At the last second our plans changed, so my mom and I had to drive to the port ourselves. We didn't really want to pay the $20/day fee that the port charged. So I whipped out my genius phone on the way and found a cheaper place to park. It was right by the port.
We pulled into the parking lot, which wasn't paved very well (or marked in any way, for that matter) and some random guys were sitting just outside smoking. They told us it was $6/day for parking plus something like $4/person for the shuttle, both ways. We paid cash and they gave us a blue sticker and told us to park wherever we wanted.
Yes, this situation felt a little sketch. But I have to say, while the service was nothing grand, we felt we got our money's worth. My mom left her GPS unit out in plain sight for the week in this parking lot and nothing was stolen (probably wasn't a good idea... we didn't do that on purpose for sure). We waited a good twenty minutes for the shuttle, but we had a place to park, close to the port and it was far worth the money we saved.
After getting to the port, we began to wait in the many lines. There was a line to get in the building, a line to go up the escalator, a line for security, a line to check in, then a waiting area for your boarding number to be called, then a line to get your picture taken, then a line to scan your ID one more time, then a line to board the ship. While Disney has a lot of lines, the good thing is they were all fairly short. I think the longest we waited in a given line was maybe ten minutes. The whole ordeal felt like it took less than an hour.
Our room was fantastic! It was on Deck 2. We paid a little more for the port hole but oh. my. gosh. it was soooo worth it! The room itself was huge as well. We had a kind of double bathroom with the toilet in one room and the tub/shower in the other. The closet was big enough so we could fit all our suitcases to keep them out of the way. And we had plenty of space for our stuff in the drawers and closet, even though we had three fairly large suitcases full of stuff (I blame my mother for packing heavy... she kind of got excited for the whole pirate night ordeal).
We met our stateroom hostess who was named Sooshila. She was from some island off the coast of Africa/Madagascar area. She was incredibly nice and helpful. Our room was missing the remote for the TV when we got in, but she had a new remote ready within an hour or two of finding out it was missing.
The welcome show was at 6:15 and it was basically a little "taste" of what was coming up for the cruise. Then we had dinner at 8:15 where we met our servers who would travel with us across the dining rooms for the entirety of our trip. They we spectacular as well. There were eight of us dining at the table and I didn't know all the names at the end of the week. Our servers, however, memorized our names AND likes/dislikes that first night so that by day 2 they had my mom's plate of lemons for her water on the table waiting before we even sat down.
That night my mom and I decided to go to the adults only area (18+) to hang in the hot tub for a bit. It was deserted, which was nice. One of the cast members approached me a few minutes later telling me that the area was 18+. I told him I was aware, and then found out that his point in telling me was not to be informative, but to make me prove that I was over 18. I'm 24 people. I guess the good thing in all of this is that maybe when I'm 40 I'll still look 30?
He felt terrible for getting my age wrong, but I was more amused than offended. Day one was finished, with a bit of humor, and a TON of relief that we were on the ship and about to embark on a journey of no worries and no chores!
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