board around 11am).

We headed into the terminal, flashed our documents, and went through security. The check in lines are by what deck number your cabin is on. So we found our line for decks 9 & 10 and waited maybe 5 minutes. We checked in then, were given our Sea Pass cards (room key + charge cards for DH and I only) and were allowed to board !

Wow what a gorgeous ship ! Although we were not announced upon boarding like on the Disney Magic, it was still an awesome feeling to board and see all the artwork and design around us. Susan and I had started planning this cruise before it was even available for booking, we took polls on the Magic Cruises for Less list and tried to pick one that worked for the most people's schedules (sorry Leia L ) . Our group by the way consists of 32 of us. Binnie (list mom) and her DH, her DD and family, Mike C from The Magic for Less, his DD and her friend, and his parents and brother, Linda S also from The Magic for Less and her family and parents, my family, Jill from the list, Nikki from Spain and also from the lists and her family, Darlene and her family (also from the list) and one more family that is friends with Darlene's family.

So after boarding we explored a little bit and then headed for the buffet. None of us were overly hungry but the adults got some pina coladas and they kids were allowed to pick whatever they wanted (yep DS got just deserts). A few of the things I saw on the buffet (and I didn't make it all the way around) were hot dogs, hamburgers, cut up fruit, some deserts, pasta with a red sauce, and pizza.

After lunch we went to see if we could get into our staterooms and we were able too ! Yae ! We visited our's first, it was gorgeous. 1704 on the back of the ship. A nice sized balcony with two lounge chairs, 2 regular chairs and a small table. The room itself has a queen or king sized bed, then a pull out couch for the kids, a flat screen tv with a combination dresser/desk area, a small table, 3 night stands, a full closet and the bathroom. The only disappointment is that we could not see the tv from our bed, although the kids could. Guess it's time to break that tv while I am falling asleep habit. Then we went to check out Jills which was an inside stateroom. Definately smaller than on DCL but it was all nice and new feeling.

After this the kids headed back to our room and we went to tour the spa, I was only going to register for the free prize, but feel lucky financially to have escaped after only booking 2 things. LOL, they ALL sound so wonderful !

We decided to take the kids to the pool next so headed to the room to get them ready. DH was hungry by this point so he went to the buffet while I went and got some chairs. The kids played in the H2O zone (a water play area next to the pool) for about an hour taking breaks for "free" ice cream cones. I did head down to the promenade briefly and a big ole party was going on down there.

We headed back to our room to get the kids dressed and got ready for the safety drill. Armed in our big and bulky lifejackets we headed down the hall, down 6 floors, outside to our station back at the rear of the ship to wait for the drill. Well apparently everyone made it as we were soon released after they went over some safety details and talked a bit about Hurricane Dean. Our current plan is to head NE past the Bahamas before heading down towards Labadee, Haiti on Monday evening. The captain will reassess at that point the remainder of our itinerary.

Back to our staterooms and we are free from the life vests. It was time for our sailway party at Mike C.s 2 doors down from us. We headed over with Jill and they had decorated with all sorts of fancy balloons, it was very festive. They have a corner room and it's a bit bigger than ours. We were the first ones there, but soon Binnie and family showed up, as well as the Stockwells (my kids were going out of their mind waiting for Deanna and Jessica). Before we knew it we were moving ! Time to pop the cork on the champagne and celebrate a bit. Mike had gotten some chocolate covered strawberries, and some other candies, yum.

Jeff and I had to duck out as we had a booked our Couple's Massage and Float Combo at 6pm. All the spa services were $20 off if you booked that night. The float part consisted of laying on a twin sized water bed type machine, it was hard when we laid on it, but when she turned it on it started to soften and gently wave, and she wrapped me some warm cocooning blankets. Wow it was so relaxing I didn't want to get up even for my massage! The massage was just upper body, I would have loved to have gotten my feet done too, but it was all veryheavenly. As we were checking out and requesting that Stephanie do our massage on Wednesday, our kids showed up. Apparently they thought we were taking TOO LONG relaxing.

As we had chosen late dining (8:45pm) we still had some time to wander the ship a bit before getting cleaned up. I did need a shower as there was massage oil in my hair. LOL.

Late diners in our group consisted of Nikki's family, Jill and my family. We were tucked into a nice big table in the corner. We met our server, his assistant, and then the bartender also came around. We had decided to go in on a wine package with Jill, we chose the mid level package and ordered a bottle of Reisling for that night. The chef's special was some sort of fish. I ended up ordering an onion tart, and the stuffed chicken breast. Unfortunately I was brought the plain chicken breast instead and had to wait for the correct one to come out. Dessert choices seemed a bit limited to me, there was apple pie a la mode, something they called a White Chocolate Fondue, that was more like the fruit parfait you get from McDonald's than any sort of Fondue I have ever seen, a rum soaked pound cake, or ice cream, sugar free ice cream or sherbert. There was another sugar free desert but I don't recall what it was.

After an enjoyable meal we parted and headed for the promenade to try to catch the parade. There we ran into many more of our group and grabbed some tables near some of them. The parade was pretty cool with some acrobatic performances going on in the middle of the promenade. My kids had chosen to go to bed as they were too tired (parade was at 11:15pm). After the parade we decided to head to bed, although the offer to join friends in the Solarium (adults only hot tub that hangs out over the side of the ship) was VERY tempting. I really wavered between which I wanted to do. So much so I think I might have to try the solarium the next night instead. The beds are what I think is called heavenly comfort, and they are very very comfortable. I fell asleep to the sound of the ocean outside our door.

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