Star Wars Cruise – Part 3, Boarding

 

Day 1: Sail Away
Day 1: Sail Away

After getting on board, we immediately headed up to the pool deck so the girls could ride the AquaDuck.  They had worn their swim suits under their clothes, so they were ready to go.  They jumped right on and didn’t have to wait at all.  The AquaDuck actually loads in the rear funnel of the ship in a small one or two person raft and then takes you over the side and around the top deck.  The girls really enjoy riding it.  There is another slide as well on the ship that kids can use.

Aqua Duck Entrance
AquaDuck Entrance
Aqua Duck
AquaDuck

Once the girls got tired of riding the AquaDuck, we decided to grab a quick lunch from Cabanas, the buffet restaurant on Deck 12.  They have a wide variety of food that should make any picky eater happy.  Our older daughter is a vegetarian and didn’t have any trouble finding something delicious she wanted for lunch.  The drink station with soda was right near where we were sitting, so we just picked up our drinks from there.

Cabanas
Cabanas

As 1:30 PM approached, we decided to head to our room to drop our stuff off.  We were staying in Room 6146, which we previously covered in another post.  When we entered our stateroom, we immediately noticed our Castaway Club gifts, which were laying on our bed along with some other information.  The gift was a burlap beach bag as well as two tumblers that can be used for either hot or cold drinks.  We ended up using the cups for coffee and soda and they worked well, although they don’t really hold much more than the standard Disney cups.

Castaway Club Gold Member Gift
Castaway Club Gold Member Gift

There was also a letter warning us about the Zika virus and what steps we could take to protect ourselves.

Zika Letter
Zika Letter

 The next thing was our Star Wars Day At Sea Experience Request Card!  We got to request two of five possible Star Wars Experiences.  The instructions said to turn them in as soon as possible near Guest Services.  We could choose from meeting someone from the First Order (Kylo Ren or Captain Phasma), the Trusty Companions (Chewbacca or R2-D2/C-3PO), Darth Vader, Rebels (Ahsoka Tano or Sabine & Ezra), or doing Trials of the Temple (Jedi Training).  We selected Trusty Companions  first (hoping to meet the droids), then First Order (so we could meet Captain Phasma),  Darth Vader, and then the Rebels.  Since our youngest daughter had already done Jedi Training, we put Trials of the Temple last.

We also received our dining rotation.  We had selected Late Dining and our table turned out to be a four person table, which we always select.  We were pretty happy with our dining rotation, although we probably would have been happy with any dining rotation.

Dining Rotation Ticket
Dining Rotation Ticket

We also received our excursion tickets.  As I discussed previously, we were planning on a beach/lunch trip on Tortola, going over to St. Johns on our own to walk around, and parasailing and the Stingray Adventure on Castaway Cay.

Excursion Ticket Envelope
Excursion Ticket Envelope

After checking out the room, I went off to sign up for the Mixology class.  We had read a lot of about the classes and were excited to try it.  Nancy and I had enjoyed the beer tasting class, so we thought we would also enjoy Mixology.  I was really glad I went when I did, we managed to grab the last two slots for the class that was being held the next day.  We would be able to go to Palo Brunch, then go to Mixology a few hours later. 

My older daughter had come with me so she could check out the nightclub and lounge area on the Fantasy.  This was our second time on the Fantasy, but we didn’t spend very much time in the nightclub area on our last Fantasy trip.  We looked in all the clubs to see the layout.  It was pretty dead since people were still coming on board.  We then decided to head up to Deck 12 so she could see Palo and Remy.  The staff at the desk were nice enough to let us in to both restaurants so she could see them. 

We then headed to the kids clubs for the open houses.  We went to the Club and the Lab first.  We love the hand washing machines and always go to open house to use them.  I want one of these for our house!  After checking out the Club and Lab, we headed to the Edge.  We finally finished up by visiting the Vibe.  My daughter was really excited to check out the Vibe as this was her first chance to enjoy the teen club on the larger ships. 

After checking at all the clubs, we headed upstairs for the Sail Away Party.  The Sail Away Party isn’t always on our to do list, but since we were out and about, we decided to catch it.  We watched until the ship started moving and then headed to the starboard side of the ship.  I wanted to see if we could get on the Port Canaveral Webcam.  After the trip, I realized we didn’t stay there quite long enough — you could see us walking away from the side.  Oh well, we got to watch the scenery as we sailed away.

We had all signed into the Navigator App earlier in the day, so we decided to meet up at the shops.  We knew there would be special Star Wars merchandise that we would be interested in.  The Disney Cruise Line Blog covered all the merchandise really well.  After looking through all of it, we actually ended up with very little.  I purchased a Star Wars magnet and a Tervis.  We let the girls each pick out one of the special pins as well.  Once shopping was done, we watched the show “A Fantasy Come True” and got ready for dinner!

Star Wars Tervis
Star Wars Tervis
Star Wars magnet
Star Wars magnet

Dinner tonight was at Animator’s Palate, one of our favorite restaurants.  We got to meet our new server team of Vipen and Hazel.   We really like the show at Animator’s Palate!  You get to talk to Crush as well as have your art work become part of the show!

Animator's Palate
Animator’s Palate
Animator's Palate Table Setting
Animator’s Palate Table Setting
Animator's Palate Bread Service
Animator’s Palate Bread Service
Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes
Black Truffle Pasta Pursettes
Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup
Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup
Sesame Halloumi Parcels
Sesame Halloumi Parcels
Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin
Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin
Tomato Tarte
Tomato Tarte
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
Cookies ‘n Cream Sundae
Cookies ‘n Cream Sundae
Plain Mickey Bar
Plain Mickey Bar

Once we got back to the room, we found this waiting for us:

We also had a letter about the Gold and Platinum Castaway Reception that would be held the next day in The Tube.  We had skipped the previous receptions and thought maybe we would go to this one just to see what it was about.

We also had this letter, just in case we forgot we could buy stuff in the gift shop. 

The girls went off to their clubs for the icebreaker activities.  They didn’t end up coming back to the room for quite a while, but they had a great time.  We know that when they come back late they are going to have a great cruise because it means they made new friends!

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