A New Ship: First Terrarium

We stepped forward and surrendered a key to the world card to the cast member at the supervisor desk as we asked if any upgrades were still available. She said that there were in fact two upgrades available. She said that an upgrade to a one bedroom concierge suite was available for a little over a thousand dollars. (That's about when the ridiculous grins broke out, because we were under our discussed budget and would be cruising concierge!) Then she scanned sideways on her grid and said that the Walter E Disney suite was available for a little over three thousand dollars.
Ben and I discussed it in depth.
In advance.
So, grinning like the Cheshire Cat, we turned over all of our stateroom 5052 key to the world cards. (They let Kylee keep her old card after it was deactivated, just so she could have a card in her lanyard.) They charged the upgrade to our room, then they handed our new (gold) key to the world cards to a concierge cast member who walked us to the back right of the terminal to complete our registration in the concierge lounge/terrarium.



Chris stopped to gawk and take pictures of the miniature of the Magic in the center of the terminal.
The Oceaneers Club and Lab just received a new batch of MagicBands but they hadn't activated them, so they verified Kylee's dairy free diet, then said they'd get bands to us once they were in the system. They led us over to the concierge lounge. A kind of terrarium of sorts with frosted glass walls and several clusters of sofas just to the right of the Mickey funnel entrance to the gangway. As the first people in the lounge, the kids soon got bored so we popped out to see if Mickey were taking pictures.

Watching the ship load as I silently pray that the stuffed bear doesn't jump.

Cheese?
Seems appropriate when you vacation with the mouse!

We went out on the observation deck to gawk at the Fantasy. The Magic and the Wonder are really big, really beautiful ships. The Fantasy is bigger. Somehow the extra two passenger decks make a big difference in the perceived size.

The Fantasy is a very big, very beautiful ship.

This cruise was the first to receive the new blue MagicBands.
Unlike the old goldenrod bands, they do not have a year stamped on the band.
Kylee gets a red clip on her band because she is allergic to dairy.
Most kids get a dark grey clip.

Kylee and Chris received their MagicBands as Ben talked to some of our Facebook group friends and tried to see if anyone wanted our boarding group 2 card from when we first signed in. (When you're in concierge, they let you in before all of the family of the day and boarding group numbers via the lounge, so we no longer needed it.)

Minnie-me is no longer amused by waiting.
Concierge lounge is behind her on the right.

Kylee and I popped our heads out of the lounge to see if we could spot them nearby, but no luck. Kylee wanted to know if we could board the ship yet. (Nope, soon though!) Our Facebook friends told us they were in line waiting to meet Goofy, so after cutting through the increasingly crowded terminal to find them and hand over the card, we went back to the lounge.

It reminded me of back in the days of paper FastPasses handing over your extra FastPasses as you exited the park. Spreading pixie dust always makes my day!

We wove between other Castaways back to the lounge to discover it was entirely empty. In our absence, all of the concierge guests were invited onboard the ship. So we showed our cards to the cast member at the side door and into the boarding area we went!

We bypassed the boarding photo (we've taken several atrocious boarding photos and decided to just opt out) and head to the check-in scan at the end of the hall. Our Key to the World cards scanned us onto the ship and we walked up the deserted gangway.

Last moment outside of the ship for a few days.

"Disney Fantasy! Welcome aboard the Ketcherside Family!!!"

The Cast Members applaud and for a second I cry.

This is Part 4 of an Ongoing Trip Report "A New Ship." Additional sections will be found on the Trip Reports page after they are posted!