Jan 6 - Let the Magic Begin!

Today was the day! After 4 weeks of crazy travelling, it was time for a much anticipated change of pace. The Disney Wonder would be our floating home and entertainment for the next 15 days as we cruise towards Los Angeles. Our driver from Cocoa Beach Shuttles came early to take us to Port Canaveral! And to our relief, he was actually friendly and helpful. We loaded up the troops and suitcases and left at 0930 sharp. It was lucky that we did as it took us a while to unload and organise ourselves on arrival at the port!

On our minibus and we're off to the port!

The first of our bags

Making a neat pile.

Jason counting...Surely that's it?!?!

Nope...here's one last one said Malcolm!

Through the gate...

and straight to the terminal

The porters at the gate were great, they took care of our load and we joined the queue to enter the terminal. Check in took longer than expected but was otherwise a relatively smooth process. We took the opportunity to take photos with Mickey and Minnie and completed the all important task of finalising the registration of the children for kids club! I picked up my pre-ordered lanyards from the super organised and motivated group of individuals that belong to the DISboard. Black with customised writing in a lovely shade of lime green, they made for great gifts to mark the beginning our cruise! It was a delight to see the children's excitement upon receiving their bands.

Look who's here!

and got mobbed!

Your turn Minnie...

We belatedly realised that we were not given boarding cards upon arrival. Shame on me! We were unfortunately left with boarding number 6 and had to watch all these other people board before us…Sigh, the only thing left to do was to study the Navigator for upcoming activities onboard the ship.

Studying the all important...

...Navigator!

Our turn to board the Wonder came soon enough. After a group photo, we were announced onto the Wonder as "The Bahari Bunch". Yay!!! I felt like the matriarch of a grand tribe....It felt great to finally be on the ship. The Wonder had a similar decor to the Magic and I had forgotten how beautiful it was inside. The group went into line for our buffet lunch at Parrot Cay and I lined up to make a reservation for Palo. The line was CRAZY! Apparently the computers were down. After being in line for just over an hour, I finally got to front only to be told that I had to line up see the supervisor as our dining party was bigger than 8! So I politely told them that I couldn't wait any more and left my name and cabin number for them to contact me regarding our dinner reservation. The cast member was very obliging and I left hurriedly to rejoin my family.

Thankfully I was able to find them easily. It didn't take long to locate a group 19 with a bunch of noisy children. Apparently, it took them a while to get seated so I was able to have some lunch together. By the time we finished lunch, our staterooms were opened and so we went to check them out. We started to get our suitcases delivered in dribs and drabs over the afternoon. We managed to unpack completely before the mandatory safety drill. They had changed the requirements such that Jonah and Samuel did not have to wear their sexy orange romper down the hallway anymore. What a shame!

Time to go through the Mickey Ears

Getting ready for our group photo

And on to the ship!

An ice sculpture to mark the ports that we will be visiting

We headed up to Deck 9 for the sail away party and to hear that magnificent horn. Later that eening, we met our serving team of Savio and Jakov at Parrot Cay. I think Jakov may be new. Although they were very friendly, their service was not as slick or nor as fast as our previous servers on the Magic. I received a very special surprise during dinner. My dearest friends had bought me a bangle from Tiffany's and organised for a group spa treatment for the ladies! This was their thank you for co-ordinating the trip. It came complete with a home-made Disney card! I felt very special and extremely blessed to have been given this wonderful opportunity of Fellowship. How lucky was I to be able to share my greatest love with my family and friends!

Deck party anyone?

Try stopping these party animals...

My beautiful envelope with a special card inside...oh and a Tiffany bangle...and a massage...

The theme for tonight!

We shuffled onto the Walt Disney Theatre after dinner to catch our nightly entertainment. Tonight, it was aptly called "Let the Magic begin". It was a combination of an all out Disney stage production along with a live act. We watched Bronkar Lee, a juggling beat boxer (yes you read that correctly) with great amusement. He was awesome! It was a great way to end the first day on our cruise.

Let the Magic Begin

Our very first towelgami...amazingly not destroyed by Jonah getting into bed!