Seven Fantastic Nights, Some Stormy Weather, and the first Star Wars Day At Sea! Updated 2/14 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Seven Fantastic Nights, Some Stormy Weather, and the first Star Wars Day At Sea! Updated 2/14
Introductions and More
Hi Everyone!
We just got back from our second cruise on Saturday where we had a fantastic (and quite adventurous) time on the high seas and thought it would be fun to share!
We love to read trip reports - and have attempted to write them in the past - but somehow they always seem to escape us! We are absolutely determined to do this one!
So without further ado…
Who Are We?
I'm Dutch and I'm a sophomore in college studying Health Science with a concentration in Public Health - eventually I would like to become a health educator and work for a public health organization. Outside of planning for Disney and school, I spend a lot of time running and with friends. I'll be writing the report - with lots of input from ….
My dad Drew! He works as a marketing manager and does voice-overs on the side. He's from Australia and loves to watch and play cricket - he's also a big swimmer and supposedly is trying to go vegan (although some how he always manages to find the steak ).
Here we are at Castaway Cay on our last cruise...
The Planning
We've been wanting to go on another cruise since the minute we got off the last one (in 2013 - a 4-night Bahamian on the Dream) and finally booked this one as my high school graduation present. When we initially booked it, the cruise was the traditional 7-night Western Caribbean itinerary - stopping in Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica - a couple months later, however, Disney announced the introduction of "Star Wars Day at Sea" - a day-long event featuring Star Wars characters, celebrities, and reenactments - and our cruise was going to be the first sailing to have it! Pretty Cool !
The only thing being that neither of us had never seen a single Star Wars movie. I know - I know ! I'm not the biggest movie-goer and growing up I tended to stick more with TV shows than movies, as did most of my friends, so Star Wars just wasn't really a part of my life.
We decided however that we would stick with the original date - despite our extreme lack of Star Wars knowledge we decided that being on the "Inaugural Star Wars Voyage" sounded pretty cool and we wanted to experience it! So our finalized itinerary looked like…
Day One - Port Canaveral
Day Two - At Sea
Day Three - Cozumel
Day Four - Grand Cayman
Day Five - At Sea
Day Six - At Sea
Day Seven - Castaway Cay
Day Eight - Port Canaveral
UP NEXT: The final planning and pre-trip stay!
__________________
-Dutch (and Drew) <--- Disney Fantasy 2016!
Last edited by duck addict; 02-15-2016 at 10:25 AM..
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Like most people, we decided to head down the day before our cruise, with a pre-cruise stay in Cocoa Beach. We booked our flights in October - flying down on Delta and back on JetBlue - we were unable to get seats next to each other on the way down (we got the last 2 seats - at three months out from the flight I was pretty shocked by that) - but got two aisles next to each other on the way back.
We waited until December to snag our hotel on Priceline - we had used the "Name Your Own Price" tool for our last trip and were pretty happy - this time we managed to get the Four Points by Sheraton at about half off !
We left for the airport around 8 am - but quickly turned around as I left my glasses on the kitchen counter - would not have been fun wearing contacts for eight days in a row! Always pays to leave a little bit early !
Drive to the airport
Once we got close to the airport, we parked the car at a friend's house and called for a taxi - who had some trouble finding us! He drove past us three different times - all while on the phone with my Dad. He finally pulled over and we got in before he had the chance to drive away again ! Our ride the rest of the way to the airport was a bit eventful - there were a couple of wrong turns made by said driver and we passed the same street three different times - but we eventually made it - and I was glad we did!
I had pre-paid our checked baggage fees and so, like JetBlue does in their terminal, I assumed we could just drop our bags off at bag drop - with Delta, however, you still have to stand in the check-in line Not sure why they have you pre-pay for your bags and claim it to be more convenient - we ended up doing curbside checkin in the end as the line was just too long!
The wait for our flight was pretty short - I grabbed some fruit and my Dad grabbed a breakfast sandwich - and before we knew it we were on our way!
Our Plane
Up Next: The arrival in Orlando, Disney Springs, and Cocoa Beach!
Our flight down to Orlando was far less eventful than our journey to the airport - we both had window seats and made it down in under 2 1/2 hours . This was our first time flying Delta down to MCO, and I'm not sure if we would do it again - the legroom was really tight and I happened to be seated behind the "Delta Comfort" rows, which have more recline than regular coach - and the man in front of me was a big fan of his recline
The Limited Legroom...
Once we got to MCO, we headed down to the Budget counter to pick up our car for the next day - a bright red Chevrolet Cruze. While we were there, Dad discovered that he had left one of his bank cards in the ATM back at JFK Thankfully we had everything we needed - but we stopped and canceled the card promptly before driving off.
Our first stop was the Disney Character Warehouse at the Premium Outlets, which we were both somewhat disappointed by. It seemed as though it was in a bit of a "transition" state as they were finishing clearing out all of the holiday/2015 merchandise and didn't have any other events or "limited" merchandise to pull from. Dad did find a nice long-sleeve shirt and I picked up 2 pins. We also stopped in at American Eagle since I needed another pair of shorts for the cruise.
Pulling up to Disney...
We then headed off to Disney! Our first stop was Old Key West, as we're planning a trip to Disney for the fall and are debating between staying there and Saratoga Springs. Dad and I both really liked the pool area and general feel of the resort - although it did feel a bit spread out.
Old Key West
We thought this DCL Model was pretty cool
We then drove to Saratoga Springs - we had originally planned on only stopping to look, but after asking the guard for directions to Disney Springs, he told us to not bother moving the car and that it was fine to leave it there and use Saratoga's boat or walking path. Sounds good to us ! So after exploring Saratoga Springs (of which we were also big fans), we walked over to Disney Springs to grab some dinner.
We stopped at Earl of Sandwich, one of our favorite spots, and both got salads (kind of ironic ) - we were quite pleased with them.
We then wandered around and did some shopping, stopping in World of Disney and the Pin store. There was a sales person standing outside Basin offering free scrubs so we stopped in and had a lot of fun playing around at their "hand-washing" station. My Dad was soon convinced that he needed one of the scrubs - until we saw that they were $40
We then walked back to Saratoga Springs, stopping to take some photos along the way.
Before we headed off to Cocoa Beach, we decided we wanted to stop at the Polynesian to get a Dole Whip. Every single trip we've taken down, I have wanted to get a Dole Whip and I've either forgotten or the line was incredibly long - this time I was determined! So we stopped at the Lanai Express ….
It was awesome! Definitely good - and the Polynesian looks like an incredible resort (would love to stay there some time).
Next Up: Arrival to Cocoa Beach/Morning Before Cruise.
About This Page: 
). 
!
! I'm not the biggest movie-goer and growing up I tended to stick more with TV shows than movies, as did most of my friends, so Star Wars just wasn't really a part of my life. 
<--- Disney Fantasy 2016!
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Pixie Dust
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- would not have been fun wearing contacts for eight days in a row! Always pays to leave a little bit early 
Not sure why they have you pre-pay for your bags and claim it to be more convenient - we ended up doing curbside checkin in the end as the line was just too long!
my little man
) - we were quite pleased with them. 
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