Disney Cruise on Disney Magic - Day 8 Disembarkation and Trip to Disney World

Day 8 - Disembarkation and Trip to Disney World for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival



We woke up around 0730 on board the Disney Magic having just returned from our 7-Night Western Caribbean Double Dip cruise. We had breakfast in the cabin from food we had hoarded from the night before as there is no room service on the day you return to Port Canaveral. After a last look out the verandah and a quick check around the cabin to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything we made our way down to Shutters as we had forgotten to purchase our pictures the night before. Fortunately, we had gathered them all in a pile and hidden it up on one of the display cases and they were still there when we walked in around 0850. As we approached the counter to discuss the package options and pay for our photos, the phone rang and I heard Rueben, the excellent Shutters manager being told that he had to close down the shop by 0900! We had barely made it, a few minutes more and we wouldn't have had our photos.

After finishing up at Shutters we headed for deck 3 midship to disembark and head out on the next leg of our trip - Disney World, and more specifically, we would be focusing on the Food and Wine Festival going on at Epcot. Leaving the ship was sad but had a great time and were already looking forward to our next cruise in the spring. We headed out the terminal, down the escalator where we grabbed a porter who took all of our immigration documentation and quickly and efficiently piled all of our baggage and then led us through the crowds, into line and out to our awaiting hotel shuttle van. He was well rewarded with a $10 and then added another $3 for his extra efforts to expedite our departure. Next thing you know, we were on A1A heading towards the Radison Resort, only about 2-3 miles away. We were dropped off very near our car in their newly designated cruise parking area, located on the back side of their conference center. Within 5 minutes I had the car packed and we were ready to hit the road.

Before heading out of town we decided to pay a quick visit to the Manatee Park we had read about but had never had time to visit. It was only a short drive away situated almost directly behind the Radison Resort (as the crow flies) and consisted of an office building, a large pavilion with picnic tables and a huge multi-deck observation platform which was covered to protect you from the elements - which in this case was a light intermittent rain. We walked up and down the platform but there was no sign of any Manatees. We met a local gentleman there who was sitting there quietly, enjoying his morning coffee. He said he had been there a short while but hadn't seen any signs of Manatees yet that morning. He told us that there was a sewage treatment plant right next door to the park and that this area was a favorite hangout for them due to the warm water runoff from the plant. A few more looks and we were back on the road.

The trip to Orlando was relatively traffic free on the beeline (Rt. 528) for a Saturday morning. Once we started to approach Orlando we jumped on Rt. 417 which is kind of part of a beltway that circles around Orlando. There is a slightly higher toll charge associated with this route but we liked the fact that we could maintain 70mph while being unlikely to encounter any traffic normally associated with passing through the beeline and i-4 area of Orlando. Our trip was perfect, no traffic all the way into the big Welcome to Disney World sign. We headed for our hotel, Disney's Boardwalk Inn located adjacent to Epcot and is considered an Epcot Area Resort. We would have a short 5 minute walk to Epcot, entering via the International Gateway.

I dropped off my daughter, wife and the luggage while I headed back over to Rt. 192 to visit a camera store to pick up a new Nikon D40 as my current D40 had developed some dust on the mirror and required service which I would take care of when I returned home. Thankfully, the D40 is one of the cheapest digital SLR cameras you can buy which makes it very popular. I stopped into about a half-dozen stores pricing it out and finally ended up going back to the first store and getting a great deal at $450 for the D40 Kit. It was now about 1300 and I headed back to the hotel to drop off my equipment and gear up for my visit to Epcot. About 15 minutes later I was at the hotel and another 15 minutes and I was walking out towards Epcot.

Here are the few pictures we took leaving the ship
and on our way to Disney World