Day eight...

This morning we packed up our hotel room and boarded our private bus to head to Port Canaveral to get on the Disney Wonder cruise ship. During the ride I was surprised by the number of lakes located along the highway. Walt Disney World is really located remotely within the Orlando area. Tim told me that DisneyWorld is it’s own city – Lake Buena Vista!

Well, we arrived on the dock for the ship and along the way we found out that the Space Shuttle was due to take off at 4:30 today – it just so happens that Cape Canaveral is located right across the water from the ship – so we were going to have front “bow” seats for the launch! Until we found out the launch was scrubbed and was postponed until Friday – the day AFTER we leave. Major bummer.

Anyway, I am blogging this as I sit on the deck of the Disney Wonder with my laptop connected to the Wifi! Disney is really amazing. They don’t miss a beat! This ship is amazing. The ship is designed with the feel and look of the great ocean liners of the past – even the dressers in the room are made to look like steamer trunks! Our stateroom has a veranda and a queen sized bed with a fold out couch-bed and a bunk that drops from the ceiling. Our keys to the world work on the ship as well – so, again… a cashless society!

Tonight we will feast at Triton’s restaurant and then off to the Broadway musical version of Hercules. Then we are going to see a movie – then, who knows. The kids each have their own clubs to hang out in and they were given pagers to give to the parents so that we always know where they are on the ship and they have wristbands that any crew member can use to contact us immediately ANYWHERE on the ship. Only Disney could be that organized.

I am telling you – if you have a family and can save up to take this trip – you definitely should do it! If you can go with other families that makes it even better! Although, if you don’t enjoy being around children – don’t go to the two pools on deck 5 – it is like an ant colony of children (the quiet pool is very serene though! – it is on the bow side of the center smoke stack!

Well, it is 3:15 – we have the launch party in about 1 hour and we have to get to our stateroom and unpack for the next 3 days.

Later!

**update**

Before dinner we saw Hercules, the musical. Very good show, great comedy by Hades! Typical Disney current pop culture relevant comedy (clean).

Dinner at Triton’s was really nice. Dawn, Garhett & I ate with the rest of the gang – the girls and Dylan went to the Oceanear’s Lab for the evening. Dinner was French cuisine. Dawn & I had escargot for appetizers. It was pretty good – we even made Garhett try it – of course, it was a tiny bit on a whole roll that he stuffed in his mouth – he said he didn’t taste it at all! Garhett tried Vichyssoise for the first time – he hated it. Dawn thought it was OK but would be better hot. Dawn had Potato leek soup, I tried a Normandy salad. Man that salad was good – Jenny is going to try to repeat it herself (hope she invites me over to try it!). Main courses, Dawn had the Rigatoni with bleu, feta, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses – she liked it. I had the roast beef with mashed potato and vegetable medley (two carrots and a zucchini). Desserts (we ordered 3) the Crème’ Brulee’ which Dawn said was the best she’s ever had in her life. Chocolate soufflé with Grand Mariner/chocolate sauce and I tried the fresh fruit – the fruit in the Caribbean is so fresh and sweet!
After dinner we put the kids to bed, sent Garhett to “aloft” for some teen interaction then went to the movie theatre to see “Dan in Real Life”. A good movie!