Day 1 of the Disney Magic

Day one of my cruise began way earlier than I would have liked. I let myself stay up ridiculously late the night before under the illusion that I could sleep during the 3-hour car ride to Port Canaveral.

However, because I stayed up so late I neglected to wake up early enough to put on makeup. So I decided to do it in the car. Thus, no sleeping got done. Just makeup.

Pulling into the port sent a wave of excitement through me that brought tears to my eyes for the first time of many for the weekend. I couldn't believe I was about to board my first cruise and leave the country for the first time ever!

Our online check in was for 12:00 but we arrived a little after 11. Our boarding ticket said we would be boarding around 1. So we sat down to settle in for a long wait. But before we knew it, they were calling the groups faster and faster. I am pretty sure we boarded BEFORE 12, which was our original time. Fine by me! More time on the ship!

Our excitement grew as we waited in the line IN the terminal (?) waiting to actually step foot on board. We got our picture taken professionally here, but decided this selfie was enough. I also included this so you could see my makeup a little bit. I did this all in the car and I honestly don't really remember what I used. Profusion and Wet n Wild on the eyes I do believe.
The first special thing that happened that reminded me why Disney is full of that extra magic. When you board, they announce your name over the loud speaker and cast members (what Disney calls their employees) stand by and cheer as you board.

Once on board we explored as much as we could. We went up to the 9th floor which is the main deck. The restaurant Cabanas was serving lunch, but we couldn't find a table! So we retreated back to the 3rd floor to Carioca's, which also had a buffet lunch. We ate some lunch and I must say I was a little bit disappointed. I know that I told myself I would try new things but there wasn't a whole lot in the buffet that appealed to me. I just ate some peel-n-eat shrimp and some mini corn dogs. Can't really go wrong with that. My favorite part was the miniature slices of Pumpkin pie for dessert. They were so cute.

This was a truly candid shot while exploring the decks. I'm just naturally a model like that *flips hair*

Really I included this to focus on my outfit. I'm wearing my Target strapless bird dress with my Torrid bathing suit bottom underneath (which is what the straps belong to), black leggings from Walmart, and a cheap hoodie from the mens section of Walmart that was purchased/brought as an afterthought that I was super grateful for! My sunglasses are also from Walmart. This outfit is basically a billboard for Walmart & Target. Budgeting 4 life.

The ship was equipped with more stuff then we could cram into 3 days. A basketball court, coffee shop, family pool, adult only pool, hot tub, 3 deck restaurants, Aquadunk (more about that in another post), the kids splash area (Aqualab) and a water slide (Twist n Spout). We didn't get to do nearly everything we wanted to do!

Our rooms was ready at 2 and our luggage was there waiting for us. We went in and found a bottle of Champagne and a box of chocolates with a little message from my mom telling us happy anniversary. So we popped that baby open and poured ourselves a glass or two. It was really, really delicious and oh so fancy. The praline chocolates actually paired really well with the bubbly.

We hung out in the cabin until the Lifeboat drill...which was very short and boring. But directly after that was the Sailaway party!

One thing about Disney is they make everything a party. And no party is complete without Disney characters! So they pumped the music, handed out streamers, and hyped up the crowd to say goodbye to the Florida coastline.

I got myself the first drink of the trip! The Sailaway party special: half strawberry daiquiri, half pina colada

We tried not to buy drinks so much because we brought our own alcohol and bought even more in the Bahamas. But it was very tempting. I actually didn't drink all that much during the trip. I didn't like the feeling of being on the boat and drinking. Plus, we were constantly eating it felt like! So there was no time to drink! Haha!

and of course, that means a commemorative cup!

After the party we wandered to the back end of the boat to watch the coast get further and further away. We were practically the only ones back there and it felt really nice and private. We even saw dolphins! They were quite a ways away but it was still really exciting to see them.

After watching the shore slip away we had only a little bit of time to spend before our show started at 6:15. Since we chose 2nd seating dinner, our show was always early every night.

I didn't take any pictures during the show, since you weren't supposed to. But we got some popcorn, brought our spiked drinks and watched a great twist on Cinderella. It was pretty entertaining.

After the show I changed to go to dinner. I wore this purple peplum dress that I got for $5 at Dots!! The same walmart leggings, and a leather bow belt from Lane Bryant.

Before dinner there were stations set up to get some pictures taken by a photographer but we didn't have enough time. There was also various meet and greets with Disney characters. That was one of my favorite parts of being on a Disney cruise. Everything is Disney themed! And everywhere you look there's someone there to take a picture.

Animator's Palate was our first dinner stop in the restaurant rotation. I was most excited about this restaurant because we heard a lot of great things about it online and in the DCL documentary on Netflix. Well, ever since the Magic went into Dry Dock in October, they revamped this place. They spiced things up. Now there are sketch pads along the walls that get more and more near animation as the dinner goes on.
Finally, at the end of dinner there was a presentation on the screens that was a montage of different Disney movies and had an actual plot with ups and downs and it was just an emotional roller coaster!!

Our table-mates were awesome. We ended up sitting with 5 other people, all of them under 22. One of the couples was actually from our town! A very strange coincidence and small world, as they were family members of someone I knew who went on the cruise!
So we all got along pretty well since we were around the same age. The other 3 were people with tattoos and stretched ears and generally seemed to be my type of people. They were nice but they mostly kept to themselves.

Anyway during the montage they played the clip from Toy Story 3 and all of us just groaned and was like HOW COULD THEY DO THAT TO US so it was funny seeing us all have the same reaction. It got to all of us.

Yes I want to document all the food I ate because I stepped out of my comfort zone and everything was so yummy!

Of course since meals are included, there is a LOT of food to choose from. Each dinner included bread & dipping oils of some kind, appetizer, soup/salad, main course, and dessert. And there was no limit on how much you got.
At Animator's Palate Andrew and I split an appetizer of Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes- pasta purse filled with truffle scented cheese and coated with a delicate champagne sauce. This was interesting, it tasted like something that I couldn't place my finger on. I didn't enjoy it all that much, but I am still glad that I tried it.

I also had a roasted red bell pepper, zucchini, and red onion salad with chopped cilantro and age balsamic dressing. This was also just okay. I would have liked more, or a more flavorful, dressing.

Last but not least is the main course pictured above. Probably my favorite main course of all the dinners. It is a lemon thyme marinated organic chicken breast with sour cream mashed potatoes, roasted root vegetables, and grain mustard jus

For dessert I had white chocolate fudge cheesecake. It was divine!

After dinner I was feeling very full and sleepy. We explored a little bit but then went back to the room to go to sleep. I have to say that on the first night, the sea motion was pretty intense. I am very glad I took Bonine before we left. I could feel every movement but I didn't get sick or nauseous because of it- I'm assuming that's thanks to the seasick medicine. I don't know how I would have done without it but my guess is not good. However, the Bonine mixed with a full meal made me soo tired. I wasn't even in the mood to really do much.

We got back to the room at almost exactly midnight- which is when every restaurant on the ship closed. We decided we were a little bit hungry so we decided to order room service, which is free. Well, since we called RIGHT after the restaurants closed, there was quite a wait since everyone had the same idea we had. We waited almost an hour just to be pretty disappointed.

We got a personal pizza (tasted like a gross microwave pizza), a sandwich (my boyfriend said it was not good), and chicken tenders (which were cold). I have to say room service was the main and only thing that disappointed me during the cruise.

So that concluded our first day aboard the Disney Magic! We would wake up the next day in Nassau!
Day 2 was so long that I'm going to split it into two posts. I don't want to overwhelm with pictures!!

I hope I'm not forgetting anything, I want to remember every last detail.