Passing Muster

If you've been on a cruise before then you know that nothing fun occurs until after the muster drill. Our muster drill was not a great experience. Owen and Olivia both hated the life vests- add to it the alarms, hundreds of people, and having to be still and quiet for a period of time and you have a recipe for a breakdown (which Olivia did). It got so bad that a crew member finally said that one of us could leave the drill early and take Olivia back to the room. Below is a video of the kids prior to the drill. I think it clearly illustrates the problem with the life vests.


Immediately following the muster drill was the sail away party. It was a lot of fun. There was singing, dancing, and confetti (a piece of which is stuck on Brian's head in this photo). Olivia was recovering from the traumatic muster drill experience, so she was still trying to adjust during much of the sail away party. She did lighten up a little when Mickey and his friends joined the celebration. As the ship pulled away, it blew the horn. To my suprise, the ship's horn played "When You Wish Upon a Star". How cool!

After the sail away party, we let the kids run around in the splash zone before going to the room. I think that getting wet helped to put Olivia in a better mood.

By dinner time, everyone was in a much better mood. There are three regular dining rooms on the Wonder, so we got to eat at a different one every night (with only one repeat). On the first night we ate at "Triton's", which is the most formal of the three. All of the food on the ship was fantastic- and there was plenty of it. Following dinner Owen went to the nursery, and the rest of us went to the nightly show. On this night, the show was the "Golden Mickeys" which was an Academy Awards-like show that gave awards to the "best" of Disney (best villian- Cruella Deville, best buddies- Woody and Buzz, etc...). Each "winner" preformed a musical number when they accepted their award. It was a really cute show. This show marked the end of day one, and we all went back to the cabin for some much-needed sleep.