Saturday, April 19th 2008 cont.
Embarkation

The embarkation process seems really strange to me - disorganized almost. Everyone gathers at the entrance to the roped off queue and as the boarding card numbers are called, people shove their way through to get on the line. Realizing there was no semblance of order, I shuffled our family up to the front so that A) I could watch the process and 2) we would be the first of the 6's. It worked well for us, as DH quickly picked up on how they cue the CMs directing boarding. So, before the announcement was even made, we had picked up our luggage and were moving toward the queue. Now, this line was a bit more organized and it was quite clear what the CMs were looking for - to me. Unfortunately, maaaannnny of the people ahead of us had not picked up on the "have ALL keys to the world cards and photo ID OUT and ready for inspection." I cannot tell you how many folk ahead of us were sitting there struggling with taking their card out of the plastic lanyard holders and shuffling around (going into wallets) for their photo ID - you know, if you hear the CM asking every single group ahead of you for the same thing, over and over and over again, you would think you might have it ready for them???!!! (Rant over - no pun intended). The funny thing is, the majority of those folks taking their cards and ID out of the lanyards and such were CASTAWAY CLUB MEMBERS - who have DONE THIS BEFORE! (okay I'll stop ranting - can you tell I needed this vacation ? lol) 
Anyhow, the next 5 minutes were a blur. I wasn't really able to process or take much in because of trying to make sure that I followed all directions and understood what was expected. (A personal flaw I guess) Anyhoo, as we passed through the Mickey-head threshold, we showed our cards one final time, then it was: Wash your hands with the wipes (I had heard about the wipe stations on the DIS, so, while this didn't come as a complete surprise, I was shocked at how soon it began. Then it was time for pictures. Take this card, stand over here, smile, stand here, smile, now just the child, smile. In all this haste, I forgot to make sure my watch was facing forward, so that little bit of the embark picture bothers me. but, whatever. 

Next was the entrance. I knew about this too, but it was totally cool how it all happened. Now, please know, I am sick of being the family photog and dislike seeing all of every important event through the lens of a camera, so I packed the camera away because I wanted to soak in all the magnitude of the day. But it was like a whirlwind. A CM leans over and asks our name DH and I both answer and it comes out over the loudspeaker: "DCL welcomes The Ranches Family" umm ok we'll be the "Ranches."
From there I was on a mission. It was late and I needed to make it to Rockin Bar D to make Palo ressies. We decided on brunch; but somehow wound up with brunch and dinner. cool. Until we found out that pirate night had been changed! whatthf? So we needed to try for another night. I looked at our KTTW card ( PLLPLAP) - yes you are seeing it correctly, Our dining rotation definitely showed us in Parrot Cay and Lumiere's 3 times each and Animator's once for the whole trip. Okay, whatever, I guess missing Parrot Cay on Tuesday won't be a huge loss... We got tuesday night also and left RBD feeling pretty proud of ourselves. It was about 12:15 now and we headed up to Topsiders for lunch and to allow DD into the Mickey pool. Thanks to the DIS, I knew to bring our suits. DH and I caught sight of our first poolside CM who had a tray full of the "drink o the day" in reusable plastic cocktail glasses. Perfect! We were going to ask our room steward for wine glasses for our aforementioned adult beverage cache, but these would foot the bill so much more aptly - and we could start the party right away - BONUS. We grabbed a table on the port side near the Mickey Pool and I watched our bags and sipped relaxation step #1 while DH took DD to Topsiders. When he returned, I headed in to get my lunch. We sent DD into the bathroom to change into her suit and let her splash around. They finally opened the slide at about 1pm and she had a blast. We would not see it this empty again unless we were at the pool by 8am - we did that only once. 
We relaxed until 1:30 and headed down to our room. It didn't take much to get DD out of the pool because she was just as excited to see the room as we were. We were even more surprised when we opened the door and saw all those wonderful "Bon Voyage" decorations and the cake our TA had arranged for us! Thanks Keri from LBAC! In my excitement, I neglected to get a picture, but I DID call her and leave a message to thank her for her thoughtfulness while DH went on a quest to fill the ice-bucket and let our room steward know that we would need an ongoing supply of ice. DH wasted no time unpacking the um, err... provisions and mixed us up a refill of our souvenir glasses (cups). We settled out on the verandah with our cocktails and did some people watching before our 2:00pm DIS meet at the Promenade Lounge. 

We arrived a few minutes late, but it wasn't difficult to find our group. There were about 6 or 7 families there, positioned in chairs and tables arranged in a circle. 

We arrived as Maryann (Madgomez of TGM fame) was introducing herself and family and I took that opportunity to enter the circle and finally meet someone I had "known" for so many years on those boards. 
Everyone was filling out lime green Mickey-head nametags that many of us wore for the remainder of the cruise. 
I introduced our family and many more DISers arrived and introduced themselves as the rest of us chatted and got to know one another. The yankee swap was awesome. In my haste to pack, I had managed to forget the homespun yankee swap gifts from LI - but since many of us were actually from LI, it probably was so much the better. LOL DH picked out some apropos gifts at DTD and they became some of the most coveted items of the swap. DD fell in love with her gift, a Tallahassee manatee - from Hypermommy and Co. - and made fast friends with the little girl who chose the gift that she picked out for the swap. 
John (TECHJPM) and Deb's DD, Leanne, and Jordan spent a LOT of time in the lab together and we ran into each other often on the ship and off. DH got a lovely tote - the blue stripes really accent his eyes - 
and I got the much-coveted DCL litho!!! yay me!!! By the time we finished our yankee swap, we had taken over the entire Promenade Lounge. We took a few group photos and bid adieu - but this certainly wouldn't be the last anyone would see of each other.

Back at our stateroom, I took the opportunity to unpack our luggage before the muster drill. The drill was a non-event that was over before we figured out what was going on. They started call stateroom numbers, but I never heard ours. It didn't matter though, they released us super-quick and we finished our unpacking before the beginning of the sail-away party. I must say, I don't really quite understand all the complaints about the stateroom size or the storage space. We had plenty of space and loads of storage. I don't know if it was because I packed light, or that I'm a pack-rat by nature and adept at hiding things away while still having them accessible, but, we could've brought tons more stuff and still had room to spare. Nothing was ever all over the place and there was plenty of space in the bathroom for all of our toiletries. I didn't bring the much-touted "over the door shoe organizer" and never felt that I needed one. We were all moved-in by the time we left the stateroom for the Sail-away party. DH mixed up yet another batch of Bahama Mamas for the Sail-away party and off we went.

It was hot, hot, hot on deck and I really don't know how those CM's do all that jumping around for so long. But then again, these are also the bunch that keep all of our little ones entertained while we all chillax:

We got a spot right up front and waved our mylar streamers around for the 45 minutes until that much awaited, always imitated, never duplicated, Disney Cruise Line ship's horn.

it truly is a surreal moment when you hear that horn and realize you've pushed off from the dock and you're moving. The party ended with an appearance from the characters.


Then we went up to deck 10 to watch as the ship sailed out of the canal. People on shore are truly awed by the magnificence of this ship and they watched and waved as we passed.
Wilted by the heat, we headed back to the stateroom to relax and get ready for dinner.

up next... it's dinner time... already?.