Disney, FOS and Tennessee Smoky Mountains - full review with pics

[Tinkers70]

Trip report

4th - 18th October 2012

 

Hi all, after coming home from the most amazing holiday ever I thought it would be a good idea to do a full trip report with as many photo's as possible. I didn't take any notes when we were away so this report is totally dependant on my good memory (LOL) and lots and lots of photo's to refresh my memory

 

Here is a little bit about our trip before I start with the actual holiday itself. We flew into Orlando first for 2 days at Pop Centrury at Disney. We then drove over to Cape Canaveral for an overnight stay as we were doing a caribbean cruise on the Sunday for 7 nights on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Sea's (eastern itinery) and we finished off our holiday by driving almost 700 miles up into the Smoky mountains of Tennessee for 4 nights. I can honestly say this is the best holiday we have ever had so i'll try and put as much information into this report as possible. Starting with our........

 

Travel day

 

Had to get up very early at 5.30am for our 9.30am flight from Edinburgh (scotland), to Newark. I got up first closely followed by my DH Ramsay then we woke our 2 sons up, Callum who is 15 and Scott who is 10. They managed to wake up without too much bother, probably excited as they knew they were going on holiday.

 

I'd had a cold for a few days before and was still feeling pretty rough. I took some beachams flu capsules to hopefully see me through the next few hours.

 

We had booked the Secure car park at Edinburgh Airport which costs £89 for 2 weeks. It's located about a 5 minute drive from the terminal and there is a shuttle bus every few minutes.

 

We left the house at 6.30am after a few cups of tea for me and coffee for DH. We arrived at the car park around about 7am and off loaded all our luggage. We headed to the nearest shuttle stop which was located at area 4 - about 20 steps from where we had parked our car. It was a horrible cold, wet and windy day and the place just looked miserable. The only thing that kept us going was knowing that we were heading for sunny skies

 

We arrived at our check in desk at approx 7.45am and there was only a few people in front of us. It was very quick and painless and we were given our seat numbers of 28 A,B,C and D (which I already knew as i'd choosen these seats online when we first booked the flights). We were flying with Continental / United. We've flown with them a few times before and they are a great carrier.

 

After check in we headed straight from Breakfast as we were all hungry. We found a table for 4 easily in Wetherspoons and me and Ramsay had a cooked breakfast. Callum and scott went for the pancakes (start as they mean to go on!). After this we headed through security and passport control and before we know it are at the gates.

 

There was no delays with our flight (yah!!!) and we started boarding just before 9am.

 

 

We settled into our seats and got ready for take off. It's a full flight with no empty seats. Callum sits at the window as usual, Scott is in the middle and both me and Ramsay are in the aisle seats.

 

Before we take off Scott is flicking through the inflight entertainment system to see which movies are on. There is something like 75 to choose from. As he's going through his screen he stops at a particular movie and asks if he can watch it. I wonder why he is asking me this then soon find out when I have a look. He wants to watch TITANIC!!!

 

erm....no way hosie! We are heading for our first cruise and my 10 year old wants to watch Titanic. He was being serious too lol. He settled for The 3 Stoogies (which was very funny as I watched it too). It wasn't long until the fight attendants were coming round with food and drinks. Nothing too exciting as usual, just your typical airline food but it was edible enough and kept us all going.

 

The flight time was 7 and a half hours from Edinburgh to Newark and we then had a connecting flight to catch from Newark down to Orlando.

 

I watched the skymap for a bit and Callum took some photo's out of the window's for me. I even dosed off for an hour but the flight did seem to take forever.

 

 

Eventually we touched down in Newark about 12.30 and we headed for the monorail train to take us to terminal C. This is all new to us as least year we flew into Terminal C and our connecting flight also left from Terminal C. It was all straight forward though. We had to collect our luggage from the carousel and check it back in again for our connecting flight.

 

Our boarding pass said our flight down to Orlando would be departing from gate C95 so that's where we headed to. I then looked at the flight time and it said 3.30pm. On our original booking we were meant to be on the 2.30pm flight down so I thought there might have been a mistake. So I toddled off to Guest services to enquire and it turns out they don't do the 2.30pm flight anymore. So we had an extra hour to wait in Newark. I noticed the lit up sign at our desk was for a flight to Houston at 17.15pm and there was nothing up about our flight. So off I go again and it turns out they had also changed our gate to C70! Would have been nice for someone to tell us this but it's no big deal, we just headed to gate 70.

 

At 3pm we start to board our United flight down to Orlando and the flight again is pretty full.

 

 

 

It was very uneventful and we landed at approx 6pm. As we had already cleared immigration in Newark it was a breeze just walking off the plane and straight to baggage claim. We waited and waited and no luggage seemed to appear. The area was getting pretty busy by this time as more and more planes were landing. Then an announcement came on saying they had to close the loading machine down that takes the luggage to the carousel as there was lightening in the area. I think in total we waited over an hour for our luggage.

 

By this time it's after 7pm and it's dark and we still have to collect our car from the Alamo desk and drive to Disney. No problems at the car hire place and choose a lovely Equinox. Plenty of room for our luggage in the boot and it was spacious inside too. Ramsay set up the Sat Nav (GPS) and we're soon on our way to Disney's Pop Centuary at last!

 

It was thunder and lightening and heavy rain all the way from the Airport to Disney and we finally arrived at 8pm local time which is 1am back home. We had been on the go for about 20 hours now and we were all exhausted.

 

Check in was easy and we were given a room in Block 10 (90's) building which was just to the left of the check in area and restaurant / gift shop.

 

 

We just dumped all our luggage in the room and headed to the restaurant for something to eat.

 

We were all tucked up in bed watching the Disney channel on the TV by 10pm. Think we must have all been asleep by 1030 lol.

__________________

[Tiffny111]

Can't wait to read the rest of your review. This would be a dream trip for me. I love love love Disney world and I've been wanting to take a trip to Pigeon Forge and sail the Freedom.

[socialsea]

great review so far!! can't wait to hear more. we are on freedom in january and cannot wait. we have done the disney thing before (it was great, but we were much younger then) and we have done the tennessee mountain cabins too. (loved that too). but now we are pretty much focused on cruising. i really like your style of writing, so far, so am looking forward to more of your review. so glad you had such a wonderful vacation. it makes all the planning and expense soooo worth it!! we have been on freedom's sister ship Liberty twice and loved it, so we are so excited about the freedom. can't wait to see your pictures :)

[Tinkers70]

Can't wait to read the rest of your review. This would be a dream trip for me. I love love love Disney world and I've been wanting to take a trip to Pigeon Forge and sail the Freedom.

 

Hi there, we love Disney too. Infact we holiday there almost every year but wanted to do something different this year. I caved in though and had to have my Disney fix so we arranged for a very short visit. We'd never done the Smoky's before so was definitely looking forward to this part as well as the cruise as we hadn't done a cruise before either

 

great review so far!! can't wait to hear more. we are on freedom in january and cannot wait. we have done the disney thing before (it was great, but we were much younger then) and we have done the tennessee mountain cabins too. (loved that too). but now we are pretty much focused on cruising. i really like your style of writing, so far, so am looking forward to more of your review. so glad you had such a wonderful vacation. it makes all the planning and expense soooo worth it!! we have been on freedom's sister ship Liberty twice and loved it, so we are so excited about the freedom. can't wait to see your pictures :)

 

Hope you have a fantastic time on Freedom on January, I feel in love with her:o

 

I would have been so gutted if we had spent all that money and not had a great time but we definitely did as you'll see if you manage to read more of this report :)

[Tinkers70]

Day 2 - Pop Century and MNSSHP - 5th Oct

 

Our first full day and we all slept in till 8.30. That's a first for me as i'm usually up about 4am on the first day. I think because the travel day was so long plus I wasn't feeling too good still seemed to help somehow. It was actually Callum our eldest son who was up first and that is VERY unusual for him! We usually have to drag him out of bed lol.

 

We weren't in any rush to do anything today as we only had tickets for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and couldn't get into Magic Kingdom until 4pm. So we just had a lazy morning watching a bit of tv in bed then we all got up and got showered and dressed.

 

We went to the counter service restaurant that Pop Century has for breakfast. I was just dying for a cup of tea as it's the first thing I do when I wake up. I even brought my own tea bags with me. I took these with me hoping that I could make a cup of tea lol.

 

The first thing we noticed when we opened the room door was the heat! Phew..it was gonna be a hot one. I was still feeling pretty rubbish but hoped to feel better once I had my cuppa in hand.

 

View from our room door

 

 

Callum had pancakes, Scott had chocolate chip pancakes and me and DH had some danish pastries as we weren't too hungry. After Scott finished his pancakes he then had a muffin. It looked so pretty but actually tasted yucky lol. He's like me and doens't like cupcakes so DH finished it off.

 

 

Pancakes!

 

 

Lovely looking cupcake

 

I finally got to have a cuppa even though it cost me a fortune! I had to buy a carton of milk and then ask for a coffee just so I could get a cup to put the hot water in. I'm sure there's a cheaper way of doing it but I didn't want to waste anymore time trying to find out lol

 

My first cup of tea of the vacation! I think they call it English Breakfast tea in the states

 

We then went for a look around the resort and we were pretty impressed. We loved the look and feel of Pop Century. We've stayed at Saratoga Springs resort and All Stars Movies before and haven't been disappointed in anyone of them at all

 

 

Ramsay and Scott

 

[Tinkers70]

We love all the oversized 'things' around these resorts and everything is sooooo bright and colourful. We wandered around for a while taking photo's then we went back to our room and changed into our swimming gear and headed for the pool. There is 3 large pools at this resort (or maybe it was 4?) we went to the one that was behind the restaurant as it was closest to our room

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ramsay and Callum just chilled out on the loungers whilst me and Scott went into the pool. It was a lovely temperature, not too hot, not too cold, just perfect. I stayed in the water for half and hour or so but Scott was in there for about 2 hours! He just loves the water. It was a really nice relaxing day and I was pretty glad as I was still feeling really rough with the cold I had.

 

 

__________________

[Tinkers70]

We had lunch at the hotel too and we all decided to have a burger each. Nothing exciting but it tasted really nice. After lunch we went back to our room to change our clothes and get ready for Magic Kingdom.

 

We left our room at 3.30pm and headed for the bus stops. I love the disney transport and never had to really wait that long for a bus. We went to the Magic Kingdom stop and already there was a few people waiting in line and most of them were in fancy dress. Scott was impressed with the guy dressed up as Super Mario. After about 5 mins a MK bus pulled. It didn't take long for everyone to get on and we were soon on our way to MK at last. I've waited over a year for this moment. I don't feel like my holiday has properly started until i've visited MK.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 61KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 128KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 155KB.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were driving along the sky started getting darker, not a good sign!!

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 65KB.

 

 

The bus pulled into the bus stops at MK and with 10 seconds of us getting off the bus the down pour of rain came on. We bolted for boating docks for Wilderness Lodge etc and took some shelter under the roof there. The rain was torrential and it wasn't long before the thunder and lightening started too. This wasn't part of the plan!!! I hadn't prepared for rain *sob*

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 144KB.

 

We waited under cover of the roof for about half an hour then the rain started to ease a bit. We decided to make a run for it and said if it started again we would go into the first shop we came across in the park.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 171KB.

[Tinkers70]

It was about 4.30pm by the time we entered the park and because of the rain lots of people were heading out. It didn't seem too busy. I had been saying all year that the first thing I want to do when we get into MK is to buy a Dole Whip. I didn't manage to get one though as the rain and my cold put a dampner on it. I'll just have to buy 2 next year :-p

 

So instead of heading for the Dole Whip place we went anti-clockwise and headed towards Tomorrow Land instead. They still haven't opened the new Fantasy Land yet but there was a couple of things opened. We went into the big tent and had a look around there. We didn't stay too long and by the time we came back out again the sun had made an appearance and it was warm again. I wanted to do 'It's A Small World' as it's one of my favourite rides (I know....i'm a sad case lol) but it wasn't working properly and they closed it down for a while.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 142KB.

 

This definitely wasn't how i'd planned this day, we weren't having much luck and we only had a few hours in the park. The boys wanted to go into Philharmagic so we headed over there. We all like this as usual.

 

We then headed towards Frontier Land as I just 'had' to do Big Thunder Mountain RailRoad. No Disney holiday is complete for me until i've rode this. The standby time was showing as 80 mins (OMG!), but I was determind to ride it so we joined the queue. The CM at the entrance said it was only really about a half hour wait and true enough it did turn out to be about that time.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 80KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 85KB.

 

We all whooped (Scott) and Screamed (Me) all the way round. It's so much fun this ride

 

After we came off Scott wanted to ride Splash Mountain but it was getting late and we wouldn't have the sun for much longer and I didn't fancy walking around the park for the rest of the day in wet clothes so we gave it a miss.

 

We then headed to Haunted Mansion. Again we all love this ride and I love all the attention to details that's outside. We took the graveyard entrance as we like playing around with the instruments and reading all the gravestones.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 125KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 172KB.

 

Every year we ride this it generally always breaks down half way round and this year was no exception. We were sat in our cart in the middle of Haunted Mansion for about 10 mins until they fixed whatever the problem was.

 

After this we headed round to Cosmic Rays for something to eat. I can't remember what we all had to eat, I think it was hot dogs and chicken tenders. By the time we came out of here it was time for the show on the stage at the front of the castle to begin. I can't remember the name of it but it was the show with all the Disney villains in it. It wasn't too busy and we managed to get a seat on a bench just in front of the castle. I was so pleased we got a bench as I still wasn't feeling too good.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 135KB.

[Tinkers70]

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 138KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 146KB.

 

 

 

 

We decided to stay put and watch the Hallowishes parade at 9pm. It was as good as it always is but I just couldn't get into it this time around because of the way I was feeling (did I mention I wasn't feeling very well lol). We just stayed till the end of the parade and decided to head back to our hotel as we were all shattered (me especially). We stopped by the Town Hall and I picked up a 'first visit' badge for my Mum as she's coming with us next year and hasn't been before. Me and my Sister is making her up a christmas hamper full of Disney goodies as part of her christmas present this year. I also bought her an autograph book, disney pen, other bits and pieces and also park maps too. We'll also put some $$'s in it and things like suncream and a hat lol.

 

After I got the 'first visit' badge we left the park and headed straight to the bus stops for a bus back to our hotel. We were back at Pop Century just after 10pm. I went back to the restaurant on the hunt for another cup of tea and took it back to our room and drank it in bed.

 

We must have been asleep before 11pm. The end of a good but tiring day and I was disappointed that i'd spent a lot of money on the park tickets but didn't get full advantage of them due to the weather not being too great and me not feeling very well.....can't remember if I mentioned this? :p

[Tinkers70]

Whoooo hoooooo at last I feel like we're edging closer to our cruise as today is the day we check out of Pop Century and head towards Cape Canaveral for our week on Freedom of the Seas.

 

I packed most things away last night so we didn't have to get up too early today and do it. I think we woke up about 9am and check out wasn't until 11am (I think......darn it, I really wish i'd taken notes now! lol). Anyway, we loaded all our luggage into the car and went back into the hotel for some breakfast. This consisted roughly of what we all ate yesterday morning for breakfast only Scott had pancakes followed by a bowl of Fruit Loops. He just loves these and we can't seem to get them back here in this country.

 

After breakfast we headed round to the reception desks to check out of our room.

 

Little did we know that because we didn't arrange to have anything charged to our room we could just have walked out without standing in the large line! Aparently you only have to check out with the CM at the desk if you have a credit card assigned to your room (which we didn't). Oh well, we just wasted 30 mins of our precious holiday time for nothing lol

 

We got into the car and set the Sat Nav (GPS) for our hotel - Country Inn and Suites at Cape Canaveral and we set off. We went onto the I4 and headed east and the road was very easy to follow.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 72KB.

 

I was very surpised though at the amount of tolls there are on this road! Think we must have gone through at least 7 of them. I'm just so glad we had lots of spare change in the car.

 

We passed by a few Disney Cruise Line buses on the way as well as some huge caravans. They are much bigger than our caravans we have back here

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 62KB.

 

 

The drive didn't take that long, probably about an hour or just over it. As we came into Cape Canaveral we could see a couple of ships in the port. It was a bit rainy so I didn't manage to get any photo's of them from the car as they weren't that clear.

 

We found out hotel straight away without any problems. It was literally only a few minutes from where our ship was leaving from tomorrow.

 

We checked in and was happy that our room was ready for us. We were up on the 4th floor. First impressions were very good. The hotel was clean and we were delighted with our room. The whole check in process was a breeze.

 

 

 

As we had booked park and cruise the reception gave us a tag to put on our car and informed us of where we should park the car. We also got our voucher for the shuttle bus to and from the port and another voucher for our free breakfast.

 

We chilled out in the room for a while then decided to go and find somewhere suitable for lunch. I also have to find a CVS store as needed to buy Bonine (just incase!)

 

We just went to McDonalds for lunch then drove for 5 mins or so and came across a CVS. I looked up and down all the aisles for Bonine but couldn't find it. So I went to the counter and asked an assistant who informed me they didn't have any and they had been out of stock for a few weeks. Uh oh....this wasn't a great start as this was our first cruise and I was petrified of being seasick. The assistant pointed me in the direction of another brand called Dramamine. She said they had the same ingrediants and did the same thing it was only a different name. I bought them anyway (3 packs! lol) and kept my fingers crossed that I didn't need to use any.

 

It was getting a bit later on in the day now and I wanted to go to the beach and wave off the ships that were in port today. So we headed towards Jetty Park Beach and paid our $10 entrance fee.

 

By this time it was approx 4pm and there was quite a bit of thunder and lightening in the sky. It wasn't raining yet but we knew it wasn't too far away.

 

There was a ship in just down from where we were sitting. I'm not sure which ship this was but it had a big pair of red lips painted on the front lol

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 135KB.

 

After a few minutes we noticed that the Canaveral ship was leaving so we sat on the rocks till she was close to us and we got some photo's and waved to all the passengers. As the ship got closer we noticed it was Canaveal Dream. She was a lovely looking ship actually, I was pretty impressed. I used to sit on my laptop every sunday night and watch the Port Canaveral Webcame and watch Freedom of the Seas, Disney Dream and Carnavel Sensation leave and thought that the Sensation was an ugly looking ship.

 

Anyway, here's some photo's of Carneval Dream sailing past us

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 79KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 137KB.

[Tinkers70]

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 159KB.

 

Scott wanted to go for a walk so we decided to walk to the end of the pier then have a look at the beach. Callum didn't want to come, he sat in the car. So me, Ramsay and Scott went for a wander.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 140KB.

 

There was quite a few people fishing off the pier and some of them were women. I mentioned to hubby that you wouldn't find any females fishing with their bikini's on in this country. It never gets hot enough for that

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 85KB.

 

After we walked along the pier we then walked up a path that took us down onto the beach. The sand was soooo powder soft! It was lovely. We went for a paddle but didn't stay too long and the thunder and lightening came back again.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 66KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 116KB.

 

 

We headed back to the car which was parked at the side of the road right beside where the ships pass. We were just in time to see Disney Fantasy sail away. She is a lovely ship too but I still always think Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Sea's is nicer (i'm just biased though lol).

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 75KB.

[Tinkers70]

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 92KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 88KB.

 

We waved to all the passengers that was on the decks waving to us. I was soooo excited as I knew it would be our turn tomorrow.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 144KB.

 

It was gone 6pm by the time we returned to our hotel. We got changed and went for something to eat (can't remember where.....me bad!). I do remember though that we were back at our hotel early and in bed for 10pm.

 

I had the laptop with me and I logged onto Facebook and mentioned that we had went and waved off the 2 ships. One of my friends commented and said that a good friend on mines from another forum (Disney) was on the Disney Fantasy! If i'd known that beforehand i'd have arranged with them to wave back to us.

 

The thunder and lightening had stopped now and we watched tv for a bit then fell asleep.

__________________

[hollon]

I am from the "smoky mountains/area" I wish I knew you were going beforehand and I could've helped you w/ your plans. Haven't been on CC in awhile, sorry if I missed you saying you were going. I don't have a cruise booked for the future, I don't know what to do w/ myself :( hope you had fun in TN

[crisndeefromde]

cant wait to hear more. excellent reading!!!! sure hope you are feeling better.

[workathome]

Wow you have hit my favorite places, well have not been on the cruise yet (Nov 2013), but feel like it after reading CC! I would love to do this in one trip! Looking forward to your review.

[Coolcruise02]

Great review! Can't wait for more. :)

[joand452]

Can't wait to read the rest of your trip -- you've hit on three of my favorite things: Disney World (no trip for us this year), cruising, and the Smokies (although we've been there only once, but so beautiful!)!!

 

Hope you didn't need the Dramamine and whatever was ailing you ended by the time the cruise started. DH calls that the Disney crud -- he thinks it's from the plane.

[gambee]

nice review, following

[Tinkers70]

I am from the "smoky mountains/area" I wish I knew you were going beforehand and I could've helped you w/ your plans. Haven't been on CC in awhile, sorry if I missed you saying you were going. I don't have a cruise booked for the future, I don't know what to do w/ myself :( hope you had fun in TN

 

That would have been a big help as we were a bit lost for what we should do that was a 'must'. It turns out though that we did do some amazing things in the Smoky mountain area, i'll post all about it once i'm done with the cruise bit :)

 

We don't have any other cruises arranged in the near future and although this was our first one I don't think it'll be our last. Our next one will be in a few years time.....unless I win the lottery:D

[Tinkers70]

Wow you have hit my favorite places, well have not been on the cruise yet (Nov 2013), but feel like it after reading CC! I would love to do this in one trip! Looking forward to your review.

 

Awww thank you. It was hard going with all the booking and arranging everything before hand and it was even hard going with all the travelling etc too but I would do it all again in a minute if I could:)

 

Great review! Can't wait for more. :)

 

Thank you, i'll try and post more tonight.

[Tinkers70]

Can't wait to read the rest of your trip -- you've hit on three of my favorite things: Disney World (no trip for us this year), cruising, and the Smokies (although we've been there only once, but so beautiful!)!!

 

Hope you didn't need the Dramamine and whatever was ailing you ended by the time the cruise started. DH calls that the Disney crud -- he thinks it's from the plane.

 

felt much better from the day of the cruise onwards. I had been feeling pretty rough for a few days before we even left Scotland so I can't blame it on Disney or the Plane. I've probably passed whatever I had onto everyone else on the plane lol

 

nice review, following

 

Awww thank you, glad you're enjoying it :)

[Just The 3 Of Us]

Wonderful review - very much enjoying your pictures, too!

 

:)

[Tinkers70]

Wonderful review - very much enjoying your pictures, too!

 

:)

 

 

Thank you, we took almost 2000 photo's so i'm really struggling to choose which ones to include in my review:)

[Tinkers70]

AT LAST IT'S...............SAILAWAY DAY!!!

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek, it's sail away day!!

 

OMG, I have dreamed about this day since I was a wee girl! In fact, whilst all my friends were probably dreaming about their dream wedding day from a young age I was dreaming of my caribbean cruise!

 

We woke up about 9am and we all excitedly got showered and put on our 'sailaway' clothes and then headed downstairs for our 'free complementary' breakfast. It was nothing too exciting but it filled a hole in our empty tummys. After breakfast we went for a walk around the pool as we didn't get the chance to do it yesterday. The pool area looked lovely and we all said we would come back and stay here again and maybe have 2 or 3 days in the hotel before our cruise.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 154KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 114KB.

 

We were allocated our space on the 11am shuttle leaving from the hotel. There was another large family group on the same shuttle as us and they were all part of a wedding party. All the luggage was loaded onto the bus and piled at the back. Me and Scott sat in the back row of seats and Ramsay and Callum were in front on us. The luggage was piled up behind us so high that when the bus started moving I ended up with a suitcase on my head that had fallen over. I was ok though, it didn't hurt and we laughed about it.

 

We must have arrived at the terminal around 11.15 or just after this. The bus driver off loaded all the luggage and we found ours and joined the queue. There was already a large queue by the time we arrived and as this was our first cruise we weren't too sure how long it would take to go down.

 

 

There was a Royal Caribbean member staff walking up and down and keeping the queue neat as it was tailing back to where all the porters were trying to load the luggage onto the cages. He said that there was over 500 inside the terminal and we all had to wait outside until the queue inside went down.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 153KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 171KB.

 

It was very hot and humid and a few elderly people had to get a seat.

 

We waited outside for what must have been 30-45 mins then we were allowed into the terminal building. Once inside the terminal everything ran smoothly and quickly. We went through passport control and security then we went upstairs to the check in desks. We were called over to our desk, had all our paperwork checked, a photo each taken and then we were given our sea passes and told to enjoy ourselves

 

Before we knew it we were on the gang plank and every emotion came over me. I could have cried with excitement and nerves! We entered the ship on deck four with our carry on luggage. We walked up the stairs to deck 5 and got our first look at the Royal Promenade.

 

We then took the elevator up to Deck 9 to try and find our cabin. There was a member of staff there who said the cabins weren't ready yet. It was only 12.30 and they would be open at 1pm. I had an idea we couldn't get in our cabin till 1pm but I just wanted to locate it first.

 

Instead we headed to the Windjammer for our first of many visits. Straight away I found the honeystrung chicken (yahhhhh!) I had heard so much about this on Cruise Critic and it was soooo tasty. The boys had hot dogs and pizza which would become a regular occurance.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 87KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 78KB.

[Tinkers70]

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 80KB.

 

After we finished our lunch we had a peek out at the pool deck then headed back down to deck 9 to see if our cabin was ready yet. They were and we got in. We were in cabin no. 9318 which was only a short distance from the elevators.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 126KB.

 

First impressions of the cabin were good and we checked out the toilet and shower area then headed out to the balcony. Me and hubby went out first and looked over. OMG...it felt sooooo high up (and i'm scared of heights.....not a good sign lol). I felt quite dizzy looking over so went back into the cabin.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 142KB.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 145KB.

 

 

 

I started unpacking our hand luggage then we went out for a tour of this beautiful ship. We walked up the stairs back to Deck 11 and went back out into the glorious sunshine. We walked pasted the kids pool / H2O and headed towards the sports pools. We then went up to Deck 13 to the sports deck and straight away the boys headed straight to the basketball court. They both loved playing this and I knew they would love this ship because of this.

 

 

Image resized. Click bar to view the full image. Original size 596x396 and 188KB.