2017-12-30: Goodbye Cruise, Hello Disney World

It was our last morning on the Disney Fantasy and it was an early one. We were assigned a 6:45 breakfast time in the Royal Court dining room. We were up by 6:00, had a quick shower, packed the last of our belongings from the stateroom, and headed to the dining room. We had breakfast in the dining room and said our final goodbyes to our waiters. The gangway to disembark the ship was just outside the dining room so we made our way off the ship shortly before 8:00am. This was a very different departure that we were used to. Usually we grab breakfast in the buffet restaurant and wait for our group to be called to disembark the ship. On the Disney Fantasy, they don’t have the buffet restaurant open the morning you disembark and they don’t seem to have an organized way of telling people when to get off. It was a mass of people getting off the ship after breakfast which we thought was odd. It caused for some chaos in the terminal building with the hordes of people disembarking all at the same time.

We found our luggage in the terminal, worked our way through the line, cleared customs, and boarded the Disney bus to the Contemporary Resort. The bus was showing Toy Story 3 on the video screens which kept us occupied for the hour long drive to Disney World. We were the second stop for the bus. It stopped at the Caribbean Beach resort first and let a few people off. Once at the hotel, the Bell Services folks took our bags and we went to the desk to check in. It was around 9:00am at this point so our rooms were not ready. We were given our MagicBands and some information on the parks. They took our email addresses and told us we would get an email when our rooms were ready.

We left the hotel and hopped on the monorail to Magic Kingdom. We entered the park and started exploring. It was all decorated for Christmas with wreaths hung everywhere and a huge Christmas Tree in the circle at the entrance. One of the first things you notice beyond that is the mass of people. Disney puts on special parades and fireworks shows for the New Year. They duplicate the shows on December 30th and 31st and an army of people come to see them. The kids found an autograph book they liked at a kiosk near the entrance to the park. We headed over to Adventureland to start with. We found ourselves at the Tiki Room and decided to make that our first stop. The kids enjoyed watching the birds and decorations sing. Following the Tiki Room, we saw the Country Bear Jamboree and then grabbed some lunch. The noon parade just ended so there were people everywhere!

After lunch, we made our way to Aladdin’s Magic Carpets for the first ride of the day. We had a FastPass for Pirates of the Caribbean so we headed there next. They have changed it since I was a kid and have incorporated characters from the movies which is to be expected. It is still a lot of fun. Jim received an email that their room was ready so we decided to leave the park and head to the hotel to unload some stuff out of our bags.

There is a pathway that links the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary Resort so we decided to take that route. Once back at the hotel, we discovered that only one of the rooms was ready, but the second was almost ready. We hung out in Jim and Linda’s room for a bit but still had no luggage. Jim called down to the Bell Services desk and asked them to bring up the luggage. Patrick kept checking on the housekeeping staff next door until they left. As soon as they left, he was in the room checking it out. Shortly afterwards, our luggage was delivered to the rooms. We unpacked a few things, repacked a backpack, and headed back to the Magic Kingdom.

We made it back in time for our second FastPass which was for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It’s one of Jim and Linda’s favourites. We all thought it was a blast. The FastPasses can sure save a lot of time. We bypassed a two hour line and almost walked right onto the ride. From there, we walked next door to Splash Mountain where we used our final FastPass for the day. Darrell forgot to take his hat off on the ride and it flew off during the large drop at the end of the ride. He asked one of the staff about it when we got off and they said it was gone forever. Time to start looking for a new hat! We all got a good dousing on the ride and it was now getting dark.

Jim headed back to the hotel for a conference call while the rest of us headed to Tony’s Town Square restaurant for dinner. It was almost time for the first of the evening’s fireworks displays. Trying to get through the park was nearly impossible. We were shoulder to shoulder with a mass of people and there was no way to get away from it. It took us over half an hour to get to the restaurant and we were late for our reservation. It should have taken us five to ten minutes to get there. We did finally get to the restaurant and checked in for our reservation. They don’t prepare the table for you until you arrive, so we had to wait a bit to get a table. While we were waiting, we were able to watch the fireworks display. A few minutes after the fireworks ended, our table was ready so we were escorted into the restaurant.

Tony’s Town Square is an italian restaurant with a Lady and the Tramp theme. The server saw the kids’ autograph books and asked if they wanted Lady and the Tramp’s autographs. They said yes of course so the server took the books away. She came back a few minutes later with a Lady and the Tramp sticker in the middle of one of the pages and Lady and Tramp’s paw prints on either side of the sticker. It was really cute.

After dinner, we were all beat. It had been a long day. We headed back to the hotel and met up with Jim. We finished unpacking the suitcases, relaxed a bit in the room, and called it a night.