All Aboard!

We flew into Florida last night and drove to our port area to a hotel.  The kids played in the hotel pool for a while and then we had dinner and settled in to bed so we could get some sleep before boarding the ship this morning.  The boys first view of the ship blew them away.  They were amazed by how large it was.  We waited in line to get our cruise cards and then it was going to be a while longer to wait for them to open the doors to get on the ship.  As we were going through a crew member approached us and asked us if we'd like to be the Family of the Day.  Of course we said we'd like it!  We had no idea what that meant but we were sure we'd like it. :)  The crew member escorted us over to a VIP desk where another lady got our kids all registered for the kids club and then she jumped us to the front of the line for a photo with Mickey.   They also took us into the gangway for our boarding-the-ship photos and then brought us back out with everyone to wait until it was time to board.  They had a table reserved for us to wait at where the boys could color or just relax for a few minutes.  Being the Family of the Day meant that we would stand in front of the doors, wave, and be excited when they announced that everyone would be able to board, then we'd lead the way and be the first to board the ship.  As we walked onto the ship they announced our family and all the crew cheered.  We immediately went to explore the ship.  The kids club had some amazing items in the rooms.  Andy's Room was particularly neat with the life-size Toy Story characters.  Then it was to the AuqaDuck and Nemo Splash Pad.  The AuqaDuck is a clear tube slide that wraps around the top of the ship.  Cole loved the Nemo splash pad too.  His favorite was the sting ray slide.  It was so slippery that the kids would slide well past the landing pad; Lots of giggles in that area.  When they had our room ready we unpacked, and explored our new little home.  The boys loved finding all the Mickey head symbols in all the details of the ship.  They were EVERYWHERE.  The boys thought they would count and see how many they could find but I think they quickly ditched that idea when they realized they would be counting into the thousands.  That evening we went and participated in a game show activity.  It was a game that challenged family members on how well they know each other.  Clint and I were picked to go up and play.  We did really well but there were a couple questions we didn't get correct and so we came in 2nd place.  The boys were excited to know that they'd have more competition activities throughout the week.  Dinner tonight was in the Animators Palate where they had it set up to feel like we were under the sea.  Crush from Nemo would swim around on the big screen walls and talk to us.  It was pretty entertaining.