Our Christmas Cruise - Day One

The day was finally here! Christmas Eve, and time for the Magic to sail. We had arranged to take a shuttle from the hotel to the port, and it turned out to be absolute insanity.

On our way to the port

It seemed like every single person staying in the hotel was waiting in the lobby, most of them leaving on a Carnival cruise that was also sailing that day. After the ride, let's just say we were glad to be going on a Disney cruise and not Carnival. It was one of the loudest, rudest crowds I've ever been in. We were relieved when they all got off at the Carnival port. We arrived at the Disney terminal at around 12:45. It wasn't crowded at all and getting through security and checking our bags was quick and easy. We snapped a few pictures of the model ship....

...and then it was time to board through the big Mickey ears!

 

As we boarded they announced our family and everyone cheered. The ship was all decorated for Christmas and it was gorgeous, especially the ginormous, several-stories-high Christmas tree in the atrium lobby.

We were ready for lunch, so we headed up to Topsiders (a buffet style place) to grab something to eat. I had some salmon, a salad, and some of the best shrimp I have ever tasted. I seriously wished there was nothing else on my plate, it was so good. 

After lunch we went down to deck 2 and found that our room was ready for us! Our luggage arrived shortly after and we met our host, Junior from Jamaica. We started unpacking and relaxed for a bit. I was very impressed with the amount of space we had, everything was comfortable and convenient.

The couch Eric is sitting on turned into Sawyer's bed.

 I loved having a porthole and seeing that view! Next time though I think we'll spring for a balcony.

Pretty soon Sawyer wanted to go swim, so we changed into our suits and headed up to Deck 10. We stopped by the Oceaneer Club on the way to pick up his wristband and let him check it out. When we got to Mickey's pool he was a little overwhelmed by the crowd, but soon he was splashing around.

After playing in the pool for a while it was time for muster in the Walt Disney Theater. Then back up to Deck 10 for the Adventures Away party! It was a perfect day to sail - definitely the warmest Christmas Eve I've ever experienced.

Non-alcoholic drink of the day - I can't remember what this was called, but it was something with strawberries. Yum!

We found a spot near the railing so we could watch the show...and quickly discovered that we'd need to use our elbows to stay there! It was pretty cutthroat. I got kind of annoyed but at least Sawyer could still see. He loved the streamers and seeing the characters sing and dance.

When it was time to launch we walked forward where it was less crowded so we could watch the action. The sun was starting to set and it was so beautiful.

Eric does not like me taking his picture. Sorry honey, get used to it!

Launch! So excited.

After the launch we decided to go grab a snack at Goofy's (a fast food place by the pool) since we were on the late dinner schedule and we were all hungry. At the exact moment we were passing by the horn it went off. We had warned Sawyer about the loud noise during the show (he is very sound sensitive) but didn't know it would happen again right then. He grabbed me in terror, then 2 seconds later started laughing hysterically. He loved it! We got our food from Goofy's (bratwurst, hamburgers and fries...not the tastiest food I've ever had but hey, we were hungry) and then headed back to our room to change for the first night's show, "All Aboard." We had never taken Sawyer to a play before so didn't know how he would do, but he absolutely loved it. The ship was really moving by then and we could definitely feel it as we sat in the theater. I was a little queasy, but being 6 weeks pregnant it was hard to say if it was from the ship or just my usual state.

Having "dinner" at Goofy's

After the show we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner and rest a little bit. I was so tired I could have gone to sleep for the night (pregnancy strikes again) but I didn't want to miss our first dinner. That night we were scheduled to be in the Animator's Palate. We arrived to find that our tablemates hadn't shown up yet, and they actually never showed. We had been looking forward to meeting another family but given how tired we were it was kind of nice to be on our own.

And even though we'd already technically had dinner, we were hungry! Here's where I totally bore you by posting pictures of my food. I had the potato soup (really good), salmon baked in phyllo (not great) and for dessert chocolate cake (pretty good.)

Eric had butternut squash soup, risotto, and salmon. Sawyer had chicken fingers, fries and chocolate milk but as you can tell here, he didn't eat much of it. This is about how tired I felt too. He did wake up enough to take one bite of his Mickey Bar, but then we left early to get back to our stateroom and crash. We just barely missed Mickey's appearance but oh well. Maybe next time.

This is what was on our bed - Santa was coming soon!