And here we are.....at the end. Not sure why I waited another 2+ weeks to write about the last day, not like it was super fun or anything
Heck, I only have a couple of photos to share, too
Since we were second seating for dinner, we were the later breakfast at 8:15am. Our final meal was in Royal Court and we filled our boots as they say lol Said our goodbyes to our wonderful serving team (and got in some hugs, too
).
Now, before we were able to disembark we had 3 stops to make. DH had to pick up his rum which he had purchased in St Thomas, we had 4 prints to pick up from Shutters (had ordered them the night before) and we had to pick up a fish extender gift from Guest services which had been held the duration of the cruise.
Why? Because one generous cabin had given each cabin a mickey waffle maker!!!! I kid you not. And
DCL had confiscated each one of them because you are not allowed to have those sorts of things in your room
Coming out of Royal Court we could see all three areas where we needed to be; there was NO line for the booze pick up (which was just outside of Royal Court pretty much) so DH grabbed his booze. Then he headed to guest services with the girls while I went up to Shutters. By some miracle I was only in line there about 3 minutes, too!
Soon enough we all united again on deck 3, DD8 and I went to the washroom and then it was time to get off. Pretty smooth disembarkation; the luggage hall was quite big and a bit confusing but we found our tag no problem. And a porter walked by as dh was struggling with our largest suitcase so I flagged her down! Such a lovely lady, we had a nice conversation as we got through the line and I made sure dh tipped her well after she had made sure our luggage was on the Disney bus.
We were one of the last families to load this particular bus so we didn't have to wait long and we were on our way.
Goodbye beautiful Fantasy, maybe we'll meet again some day?
The journey to the airport was uneventful and I snapped this pic of our bus after we got off
Now, having made room in our largest suitcase for the rum and the waffle maker, this made the suitcase a bit heavy. But we figured it would be ok. Turns out NOPE, it put our big boy over by 2.5lbs. Sorry but I'm NOT paying $100 extra to cart this thing back to Vancouver. So you know how the waffle maker made it's way all the way from Orlando to Vancouver via Houston? In a Safeway shopping bag
DH told me it would never make it all the way home, that surely security or customs would have something to say about it....but nope, no one said a PEEP.
We had TSA pre check so we by passed a rather large line for security and in no time we were at our gate and....waited. It was now 11:10am and our flight left at 1:05pm
BORED! lol
Free wifi at the airport meant catching up on many, many emails (boy do I have a lot of sign ups!) Our first flight to Houston left on time but they were fully loaded and were asking people to gate check luggage if they could. So we shifted some things around and gate checked another suitcase all the way through to Vancouver. Handy and we didn't have to pay ;-)
Once we landed in Houston (about 10 minutes early I believe) we had a 3 hour layover until our flight for Vancouver. Coincidentally on our flight down to Florida I had read an article about AMEX lounges at various airports. Don't you know that Houston has one of these AMEX lounges? and that my dh has an AMEX
So off we went to find this lounge (which was rather hidden away) and it was a lovely way to spend our layover. Because he doesn't have the 'fancy' AMEX we had to pay $50 per person to access the lounge (kids got in free) but it was well worth it over sitting at our gate. Nice food, free booze, fancy coffee machine, bathrooms with high end products, you could get a shower if you wanted tv's, kids play area (which was really for young kids so our kids stayed there for 5 minutes then went back on their tablets!), free wifi, etc. Extremely handy.
It's worth noting that when DH and I went to Vegas at the beginning of this month we had a 9pm flight home so we checked out of our hotel at 5pm and stayed at the AMEX Lounge at McCarran airport for 3+ hours and had a few more boozy kid-free hours
There was an electronic board with flight info so we kept track of ours and eventually we left the lounge and went up to our gate. Flight home was uneventful. Took off on time, landed a few minutes early I believe. It was 9pm Vancouver time (midnight Florida) when we arrived. By the time we went through customs, got our luggage, took the shuttle to the park n fly and got on the road it was nearly 10pm. Loooooooong day. Stopped at Tim's for some coffee and bagels (the girls fell asleep in the car, woke up for a snack at home then went to bed) and we were all asleep soon enough.
And that waffle maker?
He made it home in one piece and every time we need a bit of Disney magic we pull it out and happily munch on Mickey
Thanks to everyone that followed along. Sorry I took a while to complete this
I just wanted to savour every lovely memory!
What's next for us?
Well Alaska is beckoning! The Wonder arrived in Vancouver yesterday to start her Alaskan sailings; since it was a day off here we took the kids downtown to Stanley Park and then went over to Canada Place to say hello to her:
Only 96 days and we'll be aboard this beauty!!! Nothing against Port Canaveral but there's nothing like sailing from your own backyard!
Then 9 months after we get off the Wonder we'll be back on her in San Diego as we sail up to Vancouver in May 2018. This time we'll be sailing with good friends of ours who have never cruised so this should be interesting
By the way, that will be cruise #4 for us so since we'll be so close to GOLD....might as well go for it, right?
So November 10 2018 we'll be back on the Fantasy for a Merrytime cruise!!! Even booked the same room (5650) because I just loved that verandah so much. Maybe this time I'll even remember to take photos of the room
At least you have your Alaska cruise to look forward to, it's never as hard to get off the ship when you know you have another one booked. 
Your Star Wars cruise will be here before you know it!
