MerryPoppins
<font color=coral>I posted around Woo Hooty time<b
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2000
- Messages
- 16,323
Some background for those of you who do not know me. My DH and I have two great teens (DD 12 and DS 16). DH works in IT and I have been a SAHM for a number of years. Anyway, DH's going through a job change and life is stressful, so we decided to take our second cruise on the Magic to get away from it all. It was intended to be our "summer" vacation since he'll probably be job hunting by the time school is out. It was also a way to celebrate our 20th anniversary that is coming up in July.
So we scheduled the Western 7 day for March 13. And we made loads of plans, even booking the Romance at Sea package. We read these boards religiously. As an aside, this cruise stopped at Cozumel and Grand Cayman - two of the same stops we made on our honeymooon. This was an added plus.
On March 12, we drove down to Dallas and caught our flight to Orlando from there. We have an airport in Oklahoma City, but this allowed us to pay about half on our airfare and the drive isn't bad. We left town early and picked up McDonalds on the road. When we got to Dallas we found a Subways and stopped in to get cold sandwiches. I HATE airport food and I thought cold sandwiches would keep and we could eat them while waiting for our plane.
This was a good plan, or so we originally thought. I told the kids to agree on a sub and they could split it and Dad and I would do the same. DH and I agreed quickly and had our sandwich ready and waiting. They had a terrible time deciding on one to share. Finally, they chose a BMT (whatever that is) but they wanted all the ham on one end and all the salami on the other end. Good lord! The poor girl behind the counter looked so confused, but we finally worked it all out and got back on the road.
We found the Park and Ride place in record time and soon we were at the airport. We checked our overstuffed bags and headed for the place where they x-ray everything and make you feel like a terrorist. Just kidding, I'm glad they do this, but it does make me feel guility. One carry-on had a huge Mickey hair clip in it that is made of some heavy-duty metal, because they had to send it through the machine twice and then search the bag. Later I found out that all our cameras were in that bag. I thought DH had them in the other line. Sigh. We'd have to buy new disposables and film later.
They finally decided we were not going to blow up the plane or threaten the crew with the hair clip, so they let us move on. They did give us the advice that we should store the clip with the cameras for future hand checking to avoid any more damage or wasted time.
We found our gate and ate our lunch. It tasted pretty good after all the excitement. One teen got the ham and the other got the salami. Life was good.
We had a direct flight. It was on time, but overbooked. (You'll hear this again if you continue to read my reports, as every flight we took with Delta on this trip was overbooked!) The flight was uneventful. We picked up our luggage and our rental car, then headed for Cocoa Beach.
The drive was nice and we were so excited! The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful. We went to dinner at Roberto's Little Havana. It's not fancy and the people eating there were mostly locals. The food was amazing. If you'd like to sample Cuban food, this is a great place to eat.
After dinner we checked into our room at The Inn at Cocoa Beach. It is a beautiful place with wonderful landscaping and it's right on the beach so the views from some of the rooms are terrific I'm sure. We had a view of the parking lot, but since it was just for one night it really didn't matter much to us. The guy at the desk told us that a rocket launch was scheduled for that night, so we decided that we'd go to the beach and watch the launch around 12:30.
We stopped at an ABC to get a couple of bottles of wine for the cruise and then we walked to Ron Jon's Surf Shop. The kids had fun checking out all the stuff for sale. I was shocked at the size of that place. DD found a bikini for the cruise. It was on sale and she was thrilled. I replaced the damaged cameras. We spent a lot of time there and then walked back to the inn.
That night, we went to bed with an alarm set for 12:20. We'd heard that the launch would be between 12:30 and 2:00, so we headed out with crossed fingers. We were out there about 10 minutes when they flooded the launch pad and we saw the huge flare. Soon the rocket took off and went almost overhead. It was great! I'm sure the kids will always remember that.
The next morning we got up, repacked and went to the complimentary breakfast in the courtyard. It was beautiful and the food was great! DH and I agree that we'd like to go back there by ourselves. I think if we go back with the kids we'd check out Ron Jon's resort next time. I've heard great price quotes and it looked nice, too.
We were beside ourselves with joy. It was time to head for the Magic! Stay tuned for Day 2.
Edited to add a link to day 2's report
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=533836
So we scheduled the Western 7 day for March 13. And we made loads of plans, even booking the Romance at Sea package. We read these boards religiously. As an aside, this cruise stopped at Cozumel and Grand Cayman - two of the same stops we made on our honeymooon. This was an added plus.
On March 12, we drove down to Dallas and caught our flight to Orlando from there. We have an airport in Oklahoma City, but this allowed us to pay about half on our airfare and the drive isn't bad. We left town early and picked up McDonalds on the road. When we got to Dallas we found a Subways and stopped in to get cold sandwiches. I HATE airport food and I thought cold sandwiches would keep and we could eat them while waiting for our plane.
This was a good plan, or so we originally thought. I told the kids to agree on a sub and they could split it and Dad and I would do the same. DH and I agreed quickly and had our sandwich ready and waiting. They had a terrible time deciding on one to share. Finally, they chose a BMT (whatever that is) but they wanted all the ham on one end and all the salami on the other end. Good lord! The poor girl behind the counter looked so confused, but we finally worked it all out and got back on the road.
We found the Park and Ride place in record time and soon we were at the airport. We checked our overstuffed bags and headed for the place where they x-ray everything and make you feel like a terrorist. Just kidding, I'm glad they do this, but it does make me feel guility. One carry-on had a huge Mickey hair clip in it that is made of some heavy-duty metal, because they had to send it through the machine twice and then search the bag. Later I found out that all our cameras were in that bag. I thought DH had them in the other line. Sigh. We'd have to buy new disposables and film later.
They finally decided we were not going to blow up the plane or threaten the crew with the hair clip, so they let us move on. They did give us the advice that we should store the clip with the cameras for future hand checking to avoid any more damage or wasted time.
We found our gate and ate our lunch. It tasted pretty good after all the excitement. One teen got the ham and the other got the salami. Life was good.
We had a direct flight. It was on time, but overbooked. (You'll hear this again if you continue to read my reports, as every flight we took with Delta on this trip was overbooked!) The flight was uneventful. We picked up our luggage and our rental car, then headed for Cocoa Beach.
The drive was nice and we were so excited! The sun was shining and the weather was beautiful. We went to dinner at Roberto's Little Havana. It's not fancy and the people eating there were mostly locals. The food was amazing. If you'd like to sample Cuban food, this is a great place to eat.
After dinner we checked into our room at The Inn at Cocoa Beach. It is a beautiful place with wonderful landscaping and it's right on the beach so the views from some of the rooms are terrific I'm sure. We had a view of the parking lot, but since it was just for one night it really didn't matter much to us. The guy at the desk told us that a rocket launch was scheduled for that night, so we decided that we'd go to the beach and watch the launch around 12:30.
We stopped at an ABC to get a couple of bottles of wine for the cruise and then we walked to Ron Jon's Surf Shop. The kids had fun checking out all the stuff for sale. I was shocked at the size of that place. DD found a bikini for the cruise. It was on sale and she was thrilled. I replaced the damaged cameras. We spent a lot of time there and then walked back to the inn.
That night, we went to bed with an alarm set for 12:20. We'd heard that the launch would be between 12:30 and 2:00, so we headed out with crossed fingers. We were out there about 10 minutes when they flooded the launch pad and we saw the huge flare. Soon the rocket took off and went almost overhead. It was great! I'm sure the kids will always remember that.
The next morning we got up, repacked and went to the complimentary breakfast in the courtyard. It was beautiful and the food was great! DH and I agree that we'd like to go back there by ourselves. I think if we go back with the kids we'd check out Ron Jon's resort next time. I've heard great price quotes and it looked nice, too.
We were beside ourselves with joy. It was time to head for the Magic! Stay tuned for Day 2.
Edited to add a link to day 2's report
http://disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=533836
I don't think I could get her to stay anywhere near there let alone walk to the place
Sounds like you got off to a fun start and Im sure the rest were even better, can't wait to hear!
