Transition Day

Thursday, January 3, 2008. Ah, the Thursday of our 7-day package trip. Transition day. It’s always a mixed bag of emotions – sad, to a degree, because we say goodbye to Walt Disney World, but also full of excitement as we travel to the port and board the beautiful Disney Wonder for our cruise.

This day holds more excitement than the previous two trips’ Thursdays, because by this afternoon we’ll be in the Wonder’s Walt Disney Suite!!! It still seems too good to be true.

Becky is the only one who rises with the 6:00 alarm. The rest of us snooze in bed until 6:45, but then we pull ourselves up and begin our preparations for the day, both dressing and packing. Disney handles our luggage transfer to the ship, but we need to have the bags packed and ready to go at 8:00.

We’re good to go by 7:30. I line the bags up in the room, just inside the door, and we go to join Bob and Linda at Captain Cooks. It’s been great having this light restaurant so close by. I’ve been able to get my money’s worth on drink refills with my mug and we’ve been able to come here for several different meals.

Breakfast needs to be big today. We’ll really only be doing much walking in the morning, when we’re taking our last visit to the parks, but lunch will not come until after we’re onboard the ship, usually after 1:00. So I order Capt. Cook’s “big breakfast,” which comes with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, and breakfast potatos. Benjamin orders the same. Becky gets the breakfast croissant, while Brandon tries a Mickey waffle.

Bob shares that he stopped by the Disney Cruise Line desk yesterday to confirm our departure time, and was told that we were going to be issued new Key to the World cards before we left the resort this morning. Hmm. That’s new.

On the past two trips, our cards have been the standard WDW resort cards, but they were used both at Walt Disney World and on the ship – they worked to open our staterooms and get us onboard and off. We’ve never had a specifically-Disney Cruise Line card before.

Hey – I wonder if they’ll be gold? I’d read in my cruise line PassPorter that while most cruisers get a blue KTTW card, concierge-level guests have gold cards. That would be cool.

Breakfast is winding down, and we’ve settled on our plans for the morning. Bob, Linda, and Becky will be going to the Magic Kingdom again – after all, they’ve only been once on this trip, while the boys and I with our two late-night outings have been three times! Brandon and Benjamin both want thrill rides – Mission: Space and Test Track. How convenient that they’re next to each other. So we’re off to Epcot.

We wave goodbye to Becky and her parents with a promise to meet back in the Polynesian lobby at 11:00 (for a 11:30 departure).