We just returned from our first Disney cruise. Like most vacations it went by way too fast. A few members of our family have a history of motion sickness so we decided to take a 3 day cruise just to see how everyone would do. There was so much to do and see that 3 days wasn’t enough.
Because I booked our trip only a month out there weren’t any flight options that worked for us so we had to drive (16 hours, not recommended!). Since it was such a long drive we decided to stay the night before at a Disney World hotel and then drive the last hour to Port Canaveral the morning of the cruise. The ship doesn’t let guest start boarding until 10:30am and was set to depart at 3:45pm. Since we were at Disney World we did morning extra magic hours at Magic Kingdom and then headed to the port.
By the time we got through security and checked in it was just after 1pm and we didn’t have to wait to board which was nice. The rooms were just about ready so we decided to stop there first so we could drop off our luggage and let the girls change into their swimsuits. When we got to our floor they were asking everyone to wait just a few more minutes so we decided to sign up for the Midship detective agency game.
After the girls got on their swim suits we headed up to deck 11 where the pools are located. The girls didn’t have a chance to swim at our hotel the night before so they were very anxious to finally get in the water. The pools were crowded and not very big but the kids still had fun playing on the Mickey slide and the Nemo splash
pad. We grabbed lunch from Flo’s V8 cafe right next to the pool and then headed back to change before the mandatory safety drill. Once the drill was over everyone headed back up to deck 11 for the sail away party. We only stayed for about half of the sail away party as it wasn’t all that exciting, instead we decided to explore the ship. The kids clubs were having an open house so we all went to check it out. I had preregistered the girls for the kids clubs online but the put special locks on their magicbands so they wouldn’t loose them. 
The girls had fun running to each of the rooms in the Oceaneers club, but they really enjoyed the special hand washing sinks they have to use before entering. Since we booked the cruise last minute we didn’t have a choice of which seating time we wanted for dinner. It actually worked out fine to have the later dinner time and we would probably opt for that on any future cruises. Since we were the later dinner it meant we were set to see the evening show at 6:15. Tonight was Disney’s Believe; it was such a cute show with lots of familiar Disney songs. The whole family really enjoyed it. We sat up in the balcony section and you could really feel the boat rocking during the show. The waters were a bit rough the first night and everyone was feeling a little seasick.
For dinner aboard the 
Disney cruises they have rotational dining where you eat in a different restaurant every night. Tonight we had Animator’s Palate; This was such a cool restaurant I wish I wasn’t feeling so miserable so I could have enjoyed it more. Before we ate the kids and I all took some dramamine hoping it might help. The food was so delicious, probably my favorite meal of the trip as far as the food is concerned. Inside the restaurant they have tv screens throughout so no matter which way you were facing you could see. They had a show with Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo and they had a game where you had to guess what picture a school of fish was trying to create. After dinner we headed back to the room since we were all tired. We watched a little of the Mickey Mouse cartoon channel and then went to sleep.
Up next day 2 with a stop at Nassau, pirate night and fireworks at sea!