We arrived at Port Canaveral around 11 am and were told that boarding would start around 11:30. That gave us plenty of time to check in, snap some pre-cruise photos on the outdoor viewing area, and be ready to board with Boarding Group 1. Seriously, don’t tell the kids we were there!

After our welcome onboard, we had lots of time to kill before our rooms were ready around 1:30. We wanted to change our dining time, but we had to wait until 12:30 to do it, so off to Cabanas we went. Cabanas is so nice when you’re onboard this early – no wait times in line and plenty of seating options. We typically like to eat out on the back deck, but it was a little too windy so we opted to eat inside.

After lunch, we headed down to deck 2, outside of Enchanted Garden, where they have tables set up for dining reservations at Palo and Remy, and also for those guests who wish to switch their dining time. This was the first time we have done this while onboard and they just gave us a new dining ticket and told us to present it at our first dinner and they would seat us at our new table.

That took -2 minutes as we were done by 12:28, which meant we still had over an hour until our rooms were ready. So we did some window shopping and went out to lounge on some chairs on deck 4 not realizing the chairs would be put away for the muster drill. You’d think I was a rookie! Instead, we settled for some chairs in the adults-only area on deck 13 Forward.

The lobby chandelier on the Dream is my favorite across the fleet and I take way too many pictures of it that all look the same. I won’t apologize for this.

Finally, it was 1:30 and we were excited to see our stateroom. I’ve said before that the Category 5E staterooms are my favorite and I will book them any time they are available and within budget. We were able to book a Category 5E about a month out with a GTY rate. This just meant that they would assign a stateroom for us and is different than the VGT rates with restrictions. We were assigned stateroom 9670, which is a corner cabin with a verandah that wraps around the side of the ship. We were SO excited to sail in this room and it did not disappoint.

We loved the size of the room and ESPECIALLY loved the size of the verandah, but if we had our kids we would have missed the curtain separator and the split bathrooms. But for the two of us it was absolutely amazing.

After we unpacked, we headed off to the DVC member presentation in the D Lounge. We always attend this on embarkation day just for the free drinks and a chance to win the onboard credit giveaway. We didn’t win and I think we are like 0 for 7 now.

Then it was off to the muster drill, which was in the Evolution lounge for us (another perk of the 5E cabins), and then off to the sail away party. We typically just hang around for the character appearances and then go off to wave to people out on the pier as we leave the port.

After the sail away party, it was back to the stateroom to prepare for our 5:45 dinner at Royal Palace. The dining time switch went off without a hitch and we were seated with a delightful older couple from the Orlando area. I attempted to take pictures of my food, but they are all terrible so I’m not sharing. iPhones continue to be the worst in low light situations. Real bloggers would be appalled at my attempts. I will share a picture, though, of the escargot that I tried, which I’m happy to report wasn’t terrible! I’m not a picky eater, but the thought of cooked snails has never been appealing to me. But one benefit of eating in the restaurants on these cruises is the opportunity to try things that you might not otherwise order in a restaurant. I still wouldn’t order it, but I liked it!

The time between dinner and the nighttime show is typically spent participating in our favorite pastime – checking out the merchandise in the shops. We like to look through everything and make a mental note of the things we’re interested in. On longer cruises, we’ll do this over and over until we’ve narrowed it down to one or two things. There was a lot less time on this cruise, so we had to expedite the process a little. Here’s a pro tip: if you see something on the first night of your cruise and there are limited sizes, buy it then. If you put it off, it will likely not last long. We’ve been burned a few times by this.

I really like the spirit jerseys with the ship stern characters and I really liked this shirt with the ship’s itinerary. I’ll definitely look out for these on future sailings.

We attended the Golden Mickeys in the Walt Disney theater that evening – a show that I have always loved and has a nostalgia factor for me. The cast was great and the performance was fun and had been updated a little bit since we last saw it. And Bob Iger hasn’t aged a bit.

We rounded out the evening in Evolution at the Match Your Mate show. My wife really wanted to go on stage and I was less enthusiastic about it, so I didn’t try overly hard when they were looking for a couple in our category. Ultimately we didn’t get picked, and afterward I was sad that I didn’t try harder. The show was hosted by the adult entertainment leader, Tisa, who was fantastic – so, so funny. They do an amazing job picking people for these roles.

The silent DJ party was after that, but we had a very early start to the day and opted for sleep instead.

Nassau tomorrow!