The drive to the port took about an hour, using the Beeline Expressway (Rt. 528). The Beeline may be familiar to those who drive themselves around on WDW trips, as it is the northern route from MCO to WDW. Simply take it all the way to the end; when you start to see ships, you will also see signs saying 'Cruise Terminal' that will point you in the proper direction.
When I got to the terminal, I made a left into the Disney Cruise Line facility, an elegant building with lots of glass, and drove around to the luggage drop-off. Crew Members were stationed at various points along the entrance road to direct traffic. I dropped off my big suitcase, putting on the luggage tag that came with my DCL documents, and proceeded to the parking lot. There are two lots, one next to the terminal building for cars only, and one across the street for trucks, vans, and SUVs. Since I was driving a car, I got to park in the close lot. Parking cost was about $35.
After a while, I spotted some others from the Clubhouse group getting checked in; Nanci Rossetti (Tink1) and her family, and Mike Kaye (OhMickeyYoureSoFine), my roomie for the duration of the cruise. I waited with these folks and we boarded together at about 12:30; security was similar to that in the airport, except that when I asked for a hand inspection of my film bag, the crotchety old fellow at the x-ray machine didn't seem to like the idea.
"It won't hurt film," he told me.
"Yeah, but I have high-speed film in there."
"Whataya call 'high-speed'?"
"Sixteen-hundred."
He grunted then and took my film bag from me; his hands shook as he opened one of the many film canisters.
"It says 400," he said accusingly.
"Yeah," I told him patiently, "the ones in the clear canisters are 400, the ones in the brown canisters are 1600."
Again he grunted with annoyance, put the film back in the bag, and passed it through without checking any of the other canisters. The airport does a better job with that sort of thing.
There was a walking tour of the ship scheduled; I showed up just in time for its beginning and got to see the main entertainment and dining facilities of the ship, leaving the tour just before it got to the childrens' facilities. I spent some time at the Walt Disney Theater, an elegant and impressive stage theater on Deck 3; the theater was empty, but one of the doors was open, so I took several pictures of the place with no people in it, resolving to come back for one of the shows just to experience the place when it was bustling with activity.
Next I caught the talk given by the Shore Excursions Director, telling Guests all about the various fun things to do off the ship in Nassau, Freeport, and Castaway Cay.
After the shore excursions talk, I just meandered around the ship, exploring and taking pictures, getting to know the layout of this impressive and beautiful piece of technology. Most of what I know about ships I learned from Star Trek; Trekkies have used real naval terminology for years in the invention of their fictional starships, so I was well familiar with the proper usage of such terms as 'bow,' 'stern,' 'port,' and 'starboard,' but this was my fist time on a real ocean-going ship since I was 12, and just the idea of being on a ship of such size and grandeur was exciting to me.
Afterward, I watched a little TV and wrote out some trip notes. I planned on getting up on deck for cast off, which was scheduled for 5pm, but I was a little late, and by the time I got up to the top deck, deck 10, the ship had already pushed away from the dock and we were making for the open sea. We hadn't gone very far yet, though, so I got to watch as we moved farther and farther from the dock, navigating the channel and accelerating as we go to open water. It was thrilling for me.
I walked forward on the starboard side (that's the right side to you landlubbers), watching the other docks and ships and boats sliding by, and someone called my name. A couple ahead of me at the rail turned out to be Rob and Melissa, two more Clubhouse Members (Rob is known in the Clubhouse as Merle). We stood by the rail and talked for a while. At one point Melissa exclaimed, "Look at that!" and pointed at the water. My eyes (but not my camera, unfortunately) moved quickly enough to see what she was pointing at; a dolphin, breaching, only 100 feet or so from the ship! I whipped my camera up, hoping the dolphin would surface again, but it never did.
As the ship left the channel behind and hit the open water of the Atlantic Ocean, I snapped several photos of the Kennedy Space Center, which is only a few miles from Port Canaveral. The view of a shuttle launch from the port must be spectacular; I wish there had been a launch that day. I did get a few nice photos, despite the mist hanging over the spaceport. My 200mm zoom lens does a good job of pulling distant objects close.
As the time grew closer to 6pm, I decided to head down to the Walt Disney Theater for the nightly show, which tonight was to be Hercules: The Muse-ical, a live stage show based on the Disney movie. On the way, I stopped at the snack bar next to the theater, Preludes, and picked up one of the $20 refillable soda mugs. This mug would be refillable with soda at any of the bars or restaurants aboard for the duration of the cruise. Unfortunately, there is no self-service soda fountain, as there are at the Disney resorts which have refillable mugs, and the lines to get about 14 ounces of soda can sometimes be five minutes. Maybe that's nit-picky, but I'm used to the All-Star resorts, where filling your soda mug seldom takes more than a few seconds, and can be done 24-hours a day; aboard the ship, the bars don't open till 10am, so if you're a morning soda drinker, you're out of luck. The cost was also double the $10 you spend at a Disney resort.
When I arrived in the theater, I stopped at the top to look for other Clubhouse Members, and saw Deb, LoriBeth and Paige in some good seats in the front row. LoriBeth waved for me to join them, so I sat next to Deb for the show. The stage company did an excellent job; the whole audience was in stitches. I understand that the show is slightly different every time it's produced, because the cast loves to improvise and ad-lib.
Deb had recently had knee surgery, so she was getting around the ship either with a wheelchair or on crutches (not very comfortable), so she had been allowed into the theater through a backstage entrance. Not wanting to be a roadblock, I left through the normal exit rather than following them back out the backstage exit, first making sure that they didn't need any assistance. But LoriBeth and Paige were quite good at helping Deb get around, and they also had a Crew Member to assist them, so I left them to their own devices. It was time to get ready for dinner.
Or not quite. I had time to rest up a bit and jot down some trip notes before getting myself gussied up for dinner and heading out to tonight's dining venue: Parrot Cay.
Unfortunately, I didn't make note of what I ordered for dinner that night, so I can't remember, but I do remember that it was a fantastic meal, from appetizer through desert, and I left the restaurant feeling mighty bloated. I was also impressed with the quickness, efficiency, friendliness and professionalism of our serving team. They were very nice guys, and very good at their jobs. And as far as the company goes, the whole Clubhouse group was seated at three tables right next to each other, so we not only had great conversations at our own table, but all we had to do was lean back and talk over our shoulders a bit to converse with the rest of our group.
After dinner, I went back to my cabin briefly to change out of my dinner attire. As I left the cabin again, intending to meet up with a few Clubhouse folks for the Dueling Pianos show at the Barrel of Laughs club, Ramona came out of her cabin next door, so I walked with her to the ship's two gift shops, Mickey's Mates and Treasure Ketch. Mickey's Mates carries all the standard souvenir fare, clothing, pins, toys, and sundries, with the DCL logo. It's the ship's equivalent of any souvenir shop in WDW. Treasure Ketch has higher-end clothing and collectables (with higher-end price tags to match). I wound up striking up a conversation with a Crew Member named Dave, from the UK, for close to 1/2 hour. It was Dave who informed me that those who work aboard DCL ships are known as Crew Members, not Cast Members as WDW employees are know. I told Dave a little about the Clubhouse, and that we were actually having a Clubhouse meet on the cruise, and I have hope that he will become a part of our community some day.
I went up to the topmost passenger deck, deck 10, and made my way all the way forward. The wind was howling over the bow rail, making it difficult for me to maintain my footing on the wooden deck and forcing me to squint. Still and all, it was a wonderful feeling to be outside on the open sea, with the ship gently rocking as she plowed through the waves. The wind over the bow was too much for me, though, so I made my way aft; the wind was much calmer at the stern, and there were far fewer people there as well. I staked out a place on Deck 9 outside Beach Blanket Buffet, one of the restaurants, and just listened to the sea churning from our screws, and the sea breeze blowing over the deck. It was very peaceful, very soothing, very relaxing; I almost fell asleep in my deck chair. Since it was almost 1am, and I had been up since 7:30am, I decided to go back to my cabin and get some sleep.
The ship was still rocking gently. Never having slept at sea before, I was worried that the motion would be disturbing, or even make me sick, but in moderate seas of 2-4 feet, the motion of the ship was actually soothing, and I fell asleep quickly and didn't stir again until morning.
Walk miles 4.3