lborne
It all started with a rabbit
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2006
We woke this morning bright and early to the sounds of us docking in Port Canaveral. We are now officially considered stow-a-ways, and Disney was going to give us our one last, very quick, meal before tossing us to the cheerful US customs officials for processing.
One of the best tips I learned here on the DIS is that you do not have to go to breakfast at your assigned time and restaurant as Beach Blanket Buffet will be open. This was especially useful information when we had early seating because the assigned breakfast times were 6:30, 6:45 or 7:00, which even though I am usually up early, the rest of the family is still sleeping and trying to get everyone ready and out of the room by 6:30 is not going to be fun. I feel especially bad for the wait staff that have to deal with us depressed zombies when they only have that Nescafe sludge to offer.
TIP: Cove Café is open the last morning where you can get real coffee.
But since this cruise we booked late seating, our assigned dining time was 8 am. That we could do. We finished packing our small bags and carried them to Parrot Cay. We left them outside along the wall where many other people had left their bags. Our servers were there and took us to our table. We had a nice breakfast, but to be honest, I dont remember exactly what I had because I was sulking. DS7 wanted a Mickey bar, and normally we dont let our kids eat ice cream for breakfast, but we were still on vacation and let him ask the server for one. Unfortunately, the stockpiles of Mickey bars are in a portion of the ship that is now locked and off limits. Give me back those tip envelopes.
Outside of Parrot Cay before our last chance to pig out.
Sad that the cruise is over and he can't even get a Mickey Bar for breakfast.
Now they are happy because we said maybe we'd have to do another Disney cruise next year.
Sebastian is looking over us. Don't have the crab.
After eating we say goodbye to our wait staff. I really feel for these guys who work so hard and get paid so little. Can you imagine having to serve all those people 3+ meals a day, and just when they finally leave, an entire new group arrives act like the entire Disney ship was built just for them? No, I would not last long waiting on people on a cruise ship - espeically my wife.
We get in line to disembark the ship. Holy cow is THAT the line? It was longer than the line for any of the characters. Now normally, we would have waited in that line because we would have thought that the rest of the ship is now off limits to us. Im not sure where we got the notion that Disney wants you to leave right after breakfast, but thats always what we have done, no matter how long the lines. But now we were thinking clearly and decided we did not really want to wait in line to leave the ship*.
*Legal disclaimer If the ship is sinking, it is a good idea to disembark in an orderly fashion and follow all crowd control cattle fences that Disney will erect, and that will mean waiting in line. Unless you have a fastpass in which case you can enjoy other attractions such as the buffet and then enter the fastpass evacuation line at the designated time on your fastpass but not a minute earlier.
Maybe they will let me stay if I play When You Wish Upon a Star every night.
It felt a little odd going off on our own, and I was half expecting the elevators to only take us to the disembarkation deck. The other half (of my brain??) was expecting crew members to sound an alarm when they saw us and nicely ask us to get off the ship. But neither happened. We went up to Deck 9 and hung out by the pool. Playhouse Disney was playing on the Aerial view TV and the boys played foosball and ping pong. There was one other family lounging out by the pool and crew members who walked by only said good morning. I did not even get asked if I wanted a DOTD, which this morning is called the Back To Reality Cocktail which consists of whatever you have at home that will help you get over the depression that the cruise is OVER.
Trying to get every last bit of value from the cruise.
It was nearing 10 am and we were finally starting to feel like maybe we should leave. I could not find a good place for us all to hide, no bars were open, there was no deck party, and my boys are too old for Playhouse Disney and we could not find the giant remote to change the channel. So we made our way back down to where we disembark and there was no line. They swipe our KTTW cards for the last time and we head to the warehouse where they keep the luggage. Another nice benefit to waiting till almost last to leave the ship was that there was hardly any luggage left, so finding ours was easy.
TIP: Remember your luggage tag color. Last cruise I could not remember if we were red or purple it was blue and took us a while to find it.
Now that we had our luggage, we were accosted by unionized luggage handlers wanting to sell us the DOTD or carry our bags, assuming wed tip them in 10s and 20s. DW is cheap, so we always, and I mean ALWAYS, carry our own luggage. Sometimes you cant even see the kids because weve got so much baggage piled on them and it looks like the luggage is moving by itself.
Now that we have all our luggage, we wait in line for US Customs. The crack team of highly trained professionals were using all the tools at their disposal to keep drugs, nuclear weapons and bananas from illegally entering the US, including having Pluto sniff us. Hey watch it, there are no bananas THERE Pluto. In reality, all you do is hand the agent your customs form and passports. The keep the form and you are free to go. I wonder what they do with all those customs forms. Do you think there is some giant government warehouse where they file them? There must be billions of these forms. And what do they do with them? Mine all show the same thing, that I bought 2 bottles of rum.
TIP: If the US customs agent asks if you have any drugs or weapons, you should tell him Meet me in the parking lot and we can make a deal. You dont want to conduct business there in the terminal and hold up the line.
Once out of the terminal, we walk to our car and take the sad 1 hr drive home. Driving to the port is much more enjoyable than leaving. At home the feeling that the vacation is really over sinks in when we start the first load of laundry and we have to make the kids something to eat rather than sending them to Plutos Doghouse.
The best cure for PCB Post Cruise Blues is to watch the episodes with Steve, (no wait, thats Post Blues Clues Blues).... is to book another cruise - but not on Carnival.
Thanks for reading even if it did cause your productivity at work to plummet, and I hope at least one tip will prove valuable.
One of the best tips I learned here on the DIS is that you do not have to go to breakfast at your assigned time and restaurant as Beach Blanket Buffet will be open. This was especially useful information when we had early seating because the assigned breakfast times were 6:30, 6:45 or 7:00, which even though I am usually up early, the rest of the family is still sleeping and trying to get everyone ready and out of the room by 6:30 is not going to be fun. I feel especially bad for the wait staff that have to deal with us depressed zombies when they only have that Nescafe sludge to offer.
TIP: Cove Café is open the last morning where you can get real coffee.
But since this cruise we booked late seating, our assigned dining time was 8 am. That we could do. We finished packing our small bags and carried them to Parrot Cay. We left them outside along the wall where many other people had left their bags. Our servers were there and took us to our table. We had a nice breakfast, but to be honest, I dont remember exactly what I had because I was sulking. DS7 wanted a Mickey bar, and normally we dont let our kids eat ice cream for breakfast, but we were still on vacation and let him ask the server for one. Unfortunately, the stockpiles of Mickey bars are in a portion of the ship that is now locked and off limits. Give me back those tip envelopes.
Outside of Parrot Cay before our last chance to pig out.
Sad that the cruise is over and he can't even get a Mickey Bar for breakfast.
Now they are happy because we said maybe we'd have to do another Disney cruise next year.
Sebastian is looking over us. Don't have the crab.
After eating we say goodbye to our wait staff. I really feel for these guys who work so hard and get paid so little. Can you imagine having to serve all those people 3+ meals a day, and just when they finally leave, an entire new group arrives act like the entire Disney ship was built just for them? No, I would not last long waiting on people on a cruise ship - espeically my wife.
We get in line to disembark the ship. Holy cow is THAT the line? It was longer than the line for any of the characters. Now normally, we would have waited in that line because we would have thought that the rest of the ship is now off limits to us. Im not sure where we got the notion that Disney wants you to leave right after breakfast, but thats always what we have done, no matter how long the lines. But now we were thinking clearly and decided we did not really want to wait in line to leave the ship*.
*Legal disclaimer If the ship is sinking, it is a good idea to disembark in an orderly fashion and follow all crowd control cattle fences that Disney will erect, and that will mean waiting in line. Unless you have a fastpass in which case you can enjoy other attractions such as the buffet and then enter the fastpass evacuation line at the designated time on your fastpass but not a minute earlier.
Maybe they will let me stay if I play When You Wish Upon a Star every night.
It felt a little odd going off on our own, and I was half expecting the elevators to only take us to the disembarkation deck. The other half (of my brain??) was expecting crew members to sound an alarm when they saw us and nicely ask us to get off the ship. But neither happened. We went up to Deck 9 and hung out by the pool. Playhouse Disney was playing on the Aerial view TV and the boys played foosball and ping pong. There was one other family lounging out by the pool and crew members who walked by only said good morning. I did not even get asked if I wanted a DOTD, which this morning is called the Back To Reality Cocktail which consists of whatever you have at home that will help you get over the depression that the cruise is OVER.
Trying to get every last bit of value from the cruise.
It was nearing 10 am and we were finally starting to feel like maybe we should leave. I could not find a good place for us all to hide, no bars were open, there was no deck party, and my boys are too old for Playhouse Disney and we could not find the giant remote to change the channel. So we made our way back down to where we disembark and there was no line. They swipe our KTTW cards for the last time and we head to the warehouse where they keep the luggage. Another nice benefit to waiting till almost last to leave the ship was that there was hardly any luggage left, so finding ours was easy.
TIP: Remember your luggage tag color. Last cruise I could not remember if we were red or purple it was blue and took us a while to find it.
Now that we had our luggage, we were accosted by unionized luggage handlers wanting to sell us the DOTD or carry our bags, assuming wed tip them in 10s and 20s. DW is cheap, so we always, and I mean ALWAYS, carry our own luggage. Sometimes you cant even see the kids because weve got so much baggage piled on them and it looks like the luggage is moving by itself.
Now that we have all our luggage, we wait in line for US Customs. The crack team of highly trained professionals were using all the tools at their disposal to keep drugs, nuclear weapons and bananas from illegally entering the US, including having Pluto sniff us. Hey watch it, there are no bananas THERE Pluto. In reality, all you do is hand the agent your customs form and passports. The keep the form and you are free to go. I wonder what they do with all those customs forms. Do you think there is some giant government warehouse where they file them? There must be billions of these forms. And what do they do with them? Mine all show the same thing, that I bought 2 bottles of rum.
TIP: If the US customs agent asks if you have any drugs or weapons, you should tell him Meet me in the parking lot and we can make a deal. You dont want to conduct business there in the terminal and hold up the line.
Once out of the terminal, we walk to our car and take the sad 1 hr drive home. Driving to the port is much more enjoyable than leaving. At home the feeling that the vacation is really over sinks in when we start the first load of laundry and we have to make the kids something to eat rather than sending them to Plutos Doghouse.
The best cure for PCB Post Cruise Blues is to watch the episodes with Steve, (no wait, thats Post Blues Clues Blues).... is to book another cruise - but not on Carnival.
Thanks for reading even if it did cause your productivity at work to plummet, and I hope at least one tip will prove valuable.
!! Thanks for sharing 
