Sail away

 

We did it.

We went…on a cruise.

Stand up and take notice, people.

Did you know that registering for the SAT requires approximately 18 trillion pieces of personal information, and that you have to submit a very recent, very specific photograph of the student, which means that if you left it til the day before you leave the country because the deadline is while you’re gone, you didn’t leave enough time?

Everyone gets tested and has to pass a covid test at port in order to get on the boat.  Much discussion was had about what we would do if one of us or another tested positive, either at home or at the official test site. 

So we had our own family test party the night before we left.  Swabs for all.

 

Each test associated with its own 15-minute timer.

You’d think C for covid, right?  But one line = good; two lines = bad.  

Woohoo!  Six negatives and the Millers are on the road!

We flew with Jeddy when he was a baby, but for the rest of our kids, this was their first experience with air travel, and all the navigating, parking garages, schlepping, security lines, and TSA confiscation of their toothpaste and lotion that goes along with it.

We met our fellow beloved travelers at the gate where we had barely-not-really-enough time to buy sandwiches and scarf some down before boarding.  We were determined to keep those N95s on because, see “not letting us on the boat,” above.

It was overcast and rainy when we left, so it was fun for the kids to get to watch us fly up through the clouds to find the eternal sunshine up there.

Baggage was found and claimed upon landing, Jo (AKA best travel agent ever) secured our Lyfts to the hotel, and we arrived in sunny Florida in one unscathed group with a charming outdoor hotel pool to play in.  The guys went out and brought back extra sunscreen and hot barbecue, which we ate at a long table next to the pool.  Some of us were more interested in the hot tub than the pool, but afterwards we went in and snuggled up together in our room to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremonies before bed.  

In the morning we made what use we could of the “grab & go” breakfast—courtesy of covid—and ate together in one of our rooms while we waited for a late morning port shuttle.  Lizzy commented, “Yesterday felt like a lot of days,” and she couldn’t have described it better.  

Finally, after plenty of time spent fretting about whether we would pass our covid tests, Grandma announced that there was a playground across the street.

So, even if we failed the test, at least we found a nice place to play 800 miles from home.

Next step, the hotel-to-port shuttle bus.  At this point we’ve been a car, an airport monorail, a plane, a Lyft, an Uber, and now a bus.  All in hopes of getting on a ship.

One step closer!

At the Disney port, we were directed through a series of white tents which Jason described as “E.T.-style,” which they really were, minus the alien.  You swab in one, and then go to the waiting tent, where you anxious watch the screen for your number to come up and tell you if you should report to the embarkation area, or a Very Special Area which is not the one you signed up for when you booked this vacation.  

Believe me, there was relief and rejoicing when our party was cleared to embark.

Next was a winding series of lines through customs and security.  By the time we had our first glimpse of the inside of the ship, we were tired, cranky, and not a little stressed out, and our “grab & go” breakfast, such as it was, was at the bottom of our toes, it being now 2:30 in the afternoon.

Thus I’m not sure how fully appreciative we were when we stepped aboard and our party’s names were called and cheered. 

I would more accurately describe my frame of mind as disoriented and overwhelmed, to be honest.

I was somewhat prepared from what I had heard that embarkation day is a bear no matter what, so step 1, we found our rooms and dropped our bags; step 2, we found some food.

After a determined trip to the excursion desk by Jason and Jo, and a not-very-tasty-but-very-grateful cup of coffee for me, we all ended up in the kids’ club to check out the open house and see what our kids might get up to if we sent them there.

Let’s just say the tour was enough to impress me, satisfy me that my kids would be ok, and make me wonder if I could pass for 11 so I could also play there.

After that we were able to make a quick tour of the teen club’s open house (“Vibe”), which was significantly less impressive, partially because the private teen pool and hot tub area weren’t open and the snack bar was shut down due to covid, but it did have Guitar Hero, foozball, and a giant cushy stadium-style movie pit.

We had to leave to do our Coast Guard-required muster drill, which—again, because of covid—was “virtual,” in that you find your life boat station at some point in the afternoon, upload a picture of it to the app, and watch a video about emergency procedures on your phone or in-room TV.

Finally, our nerves were too frayed to take any more and we required six Millers to report to our stateroom for a breather.  

We figured out each of the three room numbers (our girls were staying in Grandma and Grandpa’s room down the hall from us) and wrote them down on a scrap that we put with their room cards inside lanyards for each of the younger ones.  Then we connected the olders to the chat function on the cruise app.

Satisfied that we were at least somewhat oriented, we let them run off to Grandma’s veranda room to watch the sail away, but I was ready for a shower and a little more deep breathing.

We met again at dinner, in the first of our assigned dinner locations, Animator’s Palate.  

Animator’s Palate was suuuuper cool.  An animated Crash the sea turtle swam around the screens and even conversed with the diners.  Other Nemo characters swam around while we ate as well.

Caleb is impressed with the kids’ meal!

And I was impressed with the grown-up meal—presentation and taste.

I did have to run back to the room during dinner to collect motion sickness medicine for the kids—you could feel the rocking of the ship more while we dined.  

We had this towel animal and chocolates waiting for us after dinner.  We never did agree on what animal it is.  Duck?  Penguin?

As soon as dinner was over, Caleb, Lizzy and Wyatt hustled off to kids’ club, but I took a bit of time to unpack and settle into our wonderfully-appointed stateroom.  And Jason—almost as if he anticipated embarkation day to be stress-filled and frazzling—had booked Jo and me for 75-minute Thai poultice massages in the spa.  I came back kneaded out and fragrant and tried to get used to the shaking of my bed while we motored away to warmer waters.