No surprise, I was awake quite early. I didn’t watch the entire process of sailing in to Port Canaveral, but I definitely knew when the pilot boat was approaching the Fantasy, and when it was safe to use my phone again.
Eventually we docked, and I sat on the veranda, watching the chaos on the dock.
Once 7 rolled around, I went to pick up my photo drive from Shutters, which was actually in the atrium, next to the door that would eventually open. It was about 7:15 when I went down, and I was amazed by how many people were lined up for express walk-off, and how many of them looked really stressed standing there. If there is one thing that my first 2 cruises’ debarkations taught me, it is to never book a flight I would have to rush to under the best of circumstances.
Anyway...I picked up our photo drive, and headed back to the room, walking by Animator’s Palate on the way. Ronaldo was in the entrance, and he chatted with me for a few minutes, before I continued on my way. I got back to the room where Nick was now up and getting ready for the day. We went up to Cabanas for breakfast, which was a hopping place. We made sure to have one more glass of POG juice, since it would be awhile until we could have that goodness again.
Once we were done eating breakfast, we went for a quick walk up on deck. This ended up being more interesting than I had anticipated. They were running rehearsals for the new Mickey’s Surprise Party deck party that is debuting soon. We were allowed to watch, but not take pictures. I have to say that, even as Disney shows go, this was the cheesiest I’ve seen, from what we saw, and I’m no longer bummed that this debuts so soon after our cruise. While we couldn’t take pictures of the rehearsal, we did take a few pictures of the view from the ship while on deck.
Then we went back to our room, where we hung out until a little after 8, continuing to watch the chaos on the ground.
Then we rounded up our backpacks, and headed for the atrium. Unlike our previous debarkations, there was virtually no line to get off the ship. We were off the ship in minutes, and just a few minutes later, we were down in the luggage and customs area.
We easily found the tan Pluto area, and even more easily found our luggage. Miami’s luggage hold is well organized, but this was extremely well organized. We both were impressed. We then joined the customs line, which moved very quickly, thanks to a woman who is at serious risk of vocal nodules with the way she barks directions. We got a look of relief and a “thank you” when she saw that our passports were out and open. We also marveled at the stacks of luggage on some of the porters’ carts.
Customs was a breeze, and within minutes we were outside and being directed to our bus to Disney. It was only about 8:30. We had been advised to be off the ship by 8:15 for a 9 o’clock departure. I decided it might be best to not tell Nick we wouldn’t be leaving for another half an hour.
The time passed, and our bus pulled out promptly at 9. Our driver had a great sense of humor, so even our last glances at the Fantasy were good for a chuckle, with him telling us to “say goodbye to Dumbo’s butt”.
We easily found the tan Pluto area, and even more easily found our luggage. Miami’s luggage hold is well organized, but this was extremely well organized. We both were impressed. We then joined the customs line, which moved very quickly, thanks to a woman who is at serious risk of vocal nodules with the way she barks directions. We got a look of relief and a “thank you” when she saw that our passports were out and open. We also marveled at the stacks of luggage on some of the porters’ carts.
Customs was a breeze, and within minutes we were outside and being directed to our bus to Disney. It was only about 8:30. We had been advised to be off the ship by 8:15 for a 9 o’clock departure. I decided it might be best to not tell Nick we wouldn’t be leaving for another half an hour.
The time passed, and our bus pulled out promptly at 9. Our driver had a great sense of humor, so even our last glances at the Fantasy were good for a chuckle, with him telling us to “say goodbye to Dumbo’s butt”.
My personal favorite, though, was his timing of asking us if anyone had a terrible cruise. It should come as no surprise that the bus remained quiet. This occurred right as the Carnival ship was visible to our right. The driver’s response to our silence? “Good, because thanks to that cruise line to our right, I’m fresh out of complaint cards”. That got a good laugh out of everyone.
The bus ride was enjoyable, with video clips, cartoons, and more Disney trivia. Time passed quickly enough, and we were driving onto property just an hour after leaving the port.
We made stops at Sports and Music, before arriving at Movies. We collected our suitcases, and headed inside, where we found a good spot to reorganize the luggage a bit. Then we stored our luggage with luggage services, and headed for the bus stop, where we discovered the Love Bugs had made an early appearance this year..
A bus to Disney Springs came along soon enough, and we were on our way. Our first stop when we got there? Chicken Guy for lunch. I had been talking about the amazing parmesan garlic sauce since I got home from my Disney trip in August, so Nick wanted to try the place out, and since it is relatively inexpensive, and delicious, I was all for it! We both had chicken tenders. I had the parmesan garlic and sweet and sour sauces. Nick went bourbon bbq and honey mustard, but he sampled a fair amount of my parmesan garlic too!
After lunch, we poked around the various stores, and then went to Amorette’s for sweets. We got a pineapple eclair and some raspberry mousse cake. Compared to pineapple eclairs I had had from here previously, this one was a bit disappointing. That raspberry mousse cake, however, was top notch! The chocolate Easter eggs on display were neat to look at too.
We ended up with quite a bit of time to kill. I had way overestimated the amount of time we would need today. So, once we decided to vacate our table at Amorette’s, and I had purchased the shirt I had eyed earlier in World of Disney, we shade hopped for a couple of hours, enjoying the incredibly pleasant weather.
At 2:45, we checked in for Nick’s birthday present: The Void. Nick loves Star Wars, and he loves video games, so a full body, VR Star Wars experience seemed like a natural gift for him.
This was a really cool experience. Basically, through VR, you become storm troopers. I will say, that there were moments, when walking on what appeared to be (in VR) a narrow walkway over lava, that I was wishing I didn’t have sea legs for this experience, but we both thoroughly enjoyed it. And in case anyone was wondering, you wear a helmet and a vest, and they have extender straps for people of size.
Once that was over, we headed for the bus stop. Nick was ready to get off his feet. On the way to our stop, we saw an Avengers Endgame bus, so I had to take a picture, in honor of Nick having seen that movie on the ship.
We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a bus to Music and Movies (thanks to the crowds related to a cheerleading competition, Sports had its own bus), which has to be some sort of Disney Springs record.
When we arrived at Movies, we headed for luggage services, where we were informed all of our luggage had been brought to our room. We were both presently surprised by that! So we headed to our room, 6813, on the 2nd floor of building 6, in the Love Bug section. This was a renovated room, and not a bad walk from the main building.
We both were stunned by the amount of pillows in this room. The renovated rooms here look a lot like the ones at Pop Century, just with different art work, so I didn’t really take pictures around the room.
Nick settled in to charge his phone, and I headed back to the main building, to see about a Magical Express letter. I had not been surprised to not find a letter when we got to our room, since we were only a one night stay. The front desk got one printed up for me, and then it was off to the gift shop for some bottled water and Powerade. Then back to the room for a short amount of time.
Pretty soon, it was back to the main building, where we requested an Uber. Our Uber driver arrived within 5 minutes. This was kind of an interesting trip, since she wasn’t so sure of her GPS, and spoke minimal English, but we made it to the Animal Kingdom Lodge safely, and with plenty of time before our dinner reservation. So, we watched the animals for a bit.
Animal watching complete, we went and checked in for dinner at Boma. We were given a buzzer, and maybe a minute after sitting on a bench to wait, our buzzer went off, and we were led to a table.
When our server arrived, she talked briefly about the drink menu, and included the “house juice” in her spiel. Wait we can get the POG juice for dinner?! Heck yes!
With that decision made, we were off to the buffet. Apparently 9 years has made a difference in my eating habits, because I was much more successful in finding food to fill my plate than I remember being the one and only other time I have had dinner here. Nick also had no problems filling his plate.
Dinner was delicious. Dessert wasn’t bad either. Nick was thrilled to have finally had the experience of eating here. And I finally understood why people like this place. Also, the glass of POG juice we each received was ridiculously large. It was amazing.
After dinner, Nick (who had not chosen the right shoes for the day) took an Uber back to our hotel. Meanwhile, I, with Nick’s encouragement, continued on with my original plans, and grabbed a bus to the Magic Kingdom, followed by the monorail to the Contemporary. It was time to see some Easter eggs!
Once I had checked out all of the eggs at this hotel, it was back to the monorail for a short ride over to the Grand Floridian, to see their Easter eggs.
By this point, it was closing in on 9, so I made my way back to the Magic Kingdom, and to the bus stop as quickly as I could. The fireworks show would be ending soon. And Disney knew it. They sent the giant bus, what I refer to as the pendaflex bus, to the Movies stop. But they were a bit early, as there were less than 20 of us waiting for a bus. Needless to say it was a quiet ride back to the resort. And I got to see a little bit of Illuminations from the bus!
I made my way back to the room, where Nick was happy to report that his Uber driver back to Movies had been much better, and “a cool guy”, and that he had gotten caught up on the Game of Thrones episode he had missed on the ship.
We crashed soon after I got back, knowing we could sleep in slightly in the morning.
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