July 12 - Day 12

 

Home Judaica Disney Soccer Job Search Genealogy Pictures

Disembarkation

We woke up at 7:00 and were out of the room and in Topsiders for breakfast by 8:00.Since we have the early seating, we never get up early to eat in the dining room, instead saying our goodbyes to our servers the night before.  Seth had gone to say goodbye to the two friends he met and joined us shortly after we sat down. We had a quick breakfast and were off the ship by 8:30.

As we walked off the gangplank, we were stopped by one of the port agents, who wanted to clear out customs first before he lets us go down to the baggage claim.  A line quickly formed behind us, but the delay was only about ten minutes.

Someone pointed out to me the door that the porters come back in, so I waited there and grabbed the next available one.  He led us out, getting on one line, then switching to another, somehow moving up in the process.

We drove to Sanford and when we got there at 10:30, we didn't see the train in the station.  Sure enough, it was running late, due (as we found out later) to a tree falling across the tracks in Rocky Mount.  We were told that it was expected in at around 3:00 and that we should come back at that time.

We decided to drive to Downtown Disney and have lunch there. We checked out the menu in Wolfgang Puck's and decided to eat there.  After eating, we walked around Downtown Disney, buying DVDs in the Virgin Megastore, magnets in the Magnet store and had ice cream for dessert at Haagen Dazs.  

We drove back to Sanford, arriving at 3:00 and was the last car let in before they started unloading cars from the train that just arrived.  This way, we were able to sit in the station, instead of waiting in our cars on line.  We were able to board by 5:00 and departed Sanford at 6:30pm.

Final Observations

1) There needs to be more activities or a place to hang out for the older, college age passengers.  Young adults really do not have a place to meet others there own age.  While Seth managed to make friends with two other girls his age, Sara wasn't able to find too many people her age.  

2) Stingray City is a must do on the Western cruise.  Captain Marvin's was a class operation and we had a blast.  Swimming with the stingrays was an incredible experience.

3) We're sorry we didn't get a chance to say goodbye to the many DIS friends we made.  Because we had the early dinner seating and there really wasn't much happening at Beat Street on the last night, we didn't run into as many people as we would have.  Fortunately, we'll see some of them next year.

4) I can't wait to see what changes they make to the Magic when it's in dry dock.  Rumor has it that Common Grounds is moving to the ESPN Sky Box, a coffee house is going into the current Common Grounds location and Beat Street is going to become a sports bar.  Does that mean goodbye to Dueling Pianos?  Does it also mean less late night adult entertainment?

Back Up