Friday May 7th, Day 5, Port Canaveral and Cocoa Beach---Orlando Bound!
As all good things must come to an end (what
buzzkill said that, anyway?), our 4 day Bahamas cruise on the gorgeous Monarch of the Seas had , indeed, come to an end. Jeff and I had packed our bags the night before and left them outside our stateroom door to be taken off the ship, so all we had were our carry-on bags to pack up and get ready. We showered, packed up what little we had left, and bid farewell to our little stateroom, 3106.
Our plan was to have a nice breakfast in the dining room while we waited for our luggage tag color to be called. Passengers were to leave the ship according to luggage tag color...I guess to control the mass exodus of 2000 people through customs all at one time!
We were to begin disembarking around 8:00 am.
Jeff and I got to the Dining Room and were met with the pleasant surprise of G &T, our table mates, who were also there. We decided to enjoy our last breakfast together. Breakfast was delicious, of course, and conversation turned to what we were planning to do when we got home. G & T were headed right back to Kentucky and were anxious to get home to their 15 year old and college aged kids. I was so grateful at this point that we had decided to put our WDW excursion at the END of the cruise. Now instead of thinking about going home....I was looking forward to going to my very favorite place!
All too soon, we were called to gather in the lounge area and we said our final good-byes and made our way to our final gathering point before getting off the ship.
Funny story...in the elevator we saw a woman who had just received her SeaPass bill. They slip the bills under your stateroom doors the night before you disembark. Remember, EVERYTHING you need on the ship is paid for with your SeaPass card. From drinks, to gift shop purchases, to photos....NO cash exchanges hands on board the ship. Jeff and I were very careful to be on top of what we were spending and there were no surprises when we got our bill. This was apparently not the case for this lady! She literally looked like she might faint when she saw her total!
It's so easy to get carried away when you don't see actual money changing hands. And when drinks cost $8 or so each and you buy rounds for everyone at the pool....well, that adds right up! Believe me....I'm sure that's what the cruise line is counting on!
Getting off the ship was actually a very smooth and orderly process. You exit right into the customs area where you pick up your luggage and are given the OK by a customs agent to pass. We were off the ship and through customs before 9 am.
AMAZING!
Next step was to find the shuttle to Thrifty Rental Car to pick up our car for the remainder of the trip. All the shuttles were waiting just outside the port terminal and we found ours quickly. I snapped this picture, the last we saw of the Monarch of the Seas, at 9:09 am.
The rental car office was only a few minutes away...as we knew since we had to rent a car unexpectedly on the arrival end of our trip. Only one family was ahead of us and we got the details taken care of and got our car very quickly. By 9:25, we had our red Dodge Charger and were on our way to the next part of our adventure!
(I took this picture on departure day, but it fits better in the report here!)
Considering we really had no plans for the day until our Boma reservation at 8:05, we had all day to just enjoy the scenery and the gorgeous weather! First though, I needed to call home and find out how Jonah was doing. As soon as we had our luggage loaded up and were headed out of the rental lot I called my mom. The last I had talked to her, it was Wednesday and Jonah was home from school. She was planning on taking him to the doctor's office the next day if necessary. When I called around 9:30 on Friday, Jonah was STILL home and had been diagnosed with Strep throat. He was still running a fairly high fever and not really feeling well at all.
Mom was being a trooper and managing to take care of him as well as getting the other two boys where they needed to be when they needed to be there. She had picked up an antibiotic for Jonah and was making sure he took it faithfully. I talked to Jonah and, again, got a few tears from him. Poor little boy. Jeff and I both took turns letting him know how much we loved him and missed him and that we were sorry we weren't there when he was feeling so yucky. Other than that, there wasn't much we could do. We blew him kisses, thanked Mom (who once again told us not to worry) and promised to call later when we had checked into the hotel and the other boys were home from school.
That taken care of, we wanted to hit a nice beach and do some shell collecting. The boys had asked for shells from the Bahamas but we couldn't take shell from there due to customs laws, so they would have to settle for shells from Florida! We got on main strip along Cocoa Beach and just drove until we had driven OUT of the main tourist area. We found a little place along the road with beach access and parked the car. Off came the shoes and we hit the beach. The only other people on the beach were two guys fishing....other than that we had it all to ourselves. It was fairly remote and untouched and we had our pick of tons of cool shells for the boys.
Here are some pictures of our beachcombing adventure.
A view down the deserted beach.
Me on the beach!
My fascination with vacation feet continues!
Jeff finding some primo shells to take home for the boys.
Little sand crabs were scurrying along everywhere!
Pretty beach flowers.
After about 30 minutes, we dusted the sand off our feet and got back in the car in search of a Dunkin Donuts! We had seen one on the way to the beach and we desperately needed some Iced Coffee! We also wanted to find a visitor's center and scope out our options of what to do with our day. We didn't want to spend a lot of money and we aren't really sit-around-on-the-beach people.
The Iced Coffee did not disappoint and we found the Chamber of Commerce Visitor's Center for Cocoa Beach not too far away. A very nice lady named Pat gave us maps and some great pointers about what to do with our day. We toyed with driving to the nature refuge to see manatees, but that was a little bit of a drive. Pat recommended that we try Jetty Park. For a $10 parking fee, we could walk along the jetty and see sea turtles and maybe even dolphins. We also had beach access and there were changing rooms, restrooms, and even a snack area.
SOLD!
By 11:00, we were pulling into the parking area at Jetty Park. We had passed this park as the ship made it's way to sea.....I remembered seeing the RV's parked right by the ocean. There was a walkway that many people used to fish and observe the sea life along the shore. You could also see the Submarine base across the water.
See....a submarine!
Oh.....and a Sea Turtle!
This is a view of the walkway/pier. We walked all the way to the end.
My very handsome husband!
Another turtle...we saw LOTS of them!
The towers you see in the distance are the towers they use to launch the space shuttles....so cool!
The jetty...thus the name, Jetty Park!
Continued in Next Post.....
We stood there for a long time just waiting and hoping we'd see another bright, pretty one!
just messing w/ you....
This is a great opportunity! How far was this from Port Canaveral?
Connie
