Saturday, April 19th, 2008

After about 45 minutes of driving, we were on the bridge. I had heard about the view from the bridge, but no words can express the absolute giddiness I felt when I saw those two beautiful red stacks when we reached the apex. As excited as I was, I couldn't seem to drum up the same level of enthusiasm from the others in the vehicle. "Oh, yeah cool," was the extent of the response from Dh and DD, well, let's just say, "zzzzzzmmmmmmmhhhpf" was all I could muster out of her. She had fallen asleep and Mickey Mouse himself couldn't have roused her. What I wasn't prepared for, however, was the wait - from the first sighting to actually arriving at the port was interminable. The ship is mammoth, so it is easily spotted from afar - apparently veerrrryyy afar. But we had another 10 minutes of driving before we were actually there. 
But when we pulled into Port Canaveral and saw the magnificence of the Magic from up close, DD and I were ready to jump out of the still-moving car and climb aboard. Of course, we had to be directed to the drop off, where we unloaded the luggage and DD and I proceeded to the terminal while DH made his way to the rental car place to drop off the car. It was 10:50 and I was NOT a happy camper. There was a line to check in before entering the building. I really wanted to avoid the crowds, and instead we were right smack dab in the thick of them. But, we really NEEDED that cell-phone charger this week, you see. grrrrr. But I had his passport, so I was gonna check us all in. 
I got to the first desk where they check your paperwork. I explained that as I was pulling the papers out of the bag, I noticed that I must have packed the brown booklet because the lady at the cruiseline desk at Animal Kingdom Lodge said I wouldn't need it.
"Let me see what you have." I handed her the paperwork.
"This isn't it. You'll need to fill out..."
"Whaddya mean? They checked those papers at the cruiseline desk at Animal KingdomLodge. They said they were fine. Even put everything in order." I was about to lose it.
"These aren't what you need. Do you have the little brown booklet" I attempted a knowingly fruitless search of my bag. "No, they're in the other bag." While checking my bag, I realized that I had handed her the printed contract, instead of the cruise documents she needed. I sheepishly handed them over to her. "Looks great! All set" Excellent, I thought, now we can take some pictures of the terminal and with the characters. I wondered which boarding number she'd give us. We're not that late. Maybe 3 or 4? "Just go right over to that line over there and they'll give you your boarding card." Huh? That was just pre-check-in. Great. tick...tick...tick.
I dragged the two heavy carry-ons and DD over to the serpentine line and was handed card #6 as we entered. Ugggh! Check-in was painless. The terminal was crowded and DH wasn't back from the rental place yet, so I didn't mind standing in the kids' club line. It kind of made the time pass more quickly than wandering around. DH finally found us on the line and we checked DD in. The lady was mean - bordering on nasty, when I told her that DD would have sign-out privileges. I know my kid. It's your rules. Stop eyeballing me. then she asdked for the password. I gave it to her. "Nope. that's not it." Yeah. That's it. Nope, starts with a 'd'" WhattheF... 
Turns out, when I checked something for DMIL on her DVC account, I must've been logged into DCL and it changed the password. It shouldn't do that. Fixed the password. Got our pager. A quick trip to the restroom for all and they began to call numbers. Hooray!!!

Next up...Disney Cruise Line invites all guests with boarding card #6...