Debarkation Day 
Yes, Debarkation Day really is the saddest part of the cruise. The atmosphere is different and everyone is in a daze. The first part of the ugliness is that you have to wake up so early. Then you have to make sure you picked up everything out of your room and head downstairs to your restaurant with the tablemates that you may never see again. Our server wasn't as cheery as she normally was, but I don't blame her. She asked if all of us were ready to go home. We replied,
"NO!!!". Someone asked her if she was ready to go home. She said,
"Are you kidding? I'm going to Europe!" meaning the Med cruises that would be sailing a week after us.
The breakfast was pretty boring. I didn't want to eat a huge meal since I knew the day would be hectic. Honestly, all I wanted was cereal and a muffin. Our server looked surprised when this was all I ordered. Mike's pancakes were literally just that....pancakes. I guess he thought something else came on the side. We took our luggage and placed our comment card in the box next to the two Cast Members waving goodbye with their Mickey hands. I left great comments all around.
I LOVE Disney's way of debarking. No numbers, no colors or groups, and no waiting for two hours in lounges sleeping. You simply finish eating and get off the boat. We found our luggage in the terminal in the appropriate color-coded area. The line to turn in your immigration card wasn't long, and it only took us about 10 minutes to get everything and get outside to the buses. The creation over the past few years of the airlines teaming up with the cruise lines to get your tickets is BRILLIANT. We used it in Alaska for RCCL and we were fortunate to be flying a participating airline (American) from Orlando, so we were presented with our boarding passes right then and there! It's a great feature. They took our luggage at that moment and we wouldn't have to see them until 12 hours later in California.
The ride back on the bus was quiet and uneventful, as most people have described. They play a DVC advertisement - as if we haven't been pushed on the DVC idea on our stateroom tv's all week long! Our driver was a bit rude. He had a Jersey accent and seemed bitter. He even barked at one guy for bringing a carry-on piece of luggage on the bus instead of underneath. Sheesh. No tip for him.
We got to the airport at 11am, and our flight didn't leave until 4:50pm!!! We toyed with the idea of a day room at the Hyatt, but after spending so much on the cruise, I wanted to save every dollar at that point. At least we didn't have three suitcases to lug around MCO! We took our time walking through the gift shops. We went through NASA's Kennedy Space Center shop, the Universal Studios Orlando shop, and the Walt Disney World shop. There were tons of cute items, but again, we were too out of it to buy things. We plopped down in the atrium for about an hour. Then we ate an early lunch at Chili's. Somehow, the time flew, and we went through security to the American branch and waited in a very dismal boarding area for the next 2 hours. We even thought about getting an earlier flight, but families on the bus ride to the airport were already on their cell phones trying the same idea, and it looked like we would all be put on standby, and who knows if our seats would even be together. So Mike and I stuck it out.
When 4pm rolled around, it was announced that our flight was delayed. Luckily it was only 20 minutes or so, but I noticed that the plane that came it was a 757 and not the S80, which meant that half of the long trip back would result in one of us squished next to a stranger. Sure enough, we boarded and the guy sitting in our row declined my offer to take the window seat, so I was stuck against the window and Mike was in the middle. They played "Charlotte's Web" on the old tv screens and offered free sodas (all other candy and bars had to be purchased! What happened to the snack basket and peanuts?
) The flight back was longer than the flight out, I'm assuming because of the wind speed. I realized that having our flight bumped meant that we would now have only 25 minutes to get off that plane and run as fast as we could to the next gate in Dallas/Fort Worth to catch our second leg. Dallas is layed out kind of weird, and you'd better pray that you're in the same concourse or else you have to take the tram to three other lettered areas. Mike was in a tizzy the entire flight assuring me that we would miss the next flight. At the end of our current flight, the flight attendant read off the connecting gates, and luckily ours was one of the very few that connected in the same concourse! Mike breathed a sigh of relief. We were only 6 gates away!
We landed in Dallas and checked the tv screens. Our plane, out of all of them, was the only one delayed going home! Normally this is bad news, but for us it was a miracle!
We now had an hour to get food and go to the bathroom! We finally borded the second plane and were happy to land on California soil. It's amazing how only being gone a week is enough for you to say,
"Yep, I've had it. I'm done. I'm ready to go home now!" Granted, I loved the Magic, I just should have done the air travel different. Our flight to California was a half-hour longer than the flight out and there were high winds. The last 20 minutes of the flight felt like a boat being stuck in a storm. The pilots faught the turbulence the best they could. We were descending, which was good, I just wanted to be on the ground!
The last ten minutes were very bumpy and I kept thinking how annoying it would be if I didn't make it home. At least I can die saying I went on my
Disney Cruise!
Luckily it was a bumpy but successful landing. I was so happy to be back on the ground, back in my state, and back to thin un-humid air!
Mike and I were starving at that point and drove to an Applebee's in my old hometown. We were in a complete daze. We had breakfast in Florida, lunch in Texas, and dinner in California. We still had an hour's drive home after that, which was spent in silence with the occasional moan of sleepyness here and there. It was great to pull into our driveway and see our house still standing. No mail overflowing, everything looked peaceful. You always miss the smell of your house, it's funny. We unpacked our toiletries and went to bed. I had one of those moments where I was too tired to sleep. Physically I was exhausted, but I'm sure mentally my mind was racing. Plus, I knew I had 5 loads of laundry coming up!
Like clockwork, the Mal de debarquement (dizzyness) set in. You know, the motion of the ocean....minus the ocean. I got it on the last two cruises, but this one wasn't as bad. Maybe because I knew it was coming.
So, like my title says, our Disney cruise was magical, fun, amazing, worth every penny, and definitely set the cruising bar
very high. I don't have to try to sell you all on it, because cleary by these boards there's no other fan club for a cruise line quite like this one. We are already looking into a future Double-Dip on the Wonder. But we'll be buying our first house next year so it looks like it might be '09 or '10. Who knows, maybe we'll wait for the new ships to come our way.
So to those reading, thank you. And to those sailing, you will have a GREAT time. Just remember that the cruise ship does all it can for you. It is up to you to decide whether or not to participate in the activities. If you sit in your room and don't engage in the dinners and shows, you may end up disliking the experience. However, if you do your best to go to the activities and make the best of it, you'll have a great time. Cruising is not for everyone, I totally understand that. But Disney does a really superb job of making your vacation as unique and enjoyable as they can.
And they did!
We figure the only way to do this is to ban all access to the cabin during the day -- which means you can find us by looking for the 2 snoring lobsters around the adult pool.
How cool would that be, tho?
