Disney by Sea and Land - Days 8 & 9

Day 8 - January 24

I wake up this morning and the Port of Miami is what I see from my veranda. The Wonder still has to turn 180° before she ties up, and we get ready for breakfast. Since our dinner last night was in Triton's, this morning - the only day we have an assigned location for breakfast - we will be back there. Before we all meet and head out to breakfast, we hear that US customs has cleared our part of the ship to disembark. However, we will do so after breakfast, and head to Triton's for our final meal aboard ship.

Breakfast finished, we head off the ship and went to retrieve our luggage and pass through US Customs. The next step is to retrieve the cars and make the drive back to the Orlando area.

Once back at my daughter's apartment, we say goodbye to her mother-in-law who is heading back to her own home, and we settle in. After dinner at a NY style pizzeria (whose pizza actually tasted as if it could have come from home) we headed back to her apartment where I uploaded all the photos from the cruise to my laptop, and then headed to sleep.

Day 9 - January 25

After a bit of a lazy morning, we head out to breakfast before "checking-out" of my daughter's apartment and checking-in to Pop Century which will be our home for the next week here in Disney World. Once we are in our room, the experiences of the past week catch up with us and we (My wife, my daughter and myself) fall asleep for a nice long nap.

Earlier in the week, my cousins arrived in Disney World and tonight we would be meeting them at the Polynesian, where they are staying, to watch Wishes from the beach at the resort. We get there a bit early so we can have dinner at Captain Cook's (no Dole Whip this evening) and then meet my cousins in the Great Ceremonial House.

We head out towards the beach and once again feel the wind and the chill which has been here for a few days now. We find a nice spot and I set up my tripod to photograph the fireworks. While waiting I notice a perfect full moon so naturally I take a picture.

Soon it is time for Wishes to start over in the Magic Kingdom. I have photographed it a number of times, but never from here.

After Wishes, my cousins are heading back to EPCOT (Extra Magic Hours) and ask if we would like to join them. Thanks to the nap we took, my daughter and I decide to go, but my wife heads back to Pop Century where she will get a good night's sleep to be ready for a full day tomorrow.

Tomorrow we begin our Disney World portion of our vacation at Disney's Hollywood Studios.