04 Mar

Day 1 – Embarkation

 

The big day was here!  Technically our trip started yesterday, but that was just a day of flying and no pictures!  We stayed at the Comfort Inn and Suites Miami International Airport, which was a nice hotel with a shuttle both from the airport and to the port! 

It was about 1 mile from the airport, so it was super convenient.  To the airport. 

It was not convenient to anything else!  So, if you come in early, you may want to look closer downtown or to the water. 

I ordered pizza to my room from a local pizza place, and met up with Jenell, Audrey, Misty, both Heathers, Heather J’s mom, and eventually with Kris and Shallon who were staying next door! We had fun catching up and went to bed at a reasonable time that night!

We woke up early to get ready for the big day. The hotel had a nice hot breakfast, so we went downstairs and grabbed something before we left.

I brought my standard Lorna Doone cookies and bought some Coke Zero from the hotel, so I didn’t eat anything, but I was excited to see they had POG juice! I had a big ole glass of that!

We were on the 10:30 shuttle and got to the port around 10:50. There was a short wait to get inside, but it wasn’t bad. Check-in!

That’s us!

Once inside, we checked in, went to our waiting area, and said hi to everyone from our group as they came in!

I had a lot to carry because of all the swag I had brought for the group, so I put my camera in my checked bag. So I only have phone pictures for most of the first day!

Heather and I were near the front of the concierge waiting area and after bypassing the boarding picture, we were the first people onboard! Woohoo!

First people onboard selfie!

We went right to the concierge lunch at Rapunzel’s. Where I still didn’t have my camera. So sad.

Also, I desperately want an iPhone 11 Plus before my next trip. For the camera!! I need it! #amiright?

Menu!

I had empanadas!

Or empanada as it were.

We talked to the concierge host Alaina for quite a while about our plans for the cruise. She helped iron out any difficulties we had before boarding, and we were all set for the cruise!

While Alaina was talking, she mentioned concierge popcorn and I assumed she was reminding us of the bags of popcorn that the lounge had for us whenever we wanted some. But then I realized she had said the word “hot”, and I was like “Wait, what?”

Turns out that concierge guests could now show their key and get hot popcorn at the theaters! Score!!!

While I was going through my list of whose names should be on what activities, Alaina saw Justin’s name and said – “Justin and Courtney?” She was their wedding coordinator on the Dream!!

She was so excited!

And because they had one of my favorite wedding photos of all time and I save it on my phone like some kind of a stalker, here it is!

And that’s just one of them! They’re all amazing!

We also had an excellent server named Edward who made lunch even more fun! Also, he had a beautiful English accent, so Heather and I were just happy to listen to him talk.

We swung by Lumiere’s to get some things from Jenell, Audrey and Misty who were eating there, and then we were off to our room!

Still no camera…

We had an accessible one-bedroom suite which was wonderful!

Sadly, accessible meant no bathtub, but this verandah almost made up for it!

Can you even?

And here’s a video:

I decided SD-14 needed a picture on the verandah with his Blog swag!

Misty took a photo at some point of the swag, so I stole her photo!

Heather also took one:

I also may or may not have bought the romance package for Heather and I so we could both get new DCL robes!

I hid by the door while Heather made a video for YouTube. You can watch it here!

Scott, Emily and Isabelle came by to see our room and they helped us assemble the gift bags. Isabelle was clutch with a pair of scissors since my suitcase still hadn’t come!

Still sans camera, we all rushed out the door to our group welcome meet and credentials pick up!

We handed out goody bags and the Sanders met everyone and passed out scavenger hunts for everyone to work on during the cruise. Here’s some of the group!

Misty bought me a drink, so here’s a drink of the day and virgin drink of the day!

We had a great time meeting some people and catching up with others.

While we were talking to one group, we realized they had mistakenly not been linked with our group for dining. They had a server they wanted to have again, so I went upstairs to the concierge lounge to see if I could get them with our group, or with their favorite server. They did move them to their favorite server, so they were happy!

Soon it was time to muster, so we swung by the room (still no suitcase!) and were off to muster.

We ended up mustering with a bunch of people from the group, so we stayed and talked for a while after!

Then we went by the lounge to grab some Coke Zeros for our fridge, and a couple of snacks while we were there. We had changed rooms a couple of weeks before the cruise, so we decided to swing by the old room to see if my suitcase was there. Which it was! Yay! Camera!

Scott and family came by to watch the sail away from our amazing verandah. He pulled up a real estate app and we oogled the prices of the giant houses we passed by as we sailed away!

And we discussed renting this yacht together, ala Below Deck style.

Dinner tonight was in Animators! When we arrived, we discovered that two more of our group had not been assigned to eat with us, so we went into fix it mode. The head server found them in another restaurant and sent someone to go get them. We made room for them at the table and after a stressful start, settled in for a nice meal!

I had my traditional appetizer – French fries!

Don’t judge me.

Here’s some of us!

Couldn’t sneak a picture of Scott without him noticing!

Dinner took a very long time, but considering we threw them for a loop when we first arrived, it wasn’t our serving teams fault.

At one point a crew member found me and handed me a box of chocolate which thoroughly confused me! Turns out our romance package came with chocolate and they couldn’t leave it in our room because of Heather’s gluten allergy.

I will never say no when someone seeks me out to give me chocolate.

We all went to the stores after dinner, and some went to the show! Heather and I got our free popcorn! Not because we were hungry, because we could!

We said goodnight to everyone at some point and went to the lounge to check on a few of our plans. There was no one there!

Popcorn and Coke Zero!

And here’s my chocolate box!

When we were walking back to the room, we passed Captain Marvel! My camera was still packed away since dinner, but we thought we were going to get really cool phone pictures of her until she turned around and Heather and I just looked like awkward stalkers.

Back to the room! Here’s our towel animal for the night!

And my bed.

Heather slept on the pull out which she said was quite comfortable!

Here’s my giant bathroom that had no giant bathtub!

Then it was bedtime! We had an early morning meetup for coffee!

 

Cruising with The DCL Blog! Again! – February 20-24, 2020

Day 1 – Embarkation 
Day 2 – Nassau and the Pirate Brewery! 
Day 3 – The Perfect Day at Castaway Cay! 
Day 4 – Food and Trivia at Sea