Saturday, December 11
It was time to pack our bags and drive the rental SUV back to the airport, so we could catch the Disney Cruise Line bus to Port Canaveral, which is 80 miles east of the Walt Disney World Resort. The cruise would take me the furthest eastward I had ever been.

One of the guys at the port, seeing that Kori and I were newlyweds, insisted that we must have been married in West Virginia, because Kori looked too young to be married in any other state. That was cute.

There was a guy on a microphone announcing everyone couple or family coming on the ship. One of the first things I noticed when I walked in was that I like the elevators in the middle of the ship.

There was a mandatory boat drill at 4 p.m., so that we could all learn how to attract sharks and die more quickly if we ended up bobbing in the ocean.

There's a Bon Voyage party "Sail Away Celebration" that first evening to really kick everything off. The horn of the ship plays a few notes of "When You Wish Upon a Star". It was great to get reactions from the passengers of other cruise ships, as all the ships nearby would sound off, and then our horn played, blowing them all away.

There were dolphins in the water below. The second half of our honeymoon was out beyond the horizon, and there wasn't an iceberg in sight.

As most people know, cruises aren't really a great place for anyone who is trying to keep their weight down. You've already paid for the food, and there's nothing but your own discipline to stop you from eating until you can't possibly cram anything else into your pie hole. The dinners are at set times and have table service, but you can get breakfast and lunch at your leisure. Either way, you can pretty much get all of the food you want. Since we weren't involved in a lot of heavy physical activity (other than reading, of course), we pretty much stuck to two large meals a day – breakfast or lunch, and then dinner.

The all-you-can-drink beverage availability out on the deck was great for my wife, who could make coffee - or some sort of concoction with some coffee in it – exactly the way she wanted it, when she wanted it. The ice cream service didn't go unused, either.

We had first on-board meal; dinner at Lumiere's. Our dining partners included a couple from Louisiana and a couple from the Chicago area, and a nurse and her son. Your table partners and your serving team follow you from restaurant to restaurant, so they get to know what you like at dinner time.

Rodger was our Assistant Server, and he was great, too.

At the Walt Disney Theatre, which is towards the front of the ship, there was a the Welcome Aboard Variety Show, featuring the Disney Magic Dancers, the juggling of David Dimuzio, and the comedy/ventriloquism of Michael Harrison. Most of the presentations in this theatre throughout the week have some portion that has a loose theme that allows a good excuse for the appearance of various favorite Disney characters and the performance of well-known Disney songs.

This was the night that the ship passed into the Atlantic time zone, which I had never been in before.

When we had boarded, we had been encouraged to drop by for the late-night game, "Match Your Mate". It's kind of like the Newlywed Game for three couples – a newlywed couple, a couple married for a several decades, and a couple married for some length of time between the two extremes. The couples are separated, asked a series of questions, and then reunited. The couple that was able to guess their partner's answers correctly the most times wins.

As we were honeymooning and our headwear said so, we were chosen for the newlywed slot. The questions tended to favor newlyweds (for instance: "What did you do on your first date, and how much did it cost?"). Although this area was for grown-ups only at this time, the most "adult" question was "Where is the strangest place you have 'discovered the magic'?"

We got five out of six questions right, and we won. The prize? Champagne. As I said, I drink rarely, and the Mrs. doesn't drink. So as we all danced, we offered the prize to the couple who had been married for 40 years, congratulating them on their longevity and on their creative use of the kitchen table.

Sunday, December 12
It was a day at sea.

The longest I had ever been "at sea" before was the trip to Catalina.

We watched "Pirates of Caribbean" at the Buena Vista Theatre, appropriately enough.

This was also the day for the Captain's Welcome Reception. The captain seems like a fine guy, even if he's no James Trotsky Kirk.

We had reservations at Palo's for dinner. It's a restaurant for grown-ups only, and you have to make reservations and pay a $10 per-person extra charge. Choosing Sunday night to eat there meant we were going to miss the effects at the Animator's Palette, where the setting reveals itself in stages as the courses are served.

Palo is at the back of the ship (yeah, I said back- I don't care what the nautical terms are) and it is quite nice, with a live pianist and all of that. Rod Miller wasn't there – I kind of half expect to see that guy when I get near a piano on Disney property. The place is for passengers 18 years of age and over. That's not because there is anything risqué going on. At least, I didn't see anything (and I'll be upset if there WAS something and I didn't know about it!). It's because so much on the cruise is geared towards families with children, this was set up as a fine dining experience for adults, without the loud, nonconformist crumb crunchers running about.

Unfortunately, I was quite queasy by this time. The food seemed delicious, but in a rare occurrence for me, I couldn't enjoy it much as I took frequent trips to the outside for fresh air and wind in the ocean night. I'm not one to "run for the pills", so I chalked this up to cabin fever. I'm a stubborn guy who wants to put off medication as long as possible. I forced down a few bites of each item served and that was that.