Trip Report Day 8, Going Home
Sadness! It is always hard when vacation comes to an end. SUCH a let down.
As good as the service was on
DCL, they dont mess around when it comes to getting you off the ship. While all of the CMs are certainly polite, they are no longer chatty. It is all business. Whatever it takes to get you off that ship as soon as possible.
We scheduled a wake-up call for 6:30. Didnt get out of bed till 7. This was my mistake. I read through the information on de-embarkation and I noticed 3 seating times for breakfast. The latest one was at 8:15am, so I opted for that one, knowing we would need the extra time in the morning. Oops. Apparently, those 3 seating times werent optional. One of them was our scheduled time. And it was at some ungodly hour like 7am. Right, like I am going to have 5 people up, dressed, staterooms emptied out by 7am. Just not gonna happen.
Anyway, we managed to get everyone up and out by about 7:50. I am thinking that we are doing great. We had a couple of day packs with us (toiletries and jammies from the night before, etc.), but we are fairly streamlined and ready to go. The kids are tired, but not grumpy, so that is a plus.
So we head to Triton's, as that as our assigned restaurant. Our head waiter greets us, by name, yet he gives us a puzzled look. After a short conversation, we realize our mistake. He tell us to wait a bit and he will get a table for us. I feel like a bit of an idiot, but oh well, what are you gonna do? I use the wait to go print boarding passes. This was WAY WAY WAY harder than it needed to be. Certainly, this is one area that is sorely lacking on DCL. I know that most people dont plan to do a lot of internet surfing while on a cruise, but really, the internet service is horrificespecially considering the astronomical prices that you have to pay to use it. (We didnt really care about cost as Jeff just expensed it. He actually did do a lot of work while on board, so his company will pay all internet fees.)
We get seated and it is all business, business, business. Again, CMs are friendly, but they are running like MAD. You can tell that they must have a ton to do in order to turn the ship around and get ready for a whole new set of passengers who will be boarding in about 4 hours.
The farewell breakfast is definitely a different menu from the one we had enjoyed all week. Very scaled down. Only 2 courses instead of 4 with limited choices. Again, it is all thanks for sailing with us, good-bye. I will say, though, that we didnt feel rushed. They refilled Jeffs coffee and such.
Finally, the time had come to leave the ship. Sad!
Getting off the ship was a breeze. They really do have it down to a science. We showed our passports, declared our purchases at Customs, and were good to go. We went down to the luggage retrieval room at the terminal, fully expecting it to be a chaotic nightmare. I mean, they have luggage for like 2500 people down there! A super friendly CM/porter asks us what our stateroom number was and leads us right to our luggage. Impressive! It is all right there and waiting for us. Took less than a minute.
Once he sees how much crap we have, he offers to take it out to the car for us. Um, yes please. Again, a few dollars of tipping is SO SO SO worth it. I tipped for baggage handling at (1) curbside check-in, (2) bell services when we arrived at BCV; (3) Bell services when leaving BCV; (4) porter service when arriving at the cruise terminal; (5) porter service leaving the cruise terminal; and (6) curbside check in at the airport going home. Worth every. Single. Penny.
Again, Jeff has to engineer the luggage into the car. I vow to never again pack so much stuff. We are off and on our way back to BCV.
Now, one thing that I always, always do on our Disney trips is to book an afternoon flight home. This gets us home around 5-ish, which is plenty of time to get home, get laundry going, wind down, and get everyone in bed at a decent hour. BUT, it also allows us to have a final few hours of vacation. One thing I absolutely hate is to have to be out of the hotel at something like 6 or 7 am in order to catch a morning flight. It just seems like such a waste. My plan is to sleep in (a bit anyway), take our time getting out of the resort, and then be able to have one little bit of magic before we head home. My first choice is to do a character meal. When you have young kids, it doesnt get much more magical than character meals. And it somehow makes it so much easier to head to the airport. You get to hug Mickey one last time before leaving.
If a character meal doesnt work out time-wise, then I like to head to DTD to do our souvenier shopping. Let me tell you, DTD first thing in the morning is awesome. It is totally empty. As in NO ONE is there but you and the CMs in each store. I have some great pictures for previous trips. Also, since our kids pin trade, this is a great time to be in DTD. Pretty much all of the CMs in DTD pin trade. But it is next to impossible to trade with them since the stores are always mobbed in the afternoon and evening. So again, this makes for a really nice last-bit-of-magic. Kids get to do all of the pin trading they want PLUS buy their souveniers.
A final last-morning-option is pool time. This can be a bit more cumbersome, however. You have to leave all of the bathing suits out of the luggage, and then have some sort of plastic bag to put the wet suits in afterward, as you will have to pack the wet suits into one of your bags.
For this trip, I had reservations for 2 different character meals or thought we would shop at DTD, whichever best fit our moods/needs.
Ok, so we pull into BCV and our first order of business is to drop our Owners Locker with Bell Services. Let me tell you, I love having an Owners Locker! Makes traveling to Disney so easy! Once it is dropped off, we all head into the resort to use the facilities, give Art one last hug, and so Jeff can get a coffee at the Marketplace.
We had a fun little moment here. As we were walking in, there were several CMs out front welcoming guests home (LOVE that about DVC). They asked me if we were just checking in. I explained that actually we had just gotten off the cruise. The kids were already up ahead of me and heading to the bathrooms. Anyway, on our way back out of the lobby, one of the CMs said to the kids, Welcome back from the cruise! Mickey told me he had so much fun with you three! Since they hadnt heard my earlier exchange with her, they were in awe! FUN!
So this is the point where Jeff turns BACK into the American Traveler from Hell. Honestly, I dont know why this next part surprised meI should be used to it by now. Every trip it is something. Usually when we first land. Now, when we land, I am all about getting to property as fast as humanly possible. I just want to GET THERE, you know? But a few years ago, when we landed Jeff decided that he needed a new watch.
You mean like you want some kind of Disney watch and we should shop for one in the parks or at DTD?
No, I mean a regular, everyday watch for like work and stuff. Lets stop at the mall on the way to the resort.
OMG! Ok, I go along. Not worth an argument as we are going to be here for several days.
Then 2 years ago it was,
I need new sunglasses.
Ok, Im sure that every gift shop has a bunch of cheap sunglasses and you can just pick up a pair that will be fine for banging around the parks.
No. I mean I want to go to Sunglass Hut and get a new pair of really good sunglasses.
So yet again, we hit the Florida Mall on the way from the airport to the resort.
(On a completely snarky note, Jeff can totally SEE the Portland Mall from his office. Yes, his office is within spitting distance to the mall. Which has a Sunglass Hut. And lots of shoe stores. Why flying on an airplane activates his shopping gene I will never know.)
I already mentioned that he needed to stop for
Crocs on the way to the Cruise. Well, now on our last morning, our last bit of vacation, he said,
You know, I am leaving for Asia right when we get home and I really need a new briefcase before I leave. This is the only time I am going to have, so lets head to the mall so I can find a briefcase.
No, I am totally NOT kidding!
To be fair, he had been saying for the past month that he needed a new briefcase. I even bought one for him a few weeks before the trip, but it wasnt the right kind. I honestly thought he would just use his same on and would look for a new one in Asia where leather is a lot cheaper.
So, instead of a character meal, instead of shopping in DTD, instead of swimming in Storm-A-long-Bay, we went to the mall. That is how we used our last few hours of vacation. So much for leaving with an extra bit of magic.
I will say, at least, that the Florida Mall is awesome. It is a really high end mall. HUGE and has all of the good stores that you want to browse through. Of course, we werent interested in any of those. We were doing the oh-so-exciting task of looking for a briefcase. With 3 kids in tow.
Fortunately, we found exactly what he was looking for at the first store. The right thing for the the right price. Awesome, lets pay for it and be on our way.
Upon entering the mall, I noticed that there was an M&M World. I remembered Nancy talking about how awesome the one in NYC is. (There are only 3 in the worldNYC, Vegas, and Orlando.) Since getting the briefcase didnt take long, we had some extra time, so I insisted on visiting M&M World. I mean, if I couldnt have my last minute magic, I sure as well was going to get some chocolate out of the deal, right?
That place is actually AMAZING. Really fun! They have huge vats of M&Ms in every color imaginable. I mean, you cant buy most of these colors in regular stores. Sure, there are traditional M&Ms and then they come out with special colors for Christmas and Easter and so on. But here they have EVERYTHING. As in 14 different shades of just BLUE. And it is like that for every color.
We let each kid get a bag in fun colors for the plane. Then it was back to car and on our way to the airport. *Sigh*
We had different flights going home, of course, with the girls traveling with me and Riley with Jeff. But I was able to book it so that their flight left at 2pm and ours departed at 2:10. Perfect. Our plan was to do curbside check-in and then we would all go to lunch together before heading to our separate gates. The Orlando airport is pretty cool for stuff like this. They actually have *real* restaurants and even a whole mall inside the terminal.
As we are driving in to the airport, we realize that our airlines are not in the same terminal. Crap! Southwest is Terminal A and United is Terminal B. So much for our nice, relaxing, sit-down lunch as a family.
First we did curbside check-in for us. Since we were flying Southwest, there is no charge for checked baggage as there is on most other airlines these days. So I was in charge of all of the luggage while Jeff and Riley had a carry-on each. Once the luggage was gone, we dropped the guys off at their terminal. Then the girls and I returned the rental car and headed into the airport.
Again, the girls proved to be amazing travelers, handling themselves through security like pros.
We had a fair amount of time before our flight, so we went to lunch just the three of us. Nothing special, but we found a little Italian place where they had pizza and I had a salad and some garlic breadsticks. While eating, a couple comes up to us and says, Maam, are you following us? Turns out it was Stacey (from the podcast boards) and her husband. They were with another podcaster and her daughter (but I didnt remember her name and of course, no one was wearing their lanyard nametags anymore!) We were all actually on the same flight, so we all headed to the gate together.
As soon as we reach the gate, we see that our flight has been delayed! CRAP! Fortunately, it seems to be minoronly 20-30 minutes.
The girls and I settle in to wait. Since this is the first down time I have had in days, I decide to make some phone calls. Who is my very first call? LYZ, of course! I couldnt wait to tell her everything about the podcast crew! I knew she would be dying to know everything. I talk at her a mile a minute until Kel is too demanding to let me talk any longer. I didnt even come close to telling her everything I wanted to.
Finally it is time to board. Phew! Not bad at all. Stacey and her family are right across the aisle, so we chat a bit and she filled me in on the podcast events that she attended that we didnt. They did *all* of the events. But they also only have one daughter who is in high school and thus was independent on the ship (and an amazing kid, btw. She listens to the podcast religiously and was FAR more personable than Stacey, who was definitely socially awkward).
Our flight had a touch-down in Baltimore. We didnt have to change planes, but people got off and others got on before heading home. We usually dont have a problem getting a direct flight, but this one was MUCH cheaper, and it only lengthened our travel time by like half an hour so it was worth it. Stacey and the other un-named podcaster got off in Baltimore while we continued onward to the New Hampshire airport.
We landed in 50* temps and POURING rain. We were told it had been cold and rainy all week! YES! Love that! We were basking in the sun, thank you very much.
This was actually the part of the trip I was most stressed about
somehow getting all of that luggage and getting out to the car in long term parking with two little girls. Our luggage was FIRST off the plane. That was a huge stroke of luck. We had 4 checked pieces of luggage. I took two (plus had a backpack which was my carry-on) and the girls each had one piece and a messenger bag (that were their carry-ons, containing their iPods and coloring books, and reading books, etc.). Again, they were excellent travelers. They grabbed their own suitcases off the turnstile and we headed out into the rain.
My plan was to leave the luggage at the curb and go get the car, then come back and pick up the luggage and load it into the car. (This is a TINY airport, so this is not at all unsafe or weird.) However, there happened to be a security guy right there and he said we couldnt leave our bags. I explained my situation, gestured to the girls noting that there was no way they could wheel their bags all the way to the parking lot. He radioed the shuttle, which was about 50 yards up the curb. The driver reversed it all the way to us, loaded our bags into the shuttle and we were on our way to the parking lot. Seeing that I was a damsel in distress and had the girls with me, he drove me right to my car and unloaded our luggage! AWESOME! I threw the luggage in the back and we were on our way. Home.
The end.
. Just Jessie.
)
