We are home!! So where were we when I went cold? Oh yes, finding bfast before driving to the port.
We ended up at Starbucks after polling the kids. We did a mobile order with pick-up inside & used that opportunity to change out of our ‘airplane clothes’. All the warmer layers got stuffed into a suitcase so we didn’t have to carry it around onboard & I took the chance while re-arranging luggage to tag the bags with the DCL luggage tags.
We ate in the van (the Starbucks was FREEZING so once we were out of our layers we didn’t want to stay & actually ended up putting in a 2nd order in Starbucks to get the kids hot chocolates to warm them up LOL).
By the time we were done eating & luggage re-arrange, it was 10am. I had planned to start the just under 1 hr drive at 10:15-10:25 to not be too ahead of our assigned 11:45am-12:00pm PAT (port arrival time), but DH was antsy and made the executive decision to get there & worst case find somewhere to chill for 15-20 min. on the port end. We started off at 10:06.
Our first sight of the ship was 11:01, we pulled up to the terminal at 11:10 (including a ~5 min complete stoppage time that we are guessing was due to a drawbridge being raised) and then were pulling up to curb for luggage drop-off just ahead of 11:15.
No one asked for our arrival time or even questioned our being there. They had us drop off luggage right away and sent us to park. We chose to park on Level 3 of the garage to take a bridge walkway across to the terminal & get this fun view/photo of the ship before boarding. These are time-stamped 11:28am.
After arriving to the terminal we had to line-up for check-in. Just as we got into line they started up the first announcements for boarding with Boarding group 1 right at 11:30am and then less than a 2 minutes later Boarding group 2. We were boarding group 10 so had a bit to go still and they lingered longer over subsequent groups than the minute between the first two.
This was quite the line and took the most time of our wait for our boarding group to be called, though it was super-efficient for how many people they were through-putting. Our check-in was straightforward once we got to the desk & we were on our way to a very short security check & up to the terminal waiting area.
We were still waiting for our boarding group to be called (they were on group 7) but we used the time to take embarkation day photos. They had a new (to us) photo in front of the model ship of the Magic in the middle of the terminal (they called boarding group 8 while we were here).
And then they still had an embarkation back-drop one in the very back right corner that we had remembered from last year, (they called boarding group 9 while here).
And then I kid you not, the very minute we got this 2nd set of photos done (and were exiting that area and positioned right next to the start of roped queue to board), our boarding group, 10, was called so we just got right in line. It was the realization of my many, many, many visualizations of our boarding being that smooth, seamless & perfect. Absolute magic.
We walked up the gangway at 12:04pm and our last 30 seconds of being not on the ship were views of this:
And our first seconds on board at 12:05pm views like this:
We spied Captain Minnie on the balcony meeting with basically no line so diverted from our plans to get straight to lunch, and to her meet first instead. So worth it!
And then, straight to crab! Well, kind of. I had asked my kids in the terminal before photos, again before going up to the pool deck, and a third time when passing bathrooms on the pool deck before entering lunch: Does anyone need to go potty? Did anyone say yes? No, no they did not.
We entered Cabanas and washed our hands and then, one kid said, well, wait I do need to go. Which caused a domino effect for another kid (who actually really needed to go so it was good we got that taken care of when we did). So I held those 2 kids’ stuff staying put near the entrance while they took off backwards to the bathrooms and DH and the other 2 kids entered to find a table & start getting plates. The older of the 2 kids going potty had told the younger to meet them at a specific spot and rejoin me together. When only the 1 younger kid showed up back to me, I knew they hadn’t listened and the older was probably panicking at not finding them, so out to the pool deck I went dragging the stuff I was holding for them plus my own stuff, to make sure the other one wasn’t looking panickily for their sibling (they were, but luckily only just that minute we went out to find them).
We got everyone gathered and found DH at a table. It was outside all the way aft, beautiful weather & a view so perfect it definitely felt like the proper start of vacation. I decided to take a minute to sit and enjoy while DH got his plate.
I will spare you the details but the next 30 minutes I ended up in the potty 2x more with one emergency that turned into a small incident, all before I was able to finally sit down with my plate. While theoretically it was the faster of the lunch options, it was 1 hr 15 min total for us from that first handwashing (12:30pm) to being done (1:50pm). Part of that was due to the bathroom breaks, but also, DH loves his crab, so he did not mind the extra time to shell more plates that the kids (and at least once me) were taking turns grabbing for him. And we enjoyed plentiful amounts of crab, shrimp and bites of a few other things. The only photo we have is but a small sampling of the overall crab intake.
The good news by taking so long, was that our room was ready so that was our next stop. Our 2 rooms were palatial & not only met, but exceeded our expectations of them! DH has since told me he always wants these rooms on the Dream or Fantasy because it was way more space than we’ve ever had and the views were stunning.
The bad news was that we missed going all together to first trivia we had planned on making (DS13 & DD11 did make it over there, but were a few minutes late so missed the first 3 questions & weren’t competitive without our full arsenal of knowledge with DH & I staying in the stateroom). DH stayed with me to help situate the younger kids into the room & I took the chance to start unpacking and got a good chunk of it done while DH finished up one thing for work & we let the littles doze.
DS13 & DD11 met up with us after trivia & maybe a little bit more of exploration. While DH finished up his work thing, I took the kids to see if we could dip into the last 5 or so minutes of Oceaneer’s open house. We weren’t able to, but did start up a Midship Detective Agency mission instead.
Then it was time for our muster drill. Our location was in the lower level of the Walt Disney theater and it was fairly painless (for being an in-person drill).
Next, we did a quick change to swimwear and the DS’s decided to stop in on the Oceaneer Lab open house for 10 minutes before joining us up on the pool deck. Here we enjoyed our best cruise life with: the sail away show, hearing the horn blast 
, pool deck burgers, chicken tenders, pizza, ice cream & drinks. We set down at a table as homebase and the kids went out to swim while DH & I relaxed at the table. I kept popping over to the pools/slides to keep tabs on kids, especially the littles.
And one time caught the location of at least one port camera (if you zoom in on the building below, hung on the patio is a banner that says WAVE!) as we pulled away from port & out to the beautiful, open ocean.
I gave the kids until 5:15 (roughly an hour) of pool free-time and then it was time for everyone to hop out & back down to the room to change for the first show & dinner. It was actually 5:30 by the time we got all 4 kids rounded up and into the elevator from around the pool deck. Then a speed rinse and flash change for everyone (except DH who stayed in reg clothes to just sit at the table and eat). By some miracle we still made it to the theater by 5:50 and had seats together in orchestra for the 6:00 show.
The show was Aladdin (which is also on the Wish & we had seen it there last year), but it’s very easily a repeatable show, especially to see Genie and his jokes change up. It is very similar to the Hyperion production of Aladdin that was once upon a time done at DLR. It has the same Lucky Bird song that I believe was written for the Hyperion production (but maybe it was for the Broadway show & then also used at the Hyperion, not 
on that). But even with the similarities, it isn’t exactly the same as the Hyperion & even has different elements than the Wish, most notably for how they do the crowd of Genies in “Friend Like Me”. Because we showed up just before showtime, we didn’t get any theater/show snacks, but everyone did pretty good at being happy watching the show without them.
The show ended at 7pm and we split up: the older kids to Icebreakers at the Tween Club, Edge, younger kids to Oceaneer’s for some Magic Floor Play fun. I can’t remember exactly what DH & I did. Maybe a walk around the promenade deck? But also, I think that may have been after dinner so maybe we just enjoyed the atrium for a minute? But my notes and photos are failing me exactly for this stretch of time.
There was a trivia at 7:30 we definitely went to, so whatever we did, it was not for long. The older kids joined us after ducking out a few minutes early from the Edge icebreakers and together we killed it at Disney Tunes trivia.
However, it was still being scored at 8:05 and we had dinner at 8:15 so DH stepped out from the trivia to grab the kids from Oceaneers and seconds later sent us a text that Mammoth club was filming just outside the lounge and the kids should say hi. @tiggerpal My turn to tag you so you don’t miss this bit of the report! (and hope you’re having/had so much fun on the sailing after ours!!!)
If you don’t follow them, Mammoth Club are vloggers for all things Disney/Universal on both coasts and even have done an international trip now and also have picked up cruising. They are some of DS13’s favorites. We’ve watched their cruise videos together, but DS watches all their parks content too. And I follow them on the socials so see their snippets a lot too.
My older 2 bolted out of the lounge leaving me alone to finalize the scoring of our trivia. We won, so it was just me to claim our 1st trivia victory of the sailing (so the staff seeing me solo awarded me just the 1 medal & gave 3 medals out to 2nd place). DH would proceed to tease the kids the rest of the trip that they/Mammoth club deprived him of a medal. But he really was joking because we have about a million of the medals because we often play, win a decent amount of the time, and usually they award us 4 medals each win.
The kids did say hi to Molly & Alan in that minute, but were too shy to ask for a pic so when I caught up with them in the hallway they were having regrets. I told them to figure out where Molly & Alan had gotten to, and I would help ask for a pic. (I did have to run back into the lounge for my bag that I had left in the trivia in my rush to go also say hi & then still make it to dinner).
Bag retrieved, I wasn’t then sure at all where they had gone, so I ran around for about 5 minutes until they let me know they had located Molly & Alan in the atrium. I caught up to them and we got a picture with them & the kids. I then fan-girled a minute & told them how happy I was they were finally doing the Fantasy so I could watch footage, as I had a Mammoth-club sized hole in my Fantasy cruise prep without any of their videos to watch, (this was their first time on the Fantasy so they didn’t have content yet).
Btw Alan complimented DS’s hat and he was so happy with that he almost didn’t wear any other hat he packed (but finally did switch to a Guardians one for our Epcot day after the cruise).
Meanwhile DH was in a looong line to pick up from Oceaneers and so even with the running around and late letting out trivia, we still beat him to dinner. But we all got to Animator’s Palette within a few minutes after 8:15 to meet our serving team.
And that’s a good stopping point for embarkation. I’ll leave you with the link to Mammoth Club’s footage of their first day, which they just dropped this morning & we’ve just finished watching after the kids got home from after school activities.
We were almost but not quite in a few of the shots. The porthole where they stand to explain how they don’t film their dinner notes live was where DH initially saw them. And DH & I later did see them later in The Tube and their video includes some of the adult lounge fun we were enjoying but we weren’t quite visible in any of their shots. But we’re looking forward to their coverage to see if by any chance we made it in any footage. Spoiler: if they include snippets of the pirate show we may be very, very, very visible, so we’re excited to find out!
