31 May – 1 June 2013
Packing for this trip was more rushed than usual. Maybe it was because T was working up until an hour before we left for the airport or maybe it was because I hadn’t had enough time to fully mentally prepare for our voyage. It could also have been because we were only getting about 5 hours’ sleep each of the three nights before travel day. We also discovered our camera simply wouldn’t turn on (even after an overnight charge) about 2 hours before we needed to be at the airport. That triggered a very last minute trip to Target to buy 2 new cameras (luckily both were on sale, and many thanks to Vi for putting the last one on hold for us!). At the time, I wasn’t sure why I felt I needed to buy 2, but I had that “just in case” feeling.
We made it to the airport in plenty of time (thanks to Brudder for being our personal door to door taxi service!) which was good because everyone and their cousin seemed to be flying today. We wound our way through seemingly endless lines at security, but made it to our gate with about and hour to spare. We had lunch at Potbelly, which was good because on top of the lack of sleep, neither of us had been eating particularly well this week as we tried to prepare for the trip!
While having lunch, I realized that we had forgotten our Secret Mickey gift at home. On Disney cruises, you can sign up for small gift exchanges called Fish Extenders and Secret Mickey. Fish Extenders involve groups of cabins semi-secretly leaving each other small gifts throughout the cruise. Secret Mickey is like Secret Santa. Weeks ago, I had planned out and procured our gift which was going to be a travel scrapbook binder that could be filled along the cruise. Luckily, I had finished all of our Fish Extender gifts (fabric cup wraps, wristlet pouches and I-Spy treasure pouches for little ones) and had remembered to pack all those things. We decided to get something for our Secret Mickey in one of the ports and attach a not saying we’d like to send their real gift after the cruise is over. We’re hoping they’ll think of it as a way to “extend the magic.”
The flight from Dulles to Heathrow was relatively uneventful except that due to my allergies/nasal issues, I had a very stuffed up nose and couldn’t sleep the whole flight. The next flight, from Heathrow to Barcelona was worse because we were both super tired and trying to sleep when I suddenly experiences fairly severe sinus pressure/pain which didn’t dissipate until after we landed. Luckily, it was a short flight. Once we saw our first DCL contact person, things started to look better already!
Unlike on our honeymoon cruise, our single checked bag made it safely and was whisked away by DCL to appear in our stateroom later. Checking in at the port and making our way onto the ship was relatively quick and speedy. By the time we made it there, our room was already clean and we were able to go and start getting settled right away.
We spent a little time unpacking and getting a little sun on Deck 9, then showered and headed to dinner. This time, we were seated with two other young couples and became fast friends. After dinner, we stayed up chatting until the wee hours, even on very little sleep!
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