We arrived back on the Wonder and took this chance to enjoy the Rain forest room ONE more time!!! It was soon time for our last dinner on the ship.
Our servers for the week
Look at the sunburn!!!! OUCH I hurt bad! My head was pounding and my migraine meds were not helping at all.
Sadly after dinner we had to go back to our room to pack (I had put it off, trying to avoid the inevitable.) Our room host had tried several times to come in and turn down our bed and get it ready for the evening, but I was feeling so poorly and had so much to do (and I’m a madman (ok madwoman) when I’m packing). At one point I asked our host for a bag of ice. NOT for my ice bucket to keep our stuff cool, but to put on my HEAD!!! It hurt so very bad!
Got all the packing done and our bags outside of our stateroom before the 11pm deadline. I did not want to have to lug all our own bags out, that’s for sure. We had soooo much carry-on stuff to drag around in the am before disembarking!
So we got to sleep at some hour (at almost five months after the fact, these little details are starting to fade, sorry).
We had to get up a bit earlier since we had early seating, we had to have breakfast early our last day. We met up with our friends Monica and Warren,
Then Dawn and her family …
We said our goodbyes to everyone and headed out to the sadest day of our life (well really not that bad, but having to leave the ship was so depressing, lol).
We headed down the ramp to leave the ship and got all the way to the terminal and the line STOPPED! Ok, figured we were a few minutes early so we waited and waited and waited. Finally someone came out and told us that the thousands of people leaving the ship had to go through the SIX Federal agents (customs, I think). So finally we are let through with the next group of people. As soon as we got off, there were porters everywhere and luggage everywhere. I’d read before the easiest thing to do was grab a porter and you’ll get through customs easier and usually quicker. So we found a porter and he was so helpful. We had FOUR suitcases, in addition to our carry on stuff and all the ‘extras’ I was carrying off the ship (my flowers and my sand ceremony set). This is one of the biggest tips I’d give anyone cruising. Unfortunately some don’t want to spend the money to tip the porter. That was the best 10-12-15 dollars we spent, I don’t recall how many bags we ended up with. He took all of our belongings to the stop for the Radisson shuttle.
After a short wait the shuttle arrived with the famous Bong driver. He took us to our car that had been parked at the hotel since our stay there Sat/Sun. That was also the best money spent. Parking at the port is a lot just to have your car ‘close-by’ but honestly, we were delivered right to our vehicle with all our bags without the added expense.
We said goodbye to Monica and Warren and headed out towards Disney. Oh, but we had to make a pit stop first. I HAD to find something for my burn! I wanted some homeopathic stuff I use at home for sunburn and it works amazing. Well at 8:30 in the am, the specialty stores are NOT open at that hour. Finally ended at the CVS and got regular sunburn stuff.
We were NOW officially heading to Disney World! It was hard to believe after the most amazing trip of our life, we still had four days at Disney to look forward too. As we drove out of Port Canaveral, we saw one of the infamous DVC (Disney’s best kept secret signs) and hubby asked about it. I told him what I knew, from a friend who recently bought into it. We figured financially this is something we just couldn’t do at this time.
As we got closer towards Disney we past our dd’s previous home while she was part of the College Program at Disney. This is Vista (had to take a pic for her).
Then the most magical sign…
We then arrived at Pop (sorry, after many stays here I don’t take as many pics, lol). It was time to don our bride/groom hats! We got there probably shortly after 10am or so. Our room was not ready. But we got congrats from the CM and a number to call later to see when it was ready. I had not made any special request this time (I typically would request ground floor 60’s building). That request will give you a view of the lake! I love that. Well this time, we were put in the 50’s building with the giant juke box (the old kind on the table in the diner, lol).
We decided to get a quick drink then head to DHS for the afternoon. We were heading out towards the bus when we were congratulated by a cm who was the DVC rep at Pop that day. He asked if he could take 60 seconds to tell us about DVC. We looked at each other and said, why not. In those 60 seconds we had a general idea of DVC and how much it cost (which I had told hubby already). He was very informative. He asked if we’d like to go on a tour. We thought about it and said, sure, why not. We’d were going to get free fast passes since we were missing time in the park. The DVC van would be over to pick us up in a few minutes. So hubby grabbed a bite to eat. In no time it was time to go see the brand new Animal Kingdom Villas.
Oh, but wait, I’ve got my flowers with me and I can’t leave them in the car or they would die (it was HOT) and our room wasn’t ready so I was getting worried. I couldn’t possibly carry them all over the park that day. So we asked our new friend ‘Joe’ the DVC guy if there was somewhere they could be kept until we returned later (actually I asked him if he could keep them). Unfortunately, Joe wouldn’t be on later and didn’t want any thing to happen to our flowers so he went and found someone to keep them safe for me and in water! I was so excited.
Next up, our trip to DVC!