Out and away

From the gangway we enter the terminal building, into that second-floor hallway we were so eager to walk up three days ago. There’s no one scanning our cards, though. Hmm. We just file down the hall with the other cruisers and head down the escalator to the baggage area.

This place has been redecorated since we were last here. Either that, or it’s just easier to see around the room, with so much of the luggage now being taken directly to the airlines. Either way, there are large sepia-toned murals on the walls depicting Disney cruise ships and characters as if they were around in the golden age of ocean liners, in the early 20th century. The Wonder and Magic with their classic designs would have fit right in.

Unfortunately, this is a customs area, so I can’t take any pictures of the murals.

The ever-friendly and helpful porters are around with their carts, and we’re able to find our bags quickly. There’s a double line for customs, but it moves quickly. We have our passports out, each opened to the photo page.

When we reach the agent, she takes the passports and the declarations page, quickly scans the passports with an optical reader, and waves us through. No questions to us this time, which is good, since I was a sputtering idiot last time.

Once past customs, we follow our agent outside and to the American Airlines desk. There’s no line there. Nice. As on our previous two trips, our bags are placed behind the desk and we hand our eTicket info to the agent, who checks us in, tags our bags, and gives us our boarding passes.

Only one thing left to do – board a bus to the airport. The Disney crew member at the door to the bus checks one of our KTTW cards – verifying that we have the ground transfer – and waves us onto the bus.

We find seats about 2/3 of the way back, and before long the bus is backing out of its spot and we’re rolling to the airport. This whole experience of departing the ship, finding our bags, going through customs, checking in with the airline, and boarding our ground transportation has only taken about 20 minutes. Amazing. It’s a seamless process and a great convenience.

Goodbyes

We take the lifts down to Deck 4 and walk back to Animator’s Palate. The doors are already open, and we find Sutas and Nino smiling and waiting for us at our table. Bob cheerfully remarks to Sutas, “You’re up early!”

He evenly replies, “Always.”

As we are seated he starts reciting the menu items and stumbles once or twice, finally apologizing, “Sorry, but I’m not a morning person.” Hey, my kind of guy. We order our usual array of hearty vacation breakfasts and a plate of donuts.

While Nino is serving our drinks, Bob asks him what time he had to get up that morning, and is surprised to hear that he rose at 5:45. Bob thought he’d be up much earlier preparing the dining room. No, Nino explains, we actually set up the room the night before, and then cover everything, because then another crew comes in and cleans the floors overnight .

Breakfast is very, very tasty. Here’s another set of conflicting emotions – we’re tempted to linger over it and stay on the ship as much as possible, but we also have places to be and we’re anxious to get on with the next stage. We take a few more pictures of Sutas and Nino, and thank them for all they’ve done.

We’re out of the restaurant by 7:10.

We descend the big staircase on the other side of Shutters, with our carry-on bags in hand, and enter the atrium for the last time. The “See You Real Soon” banner is hanging over the exit on the other side of the floor. Sigh.

Just as we enter the atrium, a fanfare starts playing over the loud speakers, and Mickey’s voice thanks us (okay, probably not just us) for cruising with him. Hmm, never heard this before! He ends with – what else? – “See you real soon!” Maybe, Mickey. Maybe.

We walk across the floor, under the banner, and onto the gangway. We’re off the ship.

Into port, out the door

Sunday, January 6, 2008. It’s finally here – our last day. Wow. Once again, we deal with the emotional contradiction: Yes, we’re sad to be going home, but we’re also ready to be there. In that respect, these vacations are the perfect length – short enough to leave us wanting more, but long enough to have us really missing home.

My alarm sounds at 5:55 a.m., and I’m fully awake after only hitting the snooze once. I turn on the TV to the “View from the Bridge” channel. It’s dark outside, but there are stationary lights in plain view ahead. We’re at Port Canaveral and docked already.

I’m not too surprised. Christiaan, our cruise director, told us we’d probably be back at around 5:30. I hope Captain Henry forgives me for not getting up to help him dock.

As we rouse the boys up, I flip the TV over to the movie channels and find Nemo playing. I then step out onto the veranda and find Bob already there. He and I watch as a Royal Caribbean cruise ship backs into its dock just ahead of the Disney Wonder. We’re both hoping the ship doesn’t hit us, but intellectually I know it’s not as close as it looks.

Back inside, everyone’s dressed pretty quickly. It’s easier to do when your clothes have been laid out the night before and everything else is packed and gone. We spend some time stuffing everything that’s left – including the stuffed friends Benjamin and Brandon have – into backpacks and carry-ons.

It’s time for our final inventory before we leave the Suite for the last time. It goes like this:

Linda: “I have our passports.”

Me: “I have ours.”

Bob: “I have my driver’s license and Key to the World card.”

Me: “I have rhythm, I have music.”

Bob & Me, singing: “Who could ask for anything more?”

Sad to say, the time has now come to leave this blessed luxury in which we’ve been privileged to stay. The family files down the central hallway and out the door, with me trailing behind.

I pause to half-close the entry door and examine its back side, the one with all the paperwork and evacuation routes posted. There’s nothing really remarkable about it – I just figure that it may be my very last time to see that side of that particular door.

The door shuts behind me as I step out into the hallway. Goodbye, Walter E. Disney Suite.

Final scramble

It is such a blast being surrounded by all of the characters. But… now we’re back in the Suite, rushing to get our luggage out the door again. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.

We’ve got to have our bags packed and in the hallway by 11:00 p.m. Okay, it’s not an absolute necessity, but the reward is that we don’t have to haul all of our bags off of the ship. Disney crew members pick up the bags and carry them off the ship for us, and then we find them on the lower level of the DCL terminal tomorrow morning, where we take them through customs. We could in theory take them off of the ship ourselves, but it’s a lot more convenient this way.

This means, of course, that we must have everything out of the bags that we need for sleeping tonight, dressing in the morning, and traveling tomorrow. We’re never organized in advance enough, no matter how much we plan, to get the bags out early, so it always turns into a last-minute rush.

I throw things into the bags – no sense being organized now, just want to make sure everything gets home somehow. Becky and I tear through all of the cabinets, drawers, closets, nooks, crannies… Okay, this is one time that being in the Walt Disney Suite is a disadvantage – there are a lot of places to look!

In the meantime, Brandon and Benjamin are getting ready for bed. I can tell Brandon’s a little frazzled from the long day. But they head for bed, and right at 11:00 I place the final bags outside the door.

Whew. Okay, that was a chore, but the bags are gone now, and we can relax. I chuckle to myself when I remember our last cruise – that was worse, because one of the boys packed away his Key to the World card, and we had to scramble after our bags and rummage through them to find it. It would have been a huge hassle trying to get off of the ship without it.

I’m pretty sure we learned our lesson last time, and I’d mentioned this to everyone already today, but… just to be safe, I’d better ask again.

That’s when I learn that Benjamin’s KTTW card is on his lanyard. Which he packed.

I scramble for the door, in my sock feet, screaming bloody murder – at least internally. Our bags our gone! ARGH!

There’s a luggage cart down the hallway. I race down towards it and find the boys suitcases on it. I can’t tell if I’ve surprised the poor CM who’s been collecting luggage or if he’s used to this sort of spectacle, but frankly, my attention isn’t on him. It’s on the bags I’m digging through, and … yes! Got it!

I thank the crew member and pad back to the Suite, the panic subsided. We’re ready to go for tomorrow.

Okay, not quite ready. As Becky and the boys settle down for the night, I finish up my trip notes, work some on the DCL guest survey, and then fill that big whirlpool tub with hot water for another late-night soak.

Ahhhh…. If this is my final night in the Walt Disney Suite, I’m going end it in style!

‘Till We Meet Again

We now rejoin your previously scheduled program, already in progress...

We have a few minutes to go until the 10:00 “’Till We Meet Again” massive character greet. Bob and Linda decide to turn in for the night. The rest of us head towards Mickey’s Mates for some last-night shopping.

On the way we find Christiaan greeting the exiting crowds. I thank him for a great cruise, and he’s nice enough to pose with the boys for a picture.

The store is crowded. I never do find a new cruise line hat that I like, so I don’t end up buying any. Maybe next trip? Becky finds a t-shirt that she likes, which has several of the character’s signatures printed on it, so it matches the boys’. Benjamin is tempted by many of the pins on sale.

Speaking of pins, Katrina from the pin station is checking us out. Okay, that sounds wrong. Katrina is working at the check-out counter. (Much better.)

Benjamin notices she has a pin of “Scrump,” Lilo’s homemade rag doll, on her lanyard, and tells Katrina he had one just like it. Well, yes, she replies – you traded it to me!

Okay, it’s just about 10:00, and Becky and the boys want to get a little more casual, so we all hustle up to the Suite. There's a towel lobster on the bed.

Once clothes are changed, we head back down to Deck 3.

When we arrive, we’ve missed the grand introduction, but the characters are just arriving, streaming in. On the last trip the boys and I saw this for the first time, and it is a Disney character lover’s dream. There are new characters everywhere you turn, on two different levels of the atrium. We still do have some packing left, so as a practical matter we focus on the characters whose signatures the boys do not yet have (sorry Mickey!):

Starting with Minnie, I noticed for the first time that the non-face characters never hold still. Even when posing, they do this head-bobble movement that (1) gives life to the character and (2) really comes out blurry when you have a cheap digital camera with a slow shutter speed!

Notice the bobble-head blur on Goofy also. (Yes, I know I need a better camera, or a flash.)

With Anne Marie and Peter Pan, the stars of Disney Dreams.

Ensign Bensen, the star of The Golden Mickeys.

Captain James "Bobblehead" Hook