dizneeat
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2006
Half term vacation 2013, Feb 16 - Feb 24
Day 2, February 17
Its all taken care of! &.. well, sort of! - part 2
We both were very happy to see the Dream again and soon we had reached the port and made our way over to Disney.
We had to stop and wait for a few seconds before we were directed to one of the porters who took care of our luggage. We tipped him and off we went to head over to the parking garage. When we drove in we noticed the rise in the parking fee and were quite a bit shocked. Once inside we noticed that the structure was filling up quickly and we found a spot on the level where the walkway to the terminal was. Tom parked the car, stowed away the GPS and we took our carry ons and went over to the walkway.
A woman looked us up in her computer and we were good to go. On the other side of the walkway we joined the line for security. The line moved at a slow but steady pace and within 10 minutes it was our turn to go through.
It was shortly before 12 when we finally entered the terminal. We were greeted by the DVC reps and received some lanyards, then we picked up a health form, filled it in and asked for the non-US line.
Unfortunately there was no more non US line, so we joined our fellow Castaway Club Members. Again the line moved steadily and it only took us about 5 minutes to get to check in. We handed over our forms and soon were handed our keys and the last set of golden lanyards. We had had an early port arrival time and so we were ready to head on board right away. One more stop to pick up a Navigator and then our key cards were swiped and we were officially boarding.
There were long lines for the photographers and we tried to pick a short one and once it was our turn we told the photographer that we wanted to skip the photo and were directed right over to the gangway to get on board. A Cast Member asked our name and announced us and we were officially on board.
While we were heading towards the Royal Palace we were approached by another Cast Member to let us know that lunch was served at Cabanas and did we need directions to get there. No we didnt, especially since we had something else we wanted to accomplish first. So we thanked him, looked at each other and quietly said were heading towards Enchanted Garden anyway and headed off in a different direction. Our priority was to find out if we could be seated in our favourite server Anas section. So we went to the side entrance of Royal Palace to have our dining rotation changed.
There was only one couple ahead of us and we only had to wait for about 15 minutes. A few minutes before they opened the doors we could see them set up everything inside and were happy to see that Zan was doing the dining room changes. The doors opened, the first couple went in and were directed to the dining room changes table and we were right behind them. It was fun to see Zan look up, then jumping out of his seat and calling out, Mr. Tommy! Welcome back. We took a seat and asked if there was a chance to be seated in Anas section and they looked at the computer and typed something and then I even asked if we could have a table for two in Anas section. They played around on the computer, gave us back our key cards and with a huge smile we were told Its all taken care of.
We did the usual, said thank you and left the Cast Members some chocolate, before we left very happily. Now that that was out of the way we made our way downstairs to the Enchanted Garden. We were just signing in when we heard another familiar voice.
Another great friend we had met through the DISboards, Katarina. We hugged and exchanged a few sentences, promised to meet again soon and then we were led to our table. We parked our carry ons under the table, ordered some drinks and headed to the buffet. Quick look and the right line seemed to be shorter, so we headed there. Soon enough we were handed some plates and started filling them.
Tom had some wraps, a lamb chop, a shrimp salad, some jumbo shrimp and cocktail sauce and some crab claws, while I was still full from breakfast and mostly filled my plate
with salads and some shrimp and cocktail sauce. We returned to our table, our Diet Cokes were already there and we enjoyed our lunch. When we were finally done it was past 1.30pm and our rooms were ready. So we headed to the elevator to go up.
No chance, they were all full when they got down to deck two, so we walked up one level and to the back elevators. No big problem there, we got onto the first elevator that opened its doors. The back elevator is closest to our stateroom anyway, so that was perfect. Tapped our KTTW card against the door and in we went. Hello again, room 10626!! We are back. It was nice to find two presents on the bed when we entered.
One of them was the Castaway Club present,
another lovely blue backpack, filled with two containers of Mickey head crackers and another key ring. The other came from Dreams Unlimited.
Last year we had visited the DIS Information Center at Port Canaveral and gotten to know Teresa from DU. She offered her services and even though we were very hesitant at first, we thought why not giving DU and her a try, since she offered quite a bit of stateroom credit. Then, once EVERYTHING there was to set for the reservation was set in stone, we handed it over. And while it was nice and everything had worked out fine, the stateroom credit is not enough to give away my reservations to a TA again. She still has our summer reservations, but after that I am going to be my own travel agent again. The gift basket from DU was a nice surprise though.
Lots of very useable things. Once we had peeked at our gifts we headed out onto the veranda, or so we tried. The door was locked and it took me a few seconds to figure it out, but then we were out on the veranda and enjoying the view of the Disney Terminal and parking structure. Our luggage had not arrived yet, so we just relaxed and freshened up.
When we looked out the door a little later, one of our suitcases had shown up and I started unpacking and Tom started to decorate our door.
Time just flew by and it seemed like no time at all that we had spent in the room and we were on our way to the DVC meet.
It was pretty full in there and we were lucky to find a seat. The presentation is pretty much the same every time, but it was still nice and informative. Once it was over we headed back to the room. We completely forgot that there was a DISmeet going on at that time at the Vista Café.
When we returned to our stateroom our second suitcase had arrived and we unpacked everything. Soon enough it was time for the Safety Drill.
We had to use a CM stairway and it was pretty steep climbing it down. This time we knew what to expect and had brought our sunglasses as we had an outside location. After the drill we decided to have some coffee and headed to the Vista Café for one. There was only one CM manning the Café and it took ages to have our order filled and to make sure that our coffee would not be served in a Styrofoam cup. Once we had
our coffees in hand we headed to one of the tables, Tom picked up some baked goodies,
a bitesize Pineapple tart, an Eclair, a piece of chocolate covered Chocolate cake and a Cake pop and we sat and enjoyed the coffee and our treats. And while we were still finishing off our coffee Tom noticed that we were moving. Unbelievable, but we had missed the sailaway.
So once we had finally sipped the last drop of coffee we headed up to our room and decided that since we were already on the way out we would just watch it from our veranda.
There was lots of waving and we were waiting for the ships horn when we passed Fishlips. Fishlips has a webcam and usually the ships test their horns right there. We didnt. Um, theres a hint of who our captain was. It was definitely Captain Henry, who is using his Mickey whistles very seldomly.
Both of us were saying it over and over again, Mickey whistle, please! Mickey whistle, please! and finally we heard one of the fun ships tunes A Dream is a wish your heart makes! Yeah! Captain Henry, isnt it fun to whistle while you work!
To be continued ...........
Day 2, February 17
Its all taken care of! &.. well, sort of! - part 2
We both were very happy to see the Dream again and soon we had reached the port and made our way over to Disney.
We had to stop and wait for a few seconds before we were directed to one of the porters who took care of our luggage. We tipped him and off we went to head over to the parking garage. When we drove in we noticed the rise in the parking fee and were quite a bit shocked. Once inside we noticed that the structure was filling up quickly and we found a spot on the level where the walkway to the terminal was. Tom parked the car, stowed away the GPS and we took our carry ons and went over to the walkway.
A woman looked us up in her computer and we were good to go. On the other side of the walkway we joined the line for security. The line moved at a slow but steady pace and within 10 minutes it was our turn to go through.
It was shortly before 12 when we finally entered the terminal. We were greeted by the DVC reps and received some lanyards, then we picked up a health form, filled it in and asked for the non-US line.
Unfortunately there was no more non US line, so we joined our fellow Castaway Club Members. Again the line moved steadily and it only took us about 5 minutes to get to check in. We handed over our forms and soon were handed our keys and the last set of golden lanyards. We had had an early port arrival time and so we were ready to head on board right away. One more stop to pick up a Navigator and then our key cards were swiped and we were officially boarding.
There were long lines for the photographers and we tried to pick a short one and once it was our turn we told the photographer that we wanted to skip the photo and were directed right over to the gangway to get on board. A Cast Member asked our name and announced us and we were officially on board.
While we were heading towards the Royal Palace we were approached by another Cast Member to let us know that lunch was served at Cabanas and did we need directions to get there. No we didnt, especially since we had something else we wanted to accomplish first. So we thanked him, looked at each other and quietly said were heading towards Enchanted Garden anyway and headed off in a different direction. Our priority was to find out if we could be seated in our favourite server Anas section. So we went to the side entrance of Royal Palace to have our dining rotation changed.
There was only one couple ahead of us and we only had to wait for about 15 minutes. A few minutes before they opened the doors we could see them set up everything inside and were happy to see that Zan was doing the dining room changes. The doors opened, the first couple went in and were directed to the dining room changes table and we were right behind them. It was fun to see Zan look up, then jumping out of his seat and calling out, Mr. Tommy! Welcome back. We took a seat and asked if there was a chance to be seated in Anas section and they looked at the computer and typed something and then I even asked if we could have a table for two in Anas section. They played around on the computer, gave us back our key cards and with a huge smile we were told Its all taken care of.
We did the usual, said thank you and left the Cast Members some chocolate, before we left very happily. Now that that was out of the way we made our way downstairs to the Enchanted Garden. We were just signing in when we heard another familiar voice.
Another great friend we had met through the DISboards, Katarina. We hugged and exchanged a few sentences, promised to meet again soon and then we were led to our table. We parked our carry ons under the table, ordered some drinks and headed to the buffet. Quick look and the right line seemed to be shorter, so we headed there. Soon enough we were handed some plates and started filling them.
Tom had some wraps, a lamb chop, a shrimp salad, some jumbo shrimp and cocktail sauce and some crab claws, while I was still full from breakfast and mostly filled my plate
with salads and some shrimp and cocktail sauce. We returned to our table, our Diet Cokes were already there and we enjoyed our lunch. When we were finally done it was past 1.30pm and our rooms were ready. So we headed to the elevator to go up.
No chance, they were all full when they got down to deck two, so we walked up one level and to the back elevators. No big problem there, we got onto the first elevator that opened its doors. The back elevator is closest to our stateroom anyway, so that was perfect. Tapped our KTTW card against the door and in we went. Hello again, room 10626!! We are back. It was nice to find two presents on the bed when we entered.
One of them was the Castaway Club present,
another lovely blue backpack, filled with two containers of Mickey head crackers and another key ring. The other came from Dreams Unlimited.
Last year we had visited the DIS Information Center at Port Canaveral and gotten to know Teresa from DU. She offered her services and even though we were very hesitant at first, we thought why not giving DU and her a try, since she offered quite a bit of stateroom credit. Then, once EVERYTHING there was to set for the reservation was set in stone, we handed it over. And while it was nice and everything had worked out fine, the stateroom credit is not enough to give away my reservations to a TA again. She still has our summer reservations, but after that I am going to be my own travel agent again. The gift basket from DU was a nice surprise though.
Lots of very useable things. Once we had peeked at our gifts we headed out onto the veranda, or so we tried. The door was locked and it took me a few seconds to figure it out, but then we were out on the veranda and enjoying the view of the Disney Terminal and parking structure. Our luggage had not arrived yet, so we just relaxed and freshened up.
When we looked out the door a little later, one of our suitcases had shown up and I started unpacking and Tom started to decorate our door.
Time just flew by and it seemed like no time at all that we had spent in the room and we were on our way to the DVC meet.
It was pretty full in there and we were lucky to find a seat. The presentation is pretty much the same every time, but it was still nice and informative. Once it was over we headed back to the room. We completely forgot that there was a DISmeet going on at that time at the Vista Café.
When we returned to our stateroom our second suitcase had arrived and we unpacked everything. Soon enough it was time for the Safety Drill.
We had to use a CM stairway and it was pretty steep climbing it down. This time we knew what to expect and had brought our sunglasses as we had an outside location. After the drill we decided to have some coffee and headed to the Vista Café for one. There was only one CM manning the Café and it took ages to have our order filled and to make sure that our coffee would not be served in a Styrofoam cup. Once we had
our coffees in hand we headed to one of the tables, Tom picked up some baked goodies,
a bitesize Pineapple tart, an Eclair, a piece of chocolate covered Chocolate cake and a Cake pop and we sat and enjoyed the coffee and our treats. And while we were still finishing off our coffee Tom noticed that we were moving. Unbelievable, but we had missed the sailaway.
So once we had finally sipped the last drop of coffee we headed up to our room and decided that since we were already on the way out we would just watch it from our veranda.
There was lots of waving and we were waiting for the ships horn when we passed Fishlips. Fishlips has a webcam and usually the ships test their horns right there. We didnt. Um, theres a hint of who our captain was. It was definitely Captain Henry, who is using his Mickey whistles very seldomly.
Both of us were saying it over and over again, Mickey whistle, please! Mickey whistle, please! and finally we heard one of the fun ships tunes A Dream is a wish your heart makes! Yeah! Captain Henry, isnt it fun to whistle while you work!
To be continued ...........
Guess he doesn't want to "wear them out". 
even after only 4-5 hrs of sleep AMAZING!!! And then the Verandah!!! 
I like the "gifts" they put in the stateroom for you and Tom!!
