Disney Christmas: Day 7 & 8 of 8

When we woke up Thursday morning we were back at Port Canaveral

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They assign breakfast time on the last day according to whether you have early or late dinner. Since we had the late dinner time we also had the late breakfast assignment. The people on early breakfast were already lined up and leaving the boat when we headed to breakfast.

They spread the breakfast assignments across the various restaurants on the last day. We were assigned to Animator's Palate.

There was still a long line to leave the boat when we finished breakfast so we went to the top deck to wait out the crowds. We were disappointed that the exiting process was so lengthy. We wondered if we should have skipped breakfast and left the ship as soon as we could, but it may have been crowded then too.

We made our way to the lobby and there was still a line so we waited some more

The ship captain

Finally the crowds are gone. We still had to wait in a line at customs though.

I paid an extra $20 for "preferred" parking because the parking guy told me how if I parked in the deck then I would be in the crowd of thousands of people and they would all have to pay their bill on the way out. With preferred parking you pay up front and you leave right away. Little did I know we would be one of the last people off the boat and the parking lot would be empty.

Bye bye Disney Dream. Overall we really enjoyed the cruise. The Disney service and entertainment was excellent, the kids enjoyed the freedom of roaming the ship without us, and we enjoyed the one on one adult time. However, 5 days was long enough. There's only so much food you can eat.

We drove back to Disney World

Beach Club Resort

Another incredible ginger bread creation

View of the Disney Boardwalk

I booked stays at Disney resorts on each end of the cruise thinking it would be nice, but it also presented a dilemma: we wanted to spend time at the resorts to fully enjoy them but we also felt compelled to visit the parks. It turned out that the Magic Kingdom was open until 1 am so we decided to spend some time at the pool and then go to the Magic Kingdom later.  

Beaches and Cream for lunch

Adam was so excited about going to the Magic Kingdom. He got the map and started circling all the places he wanted to go. Derek was very good and went along with whatever Adam wanted to do. Things run so much smoother when they're on the same page. 

Call me a softy but I love the Magic Kingdom and "it's a small world", although it does take a day or so to get the song out of your head

I think if Adam had ridden Space Mountain before we may not have gone to Magic Kingdom, but the last time we went it was being repaired and before that Adam was too small. You could tell Adam was apprehensive about riding but after it was over he wasn't that impressed and thought it was going to be a lot faster than it was. Oh well.

We were able to hit a lot of the rides on Adam's list and the boys rode Thunder Mountain a few times

Usually it's just Helen that complains about the water rides, but Adam didn't want to get wet either this time so both of them complained the entire time we were on Splash Mountain. In the end we barely got wet, but it was fun listening to them whine on all the fake drops.

The fireworks are alright, but I really love the Electrical Light Parade. It's so...magical. We have such fond memories of the boys watching the parade and being so awestruck when they were younger.

Some mandatory Cinderalla Castle photos. The castle was beautiful all dressed up in lights.

I like the curtains open to wake to the natural light but we had the curtains closed and slept in late and had to hustle to make it by the 11 am checkout.

We went to ChickFila on the way out of town and then Derek settled in for a nap. It doesn't look comfortable but he went to sleep.

Mid afternoon un cafe break. Adam is enamored with the McRib and just had to have one.

Even though the vacation was over the boys didn't mind because they still had Christmas to look forward to. The school calendar worked out great this year. It would be nice to have a week off before Christmas every year.