May 10, 2014 - Embarkation

We all woke up around 10AM and started getting ready. Rachel and I had gotten a lot of sleep (which maybe made up for my lack of sleep the night before?) since we slept well in the car. All I can say is THANK GOODNESS we did not do anything ridiculous and try to cram five adults into one stateroom, because that would have been absolutely miserable. It is quite a challenge for five adults to share one bathroom (sure, maybe the split bath on the Disney ship would have helped, but it still would have been uncomfortably tight quarters).

We weren't ready to go until after noon. Now, I had scheduled Max, Rachel, and myself for a Port Arrival Time of 12:15 PM. However, by the time I told my dad to schedule his, the soonest available was 1:00 PM. So we figured that 1:00 PM for all of us wouldn't be a problem.

But before we could board the cruise ship, we needed to make a run to the liquor store. I had read in Disney's FAQs that you can take on alcohol in a carry-on size bag if you are 21 and older, which is unheard of on all other mass-market cruise lines (most now allow you to bring one bottle of wine or champagne per adult). I have no idea how many times my dad or Max asked, "So are you sure we can bring on alcohol?" YES! Yes, I'm sure!!! *Update: DCL has since revised its alcohol policy.

Rachel asked Siri (on the iPhone) for the nearest liquor store.... and she took us to an Aldi Market. Which didn't sell alcohol. So we moved on... and luckily found a liquor store right past the port. We bought some vodka and rum for mixers and headed on to the port.

Inside staterooms are typically the smallest and least expensive staterooms available on a cruise ship.  They are located in the interior of the ship with no outside window, and are a great bargain if you don't mind not being able to see outside while in your room (and not knowing whether it's  morning or night without looking at a clock when you wake up).




The boys had an inside stateroom for our Mediterranean cruise on the Norwegian Epic, so I can’t review it on a completely first-hand basis on staying in it for a week, but I did spend some time there. The circulation is honestly much better in the inside cabin because the beds are against each wall, so there is much more usable floor space (it wouldn't have felt as large if they had the beds pushed together). Their split bathroom was the same as ours. As far as storage, they had much more closet space, and they each had nightstands with drawers. The downside to their room was that it was really dark – as soon as you entered the room, you had to put the key in the door or else you’d be stumbling around in the dark (whereas the balcony staterooms have light coming in from the outside, at least during the day). The television is smaller in the inside stateroom, but it wasn’t a huge difference.