NboroGirl
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2000
WHO: Me (41)
DH (40)
DS13 (13)
DS10 (10)
WHAT: 7 day cruise on the Disney Magic
WHEN: August 11 - August 18, 2001
SATURDAY - August 18
I didn't sleep very well last night. I pretty much dozed on and off from 4:00 to 5:30, which is about the time I actually got up. We had early seating, so our breakfast time was 6:45 and I wanted to make sure we didn't oversleep, so I put in for a wake up call at 6:00. The Mouse himself called at 5:55 and told me there was a lot to do today, so I'd better get going. He called again at 6:05 just to make sure I was up.
We got our charge slip for the cruise under the door. It was for $757.80, which included our tips. Not bad, but still more than I thought it would be, since we hardly ever ordered any drinks (DH had a glass of wine with a few dinners), didn't really buy much on board, and didn't do any excursions. The tips, the spa (including the $50 Ben-Gay), the rentals at Castaway Cay and those glasses of wine add up.
Our breakfast was in Lumiere's. We could have gone to Topsiders, but they just have a continental breakfast up there, which I took to mean juice and rolls. In the dining rooms, you order breakfast off the same menu they use during the cruise. I wasn't very hungry at that hour but I knew it would be a while before I got lunch, so I ordered sausage and hash browns. I was a little disappointed that the hash browns weren't the chunks of potatoes and onions that I had for breakfast at Lumiere's earlier in the week. Instead they were the patties that Topsiders serves. They are good, but not AS good. DH got an omelet and the kids ate light (just a bagel for one, and a pancake for the other.)
After we ate we noticed a line forming in the atrium to get off the ship. We weren't in any hurry so we went up to a deserted deck 9 for a while, then down to deck 4 to sit in the comfy deck chairs one last time. DH, who thought he had been carrying his book around, all of a sudden didn't know where it was - he thought he lost it. After rummaging through his carry-on he located it and was relieved. Shortly after, we noticed that people were getting off the ship so we decided it was time.
Once off the ship we went to the blue section of the baggage claim, where our bags were placed, and had a hard time locating our luggage. It didn't seem to be in order by room number. We finally found 3 of our 4 bags but it took us a long time to locate that final bag.
TIP: I noticed a cast member in each colored section with a clip board. He asked me my cabin number and then told me which rack our bags were on (this was after we already found 3 of our bags and DH was just about to find the fourth).
There are several porters offering to take your luggage - I was tempted to get one so we wouldn't have to drag our suitcases in the customs line, but we managed on our own. We sailed right through customs and were out the door.
Here's where things got a bit interesting. Once out the door, the Disney buses are to the left, and the other transportation pick-ups are on the right (Avis, Tiffany town car, etc.) I wanted to check our bags and asked a cast member where Delta was - he said go to the left, all the way down. Sure enough, there was Delta, as far away is it could be.
We showed Delta our airline tickets and they checked our bags, so we started leaving the airline/Disney buses area to head to the Avis shuttle area. We were then accosted by a Disney employee named Chris who demanded to see our KTTW cards. DS10 was still wearing his on his lanyard, so we showed her that one, but it had a sticker on it from the Oceaneer's Club, so she asked to see someone elses. I fished for mine in my purse as she asked "Did you purchase Disney transportation?" I answered no. She then looked at my KTTW card and informed us the airline luggage check-in was a courtesy only for those passengers who purchased Disney transportation. We didn't know - as a matter of fact, I got a tip off these boards that when renting a car from Avis to drive to the airport, you can save money by renting a smaller car since you can check your bags at the port. DH then asked how much we needed to pay, then. She replied "It's $24 per person" at which DH quickly replied "Forget it! We'll go back and get our bags back, then. That's a rip off!!" She said "Now, now, I'll tell you what I'll do for you. I will charge you for just one person", so DH followed her, credit card in hand, to pay the $24 transportation charge just so we could get our bags taken to the airport. Fortunately for us, Chris could not find her charge slips, so she told him never mind - our luggage would get a free ride. I wonder if we had used a porter to check in our luggage, if we would have even encountered this problem. They probably wouldn't have even noticed. The people behind us in line used a porter, and I heard them asking "What airline and flight number?" and the people in line just told them (didn't even need to show them an airline ticket). The porters then wisked their luggage away through a side door right to the airline check-in counters.
We continued walking to the Avis area with just our carry-ons, and it was here DH realized he could not find the baseball style hat he bought in St. Maarten. He remembered carrying it out of Lumiere's and figured he must've put it down back on deck 4 when he was looking for his book. He was bummed, because it was the only souvenir he bought.
Avis showed up right away and took us to the Radisson, where we picked up our Oldsmobile Alero at 8:15. The drive to the airport was quiet and somber. I was not really feeling sad that our cruise was over, because I was looking forward to getting back home and getting our dog. But I think we were all tired.
At the airport, DH had a difficult time returning the car to Avis, because back in Port Canaveral, they wrote the check-out time as 9:15 instead of 8:15. We tried returning the car at 9:00, which, according to their computers, was BEFORE we even checked it out. It took several minutes to get that straightened out. Luckily we had plenty of time until our 11:40 flight.
Inside the airport, we obtained our boarding passes from those EZ Check-In computer terminals and noticed our flight was delayed until 12:00. We settled ourselves at the gate and I took DS10 to the Disney store, where he bought yet another stuffed Eeyore. (He collects them. He now has five, all different sizes.) Later, he and I went to Nathan's and got hot dogs and cheese fries. I also got cheese fries to take back to the gate for DS13, who wasn't too hungry, while DH went to Burger King to get some lunch.
Our plane to Boston was late arriving in Orlando, which further delayed our flight. We finally took off at 12:25, 45 minutes late and arrived in Boston at 3:10. It took us almost 2 hours to get our luggage, pick up our rental car, another Mitsubishi Diamont, and drive through traffic-clogged Boston, arriving home at 5:00. As we were walking in the door, I said "Well, the Magic is about to set sail on another cruise!"
We had a wedding reception to attend at 7:00, but luckily it was next door, so I managed to get two loads of laundry done that night.
It was good to be home.
DH (40)
DS13 (13)
DS10 (10)
WHAT: 7 day cruise on the Disney Magic
WHEN: August 11 - August 18, 2001
SATURDAY - August 18
I didn't sleep very well last night. I pretty much dozed on and off from 4:00 to 5:30, which is about the time I actually got up. We had early seating, so our breakfast time was 6:45 and I wanted to make sure we didn't oversleep, so I put in for a wake up call at 6:00. The Mouse himself called at 5:55 and told me there was a lot to do today, so I'd better get going. He called again at 6:05 just to make sure I was up.
We got our charge slip for the cruise under the door. It was for $757.80, which included our tips. Not bad, but still more than I thought it would be, since we hardly ever ordered any drinks (DH had a glass of wine with a few dinners), didn't really buy much on board, and didn't do any excursions. The tips, the spa (including the $50 Ben-Gay), the rentals at Castaway Cay and those glasses of wine add up.
Our breakfast was in Lumiere's. We could have gone to Topsiders, but they just have a continental breakfast up there, which I took to mean juice and rolls. In the dining rooms, you order breakfast off the same menu they use during the cruise. I wasn't very hungry at that hour but I knew it would be a while before I got lunch, so I ordered sausage and hash browns. I was a little disappointed that the hash browns weren't the chunks of potatoes and onions that I had for breakfast at Lumiere's earlier in the week. Instead they were the patties that Topsiders serves. They are good, but not AS good. DH got an omelet and the kids ate light (just a bagel for one, and a pancake for the other.)
After we ate we noticed a line forming in the atrium to get off the ship. We weren't in any hurry so we went up to a deserted deck 9 for a while, then down to deck 4 to sit in the comfy deck chairs one last time. DH, who thought he had been carrying his book around, all of a sudden didn't know where it was - he thought he lost it. After rummaging through his carry-on he located it and was relieved. Shortly after, we noticed that people were getting off the ship so we decided it was time.
Once off the ship we went to the blue section of the baggage claim, where our bags were placed, and had a hard time locating our luggage. It didn't seem to be in order by room number. We finally found 3 of our 4 bags but it took us a long time to locate that final bag.
TIP: I noticed a cast member in each colored section with a clip board. He asked me my cabin number and then told me which rack our bags were on (this was after we already found 3 of our bags and DH was just about to find the fourth).
There are several porters offering to take your luggage - I was tempted to get one so we wouldn't have to drag our suitcases in the customs line, but we managed on our own. We sailed right through customs and were out the door.
Here's where things got a bit interesting. Once out the door, the Disney buses are to the left, and the other transportation pick-ups are on the right (Avis, Tiffany town car, etc.) I wanted to check our bags and asked a cast member where Delta was - he said go to the left, all the way down. Sure enough, there was Delta, as far away is it could be.
We showed Delta our airline tickets and they checked our bags, so we started leaving the airline/Disney buses area to head to the Avis shuttle area. We were then accosted by a Disney employee named Chris who demanded to see our KTTW cards. DS10 was still wearing his on his lanyard, so we showed her that one, but it had a sticker on it from the Oceaneer's Club, so she asked to see someone elses. I fished for mine in my purse as she asked "Did you purchase Disney transportation?" I answered no. She then looked at my KTTW card and informed us the airline luggage check-in was a courtesy only for those passengers who purchased Disney transportation. We didn't know - as a matter of fact, I got a tip off these boards that when renting a car from Avis to drive to the airport, you can save money by renting a smaller car since you can check your bags at the port. DH then asked how much we needed to pay, then. She replied "It's $24 per person" at which DH quickly replied "Forget it! We'll go back and get our bags back, then. That's a rip off!!" She said "Now, now, I'll tell you what I'll do for you. I will charge you for just one person", so DH followed her, credit card in hand, to pay the $24 transportation charge just so we could get our bags taken to the airport. Fortunately for us, Chris could not find her charge slips, so she told him never mind - our luggage would get a free ride. I wonder if we had used a porter to check in our luggage, if we would have even encountered this problem. They probably wouldn't have even noticed. The people behind us in line used a porter, and I heard them asking "What airline and flight number?" and the people in line just told them (didn't even need to show them an airline ticket). The porters then wisked their luggage away through a side door right to the airline check-in counters.We continued walking to the Avis area with just our carry-ons, and it was here DH realized he could not find the baseball style hat he bought in St. Maarten. He remembered carrying it out of Lumiere's and figured he must've put it down back on deck 4 when he was looking for his book. He was bummed, because it was the only souvenir he bought.
Avis showed up right away and took us to the Radisson, where we picked up our Oldsmobile Alero at 8:15. The drive to the airport was quiet and somber. I was not really feeling sad that our cruise was over, because I was looking forward to getting back home and getting our dog. But I think we were all tired.
At the airport, DH had a difficult time returning the car to Avis, because back in Port Canaveral, they wrote the check-out time as 9:15 instead of 8:15. We tried returning the car at 9:00, which, according to their computers, was BEFORE we even checked it out. It took several minutes to get that straightened out. Luckily we had plenty of time until our 11:40 flight.
Inside the airport, we obtained our boarding passes from those EZ Check-In computer terminals and noticed our flight was delayed until 12:00. We settled ourselves at the gate and I took DS10 to the Disney store, where he bought yet another stuffed Eeyore. (He collects them. He now has five, all different sizes.) Later, he and I went to Nathan's and got hot dogs and cheese fries. I also got cheese fries to take back to the gate for DS13, who wasn't too hungry, while DH went to Burger King to get some lunch.
Our plane to Boston was late arriving in Orlando, which further delayed our flight. We finally took off at 12:25, 45 minutes late and arrived in Boston at 3:10. It took us almost 2 hours to get our luggage, pick up our rental car, another Mitsubishi Diamont, and drive through traffic-clogged Boston, arriving home at 5:00. As we were walking in the door, I said "Well, the Magic is about to set sail on another cruise!"
We had a wedding reception to attend at 7:00, but luckily it was next door, so I managed to get two loads of laundry done that night.
It was good to be home.
) Although I felt exhausted for you after reading the final episode with the luggage! We will be leaving in a few weeks and your notes have helped us greatly. Thank you for the time you took to write it and in such great detail!
