Are You Ever Coming Home?...No! I am playing with Wizards, Farkles and Sparkling Friends completed 10/21/2017 - Page 19 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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All good things must come to an end and today was that day for this cruise. Luckily we were staying in Florida for a few more days. Most of my friends had flights home at some point today, with a few going over to Disney Springs before heading the airport. Jeanne’s family would be doing some more Disney time as well.
I went up top to take a look at the port while Claire got ready.
I went back and fetched Claire and we headed up to Cabana’s for breakfast. We were taking DCL transportation back to Disney today and we had to be on the bus by 9 AM so eating in the dining room was out of the question for us today. I actually prefer Cabana’s on the last day though anyways.
As we left the room, we noticed that the room next to us with the terrible family had a bunch of ship officers outside and also customs officers…..hmm wonder what is going on?
I had debated renting a car or taking DCL transportation for quite some time. When I had the original flight that left WDW very early on our last day, I figured having a car would be the best option. When I changed it to a later flight, I looked at what a 1 day price would be for a rental for one day and Alamo was sold out. I could still get a car with other car vendors, but there was no way to return it the same day without going to the airport. In the end, DCL transportation was the most cost effective and convenient.
As we ate, our friends all started coming up too and we started saying our sad goodbyes. Cass messaged me that Rob tried to come into Cabana’s but was told it was closed. I told her to send him back as it was not closed and people were still coming in.
Claire was pretty sad that this cruise was ending, but she hooked up with everyone and they all started inputting their snapchat and Instagram info so they could stay in touch.
We gave everyone hugs and wished them all safe travels home. We really didn’t want this cruise to end. It was just so amazing and we had so much fun as a group.
As we went in our room I did say to one of the officers….”I don’t want to be nosey or know what’s going on….but these people were the worst neighbors ever! They were loud and ran up and down the hall and were not nice at all”. He said ok, thanks, and we went in our room and fetched our bags and headed down to get off the ship.
The line was all the way back to the stores on this side and there was a second line going back towards Animator’s Palate too. Jeanne and Patty’s family got in that line a little later and for some reason they seemed to be moving faster.
Just as we were just a few people away from check off the line stopped and they told us they had to wait for it to clear downstairs in customs a bit more. Then we started moving a family a few people in front of us was told they could not get off. I believe their credit card was declined and they had to make other arrangements to have the bill paid. They argued a bit, but really they were just holding up the line. It’s not like these CM’s are going to say..OK, I’ll take your word for it. At that time then Jeanne and Patty’s family passed us and waved and laughed that they were beating us off the ship.
As for the credit card issue with that family….I actually heard that several people had this issue. It seems that many card companies were stopping charges because of them being out of the country. I never have had this issue, but it certainly can be one. Since I was going to different ports than I have been to before, I did notify my CC Company that I would be cruising and they asked for the ports and then told me if there was a change in ports to let them know. Um….OK…I won’t have wifi. LOL.
We headed down the stairs and there were porters waiting and we did tell them we would need help. We had a girl this time…..never had a girl porter before! We gathered our bags and she took us through customs and then led us over to the DCL buses and asked which resort and led us to the correct bus and dropped our bags off. Super easy and well worth it for us to have a porter. The less I have to handle the bags the better.
We boarded the bus and it did leave a little after 9, I think because so many were having issues getting off the ship in a timely fashion. We are now on our way to Disney World once again….with another new to us resort…All Star Music!
We both kind of dozed as we made our way back to Orlando. I did check emails and facebook as well. Someone in our cruise group said that a man had been arrested and taken off the ship in handcuffs. I wondered if it was our neighbor. I later heard through the grapevine that it probably wasn’t him, but that his room was picked in a random customs inspection because they were not US citizens. I like to still go with the theory he was arrested. LOL!!!!
We pulled into Music and unloaded and grabbed our bags. I had gotten an email that our room was NOT ready yet. Never had one of those before. LOL. So we checked our bags in at Luggage services and took a quick look around.
With our stay here at Music, I have now stayed at all the Value resorts. Also with my stay at Riverside pre-cruise, I have now stayed at all the Moderates.
We headed off to the bus stop to wait for a Hollywood Studios bus. Our fastpasses were for there today and we needed to get a move on to enjoy the park before they came due.
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Glad to see the transition from cruise to resort was so easy. I really enjoyed sharing all of the adventures you guys had during the cruise. Sorry the room at the resort was not ready.
I wish there was an easier way to debark from the cruise. Part of the issue tends to be that whether or not your tag color has been called, people start congregating in the lobby. I think they need to do a debarkation time like embarkation time. I realize that will create new issues in luggage tags, but especially on the bigger ships, I just find all that chaos on the last day to be stressful. It wasn’t that bad on the Magic last week. Once we were called, we probably joined the line just by the side entrance to Lumiere’s, and it moved pretty quickly. But I’m sure we were also helped by the fact we cleared immigration the day before, so now just needed to clear customs.
That sure was a lot of activity with your neighbor’s cabin!!! I’d also be very interested in knowing the what and why of it, if that happened on my cruise!
I am so, so glad that karma called for that family. After all, they were nightmare neighbours! I'm going to go with the theory it was him that got handcuffed and taken off the ship. I'm sorry, but I think it's too much of a coincidence to have the room searched. I've never heard of customs doing that randomly. These days, these things tend to be intelligence led...
Anyway, so sorry the cruise is over, but at least the vacation's not.
Glad to see the transition from cruise to resort was so easy. I really enjoyed sharing all of the adventures you guys had during the cruise. Sorry the room at the resort was not ready.
It went fairly smooth and I did like using the bus back. It was one of the easiest transfer back after a cruise. (once I got off the ship. LOL)
Quote:
Originally Posted by cubfancolleen
I wish there was an easier way to debark from the cruise. Part of the issue tends to be that whether or not your tag color has been called, people start congregating in the lobby. I think they need to do a debarkation time like embarkation time. I realize that will create new issues in luggage tags, but especially on the bigger ships, I just find all that chaos on the last day to be stressful. It wasn’t that bad on the Magic last week. Once we were called, we probably joined the line just by the side entrance to Lumiere’s, and it moved pretty quickly. But I’m sure we were also helped by the fact we cleared immigration the day before, so now just needed to clear customs.
That sure was a lot of activity with your neighbor’s cabin!!! I’d also be very interested in knowing the what and why of it, if that happened on my cruise!
You know, I have heard other talk about tags being called but I have never heard it done on the 7 DCL cruises I have been on. Do they do it over the loud speaker? I know Brook said she has heard it once and that was her first cruise, but after that she says she has never heard it either. Other cruise lines are more strict about it and have you meet in an area to be called off.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
I am so, so glad that karma called for that family. After all, they were nightmare neighbours! I'm going to go with the theory it was him that got handcuffed and taken off the ship. I'm sorry, but I think it's too much of a coincidence to have the room searched. I've never heard of customs doing that randomly. These days, these things tend to be intelligence led...
Anyway, so sorry the cruise is over, but at least the vacation's not.
Me too! I am going with that theory too. One person said the guy taken off was seen on the ship with his grandkids ...so that would fit my neighbor. Another person mention he was the grandparent to the bad children. (Lots of people noticed how bad they were). I wish I knew for sure.
But I am a big believer in Karma ! I have seen it work a few times and I always feel good!
You know, I have heard other talk about tags being called but I have never heard it done on the 7 DCL cruises I have been on. Do they do it over the loud speaker? I know Brook said she has heard it once and that was her first cruise, but after that she says she has never heard it either. Other cruise lines are more strict about it and have you meet in an area to be called off.
Yes, they announce the tags over the loudspeakers. You can hear it unless you’re in one of the waiting areas, as it’s too loud there! That’s been the case for years.
Yes, they announce the tags over the loudspeakers. You can hear it unless you’re in one of the waiting areas, as it’s too loud there! That’s been the case for years.
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We boarded the bus and it was a pretty full bus, but we found seats. The whole ride there, there was a child who cried…but it was more of a fake cry….the whole entire ride!
Last Oct. we did not go to the parks, except for the Halloween party one night. But we did take a bus to Hollywood Studios to transfer to a boat over to the Yacht Club. Claire had teared up when we arrived…sad we weren’t going to the parks, but these were tears of joy with all the good memories she had coming as a kid (as she was much older then at the age of 11. LOL). She promised she wouldn’t tear up today!
We made our way to the Great Movie Ride. At this point it had not been announced that they were closing it, but I had heard rumors over the past few years that it may be going, so we wanted to ride it at least one last time.
The line moved fairly fast and as we were close they were ready to send out a tram and asked for a party of 2. We’re a party of 2! They were going to have us fill in a row, but there was no way 2 people would fit in there. The row ahead had room for another person though, so I sat there and Claire sat behind me.
It’s sad that it is now gone, but honestly this was never a favorite ride of mine. I am glad we did get to see it one last time and it was a nice way to stay a little cooler too.
They then marched off again. It was neat to see. Not something we need to see every time and honestly, I don’t know if every little show they do is the same or not, but I am glad we took time to watch it.
I think we stopped and got some beverages to cool down and then headed off to Rock n roller coaster. Claire has never road it before.
We noticed this door and we touched it and were surprised it was made of marbles. Of course after we discovered this several other people now had to come and touch it too. LOL.
As you can see….I shut my eyes till we have reached our speed.
That was a lot of fun. We decided to skip Tower of Terror as the wait time had gotten longer since we walked by it before. We then walked back towards the hub and found some Streetmosphere going on.
Fun time at the Studios and cool you managed to get one last ride in on the Great Movie Ride! I agree, it's not one of my favourites, but I'm still sad it's gone, as there really isn't another attraction focusing on the movies and, given that was originally the aim of the Studios, that feels kind of weird now.
Fun time at the Studios and cool you managed to get one last ride in on the Great Movie Ride! I agree, it's not one of my favourites, but I'm still sad it's gone, as there really isn't another attraction focusing on the movies and, given that was originally the aim of the Studios, that feels kind of weird now.
You are so right. This whole park has totally changed since it opened and that Movies concept is really gone. Universal is kind of going that way too.
I kind of tricked Claire into seeing BB8. I just didn’t even really tell her she would be seeing him. I just made our way towards his line and got in it. LOL
We love this ride. The standby line was much shorter than normal now that the 3rd track was open, but it was still longer than we wanted to wait for a second ride.
I have wanted to eat here for YEARS! I have had reservations several times and always ended up changing or cancelling. When Claire was younger I had told her about the place and she was scared to death to go here. She was sure they would yell at her and I figured it wasn’t worth the hassle to have her be afraid the whole time. One time Patty….yes the Patty I just cruised with…..Patty and I had a reservation here when we were here for training and we ended up cancelling it last minute as we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom. It just never seemed to work for us…or when it would, I couldn’t find an open reservation. Finally…years later….we were going to try it.
We didn’t wait long and we were called back to be seated. Lil John was our server and he was so much fun. He played with us and the tables by us for a bit. He introduced all of us to each other and we just kept laughing.
He was such a ham and I thought I was videoing his super funny antics and then I realized I was NOT actually recording. UGH!! He had totally been playing up to my camera too. I tried again, but this time it was not as funny.
Our section started clearing out as we ate. Lil John did mention to a few tables that we were the last of his tables for the day. He never once rushed us and he was super attentive. As much as we wanted to try dessert here, we were just totally stuffed. The shake did us in. I guess we’ll have to come back another time and eat less so we have room for dessert. We finished up and paid our bill and headed out. We will be back. It’s a new favorite for us.
Our next fastpass was for Star Tours, so we headed that way.
We got a different scene that we have not seen before and it was fun.
We had a little time before our next fastpass and Claire wanted frozen lemonade, so we got that and sat down for a bit. I think I may have called home during that time while she worked on her lemonade.
We then headed to the Frozen sing along…a new attraction for us. As soon as we entered I recognized the waiting area….it was where Doug Live was many many years ago. I had never seen the Drew Carey thing that was here before (though Skip had) and I had always wondered where Doug Live had been as I couldn’t remember. Doug used to be a show on Nickelodeon and then it went to Disney. My older 2 kids LOVED that show and when I had taken them to Disney…about 18-20 years ago, this was a must do. Paige had been so excited about this show the whole time it was going on. I quickly took a picture and texted it to her.
In the waiting area of the place that used to be where Doug Live was at.
This character was pregnant. I wasn’t sure if she was supposed to be a pregnant character or if the actor herself was really pregnant. It almost looked like a fake belly, but then again it could be just how the costume lay on her. At times she would make small jokes about being pregnant and then other times she would say things that would make you think she wasn’t married and her guy partner was not her husband and they kind of flirted.
This show is a must for anyone with a Frozen obsessed child. For us, I am glad we saw it but it won’t need to be repeated. It was cooler in the theatre, but I was also super tired from our long vacation and fighting sleep as I sat there. It’s a cute show, but we are not huge Frozen fans anymore. We did like the ride in Epcot, but we don’t need to do a sing along every trip.
We then were tired and decided it was time to take a break. We figured we would come back in the evening for the fireworks. I had gotten the email that our room was ready not long after we had entered the park, so we figured a little nap and cooling off would do us some good and we headed to the bus stop.
Wow, talk about packing in first time experiences this day! I'm so glad you got to do the 50s Prime Time. I must admit we've only done it once, as I'm not a fan of the antics there, but I do remember how good the milkshakes were in there!
I was worried that with high expectations, 50’s PT wouldn’t live up to it for you. Glad it did! We haven’t eaten there in years now. So many options, and if you don’t have a good server there, it can really fall short.
I can imagine you were feeling tired by that point!
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That’s been the case for years.
I'm so glad you got to do the 50s Prime Time. I must admit we've only done it once, as I'm not a fan of the antics there, but I do remember how good the milkshakes were in there! 
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