"Celebration"

Celebrate good times, come on..................

Okay, that's my favorite sailaway song, but more about that later.

We went to the Chocolate Museum first thing yesterday (Wed) morning and took the metro. Went really well. The museum was very interesting. There were about 5 dozen displays made completely of chocolate. Huge displays. We took lots of pictures. Learned the history of the cacao and how chocolate came about. Of course, there was a chocolate Mickey at the end. And there was a whole chocolate display of Finding Nemo. It was pretty kewl (as Scott would say).

Anyway, metro'd back to the hotel and did my five minute post, then we headed up to our room and got our luggage and took a taxi. 30 Euros later, we arrived at the terminal. It was busy, but we walked right up to the check-in area. Saw Matt (who is in charge of the check in process) and talked to him for awhile. He is enjoying his summer over in Barcelona. He has an apartment here and then manages all the seaside port stuff for check-in. He was helping quite a few people with lost luggage problems. I think that has been their biggest headache thus far.

We got our picture with Minnie and then they had a street performer in a ship and we dropped our coin in the bucket so he would act like the captain out on the water. It was fun. We got some pictures.

Then headed over to the Welcome Aboard area and got pictures and then headed on to the ship. Took the elevator right up to deck 9. Travis was introducing the families, so we talked to him and then he announced us, then we headed towards the Goofy pool where you can then see yourself on Ariel Vision.

We met a family while boarding and they boarded with us. They are Tom. T'leene, and their daughters K'Leigh (15) and Kameron (9). Tom works for Disney in California. Real nice family. We ended up hooking up with them for dinner and Jamie and K'Leigh are hanging out together on the ship. They picked up a third friend Jordan, last night at The Stack.

Robert and I went and got our dining room rotation changed and we had run into Percy (our assistant server from the Transatlantic) and so we asked to be put on Tomas and Percy's tables. They were very accomodating. Table changes were done in Palo's instead of Rockin Bar D'.

Then we headed down to the room and our first luggage had arrived. So we unpacked it. Got it all done and then our second showed up, unpacked it, then the third and then the fourth. It worked out well. I ran 3 doors down and pressed what needed to be done and got all our items done. The laundry room was already packed and every washer was being used.

About 4, I headed out and went to the Dismeet. Smaller group, worked out great. We met in the Promenade Lounge. We did sailaway gifts. I did a door magnet and gave away.

Ran into cast members we know everytime we turn around. I haven't seen Daniel yet (he was the dining room manager on our Panama Canal Cruise), but he is still on board, working as a swing. Alain came back yesterday.

Went out to lifeboat drill. Percy (our asst. server) was in our area. I told him the test to pass was if he could remember what drink I had at dinner. He thought for a second and said "diet coke, no lemon". I was impressed. I said what about Robert? He said, cup full of ice, and a full dish of lemons! That's pretty good, considering it's been a couple of months almost.

Robert went into Barcelona to go to the maritime museum. Jamie and I went to the sailaway show. We saw the dancers from Barcelona, the magic of Mike Super and the normal show that happens at sailaway.

Then headed back to the stateroom to get dressed for dinner. Had "Let the Magic Begin" menu. Food was good, a little slow coming into the dining room.

Got done at 10:30 and we still hadn't sailed, so we headed up to deck 10. About then, the ship pushed out and then turned around to be headed in the right direction and off in the open sea we went.

Went to bed around midnight. Jamie came in at 2 a.m. (her assigned curfew time). She said The Stack was good. When we walked by, the teenagers were all the way down the staircase into the hall. There are plenty of them around. In fact, the cast member from the stack told us there are 1100 kids on board. Quite a change from 300 in May!

There are kids everywhere!

Got up this morning (Thur) and went to breakfast. Sat out on the AFT at Topsiders. It is a beautiful day and is suppose to be about 88 degrees. There is a slight breeze. The seas are calm. At noon, we are having a dismeet lunch in Lumiere's and then at 1 p.m. we are going to the DVC Celebration. There are 700 DVC members on board this cruise! We were in the elevator last night and a guy said "I know you" and it was Will from DVC. He is working the 11 night cruises and then instead of flying back to Florida and back again (since he has 10 days off), he is just staying on board and vacationing in between the two cruises. Sounds like a pretty good summer to me!

Also ran into Amy and Chris (art auctioneers). We talked for quite a while and they have thoroughly enjoyed the ports and their time over here this summer. She is writing down some info for me for our stop in Rome.

Okay, so that about catches everyone up to date. Tonight is the Golden Mickey's and our only formal night.

I am going to make sure to get some pool time in this afternoon.

Sea U Later!