Concierge service

Finally satisfied, we head out of Parrot Cay, down the hallway, through the atrium, between the midship elevators and down the “Route 66” corridor, with its highway-map carpeting. “Cars” fan Benjamin suddenly has a new appreciation for the theming of this area!

We walk into the Cadillac Lounge, where the concierge meeting is being held, and are greeted warmly. We tell them we need to check in Benjamin, and he and I are directed to have a seat on a couch. A female crew member joins us and pulls up our paperwork on her handheld computer. She goes over all of what to expect, and discusses the use of the pager, and talks with Benjamin about different activities for his age.

Okay, even with the online enrollment before we left, this isn’t much faster than it used to be. I must admit my “no hurries, no worries” attitude is already showing cracks – I wanna see the Walt Disney Suite! But I take a deep breath and decide to be patient, particularly when I think that this may be our last time to put either kid into a club.

Brandon, being a teen now, doesn’t have a sign-in, but the CM tells him of a “411” session at 9:30 tonight in Aloft. He gives a non-committal, fully “teenager” nod and grunt of acknowledgement.

Bob, Linda, and Becky pass the time talking with Lars, a tall, friendly CM from Germany, who is one of our concierges. Eventually the check-in for Benjamin is done, but we all keep talking for several minutes. Everyone here is extraordinarily nice.

Okay, enough of nice… let’s get to the suite!!! We say our goodbyes and thanks and turn towards the fore bank of elevators. We squeeze in to the first available elevator – shipboard lifts are not that large – and press the button for deck 8. This is getting exciting now!

At deck 8, we turn to the port hallway and begin walking aft, heading for number 8030… let’s see, 8018… 8022… 26… 28… And we’re here – number 8030. Stylish metal lettering on the door reads "Walter E. Disney Suite"! There’s an envelope at the door, addressed to Brandon. That’s a good sign, but the true test will be when we stick one of our Key to the World cards in the door and are rewarded with a green light!

I stand back and start recording video on my camera – I want to capture our first view of the shipboard Shangri-La and everyone’s reactions to it. And so we stand at the doorway… not going in.

Why are we not going in?

Heh. In all of our anticipation and excitement, none of us have thought to get out a KTTW card!