Well it's hard to believe that after all the planning it is over. Thank goodness for great memories and the hope of going again someday.
Thank you to all of you for the great advice I received from reading these boards and asking questions. When I did something really clever that my husband noticed, I told him that I learned it from my friends at the DIS Boards! It always made him laugh as he continually caught me on the computer checking the boards before we left. It got to the point where I had to be a bit sneaky because he was beginning to think I was an addict!
We arrived on Friday, 4/16 at Orlando Airport. We rented form Avis which went very smoothly at the airport.
We stayed at the Doubletree in Cocoa Beach. Nice hotel although the rooms have a rather small all in one bathroom which after staying at DVC resorts makes me kind of crazy. How spoiled I've become! The nice thing about this hotel versus the Radisson where we stayed the last time is that the hotel is enclosed and the rooms are reached by elevator which made taking all the bags in much easier. They also had a bellman. We had dinner at the hotel as we were exhausted and it was quite good. Breakfast was a buffet and was also very good and fast. We left for Avis believe it or not about 9:00am and made a stop at ABC Liquors which is very close to Avis. We arrived at Avis about 9:20 and they said we were very early and they would take us over to arrive at the port at around 10:30am. I expressed my concern that this was too late as we wanted to get their early. The shuttle drivers were very nice and said they would take us when the next load of passengers came back from the arriving Magic cruise. We arrived at the port before 10:00am and were dropped off at the tented area across from the terminal entrance. This is where the shuttle drivers drop passengers off. Within 15-20 minutes baggage handlers started coming over and taking luggage. We then proceeded to the terminal and went quickly through the entrance security (just like the airport). We were one of the first in the Castaway Cay line as we had travelled DCL before. It was amazing how fast the terminal filled up compared to when we travelled in April '02. I was so glad we had arrived early because of the security at the front door. I'm guessing that the lines had to get quite long.
Boarding began around 12:00pm. We were one of the first ones on the ship as we were one of the first to arrive at the terminal.
The only ressies that I wanted to get were at Palos which I was able to do immediately. We got the times and days that we wanted for dinner and brunch. We ended up cancelling our brunch res. as it was too nice outside on Monday to have to leave the pool area and get dressed and go eat inside. Keep in mind that Sunday was not the greatest weather; very, very windy and somewhat cool. Therefore it made Monday by the adult pool all the more necessary to us.
We then went to the kids club and signed up our two children, DD6 and DS 10. Then it was off to Topsiders for the buffet which was good. The kids then went swimming which was great because it wasn't initially crowded. Of course it got very crowded as the afternoon progressed.
The sailaway party was great and just as we had remembered from the Wonder. Getting ready for 6:00pm dinner was not too much fun. We had all our luggage but it was quite late after the party and of course the mother could not find anything!!
Well I need to get things ready for the morning rush to school. It's hard getting back into the swing of things. Will write more as soon as time permits.
Thank you to all of you for the great advice I received from reading these boards and asking questions. When I did something really clever that my husband noticed, I told him that I learned it from my friends at the DIS Boards! It always made him laugh as he continually caught me on the computer checking the boards before we left. It got to the point where I had to be a bit sneaky because he was beginning to think I was an addict!
We arrived on Friday, 4/16 at Orlando Airport. We rented form Avis which went very smoothly at the airport.
We stayed at the Doubletree in Cocoa Beach. Nice hotel although the rooms have a rather small all in one bathroom which after staying at DVC resorts makes me kind of crazy. How spoiled I've become! The nice thing about this hotel versus the Radisson where we stayed the last time is that the hotel is enclosed and the rooms are reached by elevator which made taking all the bags in much easier. They also had a bellman. We had dinner at the hotel as we were exhausted and it was quite good. Breakfast was a buffet and was also very good and fast. We left for Avis believe it or not about 9:00am and made a stop at ABC Liquors which is very close to Avis. We arrived at Avis about 9:20 and they said we were very early and they would take us over to arrive at the port at around 10:30am. I expressed my concern that this was too late as we wanted to get their early. The shuttle drivers were very nice and said they would take us when the next load of passengers came back from the arriving Magic cruise. We arrived at the port before 10:00am and were dropped off at the tented area across from the terminal entrance. This is where the shuttle drivers drop passengers off. Within 15-20 minutes baggage handlers started coming over and taking luggage. We then proceeded to the terminal and went quickly through the entrance security (just like the airport). We were one of the first in the Castaway Cay line as we had travelled DCL before. It was amazing how fast the terminal filled up compared to when we travelled in April '02. I was so glad we had arrived early because of the security at the front door. I'm guessing that the lines had to get quite long.
Boarding began around 12:00pm. We were one of the first ones on the ship as we were one of the first to arrive at the terminal.
The only ressies that I wanted to get were at Palos which I was able to do immediately. We got the times and days that we wanted for dinner and brunch. We ended up cancelling our brunch res. as it was too nice outside on Monday to have to leave the pool area and get dressed and go eat inside. Keep in mind that Sunday was not the greatest weather; very, very windy and somewhat cool. Therefore it made Monday by the adult pool all the more necessary to us.
We then went to the kids club and signed up our two children, DD6 and DS 10. Then it was off to Topsiders for the buffet which was good. The kids then went swimming which was great because it wasn't initially crowded. Of course it got very crowded as the afternoon progressed.
The sailaway party was great and just as we had remembered from the Wonder. Getting ready for 6:00pm dinner was not too much fun. We had all our luggage but it was quite late after the party and of course the mother could not find anything!!
Well I need to get things ready for the morning rush to school. It's hard getting back into the swing of things. Will write more as soon as time permits.
