Settling In
Our room wasn’t going to be ready until 2, so after lunch, we headed to a table near the Goofy pool on deck 9 to hang out until then. We were immediately approached by a server who offered us a drink in the commemorative Alaska mug for only $9.95 each. Gee, what a bargain! We each bought one with smoothies for the kids and the Drink of the Day (plantar’s punch) for Colorado Dad and I.

When our room was ready, we headed down to check it out. Since we’ve cruised before and are members of the Castaway Club, there was a gift waiting for us when we arrived.

After several years of the same red bag, they’ve finally changed the gifts to these backpacks, which I like much better!

Our luggage hadn’t arrived yet, but we put a few things away and hung out until it was time for our Disboards meet down in the Promenade Lounge on Deck 3. We visited with our fellow Disboarders for a few minutes and then it was time for the Lifeboat drill. You no longer have to wear your lifejackets to the drill, which is nice.

Bon Voyage, Seattle!
From there, we headed to the Sailaway party so the kids could see the characters and dance a little bit. Yes, Colorado Boy IS dancing a jig in this picture

After the party, we headed back to the stateroom so I could unpack everything and get ready for the show. Tonight’s entertainment was “Let the Magic Begin” which Colorado Dad and I have seen 4 times and could have skipped, but the kids enjoyed it.

Dinner at Parrot Cay
We had the late dinner and our seating wasn’t until 8:15 so we did a little exploring around the ship until then.

Trip Tip #3: I always see a lot of questions about which dining to choose – early or late. Honestly, I think it depends on your family – you know your kids best – but, there are a couple things to consider. We specifically asked for late dining for two reasons – first, so we didn’t have to rush back from excursions to make the 5:45 early seating time. Second, with late seating, you see the show first (at 6:15) and we felt like it would be better for the kids to be “fresh” for the show, rather than dinner, because we could always feed them early if necessary. What we didn’t take in to consideration was the time change. Cruising to Alaska meant that we were two hours earlier than at home, so a dinner time of 8:15 was really 10:15 for us. Needless to say, dinner that late just did not work for Colorado Princess and I think it was a big cause of her grumpiness throughout the week. If we had been cruising off the East Coast, where an 8:15 dinner time would have been 6:15 at home, it would have been fine. So, just keep that in mind when you’re deciding which dining to choose with kids!

Our dining rotation started in Parrot Cay, the least favorite of the restaurants for me, but we enjoyed a nice dinner, getting to know our tablemates and our servers, Yusuf and Buyani. I know a lot of people love pictures of the food but after 4 years of almost the exact same menus, with the same food, I was pretty lax about pictures, so I apologize in advance. The menu was the Island Dinner menu which you can see here - http://disneycruiser.info/menus_w2011/parrotcay.htm.

I had the Ahi Tuna, Parrot Cay Salad, Jerk Seasoned Pork Chop and the French Toast Banana Bread. I was not very impressed with dessert, but everything else was really good

Colorado Dad had the Crab Dip, Cream of Asparagus soup, Mixed Grill and Creme Brulee cheescake. He ate everything, so I’m assuming it was pretty good

The kids had Macaroni and Cheese and a hamburger along with a special treat

One nice thing about the late dining rotation is they do something called “Dine and Play” which allows the kids to enjoy dinner in the dining room but then they are picked up at 9:15 to go play in the kids’ club so parents can enjoy the rest of dinner in peace. Unfortunately, this first night, the club crewmembers came before the kids got their dessert, so they missed out on their Mickey Bars!

After dinner, we were exhausted so we just went to pick the kids up and headed off to bed, where the first towel animal of the week was waiting for us.

Next up: A day at sea