Update 12/28/08; Back To The World… Kenny Gets In Trouble!; 10/25/08
I was up at about 5am. We had a 7am breakfast in Animator’s Palate. I did the things I do, first thing in the morning, and was making notes when, just before 6am, I noticed we were docking! I made sure DW was up and we got ourselves together, checked all the drawers and closets;
grabbed our carry-ons, and made our way to Animator’s Palate. We had our last Magic-al meal with our new friends from Knoxville and our servers. It was a bittersweet, happy/sad meal, but we finally said goodbye to everyone with promises to stay in touch. We left the dining room and found the debarkation line.
Now, here’s where it gets messy and Kenny gets in trouble with his DW! The line was long, which is to be expected, but it was a little frustrating because our old legs just can’t handle standing and walking like they used to. I know DCL tries to stagger debarkation so the line doesn’t get too long, and overall that went as well as can be expected. We even got to talk to our “Cruise Director, Brent” up close and personal for a minute. Where you pick up your bags and go through Customs, however, is a…………. well, it’s a mess! I could see that DCL had tried to organize things well, and it almost worked.
Here’s how it goes:
The debarkation line comes out in a large room on the first floor of the Terminal. All the bags are organized in color/character coded groups. It’s pretty easy to find your group and your bags. Customs is on the far side of the room and here’s the problem: The Customs line goes right through the Baggage Groups. Once you find your bags, you then have to find the Customs line (not particularly easy), determine whether the person in front of you is in that line or just trying to find their bags or just standing around....; all the while trying to deal with the people behind you that can’t wait their turn.... doesn’t there always seem to be someone like that?! To DCL’s credit, the CMs did their best to direct you and keep the line moving. The customs officer hardly noticed us as he looked at my passport and cleared us on through.
Now, since we had paid for the transportation back to POFQ, I came out of Customs looking for a place to leave our bags for transport, but the next thing I knew, I was at the bus stop and DW was NOT behind me! It really isn’t all that far to the buses, but with three bags and limited walking ability, it was a hike. She did catch up soon, but she was very frustrated with me and the whole situation! I had gone right past the porters who would have handled the luggage; I’m just not used to getting a skycap or porter, and was looking for a place to drop off the bags. I should have paid more attention! Anyway, we were assigned to a Mears van with, who do you suppose, but the two ladies we had had lunch with on Sunday before touring Key West! The one lady’s two sons and one DIL also rode with us. Since the single son worked at WDW, they were being picked up by a relative, and could be dropped off at any of the resorts, so the van only had to make one stop at French Quarter. The single son has worked for WDW over 20 years and has been in the Post Office there for the last several years. We had interesting conversation as Bill, our driver, got us back to the World in about an hour, just as he said he would.
That put us back at the French Quarter at about 9:30am. Bell Services took our bags and we went to the Registration Desk and checked in. Of course our room was not ready, and wouldn’t be till about 3:00pm. I know.... I know, this should not have been a surprise, and, it wasn’t. I just thought they would be able to see that we were just getting off a Disney Cruise and would try to be a bit more accommodating. I guess that’s what I get for thinking.
Anyway, we went to the pool till about noon, then dropped our carry-ons off at Bell Services, after checking and finding out the room was still not ready, and hopped a boat to DTD. We couldn’t resist the charm of Capt. Jack’s as we stepped off the boat, and decided to try it out for lunch. DW and I both had clam chowder and a soda, and split a piece of key lime pie for dessert. The chowder was really good, even by DW’s New England standards, and so was the pie.
After lunch, we shopped around WOD and the Lego Store. All I can say is: Look at what they can do with those Legos! We’re from the “building blocks, Tinker Toy, Lincoln Logs” generation, so we were really blown away at the displays.
We had reservations at Fulton’s Crab House, but we wanted to have time to relax in our room, if we ever got in one, so I went over there and asked if we could change our time to around 8pm. It was no problem, so we went back to POFQ and our room was ready (#4125). It was about 5pm by this time. We took a short nap, freshened up, and about 7:15pm went to the bus stop. We thought the bus might be quicker than the boat to DTD. I don’t think it was tonight. We waited 20-30 minutes for a DTD bus to come along. Anyway, we got to Fulton’s a few minutes after 8pm and were seated within 10 minutes.
Fulton’s is relatively expensive, I think. But then, we got some of the most expensive items on the menu, so maybe it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We expected it to be about $150 for the two of us, though, and it was. I had a House Salad and Brenda tried their Clam Chowder and we were both very happy with our choice. For an entrée, I had Filet Mignon which was perfectly cooked, and Brenda had Narragansett Lobster (the best Lobstah she’s had since we were in Maine!). We both had a glass of wine and were very pleased with dinner. Our server was very attentive and explained the menu to us and kept checking on us to see if we needed anything. The best part was when she brought the Lobster out, she asked Brenda if she wanted her to show her how to eat the lobster! I almost fell out of my chair laughing as I told the server that I thought my wife could teach her a thing or two about eating lobstah! She laughed and took no offense at my attempt at humor. I thought it was pretty loud in the restaurant, but then, I thought Palo was loud, too. Probably just my ears; too much loud rock and roll when I was a younger man!
Fully satisfied with dinner, we strolled over to the boat dock and took the boat back to French Quarter and went to bed…. Without Irish Coffee!
