Better late than..later?Western Sept 05/09 **Updated 11/11** About This Page:

[NanaTink]

Glad you had a great time and we'll be here when you can tell us all about it!

[HeatherD]

Can't wait to read it!

[rlb38]

SUPRISE BEFORE SUNRISE

I was up shortly before 4 am to shower and get the show on the road. After getting dressed Mike and I crept into Rachel's room . Imagine being in the deepest of sleep and someone wakes you up to tell you that you are going on a Disney Cruise.

Well, if it was a Disney commerical the child would look darling, just slightly ruffled up from sleeping and would leap up with a wonderous shout and a hug for mom and dad. There would be laughter and smiles all around. I believe this was the scene my husband envisioned but the reality was a little different.

Rachel is a child who always fights going to sleep. So once she is asleep it is very difficult to wake her and even when you do she follows commands but is really not awake. We once got her out of bed , got her dressed in warm clothes to see the Northern Lights. We were outside in the cold for about 15 minutes. She had NO recollection of any of it the next day.

So I gently woke her up and kept telling her it was time to get up. She would look at me and nod but she didn't look awake. I finally asked her if she had any idea why we were both in her room to wake her up. She said no.

"well we're up really early because we need to get to the airport because we're going on a Disney Cruise" Looooong pause before..

"oh" she then starts to roll over to go back to sleep.
"honey, you need to get up we're really going today"
"really?" I then show her the clock that is reading 04:06.
" We would not be up at this time to play a joke on you . We need to get going. You need to pack some things"
So she finally sits up and starts taking the information in. "I have to pack all my clothes???" No I assure her that she just needs to pack some stuff to entertain herself because we have a LONG day ahead of us.
She suddenly springs out of bed and starts to go by me saying " I need to call Heather! " Heather is her BFF and I assure her she can't call at 4 in the morning that Heather will just have to wonder where she's gone.

Then " this is incredible, you wake me up at 4 in morning, tell me I have to get up to take a plane and then we're going on a Disney cruise" slight pause " I just don't believe it"

Really she was just shocked and we never got a jumping up and down super happy type reaction. But I know she was thrilled and happy. Throughout the day she would grab my hand and say it's incredible and repeat the whole " you woke me up at 4 in the morning to tell me to get ready for a disney cruise.... she would add to the sentence as we got closer to Orlando. " we've been through security now we're waiting for the plane....

Throughout the day we would tell her things that we had done to keep the cruise from her and she was amazed . I had made up a story that one of my friends from work was having a pirate party. I had bought some second hand clothes for her and wanted to make sure they fit for the pirate party. She thought it was an odd theme for a party but didn't ask too many questions. These little tidbits would get added to her " so you wake me up at 4am..." story.

We got to the airport and waited in a long line for security at 5 am . It took almost an hour to get through. We were unable to get an earlier flight out of Philly so we had a long 5 hour wait with some catnaps on the benches.

We were unimpressed with US airways and won't be flying with them any time soon.

COMING UP: I FORGOT SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT AT HOME!

[Grammy Grumpy]

Just found this and spent some enjoyable moments during lunch reading it through. Sorry about the layover time and I'm very anxious to hear what you left at home! More please.

[Kenny]

HaHaHa!! Way to go Mom and Dad!! A TOTAL surprise!! Sorry about the long layover.
Can't wait for more!!

[Colexis Mom]

Great update! Sorry about the long wait for the plane!

[HeatherD]

Oh, you can't just leave us hanging....WHAT did you forget at home???

[chezp]

What a wonderful reveal!

[rlb38]

So we waited 5 hours in Philly and made our way over to the terminal for our next flight to Orlando. We waited and waited and waited some more. Not sure what the problem was to start boarding but it was a slow process.

Once on board the flight attendant kept making an announcement. We only have a very short window left in which they will allow us to take off. Please find your seat and store your belongings as quickly as possible. If we don't make this time window our next window to leave won't be for over an hour.

Are you kidding me? I just spent 5 looooong hours waiting for this plane and now I might have to wait on the runway. So some tense moments passed while as you can imagine there were some slow people trying to store their stuff and taking their time finding their seats while the hurry up announcement would play overhead. I was really getting annoyed with the flight attendants. One elderly gentleman had a large carry on he was trying to find space for but other than telling him to hurry up no one offered help. Another Asian woman was travelling with 2 kids but they were all in different parts of the plane. The flight attendant kept trying to get her to sit down. In her broken English she was trying to explain that they had seats in different areas. I really felt for her trying to get the 2 kids in the right spot and store 2 large carryons. The crowd was starting to heckle as well. We made the time window and were off without futher drama.

But I was having an internal drama all my own. I began to think of the next part of the journey which was to pick up a rental car at Budget. I then realized that I did not pack my driver's licence. I worked evening shifts just before I left and since I never take my wallet into work (for fear of theft) I always place my licence in my backpack. I took out all the cards I would not be using out of my wallet but forgot to put my licence back. I never intended on driving but I knew I'd need the ID since I made the reservation and also to get on and off the ship.

We land and I tell Mike what I did. He's surprised because I made a point of telling him to be sure he had his . So I handed him the reservation paper and told him to go to the Budget counter while Rachel and I rounded up the luggage.

We rounded up the luggage and waited a bit but no sign of Mike. So I hired a porter and headed to the Budget counter. It was packed. The porter guessed we'd be at least 45 minutes and left us with the vague promise of coming back in 45 minutes.

We finally made it to the counter and the first thing the guy wants is my licence. So I explain and he starts in on it has to be the person who made the reservation. But then he looked on the computer and saw that I had reserved on the Budget site and pre paid. He proceeds to tell us that if it had been priceline or some other on line company I would be out of luck and sorting it out with them. But since I reserved through Budget maybe he could help. Well several phone calls and much computer key punching later we were all set.

By now though Mike and I are both tired and grumpy and not looking forward to driving for an hour. We brought our GPS from home and it didn't seem to realize we were now in Florida. We punched the info in 2x in the parking lot. Mike thought maybe we needed to move out of the parking garage for it to register. Thankfully I had written out basic directions on how to get to Canaveral and we followed those directions. We eventually pulled over and entered the info 2 more times before it realized where we were.

The weather was dark and a bit rainy and before we knew it Rachel was asleep in the backseat. Mike and I had napped on both plane rides as well as in the terminal in Philly but Rachel stayed awake the whole time. I guess the early start finally caught up to her.

COMING UP: Country Inn and Suites and dinner out ( with pictures I hope)

[rlb38]

COUNTRY INN AND SUITES

It was no problem finding the hotel and it was very quiet when we appoached the desk. We were given a room on the second floor. I believe there are only 2 floors. The room was right across from the elevators and right above the front desk. I was worried that it was going to be noisy. I wondered if the fact that I'd booked through Priceline resulted in getting what I considered to be a less than ideal location. I knew that we would be so tired that sleep wouldn't be difficult. The room was clean and fairly spacious.

One room contained a single and a bunk bed with a TV inbetween the beds. The room was the exact size of the beds. I would hate to be the one who has to make the beds in these little rooms. Also the one wall only went 3/4's of the way to the ceiling which I found odd. No door on the room either.


Rachel maps out our route



All in all our stay here was fine. I didn't notice any noise. I did over hear a family complaining about people coming in a 3 am and making a ton of noise but I was dead to the world.

The other nice thing was there was a shuttle that took us to Fishlips for dinner. The driver Will was very nice and works for Disney as well handling the luggage on and off the ships. The restaurant was only minutes away and we could have easily driven. But Mike was happy to have Will drop us and pick us up. It allowed him to have a couple of beer with dinner.

Dinner was good but honestly I was done for the night, I would have settled for Burger King that was next to the hotel. Mike wanted something a little more healthy. Mike tried seafood but I stuck with nachos. The price was reasonable and the restaurant was right on the water so we saw the very tail end of the sunset which was nice.

The pool at the hotel was outdoors and fairly small and shallow. There is also an "office" for guests. It has one computer and free internet access. Breakfast that is included was okay. You could make waffles . There was cereals, fruit, pastries, sausage,bacon, bread & bagels for toasting etc. The pastries were quite stale but I really didn't need that danish anyways.

I was glad I tried Priceline and got the hotel room for 1/2 price and I would try it again.

I got up first, showered and headed out while my sleepy heads slept on. I had also forgot to pack a big tube of toothpaste in the packed luggage and also packed bodyspray for Mike instead of shaving cream. I asked at the desk where the nearest drug or grocery store was both were about 2 miles up the road. Now if I'd had my licence I would have just hopped in the car but I decided I had plenty of time and I would set out to walk it. Thankfully there was a gas station about 4 doors down. It was bloody hot already at just after 8 am and while I can walk 4 miles no problem , I thought I'd melt if I did. The gas station had the supplies I needed. I also picked up a couple of king cans of beer for Mike and a large Smirinoff Ice drink for me as well as 2 bottles of water.

That accomplished I returned to the room to make a bit of noise to get the crew moving. Unsuccesful I retreated to breakfast to have tea and bit to eat giving them more time to sleep. Honestly, how can they sleep when were going on a cruise ?

NEXT: We finally get on the boat

[chezp]

What a relief about the flight getting away and the drivers' licence.

[dsnytina]

Sorry you left your license...how did you get on the plane without it?
Can't wait to hear about your cruise!

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry for the rough start Roberta! I hope it goes much smoother once you get to the ship!

[Kenny]

What a horrible beginning! I'm glad it worked out! And since you said you had a great cruise, I guess the license problem went OK, too!
We would have stayed at CI&S, if we could have cruised, so I was wondering how you liked it. I guess it would have been OK!

[rlb38]

FINALLY !

Rachel and Mike finally got up and moving , I sent them downstairs to get breakfast while I repacked a few things . Next time I think I would just keep a backpack with bathing suits and our medications in it and send the rest. I would just have everyone dress in something suitable for dinner and then we wouldn't have to carry any luggage around.

We decided to gas the car up before heading to the port. Mike couldn't get the credit card to read in the pump and we weren't sure how to use the debit card when you don't know how much you're going to spend. I find this confusing.. in Canada we just pay after we've pumped the gas in the car. Anyways we paid $20 cash and then only pumped about 8 dollars worth and had to show the receipt to get a refund. Yep, still seems odd to me.

Anyways we got that sorted and headed to port. It was 10:30 when we hit the bridge and there were 4 Magic Express buses on the bridge with us. I'm now not sure if the buses were picking up or dropping off but my thought then was to hurry to get ahead of all those people.

Mike dropped us off and Rachel and I headed to the line up. There were a dozen or so people ahead of us. While in line I heard an interesting conversation going on behind us. This grandpa was annoyed that he was waiting in line." Why do I have to wait? " So his son starts to explain what the line is all about and starts trying to prepare him that it won't be the only line he waits in today.

In fact he goes on to explain that since his family are castaway club members they'll be boarding before him. " So we'll just meet up with you and mom at the restaurant". Grandpa says " well I'll just tell them I'm with you, I'm not waiting around for nothing." The son tries again to explain but the Grandpa just shrugs and says " I'll tell them your mother is handicapped and they'll let us board first" The daughter in law tried to help her husband out at this point. Rachel and I were now at the front of the line handing over our documents and bags when Grandpa walks right by us and tries to head AROUND the metal detector.

He got hauled back by less than impressed security and Rachel and I headed upstairs! Rachel went off to explore while I checked us in. I was in line for about 10 minutes and probably about 20 minutes later we were checked in and had our photos taken. Rachel was quite keen to show me around.

I Rachel's smile !!

The terminal was really filling up and still no sign of Mike. I decided to stand by one of the tables so I would have a better chance of seeing him arrive. And just like Magic there he was.

He said the line at Budget was just as long as yesterday but he had a stroke of luck. Not long after he joined the line the clerk yelled out " who returned the HHR ?". Mike was the lucky one. They brought him up to the front to finish the paperwork and he was soon on the shuttle. I was relieved it went so smoothly we sent him off to have his photo taken . There was nothing to do but wait we were in boarding group 5.
Rachel took Mike on his tour

luggage being loaded

There was nothing left to do but wait and wait (or so it seemed). Then they were finally calling group 5 and we were off to the ears.


UP NEXT: will I get Palo brunch?