This trip report was written by Gunes, who sailed the Disney Fantasy August 25, 2018, through September 1, 2018. You can see photos and videos from her cruise and other adventures by visiting her travel blog (fotogenictravel.com) or by following @fotogenictravel on Instagram or Facebook. Gunes provides concierge-style planning services as an independent travel advisor affiliated with My Path Unwinding Travel and can be followed on both Instagram and Facebook (@vacayconciergegunes).
You can start this trip report from the beginning by clicking here.
Day 8: Disembarking in Port Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center & Waldorf Astoria Orlando’s Presidential Suite
If there were ever a bad thing about a Disney cruise, it’s having to get off the ship. It’s even worse if you have to fly home on the same day. This time around we thought we’d soften the blow by staying an extra night in Orlando, which was a good decision on our part. For our previous Disney cruise on the Magic, we flew out on disembarkation day, and it was sooooooo depressing.
For disembarkation morning, we actually were able to order room service breakfast. Typically, you are not allowed to do so on the last morning, but it’s a secret perk that is offered to Concierge level guests. In order to take advantage, you need to request a room service order form from the Concierge hosts the day before disembarkation, and then you submit the form directly to one of the hosts (do NOT hang the request on the outside of your door as one would typically do, as Disney will not honor the request). It was nice to have a quick, light continental breakfast in our room without having to have a really early breakfast in the main dining room or deal with the chaos of Cabanas.
Around 8:00am, we were booted out of our stateroom (this is the time when they have to start preparing the room for the next round of guests). We went straight to the Concierge lounge, as another concierge perk is priority disembarkation! That’s right – no waiting endlessly for an elevator to get off the ship. They whisked us straight to the lobby and helped us cut the line to disembark.
We were off the ship by 8:30am. Disembarkation was super-easy in Port Canaveral compared to Miami, which was where we disembarked on our previous Disney cruise. I love how Port Canaveral is way less chaotic and how they have a slew of luggage porters waiting to assist you.
We didn’t have to go too far for the next part of our journey. After clearing customs, we waited for a shuttle bus to take us to the National Rental Car center, just a mile or so away. Our next destination was the Kennedy Space Center. The one and only time I had visited was on a family trip when I was my son’s age (eons ago), so I was excited to see what we could experience there.
But, first, check out the “upgrade” we received for our rental car:
It was my first time driving a Mercedes! Woot woot!!!
So, this sexy ride got us to the Kennedy Space Center in about 20 minutes from the rental car location. Along the way, we saw facilities for Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ space start-up.
Once we arrived at the Space Center, we went to the gate to purchase our tickets.
You actually can buy tickets in advance (and at a discount – e.g., AAA), but we chose to play it by ear and pay (almost) full price at the gate. In addition to our sweet rental upgrade, we also lucked out at National Rental Car when the desk agent gave us some coupons to use after she heard where we would be visiting. I think it amounted to about $5.00 off per ticket, which is worthwhile because we averaged around $50 per ticket (there are various ticket packages available, depending upon what you want to do).
Of course, it still was about 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit and 99.9% humidity on September 1, the day we visited. We were sweating our butts off, even in the shade, so it was imperative for us to partake in primarily indoor activities.
But, first, we had to visit the “Rocket Garden”:
It’s amazing what they can grow in Florida!
In pursuit of our mission to cool down, we visited various interactive indoor exhibits, including “Journey to Mars.” Unfortunately, my son was quite impatient (and a bit crabby!), so we thought an IMAX movie might distract him. We hightailed it over to the theater to watch “A Beautiful Planet,” narrated by Jennifer Lawrence. It was a 3D movie and was quite impressive. This 2016 documentary was recorded over the course of 15 months by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). It was absolutely fascinating to get a glimpse into daily life on the ISS and also to watch gorgeous footage of Earth, as viewed from space.
But, the 45-minute movie was not enough to satisfy my restless son (I think five minutes was enough for him). We decided that it was time for lunch, so we hit up the Orbit Café, which was one of many places to eat at the space center. We were able to order our lunch from a touchscreen kiosk, which I always find to be highly convenient. The food was decent, and we even witnessed a little science lesson: hydroponic lettuce! They use this lettuce in the salads.
After refueling, we braced ourselves for more outdoor exploration in the unbearable heat:
No visit to the Kennedy Space Center is complete without a visit to the world’s largest space shop:
My favorite thing in the store was this:
Anyone else a huge fan of the NASA logo???
I’d be remiss if I didn’t share a Carl Sagan quote that I saw on one of walls to an exhibit entrance:
We only spent half a day at the Space Center and actually never took the shuttle bus over to the Apollo/Saturn V Center, which is where all the REAL space rockets are. You need to allow at least several hours to visit this portion of the complex. We already were quite drained from the heat, short on patience with my son, and didn’t feel like waiting outside for a shuttle bus, even though there was a shaded waiting area. Oh well! Maybe next time, when our son is a bit older, and perhaps in cooler (i.e., non-summer) weather, we will visit again.
We were ready to head to Orlando and check into the Waldorf Astoria. We’d never stayed there before. All of our previous Orlando stays had been at the Four Seasons, which we absolutely love. I was a little nervous that the Waldorf would not live up to our high (spoiled) expectations.
Well, I had nothing to fear! After an hour-long drive, we arrived and were pleased to see a modern version the famed Waldorf clock in the lobby:
Here’s another scene from the lobby – spot any hidden Mickeys?
Upon check-in, I almost had a heart attack, as I was informed that the Luxury Suite that we had booked was no longer available due to it being Labor Day weekend…..but, we were going to be upgraded to the Presidential Suite!!!! O.M.G. My jaw nearly dropped to the ground. What a way to celebrate the end of our trip and our wedding anniversary (even if we had a kid in tow)!
You can read all the gory details of our less-than-24-hour stay in pure luxury in my TripAdvisor review. That review doesn’t have any photos, so read on (i.e., scroll down)!
Here is a visual tour of nearly 3,000 square feet of living space (bigger than my own house!), which included three TVs, three balconies, two bathrooms, two dining areas (total seating for 13), a butler’s kitchen, a study, and five thermostats.
First, the double-door entrance (in case you’re hauling any major furniture or other party items into the suite):
Look at all the chairs!
Interestingly enough, there is only one bedroom, so they had to bring a rollaway bed for my son, which you can see between the two dining areas.
Here is the gorgeous vanity in the living room’s half-bathroom, which my son used:
The living area, which had a massive TV:
A study, which was adjacent to the living area (of course, with its own TV):
The butler’s kitchen, which had a full-sized refrigerator:
Views of all three balconies:
The golf course view from one of the balconies:
The master bedroom:
The master bathroom:
One thing that the Waldorf is well-known for is its room service. In fact, they created room service for the modern hotel era! We weren’t about to venture out of our penthouse sanctuary to eat (even though there are twelve different places to eat or drink at the Waldorf and adjacent Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek), so we decided to order our dinner.
Room service lived up to the Waldorf reputation! We ordered an artisan cheese pizza (amazing hand-tossed crust!) and various pastas, which included fresh bread with the best butter I have had outside of Europe (because the butter was from Normandy!):
After enjoying our feast, we had to go to bed relatively early for our morning flight back home. It was an absolutely amazing stay and the best way to end our magical Caribbean cruise vacation!
.
Thank you so much Gunes for sharing your family’s vacation with us! For more trip reports (both my own and guest), click here.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.