Okay, ladies and gents and all you other swashbuckler out there. Here we go. Day 1. If you are a cruiser (or just play one on TV) you all know Day 1 is not embark on your cruise day EVER. Why? Because you never, ever travel to your port to board your ship on the day the ship leaves. Why? Because you hate to be stranded in Baltimore waving at the webcam as it sails away because the mechanical delay or storm delay. There are so many other reasons (like the airline misplace your bag – happened to me 2 years ago prior to boarding Dream and lucky for me they brought me my bag in Port Canaveral before my ship sailed the next morning but I would have sailed without clothes if I did not buffer a day). So, what have we learned or reminded ourselves – buffer a day and travel to port early. Okay, so Day 1 is traveling to Florida. We have two staterooms that are important to this Trip Report. Stateroom 1 is me and my crazy Husband Scott and in Stateroom 2 is our best friend Chris and his two crazy teenager boys, Tom and Ben. Chris and I basically are the adults with 3 children on these trips (and laugh and love every minute of the silly!)
So, Chris, Tom and Ben traveled down to Florida from the Northeast early Friday morning so they could do a few things prior to us arriving (maybe tour a University as we all bribe and push the teens to go to school there so even more excuses for Disney trips!) Scott and I flew down and arrived mid afternoon and were picked up in the rental van that Chris had reserved. Here is what we did – we rented a minivan via Budget at MCO (Orlando’s airport) and used it to tool around Orlando that day and night and then drive us to the port on Saturday morning. The Budget car rental location is 1/2 mile from port and has constant shuttles, once we got there we only waited 3 minutes for a nice, air-conditioned shuttle that took us to Disney’s port and some other people to their Carnival cruise which was docked next door. So, for us the minivan rental and transport saved us time and money from Disney’s transportation and private transport because we only paid $120 (includes taxes) for the rental and we needed it not only to get to PC but also to get to our Orlando hotel
because horrors we did not stay on property that night. WHAT? I know. But, we did get a bang up deal and stay at the Hilton that is right next door to Disney Springs…literally 3 minutes over a walkway. I was hesitant and not overly excited. But, we are Diamond Hilton members and have lots of points and needed to burn some and this was a good time to do it because we were not going to a park. So, burn away and it turned out great. The property was great and convenient and recently (last 2-3 years is my guess) renovated. We had two rooms next to each other and because we are Diamond
we had private access to the Diamond breakfast that was a full buffet and very yummy (and empty so no waiting for breakfast – but that is Day 2 so let’s not skip!) Anyway, the Hilton is a great option and the rates (if we paid) that night were around $100 and that was a great deal. Also, the service was A+ and most of the peeps there were previous Disney Cast Members so very helpful and very service oriented.

So, rental car check, Hilton check in check, off to Disney Springs for a new restaurant experience that is Morimoto Asia. I will do a full review later but for now here is the mini

review. It is an upscale Asian restaurant that looks a bit like a night club (with lots of metallic and crystal strings making cylinder lights hanging down. It is two stories and lots of room for tables and guests. We had an early reservation at 5:30pm and we arrived a few minutes early and was sat right away and plenty of seating at that time. It filled up pretty good around 6:30 and was full by 7pm. We all tried lots of different items from sesame balls which were awesome and a first, to Orange Chicken (old stand by that was good), to Singapore Laksa noodles (curry coconut and chicken soup) that was a hit with the Curry lovers. The one thing we all agreed on was Churro Fondue was a huge pleaser and made the experience go from good to great. It is not going to be the least expensive meal you have and it is probably going to be a good but maybe not great meal, but worth a try!

After dinner we walked around Disney Springs for a while and then went and took the teenagers back to the hotel (they were tired teenagers tire way too quickly) and then Chris, Scott and I went out running a few last-minute errands to CVS, grocery store, and dropping off some goodies for a client staying at Pop (see I stalk you even while you are on vacation! haha).

After that, back to the room to watch some of Jurassic World 3 and realize the main raptor “Blue” reminds us a lot of our cat Walter. Good or bad it is the truth and it did make us miss our little Devil but we got lots of good texts and pictures from him and his brothers all week letting us know how they were doing and how they wished they were on the cruise!

Then we ran down stairs to the awesome market in the lobby and grabbed some ice cream (because it is vacation!) and made a few last calls to family.

Off to sleep and ready for Day 2! Get on the ship and get started finally! JEEZE.

Want to see the Pre-Trip Report and catch up? Click HERE