Oh yeah! Finally get to board our ship to Alaska! We load up for the 10 minute trip to the Pan Pacific Center and find our parking. Of course we are a couple of hours early, but it beats the heck out of being late. So the boarding process pretty much goes as follows: First we take all our luggage and drop it off at the baggage area. Once that is done, we hit US immigration (you know, as we are going to Alaska and all). After that, we check in with Disney and get our boarding assignments and ID cards. We are giving a boarding number of 22, so we are told we will have some time to wait in the holding area. Soon enough they call out group one, then two and three. After an hour or so, we are up to twelve and we are settling in for long haul when they call out they are boarding all groups. Yee Haw!
As we are boarding, I notice the attention they are putting in to germ control. We are giving disinfecting wipes and there are signs about keeping everything clean. They are taking on board virus control pretty seriously. At every entrance to dining facilities they are passing out those wipes. They don’t force it on you, but they sure make it easy to keep your hands clean.
As a Disney tradition, they will call out each families name over the PA and welcome you aboard. When you get to the entrance, you are asked how to pronounce your name and they will announce your family and a small line of Disney staff will clap and welcome you on board. This goes on for the entire boarding process and you will hear the announcements over the next several hours as you are moving around the ship. It made the kids cringe a bit, but I thought it was a nice touch.
Once on board, you are welcome to have your lunch at one of several buffets (or at all of them if you wish as it is all you can eat) while you wait for your room to be ready. We filled our bellies and started finding our way around the ship. It has ten decks and takes a bit to figure out. Some decks are entirely made up of rooms, while others are public decks where the restaurants and other areas are located. Jack quickly found the play area for his age group and made himself right at home. We also took a quick guided tour of the ship from one of the crew members. Before we knew it, our room was ready and we quickly went to see what it looked like. While probably small in comparison to a standard room, we found it to be fantastic. It consists of a single room partitioned in to two areas. One partition has our large bed and the other has a couch and a bunk bed that folds down from the ceiling. There is a desk and quite a lot of storage areas. Once we unpacked and put everything away, it was very nice. Of course the best feature is the balcony. We decided to upgrade to a veranda and are very happy with our decision to do so.
Our first nights dinner was at a place called the Parrot Cay. It was one of the three main dinning rooms that we will be eating in and we were introduced to our wait staff who will follow us from restaurant to restaurant for the remainder of our trip. We have the choice to eat elsewhere or to have the included room service, but most seem to stick with their assigned dinning room for dinner. To put it simply, there is far too much food to eat, but so far it is very good.
It was when we finally went to bed that I noticed how smooth the ride of the ship was. At times, it was difficult to even know we were moving. Later that night however, we hit open ocean and finally felt the ship rock a bit. All of us felt great, but I especially enjoyed the movement of the ship as I laid in bed. It was relaxing to hear the room softly creaking and feel the gentle rocking of the ship as I laid in the dark.
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