Day 1 - Sunday, February 14, 2010

Sarah and I set out for our cruise on Valentine's Day - sorry Steve!  We made the ~45 minute drive from Celebration to Port Canaveral, leaving at about 10:30 AM.  The situation at the port was rather crazy.  For the first time in the 10+ years of Disney cruises, both ships were in port at the same time.  There is only one Disney dock, so that created a bit of chaos.  The Magic was supposed to have been in and out the day before but weather prevented it from leaving it's dock.  Oops.  Staff at the port was spread thin between directing traffic and getting people and their luggage to the right spot.

Kennedy Space Center, as seen from Port Canaveral

We dropped off our suitcases, parked the car, went through customs, and checked it.  We were in boarding group 13, so we had a bit of a wait before it was our turn to go on-board.  Once on board, we waiting to make Palo brunch reservations (yay - first in line!).  We then had lunch at Parrot Cay and afterward, made our way to our stateroom (#2586).  This was Sarah's first time staying in a stateroom without a veranda.  The room was otherwise identical to the standard veranda rooms, we just had a big porthole window, instead.

Waiting our turn to board the Wonder in the cruise terminal

We then went to check out the ship a bit.  We had an inpromptu encounter with Mickey and Minnie.  We were pretty much alone with them up on deck 10.  It was very cute.  Luggage finally arrived so we then unpacked.  The muster drill was uneventful, we lined up, listened to the safety spiel, and went on our way again. 

Surprise encounter with Mickey and Minnie

 Getting ready for the Muster Drill

The Sailaway Party was fun, lots of silly dances and that sort of thing.  The highlight of Sailaway, though, was sailing past the Magic.  We waved to the people on the Magic, they waved back to us, the horns went back and forth a bunch of times, a lovely time was had by all.

This is our boat, the Wonder, as seen from someone on the Magic when we sailed by

Video of the Wonder sailing past the Magic

We went to the first show, The Golden Mickeys, which was cute and then prepared for dinner.  Dinner the first night was at the Animator's Palette.  Our menu was as follows:

Amy

Taleggio Cheese Tart with bacon, fingerling potatoes, micro greens, and balsamic reduction drizzle

Confetti Tomato Salad

Fire Roasted Beef Tenderloin with wasabi mashed potatoes and bok choy with a tamarind-barbecue reduction sauce

Warm Apple Crumble

Sarah

Wild Mushroom Risotto and Porcini Twist

Smoked Salmon and Trout with Goat Cheese Salad

Phyllo-Wrapped Salmon Fillet with sun-dried tomato, garlic cream cheese on fava beans, and green pea ragout

Warm Apple Crumble

There was an additional surprise dessert for Sarah to share with the table.  We got a birthday cake for her birthday, which was a couple weeks earlier.  Sarah isn't exactly crazy about public birthday celebrations...  Overall, dinner was good.  I didn't eat much of either dessert as I had stomach "issues."  Our table staff were less than stellar.  The head waiter, Richard, was fine, but the 2 people for our table were practically useless the whole time.  Both Joel and Marco were terribly slow and not particularly observant.  Getting drink refills was next to impossible.

Sarah's surprise birthday cake

Our dining table was made up of 4 pairs of adults - 3 married couples and then Sarah and me.  Couple #1 was from Wisconsin (married with 6 kids, talkative, amusing to listen to), Couple #2 was from NW Connecticut (quieter, but opened more by the end), and Couple #3 was from Japan (on their honeymoon, she had a lot of trouble adjusting to the sea - I didn't think it was possible for an Asian person to look that green).

After dinner, Sarah showed me around the ship a bit more and then we headed to bed.  Our room person was Piedad.  She made up towel animal swans for the first night, how sweet :)